Boring/Not much work to do in current contract

[MrMarkyMark]

Very much depends. The bottom four, I've seen all sorts, including a guy billed out at £1k a day who took the whole day to build a simple SQL script to create a single table, when it should have took 10-20 minutes. Others are simply clever but massively inexperienced graduates who the consultancy are trying to get trained up on the job at the client's expense. I wouldn't mind if these types are allowed on site as shadow consultants at a lower rate, but consultancies typically try and charge them out for as much as they can get.

Hey.......that's a little unfair, they are good at writing reams of unnecessary and inaccurate documentation

[northernladuk]

Hey.......that's a little unfair, they are good at writing reams of unnecessary and inaccurate documentation

I know but the powerpoints produced were works of art!!

[Bee]

Some times the clients hire contractors to do what the permies don't want to do. I would start to find another contract ASAP. The ideal is to try consultant companies or software houses where you can learn and gain experience faster.

Hi All,

First post on here, but I do regularly browse through the forum, so I’m just after some advice, I took on a BA contract in March with a well-known bank out in Europe. Being from the UK it was a good chance for some international exposure with a large bank on the CV, and a good rate even taking into account the extra cost of living out here.

My contract has been renewed until the new year, but the problem I have is that I’m just not being challenged enough, there are four other BA/PM types on our team that are all Permy and they seem to continue to do most of the chunk of BA/PM work. Although I get the odd bit of BA work chucked my way I am usually stuck doing odd jobs or doing the administration and management for releases (using tools like JIRA). I have approached my director about this before and have been told that the systems I’m using require a steep learning curve, and the current perm staff are SMEs in their own applications, so wouldn’t be fair to chuck me in the deep end for requirement gathering etcetera as I won’t have the knowledge.

I’m now getting a bit fed-up and not sure what to do, I’m not really learning anything to further myself and sometimes feel like more of an admin assistant doing monkey work rather than a BA, on the other hand it’s a good rate and as mentioned earlier the international experience looks good. You could say it’s a dream situation getting paid well but for little stress, but its actually really boring I’d much rather be challenged.

I am still fairly early on in my career around 3 years out of uni, although this is my second contract at a major bank, it’s a lot more difficult for me to get a decent contract compared to someone who has 10 years experience under their belt.

What would you guys do in my situation, has anyone themselves been in a situation like this or know someone who has, where they have been taken on for a contract but actually not had much to do? Is it just a case of the team being given budget for X amount of people, and rather than under hire, they use all of the budget even if it means they don’t know what to do with all of their contractors?

Before joining the world of contracting I imagined it to be a fast paced, hit the floor running type of environment where there would be lots of new knowledge to absorb in relatively short periods of time, but seems I was somewhat wrong!

Thanks,

[MrMarkyMark]

Some times the clients hire contractors to do what the permies don't want to do. I would start to find another contract ASAP. The ideal is to try consultant companies or software houses where you can learn and gain experience faster.

You mean as a perm, right?

Why do you think consultancy or software companies are going to let him train himself up on the job, as a contractor?
If that's his game, he has more chance where he currently is, TBH.

Have you ever contracted for a consultancy, if so you should know better?
I have contracted for 5 consultancies and a software company, they always want their pound of flesh and delivery, you will out ASAP if you don't know your stuff.


Not good advice at all, IMO

[northernladuk]

To be fair the comment about client getting contractors to do work permies don't want to was highly question at best as well.

[Bee]

Unbelievable!!

[MrMarkyMark]

Unbelievable!!

If you are talking about my post its totally true.
Consultancies use contractors as a last resort, usually when one of their inexperienced graduates, or Indian imports won't do.
The other reason is because all the guys that are experienced are on another site.
Why? Simply because they want to buy the experienced person and they have no choice.

As I have stated before, your comments are often really quite worthless on here, as you just do not have the UK contracting experience.
In fact 90% of the time, you will just confuse or mislead a poster.

You can delude yourself you are being helpful and we are all wrong, but that's purely up to you.

[Bee]

[tomtomagain]

Consultancies use contractors as a last resort, usually when one of their inexperienced graduates, or Indian imports won't do.

Absolutely right. My friend is a "Client Director" at a big Indian consultancy. His corporate rules say he has to make a 30 - 40% margin on all placed staff.

So they only place UK contractors for as short a time as possible whilst scouring their "Bench" in India for a suitable replacement.

[MrMarkyMark]

Any actual real comment to actually add, or should I just take the advice as per your signature?

Don't argue with idiots. They'll drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.

Absolutely right. My friend is a "Client Director" at a big Indian consultancy. His corporate rules say he has to make a 30 - 40% margin on all placed staff.

So they only place UK contractors for as short a time as possible whilst scouring their "Bench" in India for a suitable replacement.

That's the way it works, at least for us in the real world.

Current Client Co has to discuss every London based contractor role, at a monthly board, it has to be justified as to why the role can't be sourced in Poland.