Whats happened to SA contracts ?

**bobspud** · 19 February 2009, 08:24

Originally posted by SBK1972 View Post

Hi

Im Simon, been contracting since 96' . Based down in Sussex, am shocked at how few Sun / Solaris contracts are being advertised. Seems like there are tons of jobs up North, but hardly any down south.

Any other SA's (sun / solaris ) guys about ?? How you lot finding it ? Seems to be a few SC cleared ones, but hey what emploter wants to wait 3 months to clear their staff ?? ( Out of interest, whats stopping me as a ltd company, sponsoring myself for SC clearance ? )

I know generally speaking Feb / Mar are the hopeful months were budgets are decided and approved, but this year seems like companies are holding out a bit longer. Many worrying that they wont be around in 2 to 3 months.

During my years of contracting, Ive managed to avoid the bad periods by arranging long term contracts, after the Y2k Bubble popped was a bad time. But, seem to have landed bang on in the middle of this credit crunch. :-(

Ive been looking since December 08, but nothing about, hardly any comeback, and the ones that wanted to interview, then had the budget pulled !!!!!

god, does anyone see any hope at the end of the tunnel here ?

Simon Keane

Hi,

I'm a Solaris/Unix guy

been sat on my arse since October... Things are grim beyond words right now. We've probably been competing for the 3 or 4 jobs that have shown up

The confusing thing is that many of the agents I speak to, have said that they don't have many Solaris bods on their books at the moment...

**Mr Crosby** · 19 February 2009, 08:33

I'm Solaris/Unix and have been in my current contract since Dec08. I have noticed the amount of fishing/supposed agency calls has fallen alot. Still get a couple a week though.

Are you willing to work upt'north?

**bobspud** · 19 February 2009, 08:45

Originally posted by Mr Crosby View Post

I'm Solaris/Unix and have been in my current contract since Dec08. I have noticed the amount of fishing/supposed agency calls has fallen alot. Still get a couple a week though.

Are you willing to work upt'north?

Yes but the trouble is that most of the offers agencies come up with in the north are in the low 300 and its hard to cover the costs of staying away on those sort of rates...

**Mr Crosby** · 19 February 2009, 09:04

Originally posted by bobspud View Post

Yes but the trouble is that most of the offers agencies come up with in the north are in the low 300 and its hard to cover the costs of staying away on those sort of rates...

It's better to have those than none at all...

**MPwannadecentincome** · 19 February 2009, 09:12

Is it just solaris or unix/linux SA that is low in demand in general? Most of your skills should be transferable?

**bobspud** · 19 February 2009, 09:25

Originally posted by MPwannadecentincome View Post

Is it just solaris or unix/linux SA that is low in demand in general? Most of your skills should be transferable?

I think the market has completely screwed clients up. I have been around Unix platforms for 15 years. There is not a unix derivative that I could not understand / use / administrate / design solutions for. However with so many people sat on the bench, customers all of a sudden expect to find a bod that only uses linux or aix and the word generalist does not count... As it is I have used most forms of linux over the years (to a higher level than most home users due to the sorts of projects that I have been involved with)

I think the issue is exasperated by the non technical interfaces that request skills from the market and use word searches over knowledge to pick candidates

**the_duderama** · 19 February 2009, 11:00

Originally posted by bobspud View Post

I think the market has completely screwed clients up. I have been around Unix platforms for 15 years. There is not a unix derivative that I could not understand / use / administrate / design solutions for. However with so many people sat on the bench, customers all of a sudden expect to find a bod that only uses linux or aix and the word generalist does not count... As it is I have used most forms of linux over the years (to a higher level than most home users due to the sorts of projects that I have been involved with)

I think the issue is exasperated by the non technical interfaces that request skills from the market and use word searches over knowledge to pick candidates

This happnes alot in networking as well, they'll ask for sepcific expereince of a make/model of equipment, yet the principles are the same from one to the other as it's all standardised. Granted the commands may be slightly different (most stuff is either loosly based on cisco ios type command structure or there's a GUI), but you can pick these up in no time.

**s2budd** · 19 February 2009, 12:08

I'm Solaris based mainly also and yes the market is dead.
I do not think that it is particular to Unix Systems administration or a specific variant of Unix - the market is just dead.

There are a few, very few interesting roles about every now and then but in general it's dead. I've been out of contract since just before Christmas and frankly have enjoyed my time off and would be quite happy to have more time off so I'm not going for the 1 or 2 day in and out short contracts that do appear every now and then. I think that it could be dead for most of this year which is a bit of a shame.

I have noticed that some roles advertised and that people have contacted me about have been very general in nature. Whereas before the requirement would be for a Unix administrator and a network adminstrator along with someone to support Windows. Now companies would like someone who can do all three which never really works very well.

I have noticed though that there has been a change in the requirements for the different Unix variants. Solaris seems to have been taking a hit recently with AIX moving into being more required, Linux well just being Linux and HP-UX being dead. It does look like a number of companies are moving from Solaris to AIX but not all, one appears to have moved from AIX to Solaris.

Anyway that's the view from this bench.

**s2budd** · 19 February 2009, 12:12

Here is one in Sussex

I have not applied because it's the wrong side of the country for me and I do not like the look of the Windows Server part.

Server and Storage Systems Administrators [This job has been advertised by a member of REC] Contract

Server and Storage Systems Administrators required to join a very busy Servers support team.

As the Server and Storage Administrator you will be primarily responsible for covering such areas as patch upgrades, disk allocation and management, ideally both internal disk storage and SAN managed storage, backup regimes, preventative measures, and implementation and enforcement of security procedures, including hardening of servers, resilience and recovery. You will have proven record of managing Sunfire servers, HP Proliant Servers as well as experience with Symantec (Veritas) Netbackup, Sun Solaris including Solstice Disksuite/SVM, Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, HP SIM and Network load balancing and clustering. In reference to SAN Technologies, you will be familiar with SAN design including switched fabric and Sun/StorageTek Flexline series including SANtricity You will be part of a large scale ICT modernisation with contracts initially being for 3 months with strong possibilities of extension beyond that.

To apply for this position, candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK
Location East Sussex
Country UK
Start Date 02/03/2009
Duration 3 Months
Rate £300 - £350 per day
Employment Business Matchtech Group - IT Division
Contact James Mills
Telephone 01489882506
Fax 01489898290
Email James.Mills.0DFD7.4FF1D@mail.jobserve.com
Reference JS190888JPM
Posted Date 19/02/2009 10:57:06

Whats happened to SA contracts ?