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Was contacted about a role this morning, the same role I've been contacted about several times over the last 15 years. Initially the client secured resources directly, I considered it but turned them down as it would have been a long daily commute to the centre of London. Then they outsourced to Mrs Sunak, and the role allegedly became more and more remote. Each time they have tweaked the spec very slightly, and promise mostly remote working, but I know the client wants someone onsite, while the implementation/support company want someone with knowledge to fix their bad design, document how it should be done, then train them before being pushed. It could have been a very interesting gig, but not for me.
Was contacted about a role this morning, the same role I've been contacted about several times over the last 15 years. Initially the client secured resources directly, I considered it but turned them down as it would have been a long daily commute to the centre of London. Then they outsourced to Mrs Sunak, and the role allegedly became more and more remote. Each time they have tweaked the spec very slightly, and promise mostly remote working, but I know the client wants someone onsite, while the implementation/support company want someone with knowledge to fix their bad design, document how it should be done, then train them before being pushed. It could have been a very interesting gig, but not for me.
Wondering, hoping that this Microsoft outage will help kickstart IT.
Just to clarify, there were 2 problems on Friday: a brief Azure outage (due to Microsoft), then a huge outage on Windows machines (due to Crowdstrike).
The fix for the Crowdstrike issue involves booting up the Windows machine (server or client) in safe mode, then deleting a file. That means that you either need local access or remote access via an iLO/iDRAC card. In practical terms, that means that there's a benefit to people who can work on-site rather than remotely, and there would be a similar issue in most ransomware scenarios.
SO here I am approaching 3 months of bench time and I've been contracting since 1996. This is about as long as I've ever been between gigs. I started in the old VB6 / Fortran days and progressed in to C# later on. Most recently I'm in the modern workplace space with M365 with a but of Purview compliance thrown in. This time feels to me like there is a fundamental shift in the IT market. I'm sure that AI and systems becoming more self aware is a bigger factor here. Weighing up the options for staying in the market for another year or two ... or alternatively shipping out in to something else entirely.
Good news is I had an actual interview on Friday but the bad news is I don't think it went well after I got blindsided with a question on something that wasn't on the job description.
Also had another agent ring me last week. None of this pays the bills but is hopefully a sign the market is waking up.
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