User Profile

[SussexSeagull]

Software Development done well should be easy but it rarely goes that way because everyone thinks it is easy. It should be a systematic process with the correct resources allocated but that doesn’t seem to happen much anymore.

i left my last couple of contracts before the work was finished....

[SussexSeagull]

The US economy is apparently statistically on a good place but the election result last month suggests that isn’t being felt by everyone.

i have heard this called the White Collar Recession so it is probably going unnoticed by large parts of the population. The problem is people who...

[SussexSeagull]

Anyone seen this before?

...

[SussexSeagull]

Well yes, but you might as well go and get a permanent job at that point as the financial upside of contracting has evaporated....

[SussexSeagull]

I have yet to do an inside IR35 contract but certainly would do one now. I am about that distance from London and looking it up a monthly ticket would cost me £572.20, which I would be able to take on the chin if the rate is anywhere near passable.

I am told the take home on £200 a day...

[SussexSeagull]

Amuses me that a group of people who will fight tooth and nail for and extra £10 a day criticise others for trying to increase their income.

[SussexSeagull]

Admittedly not quite that quickly but I find if you are going to be in the running for a contract then you will be in the running for more than one then go a while with radio silence.

Problem is getting one over the line....

[SussexSeagull]

As a rule of thumb unless there is a falling out (which has happened to me once), I finish a contract. I would have absolutely no problem serving notice on a client who was low balling me if something better appeared.

[SussexSeagull]

I had several contracts where I travelled up first thing Monday and came back on Friday evening and travelled round the country for others but Inside IR35 stops them being finanically viable, plus I think clients want to hire local now....

[SussexSeagull]

As several people predicted at the time it was announced and subsequently, Inside IR35 contracts have become a way to get cheap resource, without having to pay Employer NI contributions, with no employment rights. With a relatively healthy permanent and contract market those roles would mostly get...

[SussexSeagull]

If you look on the big thread about such things it is the exception who get a new contract in any period of time and even they know they are lucky and it might not happen next time. Compare that to other times when I was out of work and others were getting new contracts easily (and vice versa, I sometimes...

[SussexSeagull]

Bearing in mind I have my first meeting about Universal Credit today I will take anything that is financial viable (i.e. everything that isn't £150 inside at the other end of the country).

That said I had a conversation about a contract I was qualified for that would have been my best...

[SussexSeagull]

I don't think the permanent market is much better at the moment so it isn't contractor specific.

I haven't worked on a large (more than 10 testers) project in about 8 years. That ship has sailed to the consultancies. Up until now the economies of scale of getting in a consultancy haven't...

[SussexSeagull]

I just hear a list of events that will apparently need to happen before a recovery starts that happen then a recovery doesn't start.

I am not sure Labour winning a GE then producing a budget that didn't go down well with some in business or a Trump win should have been that surprising to...

[SussexSeagull]

Our lack of energy independence has caused problems in the last few years due to energy bills rising. Putin has used gas supplies as a weapon previously. As for the other two we won't know until we ever reach a point that we could have down with still having a steel or ship industry....

[SussexSeagull]

For all the shiny new toys and methodologies that have appeared over the last 30 years, I don’t think software development has actually got any quicker because end users now have higher expectations and still have a tendency to change their mind.

Not really a silver bullet but I am not...

[SussexSeagull]

I can definitively say that I am unsure. I still suspect that the main problems are business not wanting to invest in new projects and outsourcing. Holding off for AI to make everything outdated in the near future feels a bit premature at the moment.

I work in testing and it has taken...

[SussexSeagull]

Would need to be a year on year comparison with Autumn last year.

Not saying that the market is in any way good but I am not sure Jobserve is the force it used to be. I can't remember the last contract I got through it and am fairly sure the ones I have got were never advertised on th...

[SussexSeagull]

It doesn't really serve much, either....

[SussexSeagull]

I know people, me being one of them, enjoying the contractor lifestyle of new challenges and avoiding office politics but ultimately it is a way of paying the mortgage and rates going through the floor is just going to push the better people into permanent roles to either weather the storm or see them...