State of the Market

[BABABlackSheep]

Certainly seems a bit slow at the moment. I ended up taking a low(ish) rate with a different part of the same organisation. Better to stay busy than chasing rate at this time imo

[unixman]

I think he meant what do you do rather than where do you try and work

That's-a-what-I-meant

Got it, ta.

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

HMRC Rates

Will anyone be taking up a contract at HMRC, any new projects in the pipeline?

Link

[eek]

Will anyone be taking up a contract at HMRC, any new projects in the pipeline?

Link

It's not contracts on offer, the offer is a permanent job kept outside HMRC to avoid breaking HMRC pay scales.... The question is why would many people accept a permanent job...

[LondonManc]

So, reading that article, HMRC signed a ten year deal in 2004 and "last year brought chunks of the deal to an early end". Now, I'm no mathematics professor but 2004+10 < 2015.

Talks of salary and payrises? No thanks. Day rate or fixed price please

[eek]

So, reading that article, HMRC signed a ten year deal in 2004 and "last year brought chunks of the deal to an early end". Now, I'm no mathematics professor but 2004+10 < 2015.

Talks of salary and payrises? No thanks. Day rate or fixed price please

From memory the contract actually started in 2006 and 2007, so it's coming to an end now

[Cirrus]

Permaholics Anonymous

I was a permie at HMRC.

So there - I said it.

Only one year.

Not a bad bunch.

However I worked for Capgemini and they were absolutely <REDACTED>

(Sorry I'm not allowed to say: part of my package)

[radish2008]

But do we really care? The financial industry is far too big in the UK. It's been suffocating the rest of the economy for decades.

About time it was shrunk.

Fair point.

[silverlight001]

I think the market seems strong - have had a lot of calls from agents recently for gigs along with reasonable rates.

I think however that there is some truth that the market is saturated with newby contractors and I've come across some very poor, lightweight contractors who seem to lack professionalism and act like permies.

Longer term the big outsourcers continue to provide good PR for competent UK contractors with the continuation of poor quality deliverables, poor offshore comms, project delays and increased Total Cost of Ownership for the clients. Recently took on another contractor on my team solely to fix the poor code that comes from offshore (client accepts this but with global contract with large outsourcer he has to demonstrate he's using them)

Almost all my recent clients look to be moving away from 100% offshore models to a 60 offshore /40 UK model which means more contract roles.

[diseasex]

I think the market seems strong - have had a lot of calls from agents recently for gigs along with reasonable rates.

I think however that there is some truth that the market is saturated with newby contractors and I've come across some very poor, lightweight contractors who seem to lack professionalism and act like permies.

Longer term the big outsourcers continue to provide good PR for competent UK contractors with the continuation of poor quality deliverables, poor offshore comms, project delays and increased Total Cost of Ownership for the clients. Recently took on another contractor on my team solely to fix the poor code that comes from offshore (client accepts this but with global contract with large outsourcer he has to demonstrate he's using them)

Almost all my recent clients look to be moving away from 100% offshore models to a 60 offshore /40 UK model which means more contract roles.

I fully agree with this. On my current gig i have to fix the code offshorers did. but becuse they weren't onsite , they didn't understand the business fully etc etc.