Will the contract market recover? If so when?

[DrewG]

The thing Lance was comparing was using the £40,000 you spend on private education with using the same money to buy a house in an area where private education isn't required because the local (Grammar) schools are equal to if not better.

So opportunity cost was the extra interest / mortgage payments for a more expensive house in different area vs £40,000 on private education.

My kids weren't even living in this country at the correct time to attend a Grammar.

His calculations are based on a very specific set of scenarios. We only moved to the UK when they hit year 9/10. I spoke to Watford Grammar who were happy to make an exception based on the 13+ (older than 11+) exam results but then I'd have to live in/around Watford...... No thanks. The 40k is worth it just for me to live where I want.

The scenario my family has works for us in many ways, not sure why so many people need to have an opinion on that. If you can't imagine spending 40k on school, I'm not judging you. It is possible to have a houses and STILL send your kids to a great school.

[northernladuk]

Any chance we can get this back on topic instead of discussion DrewG's personal situation.

[edison]

If anyone is interested in talking about the contract market again rather than private schools, I wondered if anyone has had any experience working through any of the increasing number of boutique consulting network type outfits?

I went to a recent networking event in London and there were 250 contractors there. These firms tend to put together small teams of contractors/interims for transformation type work although my current client hired a couple of contract PMs and enterprise architect through one such company.

In the grand scheme of things the numbers are not huge but the firm behind the event I attended currently has 150 people on assignments and more of these challenger firms are winning work against the Big 4 and other established consultancies.

Traditional recruitment firms also seem to be going down this route with 'solutions' or consulting offerings.

[SunglassesRon]

If anyone is interested in talking about the contract market again rather than private schools, I wondered if anyone has had any experience working through any of the increasing number of boutique consulting network type outfits?

I went to a recent networking event in London and there were 250 contractors there. These firms tend to put together small teams of contractors/interims for transformation type work although my current client hired a couple of contract PMs and enterprise architect through one such company.

In the grand scheme of things the numbers are not huge but the firm behind the event I attended currently has 150 people on assignments and more of these challenger firms are winning work against the Big 4 and other established consultancies.

Traditional recruitment firms also seem to be going down this route with 'solutions' or consulting offerings.

Yeah I've been working via one for almost two years now. I was hired as part of a team to lead the build of a new consumer finance product which after a year and shortly after go live was mothballed for commercial reasons. The rest of the team got served their notice but I stayed on and am leading a new team there in another area of the business.

[northernladuk]

If anyone is interested in talking about the contract market again rather than private schools, I wondered if anyone has had any experience working through any of the increasing number of boutique consulting network type outfits?

I went to a recent networking event in London and there were 250 contractors there. These firms tend to put together small teams of contractors/interims for transformation type work although my current client hired a couple of contract PMs and enterprise architect through one such company.

In the grand scheme of things the numbers are not huge but the firm behind the event I attended currently has 150 people on assignments and more of these challenger firms are winning work against the Big 4 and other established consultancies.

Traditional recruitment firms also seem to be going down this route with 'solutions' or consulting offerings.

I'm pretty cold on these setups. This idea has been floating around for many years now. A lot of us will remember Hays tried this at Barclays offering a solution to them for contractors to be part of a team rather than bums on seats. Was rubbish for the poor people that got on it. Doing exactly the same as the full contractor next to them for absolutely zero benefit. Sold as a solution but no management/organisation that comes with a true consultancy offering a solution.

I was with Methods when they started this for public sector. Being on a 'managed service' offering but was nothing more an independant contactor but Methods had a 'relationship manager' who came on site every couple of months to see how delivery was going on. To be fair to them they have grown and I've seen they now offer a much better consultancy offering where they do own and deliver a piece of work with a mix of their staff and contractors.

A bunch of contractors under a company just pretending to be a consultancy offering a managed service doesn't often work as they intend and you end up working just like an independant contractor so the client over pays and doesn't get much benefit from the 'consultancy' offering. Bit like all the ideas that came out when the IR35 thing hit. All the contractors being forced inside thinking they could band together and offer a solution. Just didn't work.

Do your homework and see past the blurb to what is going on. In a vasy majority of cases it's just agency+bum on seat as usual even though they try dress it up as something else. Happy to stand corrected but I'd say there are very few of these contractor rabble offerings that truely do what they say.

If I was a client looking for a solution I'd be looking for a solid offering with perms/contractors from a company that's focussed on and has delivered this kind of wrap before. I most certainly wouldn't be entertaining chancers that will grab work and just chuck a bunch of contractors at it.

[PCTNN]

My kids weren't even living in this country at the correct time to attend a Grammar.

Ok now I got it. Your kids are on the receiving end of daily wedges because they're foreigners so you're trying to pay for their redemption because you're a failure of a parent who just lacks the skills to deal with the situation yourself.

Unfortunately for you and your kids, in this UK, they'll still get their share of wedges after the 40k a year.

[DrewG]

Ok now I got it. Your kids are on the receiving end of daily wedges because they're foreigners so you're trying to pay for their redemption because you're a failure of a parent who just lacks the skills to deal with the situation yourself.

Unfortunately for you and your kids, in this UK, they'll still get their share of wedges after the 40k a year.

wtf are you talking about?

[Lance]

I went to a recent networking event in London and there were 250 contractors there. These firms tend to put together small teams of contractors/interims for transformation type work although my current client hired a couple of contract PMs and enterprise architect through one such company.

isn't this just building a network of people you know who are good, but having some parasite organization leach money from it?
Unless the boutique firm can add value they are just another sleazy bunch of slimeball parasites.

[Lance]

Ok now I got it. Your kids are on the receiving end of daily wedges because they're foreigners so you're trying to pay for their redemption because you're a failure of a parent who just lacks the skills to deal with the situation yourself.

Unfortunately for you and your kids, in this UK, they'll still get their share of wedges after the 40k a year.

wedgies!!!!

[PCTNN]

wedgies!!!!

sorry, I went to a private school, I'm not very bright