Whats happened to SA contracts ?

[Rockfield]

Hi

( Out of interest, whats stopping me as a ltd company, sponsoring myself for SC clearance ? )

see link below for explanation of how to get security cleared

http://www.securityclearedjobs.com/h...ty_cleared.asp

[MPwannadecentincome]

I don't know if these are contracts or not....

I got this today - apologies if they are for permies....

From: "Simon Topps" <[email protected]>Add sender to Contacts To: [email protected]

Dear yyyyyyyyy


Please accept my apologies if this is of no interest or not suitable for you.

We are currently looking for a plethora of Helpdesk/ Service Desk Support Engineer, Windows Systems Administrators and also Linux/ Unix Administrators based in the Netherlands.

Our clients range in Location across the country but most positions are based in the Utrecht and Amsterdam areas.

The salaries, technologies, skills and levels of experience of these positions vary greatly....the one thing they all have in common is they are looking for people who are FLUENT in both DUTCH and ENGLISH.

If you are slightly interested please email your CV over and I will take a look at it with the ideal of matching you with one of our positions.

Likewise we offer a referral reward scheme, so if you have friends/ family or colleagues who may be interested please dont hesitate to forward my details to them or send their details and I will contact them directly

Thanks for your time and have a good weekend!

Simon
[email protected]
0044 1908 209 260
http://www.linkedin.com/in/simontopps

[SBK1972]

Hi all

Glad Im not the only SA thats finding it difficult :-)

Seems like we are all trying for the same contract then :-)

I cant re-locate / or b & B for contracts up north as my wife and I have just had a baby, so not a good time to say "Im off see you on Friday " :-)

Im now looking back into the banks. I did my tour of duty, so to speak, and after 7 years contracting around the city, decided trade floors werent for me anymore. But, needs must, so am now looking at everything.

looking on the job boards, seems like solaris is the black sheep of the family at the moment. Linux, HPUX and AIX seem to be the rage. Linux, god talk about all the good bits of solaris, hp, irix, squeezed into one os :-) AIX seems to be flavour as IBM are doing a big push at the moment. Although I must say my old project was to build a DR system on a E25K. I did consider IBM eqpuipment as the level of control ovewr cpu's, processing power was amazing, compared, then, to sun's offerings.

Im now starting to look at permy jobs. Well, I say permy, but to me they are just long winded contracts :-)

Anyway, fingers crossed for all of us.

Cheers guys.

SBK

[Mr Crosby]

Here is one in Sussex

I have not applied because it's the wrong side of the country for me and I do not like the look of the Windows Server part.


Server and Storage Systems Administrators [This job has been advertised by a member of REC] Contract

Server and Storage Systems Administrators required to join a very busy Servers support team.

As the Server and Storage Administrator you will be primarily responsible for covering such areas as patch upgrades, disk allocation and management, ideally both internal disk storage and SAN managed storage, backup regimes, preventative measures, and implementation and enforcement of security procedures, including hardening of servers, resilience and recovery. You will have proven record of managing Sunfire servers, HP Proliant Servers as well as experience with Symantec (Veritas) Netbackup, Sun Solaris including Solstice Disksuite/SVM, Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, HP SIM and Network load balancing and clustering. In reference to SAN Technologies, you will be familiar with SAN design including switched fabric and Sun/StorageTek Flexline series including SANtricity You will be part of a large scale ICT modernisation with contracts initially being for 3 months with strong possibilities of extension beyond that.

To apply for this position, candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK
Location East Sussex
Country UK
Start Date 02/03/2009
Duration 3 Months
Rate £300 - £350 per day
Employment Business Matchtech Group - IT Division
Contact James Mills
Telephone 01489882506
Fax 01489898290
Email [email protected]
Reference JS190888JPM
Posted Date 19/02/2009 10:57:06

Sounds like my job spec ....

[TykeMerc]

Hi
Out of interest, whats stopping me as a ltd company, sponsoring myself for SC clearance ?

Quite simple to answer this one, the Defence Vetting Agency (DVA) who're the people who vet people for SC and DV clearances have an approved list of sponsor companies known as List X, plus Government Ministries and the Armed Forces.
If your company isn't on that list then they won't even issue you with the forms let alone accept a request to perform the Clearance checks on an individual.

As to your other point the entire market is very depressed, if you're not prepared to work almost anywhere you're significantly limiting your chances of securing your next contract.

[s2budd]

Here is one in Sussex

I have not applied because it's the wrong side of the country for me and I do not like the look of the Windows Server part.


Server and Storage Systems Administrators [This job has been advertised by a member of REC] Contract

Server and Storage Systems Administrators required to join a very busy Servers support team.

As the Server and Storage Administrator you will be primarily responsible for covering such areas as patch upgrades, disk allocation and management, ideally both internal disk storage and SAN managed storage, backup regimes, preventative measures, and implementation and enforcement of security procedures, including hardening of servers, resilience and recovery. You will have proven record of managing Sunfire servers, HP Proliant Servers as well as experience with Symantec (Veritas) Netbackup, Sun Solaris including Solstice Disksuite/SVM, Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, HP SIM and Network load balancing and clustering. In reference to SAN Technologies, you will be familiar with SAN design including switched fabric and Sun/StorageTek Flexline series including SANtricity You will be part of a large scale ICT modernisation with contracts initially being for 3 months with strong possibilities of extension beyond that.

To apply for this position, candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK
Location East Sussex
Country UK
Start Date 02/03/2009
Duration 3 Months
Rate £300 - £350 per day
Employment Business Matchtech Group - IT Division
Contact James Mills
Telephone 01489882506
Fax 01489898290
Email [email protected]
Reference JS190888JPM
Posted Date 19/02/2009 10:57:06

[s2budd]

I'm Solaris based mainly also and yes the market is dead.
I do not think that it is particular to Unix Systems administration or a specific variant of Unix - the market is just dead.

