State of the Market

[oliverson]

So what's the future for 25yr experienced software Devs? If it's cycling, boxing, gym, then not sure it will be enough to keep the grey matter working.

Retirement mate, but unfortunately I don't recommend it.

[SussexSeagull]

Contrary to the experiences of many of of us here, several of the big Indian outsourcers score highly on customer satisfaction.

To be fair contractors probably mainly experienced the not great Indian consultants as the ones who did the job competently didn’t need our help. Also a lot of criticism of Indian consultancies was equally valid for UK based ones, e.g. complete lack of flexibility.

They were eventually going to sort out the customer service problems they historically had.

[Dorkeaux]

Retirement mate, but unfortunately I don't recommend it.

Man, I can't wait for retirement.
I get the impression I'm even older than most here.
I have projects, interests and ambitions that have piled up, and will continue to do so until I stop work.

If only I could.. With the stock market tanking, our pension returns don't look great right now.
Respect to Oliverson, but we don't have a second home and we drive a 10 year-old Skoda..
So our tastes aren't grandiose, but I reckon at least another couple of years to go.

[hungry_hog]

My place is mad keen on offshoring (FS). To the extent you have as much chance of hiring in UK as hiring Jimi Hendrix to play live at the Christmas do. A team that was 80/20 Local/off is now 20/80.

The sad thing is the offshore people are as useful as sunglasses on a one eared man. They attach huge teams of them 20 - 30 to projects, majority do sweet FA other than joining a call (quite often late!). The internet signal is generally patchy, the combination of that, background noise and accent variations means the calls may as well be conducted in Klingon.

Anything tricky (i.e. something that requires more than 4 nanoseconds thought) is punted Jonny Wilkinson style to UK for a much smaller team to deal with.

[oliverson]

My place is mad keen on offshoring (FS). To the extent you have as much chance of hiring in UK as hiring Jimi Hendrix to play live at the Christmas do. A team that was 80/20 Local/off is now 20/80.

The sad thing is the offshore people are as useful as sunglasses on a one eared man. They attach huge teams of them 20 - 30 to projects, majority do sweet FA other than joining a call (quite often late!). The internet signal is generally patchy, the combination of that, background noise and accent variations means the calls may as well be conducted in Klingon.

Anything tricky (i.e. something that requires more than 4 nanoseconds thought) is punted Jonny Wilkinson style to UK for a much smaller team to deal with.

He wouldn't need them down here where I am, Malaga. It's done nothing but rain (read monsoon) almost the entire month so far and cold for this time of year. Today's a reprieve (no sun still) as the next named storm heads in our direction.

costa-del-no-sol

:-(

[oliverson]

He wouldn't need them down here where I am, Malaga. It's done nothing but rain (read monsoon) almost the entire month so far and cold for this time of year. Today's a reprieve (no sun still) as the next named storm heads in our direction.

costa-del-no-sol

:-(

[UPDATE]
Storm Konrad has arrived already :-(

[pjt]

[UPDATE]
Storm Konrad has arrived already :-(

It will pass. Might be worth focusing on the positive. Having a bolt hole in Spain and no need to work would be a place a lot of people would love to be. The summer will be here soon and if you don't go back to work your going to have a lot of time on the beach

[edison]

To be fair contractors probably mainly experienced the not great Indian consultants as the ones who did the job competently didn’t need our help. Also a lot of criticism of Indian consultancies was equally valid for UK based ones, e.g. complete lack of flexibility.

They were eventually going to sort out the customer service problems they historically had.

I think that's a reasonable observation of Indian v UK outsourcers.

I've worked with a variety of Indian ones from the giants like TCS to Tier 2/3 firms who are more in the turnover range up to around $1-2B. The medium size firms have often been good to very good IMHO, particularly the onshore resources.

I still can't understand the accent very well of many Indian staff (and I am of part Indian ancestry!) which makes life a bit more difficult LOL.

The UK firms I've dealt with over 20 years include Cap Gemini, Accenture, Fujitsu plus a few smaller firms. The quality has been very variable to say the least and often not great value for money.

But the medium to long term direction is clear - outsourcers and other consultancies or resource models will continue to eat away at contractor opportunities.

[oliverson]

It will pass. Might be worth focusing on the positive. Having a bolt hole in Spain and no need to work would be a place a lot of people would love to be. The summer will be here soon and if you don't go back to work your going to have a lot of time on the beach

I always get out of here by the time June comes along and return in September - December. Busy most of the year but the summer season is just a bit too busy, despite us being set back from the coast towards the mountains. Also gets too hot. Besides, I love my country and especially BST, assuming we do get some summer.

But you're right, I need to focus on the positives and get that plan B going, so I'm not in the same position in a couple of years when I give 'retirement' another go.

[sadkingbilly]

He wouldn't need them down here where I am, Malaga. It's done nothing but rain (read monsoon) almost the entire month so far and cold for this time of year. Today's a reprieve (no sun still) as the next named storm heads in our direction.

costa-del-no-sol

:-(

do you think the rain in spain affects the UK markets that much?