lack of work in North west

Re: .

LogiaCMG or AtosOrigin you mean?

Well...that's it. year end...only 29K revenue..total! Looking for another contract...its like looking for a drop of water in the desert up here. Anybody need a T-SQL, ASP, VB, C++ developer in the Grtr. Man area? even part-time?

Please, my wife's a shopaholic and spends each pound twice!

Sal.

.

Spoken to a few contractors in Frankfurt, things are still quite difficult; London is where most of the action is.

Weird thing is one bank imported a load of highly paid contractors and paid them expenses to work in Frankfurt. Apparently the project was a complete mess f*cked up by a certain big consultancy (guess who :rolleyes ).

Re: .

no

But nice try.

It´s the "other one" you know.

Re: .

eds

no wrinkles please

mid-thirties, try late-thirties! double f*

In good ole Canada I didn't experience any...Ageism is banned in the constitution you see.but then I look 30ish. As long as I dye my greys.

Its far more prevalent here. what with putting the age on CVs and holidays entitlements which can be based on your age...not length of service.

I once heard that someone was not hired based on the wear on her shoes. Now that seems to be taking the mickey to the extreme!

Even when the new ageism legislation comes in 2006, employers will simply find other words to describe "young, no wrinkles please."

BTW - still little work up here.
Sal.

mid-thirties

****

But I don´t think it´s as bad as that now, I have the feeling the age barrier has gone up. At thirty-five I reckon you´re in your prime these days.

There are jobs for experienced people, they´re just ******* difficult to get, and I agree with the Germany thing. Graduates only start work when they´re thirty over here so mid-thirties is a young whippersnapper, well almost.

When I was in my early thirties which was about 10 years ago, I was in a permie job looking for a move. I had a good chat with an agent and he was much more frank than they would dare be these days. He said that once someone gets into their mid-thirties it gets pretty tough to find work for them. And the older they get the tougher it is. If you ask me, it's even worse nowadays. Unfortunately!

But that should just make you either try harder and learn new skills, work for yourself or go and work on the continent where experience is still an asset! (ie. Germany)

Re: skills...maybe age?

The market was bouyant in the summer and a lot of people commenting how easy it is found their contracts then, whereas although there are some opportunties things are definitely difficult just at the moment. For example large companies such as Barclays have put a stop on contractors. There does however seem to be plenty of permie jobs.

With regard to age, as long as you have the skills to get a senior position it is no problem, but if you need to step back into permie to gain additional skills you really are up sh*t creek as nobody will take on a 40+ year other than to do something he is totally experienced in, and the other thing is they would expect you to be an experienced team leader.

There is no doubt it is easier when you're younger because you can easily cop out into a permie job.

Re: skills...maybe age?

I'm just 47 and have been contracting just over 26 years.

Haven't experience agism yet.

skills...maybe age?

My skill set should be fine..ASP,VB,SQL,C++,MFC,UML, ACCESS with 10+ years of overall experience.

I am missing .Net which seems to be coming on. But don't think its a big negative.

Do you have your own website Notify?

Salik

I'm constantly getting calls re contracts in the N.W.

I have 8+ years Java and 4 years+ J2EE with Weblogic & Websphere experience. Perhaps it's your skillset?

However I live in Cambridge, and only visit the City of Manchester Stadium every other weekend from August to May!

Have any other contractors found work up here? Its pretty scant.
Most posting are for full-time employment. I suppose that makes sense as there are no American style benefits in employment in the UK.

Salik.