Are Contractors Overpaid

[cojak]

No I'm trying to put it into context without biting the bait.

There are some organisations happy to spend millions on the big integrators and consultancies. There is one global company I know that spent millions on an invoicing system. Yes just an invoicing system.

There are others that balk at the costs and work out how to do it cheaper. Next down the food chain are the smaller consultancies and contractors - where in comparison to the big boys there are potential savings to be made in costs if the right ones can be found - here the small fish in the big pond have to have some reputation to be found or to get work.

Then there are those who want to pay absolutely rock bottom for maximum return and will hunt down the right outsourcer or the cheapest contractor they can get - sometimes spending more having to have the work done more than once.

IMHO

The other scenario you haven't mentioned is where a Global company has been bitten twice by big consultancies failing to implement a Project - they get a previously used and respected Programme Manager in, give them a fixed price contract and let them hire who they want (provided they don't bring in a consultancy).

He got the project in and working inside 18months...

[singhr]

Where's Billy Goat Gruff?

[Pondlife]

Fook me he's going to need a lot of hooks on that line to reel you all in.

[cojak]

Fook me he's going to need a lot of hooks on that line to reel you all in.

I don't really care...

[Diver]

Are Contractors Overpaid

The simple answer is NO!

We ex-contractor permies are underpaid.

I deliver (practically autonomously) exactly what I was delivering as a contractor. The difference being that I'm paid almost half as much as I was getting as a contractor.
The only benefit for me is a fixed salary with no uncertainty, BUPA and a few other benefits like getting paid when I'm off.

Without These I would not only want, I would Need the contractors rates to cover me in the lean times.

nuff said

[Coalman]

Fair enough - What exactly do you do

A lot of people are C# / Java developers with a smittering of financial knowledge.

Not exactly HIGHLY specialised

I am a business analyst / project manager with a very specific set of business knowledge in a very narrow power generation field (god help me if there are no working coal fired power stations in the world!).

And yes it is feeding the troll or a very naive and inexperienced contractor who's had a very cushty life.

[kingshuk]

I don't quite understand why a developer would have to provide this type of service. They write the programs, hand them over to the respective team who should be given all necessary documentation to provide their own support. If the application needs to be changed fairly often then its (a) either never been properly specced or (b) the changes are being made on the fly with no real testing being performed. Sounds a bit of a pigs ear which is probably why they want to offshore it....then it really will be a pigs ear

Exactly my thoughts too about the developer having to do all these. But the IB front office dev roles I've seen expect developers do these.

About the frequent change aspect - its not very unusual.

Connectivity apps that speak to about >30 exchanges and support between 500-1000 different client connections may need to be changed when there is a change in the exchange side (often) or when a new client joins (very often), or when client asks for something or when one of the downstream system changes (even more often). Most places I've seen have fairly flexible configurations to support the obvious client requests. But downstream systems providing new features do change very frequently - especially in algo trading area.
What you say about testing had not been my experience. I've seen a good proportion of these tests being automated and the test team (large usually) being very very thorough and capable. The only big cock up I've seen over these years was when for one week testing was done offshore because no one was in London that week and someone new did it remotely.

[BlasterBates]

I am a business analyst / project manager with a very specific set of business knowledge in a very narrow power generation field (god help me if there are no working coal fired power stations in the world!).

And yes it is feeding the troll or a very naive and inexperienced contractor who's had a very cushty life.

A permie with contractor "issues" I think. Interesting though that even though it is a cushy number and highly paid he's still a permie (probably).

[swamp]

Most contractors are not overpaid; they are paid the market rate.

[Spacecadet]

I only get paid the minimum wage