Life on the Bench - An unemployed contractors story

[rootsnall]

yeah yeah, very good MF

To answer some of the others...
I havn't been offerred any jobs yet, just got my CV in. I'll be taking the first job I get offerred.

For those who still dont know, I'm an Oracle Applications Developer - £550 + vat is te going rate for me's.

I'm useless with money - I had £25k in the bank off my last gig, but I got stung for a vat bill of £5,500 (bastards), then my corp tax bill was due, I've paid myself £3k for the last 3 months....leaving £5k in the bank.
It doesn't go very far!!!

How has Oracle clung on at 550 a day !? Are you in something specialised ? Might get my text books out.

[SallyAnne]

How has Oracle clung on at 550 a day !? Are you in something specialised ? Might get my text books out.

Oracle developers dont get paid anywere near that much. But Oracle Application developers do!

Oracle have very good sales people - they sell Financials or Human Resources systems to companies as "off the shelf" systems. Then the company gets them in and realises that they need to do a stupid amount of tweaking before they can actually use them! Let alone report from them.

Oracle Consultants cost about £2k a day, so people like me are a bargain!

Simple as that really.

[rootsnall]

Oracle developers dont get paid anywere near that much. But Oracle Application developers do!

Oracle have very good sales people - they sell Financials or Human Resources systems to companies as "off the shelf" systems. Then the company gets them in and realises that they need to do a stupid amount of tweaking before they can actually use them! Let alone report from them.

Oracle Consultants cost about £2k a day, so people like me are a bargain!

Simple as that really.

I do the same with SAP, same scam performed by the sales people but our 550 has been whittled away to 350-450 and the amount of overseas people means it never creeps back up again. I would of thought the Indian consultancies would be churning out Oracle developers but obviously not.

[SallyAnne]

I do the same with SAP, same scam performed by the sales people but our 550 has been whittled away to 350-450 and the amount of overseas people means it never creeps back up again. I would of thought the Indian consultancies would be churning out Oracle developers but obviously not.

I'm sure it'll get that way - but it's OK at the minute.

I tend to go for the government gigs, which are way more highly paid anyhow, and they are still inherently racist

[DS23]

SA - do you have any particular specialism in Oracle Apps Development?

You never know, I might come across something down your street as it were.

[SallyAnne]

SA - do you have any particular specialism in Oracle Apps Development?

You never know, I might come across something down your street as it were.

My last few gigs have been HRMS/Payroll reports development. Disco - building EUL's. That kind of thing.
But I've also done CRM (telesales) and a bit of Financials. Interface development, data migration (although that bores the tits off me, so I'd rather not do it).

Do you work in the Oracle field DS?

[Bagpuss]

SA, if you are so in demand, why have you been on the bench so long?

[DS23]

>Do you work in the Oracle field DS?

Yeah. Been into Oracle Apps since 96. Supply Chain stuff: OM, Inv, PO, APS.

[SallyAnne]

>Do you work in the Oracle field DS?

Yeah. Been into Oracle Apps since 96. Supply Chain stuff: OM, Inv, PO, APS.

So are you a developer then? Or a PM?

[DS23]

i'm a functional monkey. couldn't code my way out of a packet of cornflakes. maybe this is the start of a beautiful friendship?

i can be a pm but prefer not to.

here’s a flippant summary a typical job:
extract client needs
offer best practice solution
build system and crp
redefine design to incorporate legacy design exactly
re-build system and test
re-define system to re-incorporate initial design
re-build and test
go live