Miners, shipbuilders, IT contractors?

[nomadd]

Unlucky mate - we all knew the risks when we first started out.....

Hmm... Not so sure. When I "started out" over two decades ago, I couldn't believe it could get as stupid as it is today. Seriously.

Just got off the phone with an agent. Had a very successful telephone (technical) interview this afternoon, so client wants to meet face-to-face. Initially wants 30 minutes of my of my time for me to sit in a room on my own and do a "technical test"... Immediately told agent to tell them to shove it; if they can't be bothered reading the cv and sitting down to discuss it in a proper interview, then lets stop wasting each others time. This industry has turned to s-h-i-t, filled with muppets who aren't even skilled enough to conduct an interview - even after we'd just covered all the technical stuff to their compete satisfaction on the phone; I wouldn't mind, they skipped half the damn questions after saying "Clearly you know a lot more about this stuff than we do..."

Some days, I don't know why I bother.

(And then on other days I realise it's the money. )

But what the hell - it's the Bank Holiday weekend!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!

[tractor]

..

Hmm... No so sure. When I "started out" over two decades ago, I couldn't believe it could get as stupid as it is today. Seriously.

Just got off the phone with an agent. Had a very successful telephone (technical) interview this afternoon, so client wants to meet face-to-face. Initially wants 30 minutes of my of my time for me to sit in a room on my own and do a "technical test"... Immediately told agent to tell them to shove it; if they can't be bothered reading the cv and sitting down to discuss it in a proper interview, then lets stop wasting each others time. This industry has turned to s-h-i-t, filled with muppets who aren't even skilled enough to conduct an interview - even after we'd just covered all the technical stuff to their compete satisfaction on the phone; I wouldn't mind, they skipped half the damn questions after saying "Clearly you know a lot more about this stuff than we do..."

Some days, I don't know why I bother.

(And then on other days I realise it's the money. )

But what the hell - it's the Bank Holiday weekend!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!

Couldn't agree more! I just had a prelim with a Tier 2 agent who was demanding the two references before submitting. I politely told them I have written refs from the T1 agent they were contracted to and they could wait for them until offer stage

[Hot Mess]

My general observation within IB's over the last 5 years or so, (leaving aside the swarm of bobs), is that IB's have hired a LOT of IT Contractors on good money to deliver 'Strategic XYZ'.

A lot of them have pissed a lot of this money (and we're talking hundreds of millions) up the wall with next to nothing to show for it

Consultancies suck up the majority, but there is a growing minority of crap UK 'contractors' who have allowed Bob to stick his nose in the trough.

The industry needs a good clear out IMHO, and when the dust settles reassess exactly who they need and who they don't

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

So why are you hiring yourself out as a Birthday Clown: http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...ment-hire.html

I guess I saw how successfull other clowns on here have become especially Bolshie

[Scoobos]

"we all knew the risks when we started out"

No sorry, that's generalising and you can't do that.

I didn't make a choice to go contract, I fell into it by chance when I lived and worked out in Canada for a year in 2004. Since returning the only jobs I could get were contract and I'd had experience in B2B relationships.

My family also say the same "why not get a full time job" well, because there aren't any, well not for more than 25k a year anyway and I seriously cannot live off that.

My personal view is that most skilled IT guys were forced into this situation, as its got great tax and HR benefits to hire contractors over full timers - In June 2006 for example, there wasn't a SINGLE job in the North of England Full time for financial institutions (for my skillset) , but hundreds of contracts.

The past 3 months have been eye opening to how the field has changed.

When I first started contracting, my agent got 5% OTE on his fairly good salary to place me; he knew his field and despite being non technical he understood my CV. Now I'm dealing with people who just finished at "mcdonalds" , "carphone warehouse" , "Game" , or are straight out of uni in a totally non IT field doing "new business"... the amount of linked in spam of these idjits wanting me to recommend them when all they've done is call me about a job 200 miles away thats got nothing to do with my skillset.

here's some choice examples of what I've dealt with, in the last 7 days :

Agent calls, good role, discusses CV - I say my phone batteries pretty low I'll call him back when I've plugged it in - Agent says oh what phone? I know phones I used to work at carphone warehouse last month. How the hell is this guy supposed to represent a 15 year IT guy with experience with the worlds very best IT companies? He was lost with the word debugging.

Agent calls , good role, requires high level troubleshooting skills and really hands on knowledge. Get to the interview , its not hands on at all, is totally unrelated to my technology, is a bit of a joke of a project which I usually wouldnt touch at all - offered the job , Agent tries to knock rate down by 20% , then wants me to claim expenses from the client for all travel - client backs out as he can't get sign off.

Agent calls, completely lies about many jobs just trying to get names and contact details for previous employers.

Another agent called today with a really basic role and asked me some "screening questions" 1 of which was "what do you do if a RAID 5 set loses 2 disks" - my answer was that I'd need a bit more info, did they fail at the same time , is one rebuilding , how many hot spares were there- he answered "I dont understand the questions my clients just gave me it - the answer they've listed is - you can't do anything its broken" grrrr.. what a load of tosh,

I see my CV's last role advertised on job serve by 3 different agents - I call one and directly say "my cv could have been copied for this role the skillset is so close" - "Are you SC cleared?" - "No, and I've worked overseas in the past 5 years" - Sorry then...... (I totally believe that the jobs fake and my cv's just been copied, there's no mention of SC at all).

One of the leading hardware manufacturers call and offer me a full time job for less than 30k .... For a country with IT skills shortages this seems bizarre...


The bottom line is my mistake was thinking "I've just worked for a world leading company, got a top reference, I can take that 6 month break to look after my seriously poorly wife, do a bit of training and walk back into it".... That was my error.

Ok, I've vented

[oliverson]

I've just given up hope of ever finding contract work again. EVER.

[Scoobos]

Don't...

Keep venting on these forums, its also nice to know that we're not alone ...

I believe the chances of getting PERM are just as bad if not worse - being unemployed is the number 1 cause of depression in men and the number 1 cause of not getting the contracts we do go for.

We need to keep our chins up and carry on - I just saw a role on jobserve with my skills for 11 an hour (LTD) , but who knows what next week will bring.

I hope this helps and doesnt patronise, I sincerly mean it that its helped reading your posts and feeling like there are a group of us in this situation.

[darrenb]

Another agent called today with a really basic role and asked me some "screening questions" 1 of which was "what do you do if a RAID 5 set loses 2 disks" - my answer was that I'd need a bit more info, did they fail at the same time , is one rebuilding , how many hot spares were there- he answered "I dont understand the questions my clients just gave me it - the answer they've listed is - you can't do anything its broken" grrrr.. what a load of tosh,

Imagine if heart surgeons were recruited like this. It would make for a good comedy skit.

Actually for all I know on the NHS heart surgeons really are recruited like this. Anybody?

[wurzel]

I now hold the dubious distinction of being the only English person on a team of 16 people.

Absolutely every single new starter at my client co during the last year has been from the subcontinent / E. Europe or Africa. Without exception.

Speaks volumes about the dire state of the market if you're after a half decent rate.

[AnthonyQuinn]

I now hold the dubious distinction of being the only English person on a team of 16 people.

Absolutely every single new starter at my client co during the last year has been from the subcontinent / E. Europe or Africa. Without exception.

Speaks volumes about the dire state of the market if you're after a half decent rate.

What on earth does this have to say about the market? If everyone from across the world can get in surely the market is all right?