State of the Market

[ChimpMaster]

I have an interesting story about how I got into IT.
I was in college doing my A-levels. During summer vacations, I did volunteer work at a high street PC repair shop that year for 3 months. Yellow pages were offering a free listing and I took advantage and listed myself on there. I used to get a few calls every now and then from members of the public. I also started selling PC's on eBay. Profit margin was quite low - £30 per PC but it was enough in those days.
When I was in uni doing my CS degree, I saw an advert on Jobcentre and managed to get a Swap-out engineer role where they would call me once a week.

When I finished uni, I applied for roles and listed all these work experiences on my CV. I went straight into a 2nd line role for a big name and never looked back since then.

I now have 10 years in 2nd line, 2 years in Production support and 1 year as a 2nd line Team leader i.e. 13 years in total. I have been contracting for the last 7 years.

The reason I went into contracting was due to £££'s. When I was a permie, I got 27k a year before switching. During my contract years, I got 38k in my lowest paid role and 75k in my highest paid role.

My condolences.

[nomadd]

I have an interesting story about how I got into IT..

I'm still waiting..

[jayn200]

I have an interesting story about how I got into IT.
I was in college doing my A-levels. During summer vacations, I did volunteer work at a high street PC repair shop that year for 3 months. Yellow pages were offering a free listing and I took advantage and listed myself on there. I used to get a few calls every now and then from members of the public. I also started selling PC's on eBay. Profit margin was quite low - £30 per PC but it was enough in those days.
When I was in uni doing my CS degree, I saw an advert on Jobcentre and managed to get a Swap-out engineer role where they would call me once a week.

When I finished uni, I applied for roles and listed all these work experiences on my CV. I went straight into a 2nd line role for a big name and never looked back since then.

I now have 10 years in 2nd line, 2 years in Production support and 1 year as a 2nd line Team leader i.e. 13 years in total. I have been contracting for the last 7 years.

The reason I went into contracting was due to £££'s. When I was a permie, I got 27k a year before switching. During my contract years, I got 38k in my lowest paid role and 75k in my highest paid role.

Why so many years in 2nd line support and why support with a CS degree?

[uk contractor]

I have an interesting story about how I got into IT.
I was in college doing my A-levels. During summer vacations, I did volunteer work at a high street PC repair shop that year for 3 months. Yellow pages were offering a free listing and I took advantage and listed myself on there. I used to get a few calls every now and then from members of the public. I also started selling PC's on eBay. Profit margin was quite low - £30 per PC but it was enough in those days.
When I was in uni doing my CS degree, I saw an advert on Jobcentre and managed to get a Swap-out engineer role where they would call me once a week.

When I finished uni, I applied for roles and listed all these work experiences on my CV. I went straight into a 2nd line role for a big name and never looked back since then.

I now have 10 years in 2nd line, 2 years in Production support and 1 year as a 2nd line Team leader i.e. 13 years in total. I have been contracting for the last 7 years.

The reason I went into contracting was due to £££'s. When I was a permie, I got 27k a year before switching. During my contract years, I got 38k in my lowest paid role and 75k in my highest paid role.

Sorry that is not interesting at all! You live in a bubble or never made it into the bigger leagues!

I was taking home (not earning!) £80K PA well over 20 years ago doing 2nd line trader support in the square mile back in the days when lunchtime was 2-3 hours in a pub (paid for by the end client) then another 1-2 hours in a lap dancing club (all paid by the end client). The managers did not bat an eyelid nor care as work was done & everyone was happy!

I know ex contractors who were getting £160K PA doing 3rd line support in the square mile 25 years ago (when contractor tax & ni were almost non existent!)! others I worked with got so many shares when they joined as perms (from contractor) they were millionaires when they cashed them in due to the size of their property portfolios the IT income (only their secondary income stream!) allowed them to build!

Now things are way different if you got £100 a day for 2nd line support WFH or not the rate would be similar as your competing with tens of thousands of contractors if you could even get the contract to begin with!

IT Support goldrush ended about 7-8 years ago its been a race to the bottom eversince.

Retrain into a niche AI, dev or cloud role then try to blag it (going to be difficult now as the hiring manager will insist on technical tests to prove you can backup your CV) or start a business in another sector or if you can afford to wait the pandemic lockdowns out & see if demand picks up (not likely for support but for cloud & other sidelined projects perhaps it might see some traction in Q3-Q4).

[uk contractor]

I have tried. I saw no way of moving from 2nd line to 3rd line if I stayed in the same place. Went to another place and saw the same. There was a guy I worked with in my first gig. He is doing 2nd line still in the same place and he is now about to retire.

Too late now but staying in the same place was the correct answer as eventually everyone else leaves & you become last man standing so they start to develop your career & give you your dream IT job in the organisation!

The harsh reality for me & many others is we stayed as contractors for way too long due to £££ greed then would not accept lower rates, or perm offers for the same role so now the music has stopped & you have tens of thousands of highly skilled, highly experienced IT contractors not realistically able to get another decent IT contract due to the pandemic reducing demand & shutting most offices for the immediate future.

That is the harsh daylight reality how you handle & accept that is down to what you have learned business wise.

[ladymuck]

Eek that's depressing. Maybe one day I'll bore everyone with my own origin story.

[eek]

Eek that's depressing. Maybe one day I'll bore everyone with my own origin story.

That wasn't aimed at me was it?

Mind you I'm probably a bit to much Eeyore at the moment - you would be if you were hearing current and future market plans from agencies.

[founder]

Only $400K a year, but might interest someone here

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2...f-4e7b6eb0b9ab

It is in Glasgow though and is probably a "work for free" scam.

is it a scam?

[ladymuck]

That wasn't aimed at me was it?

Mind you I'm probably a bit to much Eeyore at the moment - you would be if you were hearing current and future market plans from agencies.

Oops, no. Swap the eek for blimey/crikey

[Paralytic]

is it a scam?

Apply and find out.