Which skills for the "£750 - 2,000 a day bracket"?

[Scrag Meister]

Over the past year the number of contracts advertised for my skillset has halved.

75 in Sept 2010
34 in Oct 2011

Funnily though over the same period the average rate has gone up by £50pd.

[psychocandy]

I'm pretty sure there are some roles in Helmand or Somalia you could get £1k a day on.

Defence companies pay a heft premium for permies to do this sort of thing.

Nice little earner because its usually months at a time as welll. Not for me though....

[NotAllThere]

So when you do get £1300 a day, how many days a week do you actually work? From what you say it sounds like you only get work for a few days a week at that rate.

That's unlikely to be more than 5 days at a time. Normally, it'd be ~£1000. I choose not to work a five day week, if I can still meet client requirements.

[TimBeattie]

Thanks for the replies, all - even the ones that said I had no common sense. To answer one user's question, I'm interested just because I'm interested.

[northernladuk]

Thanks for the replies, all - even the ones that said I had no common sense. To answer one user's question, I'm interested just because I'm interested.

To be fair I was given a bum steer about you wanting to earn that and if that is the case if you are going to ever earn that you need more about you than to ask a question on a forum. Someone capable of ever getting to earn that rate would have gone out and sorted it...

I blame russell....

[jonathanOnshore2010]

Someone capable of ever getting to earn that rate would have gone out and sorted it...

I don't believe this comment is entirely helpful. As a junior developer starting out in contracting, I used to ask how to increase my rate on forums, and based on the help received I have doubled my rate many times over since then....

[thunderlizard]

Why? Are you wanting to know what jobs make that? Search Jobswerve.

I don't think that'll work. It's not the Jobserve bottom-feeder commodity contractor crowd that gets that sort of deal.

[yasockie]

I must agree with what others have said (what, isn't the Internetz for arguing?)
The higher daily rates mean that people will look at the ROI and generally let you go as soon as they can.
What is is you're looking for?
I personally have found that I get best quality of life doing remote contracts, this usually means lower rates as you can get by with poorer interpersonal skills and you don't have to spend on hotels etc.
In the end you need to ask yourself what is it that you're after, actually. I am guessing saving up as much money as possible in the smallest amount of time?
Or is it working part-time so that you can pursue your hobbies and stuff?

[alreadypacked]

You see high rates for some roles, but from my experience the people in thoes roles have a Master/Phd, also for their area, passed exams etc.
They also have many years experience and were permies at a high level before becoming contractors.

[Moscow Mule]

You need to get good on one of the more popular banking packages that can be easily customised.

Summit springs to mind, with rates C£1000 a day for a programmer with a couple of years experience that knows their way around a derivative or two.