State of the Market

[washed up contractor]

I think you will find many agencies are more concerned with profit margin right now. I have recently seen contracts go to someone else for being £5 a day cheaper! I had one agent tell me to take £300 a day less or he would place someone else in the role (he was making £600 a day on top of the rate being offered)! I told him to stuff it then told my contacts in HR & he lost the work onsite due to his greed & bullying tactics. HR then reviewed the role & made it perm only for £40K PA so no-one won in the end!

Spot on. During the last but one contractor down turn, agencies like S3 were reporting record profits on their contract portfolio. How does that work then when you are placing fewer contractors in post? Answer, by creaming off more of the client's rate and, passing less to the contractor.

The naivety of some fresh faced contractors never ceases to amaze me.

[uk contractor]

Spot on. During the last but one contractor down turn, agencies like S3 were reporting record profits on their contract portfolio. How does that work then when you are placing fewer contractors in post? Answer, by creaming off more of the client's rate and, passing less to the contractor.

The naivety of some fresh faced contractors never ceases to amaze me.

Could not agree more mate shame you are not running your own IT contractor friendly agency! As you are right on the ball like many of us on here.

[1manshow]

Spot on. During the last but one contractor down turn, agencies like S3 were reporting record profits on their contract portfolio. How does that work then when you are placing fewer contractors in post? Answer, by creaming off more of the client's rate and, passing less to the contractor.

The naivety of some fresh faced contractors never ceases to amaze me.

Did you analyse their financial statements? Do you not see the economic flaw in your view?

Seriously, sometimes the contractors here have such ridiculous theories you wonder why they didn't become recruitment agencies, I mean it's just easy money, with unlimited creaming off contractors! Or is their moral compass stopping them from indulging

Reminds me of those student forums filled with unemployed graduates crying "Job needs experience but can't get experience without job" or those house price crash forums, which even after 10 year's, it apparently is coming!

[Hobosapien]

Did you analyse their financial statements? Do you not see the economic flaw in your view?

...

Reminds me of those student forums filled with unemployed graduates crying "Job needs experience but can't get experience without job" or those house price crash forums, which even after 10 year's, it apparently is coming!

You missed the obvious one, "it's coming home", 48* years and counting.

I suppose your logic is that the profits rose during a downturn as the agencies laid off the agents that are really just sales people. Once a contract is secured it just needs one bod to keep the client sweet for renewals, and all the profit keeps on rolling in.

If agencies were smart they'd use contractor agents so they could easily manipulate staff levels during periods of boom and bust (I know, Brown abolished them ). Would give the agents a taste of what it's like on this side of their bulltulip.

* Clock starts at following World Cup in 1970 when it failed to come home.

[freddy1777]

How is the market for java devs now? I work in a big bank and all the teams i know struggling to hire java permies desperately. Is it the same for java contractors? Difficult to find someone or contracts is a different thing?

[AndrewK]

How is the market for java devs now? I work in a big bank and all the teams i know struggling to hire java permies desperately. Is it the same for java contractors? Difficult to find someone or contracts is a different thing?

Maybe your team is simply offering too low package? If it is not a secret, can you share it?

[uk contractor]

How is the market for java devs now? I work in a big bank and all the teams i know struggling to hire java permies desperately. Is it the same for java contractors? Difficult to find someone or contracts is a different thing?

Banks are not paying the money they used to most likely. A lot of this stuff is being outsourced wherever possible. Decent Java devs who know the source code thoroughly & exactly what they are doing without copy pasting from another Java resource still earn big money!

[OhReally]

This thread has been an interesting read for someone who is currently debating taking the plunge into the world of contracting.

I currently work as a consultant BI developer within the finance sector in London. I am skilled, certified and good with the client facing/softer side of consulting. However, I am worried that I perhaps do not have enough experience.

Is there any benchmark for developers in terms of years of experience prior to going contracting? Is 3 years sufficient, or would I be better off waiting until I have more permanent experience under my belt?

[Cirrus]

would I be better off waiting until I have more permanent experience under my belt?

You wait until someone offers you a job.

Get a CV together and start punting away on Jobserve or whatever. You'll soon start to see your marketability.

[GreenMirror]

This thread has been an interesting read for someone who is currently debating taking the plunge into the world of contracting.

I currently work as a consultant BI developer within the finance sector in London. I am skilled, certified and good with the client facing/softer side of consulting. However, I am worried that I perhaps do not have enough experience.

Is there any benchmark for developers in terms of years of experience prior to going contracting? Is 3 years sufficient, or would I be better off waiting until I have more permanent experience under my belt?

Bigger questions are how large is your warchest and why do you want to go contracting?

If you have money stashed for the lean times, and are keen to be independent(as opposed to just in it for the money) then go for it.