Market downturn

[MrMarkyMark]

Test Management / Test Program Management is a good market these days, especially if you have ISEB to go along with it.

Either that or Automation with experience, as previously suggested, however, I'm sure that will all get off shored before too long.
The Mrs contracts in Test Management and that is how she sees the market.

In any case these days people want someone who knows how to lead onshore and offshore, knows the full system life cycle, has good technical nouse / skills and strong business analysis skills.
Basically, if you want good money, around £600 plus PD, that is what you need to be aiming towards, Obviously "they" will only pay that money if you cannot be replaced by a cheaper worker.

[lawnmower]

Test Management / Test Program Management is a good market these days, especially if you have ISEB to go along with it.

Either that or Automation with experience, as previously suggested, however, I'm sure that will all get off shored before too long.
The Mrs contracts in Test Management and that is how she sees the market.

In any case these days people want someone who knows how to lead onshore and offshore, knows the full system life cycle, has good technical nouse / skills and strong business analysis skills.
Basically, if you want good money, around £600 plus PD, that is what you need to be aiming towards, Obviously "they" will only pay that money if you cannot be replaced by a cheaper worker.

Yes, that's what slightly worries me about going after some new technical skills which will inevitably be easier to offshore. I might be better improving my BA skills with a short BA course. I still think you're better off as a Test Lead as a 'generalist' practitioner, however the market gone noticeably very 'techy' at the moment, but it may not last long.

[Andy2]

DBA market is also dead
Not sure which is the hot skill nowadays

[MrMarkyMark]

Yes, that's what slightly worries me about going after some new technical skills which will inevitably be easier to offshore. I might be better improving my BA skills with a short BA course. I still think you're better off as a Test Lead as a 'generalist' practitioner, however the market gone noticeably very 'techy' at the moment, but it may not last long.

Yep, nail on the head.

Sorry, I missed "Test Lead". Obviously it can cover a lot of crimes in some places, where they really want a Test Manager for Test Lead money.
Still very viable for contracting.

As I say not my market, but the Mrs. knows it inside out

DBA market is also dead
Not sure which is the hot skill nowadays

Doing well in Poland allegedly

[ChimpMaster]

DBA market is also dead
Not sure which is the hot skill nowadays

Cloud, digital, integration.

[CoolCat]

Yep the market is pants, hardly surprising given the large foreign workforces the outsourcers have brought into the country.

Its a crying shame really.

[SueEllen]

Yep the market is pants, hardly surprising given the large foreign workforces the outsourcers have brought into the country.

Its a crying shame really.

They make loads of them work off-shore as it's even cheaper. Even projects I've worked on when they have flown some in half or more are off-shore.

[avalon111]

Your future lies with...

IT Security/Cyber Security.

With the new public sector IR35 stuff, there's likely to be a tulip-storm hitting before April.

Dozens of GCHQ contractors will either decline to renew and try to jump to the private sector, or...just retire.

HMRC is likely to lose a lot/most IT Security contractors on its books inside the next few weeks, as will The Home Office, MOD, FCO, Treasury, the last of the NHS Trusts with contractors, every Local Authority, County Councils, NATs, TfL...indeed an awful lot of the nations critical infrastructure is going to be lacking some key skilled resources - all at the same time.

Those left will likely be ones whose skills are-in-doubt, and thus can't find a role in the private sector.

I think a lot of public sector contractors will just take an extended break; see how things pan-out...perhaps gain some skills useful in the private sector, see what happens to the HMRC. For sure they'll be an awful lot of public sector contract roles - there's an estimate the civil service will need 30,000 staff for Brexit alone. People who can afford it will wait.

When financial crime groups and perhaps Russia and the DPRK figure-out that the UK has pretty much dropped its guard, then poor old Philip Hammond is not going to be flavor-of-the-month/year/decade. I suspect the real humdinger outages/data losses/breaches will occur in August and then the government will go into complete headless-chicken mode. By then the remaining permies in some sites will have completely lost-the-plot and those with a clue will have gone on a well-deserved holiday having spent months trying to make up for the shortfall when the contractors left.

In the meantime there's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) set to go live across Europe in May 2018. That will create loads-of-work in the private sector which will need an awful lot of contractors. And they'll be Brexit work too, though that isn't necessarily related to security work.

It's going to be a really interesting year, and we really have HMRC to thank for it.

[VillageContractor]

Manual testing has either been off shored or you're being under cut by people who have come on shore and got a visa.

Automation is the way forward, I've had a few gigs that have been crying out for decent automation testers.

Test lead and test management roles are also good ones to aim for.

[quackhandle]

DBA market is also dead
Not sure which is the hot skill nowadays

Quite a few pimps getting in touch with DBA roles (granted some permy, but quite a few contract) surprising for January.

qh