There are a few, very few interesting roles about every now and then but in general it's dead. I've been out of contract since just before Christmas and frankly have enjoyed my time off and would be quite happy to have more time off so I'm not going for the 1 or 2 day in and out short contracts that do appear every now and then. I think that it could be dead for most of this year which is a bit of a shame.

I have noticed that some roles advertised and that people have contacted me about have been very general in nature. Whereas before the requirement would be for a Unix administrator and a network adminstrator along with someone to support Windows. Now companies would like someone who can do all three which never really works very well.

I have noticed though that there has been a change in the requirements for the different Unix variants. Solaris seems to have been taking a hit recently with AIX moving into being more required, Linux well just being Linux and HP-UX being dead. It does look like a number of companies are moving from Solaris to AIX but not all, one appears to have moved from AIX to Solaris.

Anyway that's the view from this bench.

[the_duderama]

I think the market has completely screwed clients up. I have been around Unix platforms for 15 years. There is not a unix derivative that I could not understand / use / administrate / design solutions for. However with so many people sat on the bench, customers all of a sudden expect to find a bod that only uses linux or aix and the word generalist does not count... As it is I have used most forms of linux over the years (to a higher level than most home users due to the sorts of projects that I have been involved with)

I think the issue is exasperated by the non technical interfaces that request skills from the market and use word searches over knowledge to pick candidates

This happnes alot in networking as well, they'll ask for sepcific expereince of a make/model of equipment, yet the principles are the same from one to the other as it's all standardised. Granted the commands may be slightly different (most stuff is either loosly based on cisco ios type command structure or there's a GUI), but you can pick these up in no time.

[bobspud]

Is it just solaris or unix/linux SA that is low in demand in general? Most of your skills should be transferable?

I think the market has completely screwed clients up. I have been around Unix platforms for 15 years. There is not a unix derivative that I could not understand / use / administrate / design solutions for. However with so many people sat on the bench, customers all of a sudden expect to find a bod that only uses linux or aix and the word generalist does not count... As it is I have used most forms of linux over the years (to a higher level than most home users due to the sorts of projects that I have been involved with)

I think the issue is exasperated by the non technical interfaces that request skills from the market and use word searches over knowledge to pick candidates

[MPwannadecentincome]

Is it just solaris or unix/linux SA that is low in demand in general? Most of your skills should be transferable?

[Mr Crosby]

Yes but the trouble is that most of the offers agencies come up with in the north are in the low 300 and its hard to cover the costs of staying away on those sort of rates...

It's better to have those than none at all...

[bobspud]

I'm Solaris/Unix and have been in my current contract since Dec08. I have noticed the amount of fishing/supposed agency calls has fallen alot. Still get a couple a week though.

Are you willing to work upt'north?

Yes but the trouble is that most of the offers agencies come up with in the north are in the low 300 and its hard to cover the costs of staying away on those sort of rates...

[Mr Crosby]

I'm Solaris/Unix and have been in my current contract since Dec08. I have noticed the amount of fishing/supposed agency calls has fallen alot. Still get a couple a week though.

Are you willing to work upt'north?

[bobspud]

Hi

Im Simon, been contracting since 96' . Based down in Sussex, am shocked at how few Sun / Solaris contracts are being advertised. Seems like there are tons of jobs up North, but hardly any down south.

Any other SA's (sun / solaris ) guys about ?? How you lot finding it ? Seems to be a few SC cleared ones, but hey what emploter wants to wait 3 months to clear their staff ?? ( Out of interest, whats stopping me as a ltd company, sponsoring myself for SC clearance ? )

I know generally speaking Feb / Mar are the hopeful months were budgets are decided and approved, but this year seems like companies are holding out a bit longer. Many worrying that they wont be around in 2 to 3 months.

During my years of contracting, Ive managed to avoid the bad periods by arranging long term contracts, after the Y2k Bubble popped was a bad time. But, seem to have landed bang on in the middle of this credit crunch. :-(

Ive been looking since December 08, but nothing about, hardly any comeback, and the ones that wanted to interview, then had the budget pulled !!!!!

god, does anyone see any hope at the end of the tunnel here ?

Simon Keane

Hi,

I'm a Solaris/Unix guy been sat on my arse since October... Things are grim beyond words right now. We've probably been competing for the 3 or 4 jobs that have shown up

The confusing thing is that many of the agents I speak to, have said that they don't have many Solaris bods on their books at the moment...

[SBK1972]

Hi

Im Simon, been contracting since 96' . Based down in Sussex, am shocked at how few Sun / Solaris contracts are being advertised. Seems like there are tons of jobs up North, but hardly any down south.

Any other SA's (sun / solaris ) guys about ?? How you lot finding it ? Seems to be a few SC cleared ones, but hey what emploter wants to wait 3 months to clear their staff ?? ( Out of interest, whats stopping me as a ltd company, sponsoring myself for SC clearance ? )

I know generally speaking Feb / Mar are the hopeful months were budgets are decided and approved, but this year seems like companies are holding out a bit longer. Many worrying that they wont be around in 2 to 3 months.

During my years of contracting, Ive managed to avoid the bad periods by arranging long term contracts, after the Y2k Bubble popped was a bad time. But, seem to have landed bang on in the middle of this credit crunch. :-(

Ive been looking since December 08, but nothing about, hardly any comeback, and the ones that wanted to interview, then had the budget pulled !!!!!

god, does anyone see any hope at the end of the tunnel here ?

Simon Keane