Reply to: The Market is picking up..... or is it!

[HeadOfTesting]

£750 seems to me a very high rate, especially for testing which has historically always paid less that development roles. A permie test programmer manager would get somewhere in the region of £60k in City, I would imagine (but testing is not my expertise I may be corrected!).

How long do your roles tend to last?

Personally I'm quite happy with the £600 mark but it is more product-based development and technical management that I do.

My last rate was £850; most of what I've been looking at has been in the £800-£950pd range. that said I tend to specialise in troubleshooting where often the clients are slightly less price-sensitive. I also tend to get approached/recommended rather than finding work through agents.

I personally couldn't name a single competent perm test programme manager who would work for £60k in the city (or even outside of the city) and I'm very plugged in to the test management community but good luck to anyone that can find such people.

In my experience dev generally pays more than test except at the top end of the ability range where rates are often higher in test. I've managed lots of teams where the most senior testers and paid more than the most senior devs - there are a number of reasons for this which I won't go in to here - but again my experience (which is broad and deep if I say so myself) could be unusual.

My roles tend to last 6 - 18 months; most places don't want a contract/interim head of testing on the books any longer than necessary - which is fair enough.

I personally am not too fussed as I'm more interested in making my plan b my plan a but there's no doubt that opportunities for people like myself (which are never plentiful by their nature) are less common than they were last year imo.

[ChimpMaster]

Geographically I'm concentrating on central London.

I'm looking at all sectors but am keen to focus on adding to my existing finance experience.

I'm looking at senior test management roles: head of testing (which I know is typically permie), test programme manager, test strategy consulting etc.

To be fair I'm only looking at things which add value to my CV and haven't looked at anything below £750pd.

In the meantime I'm happy to work on plan b.

Good luck to everyone who's looking.

£750 seems to me a very high rate, especially for testing which has historically always paid less that development roles. A permie test programmer manager would get somewhere in the region of £60k in City, I would imagine (but testing is not my expertise I may be corrected!).

How long do your roles tend to last?

Personally I'm quite happy with the £600 mark but it is more product-based development and technical management that I do.

[HeadOfTesting]

What area is that ?

Geographically I'm concentrating on central London.

I'm looking at all sectors but am keen to focus on adding to my existing finance experience.

I'm looking at senior test management roles: head of testing (which I know is typically permie), test programme manager, test strategy consulting etc.

To be fair I'm only looking at things which add value to my CV and haven't looked at anything below £750pd.

In the meantime I'm happy to work on plan b.

Good luck to everyone who's looking.

[BolshieBastard]

Personally I think this is utter crap. Jack of all is ok for permies as they invest in the person and these skills could be used in the organisation as a whole.

As a contractor you are brought in because you can demostrate you are a qualified expert in your field and can hit the ground running from day one and deliver exactly what the client wants. They do not want to be re-training or skilling up generics.

Put your jack of all CV next to someone that has delivered the clients needs for the last 10 years an day and I will show you a guy with more bench splinters in his arse than soft Mick.

Agree wwnluks!







































Kinell!

[northernladuk]

Or if you have generic skills and aren't fussy, sometimes it's good to be a jack of all trades

Personally I think this is utter crap. Jack of all is ok for permies as they invest in the person and these skills could be used in the organisation as a whole.

As a contractor you are brought in because you can demostrate you are a qualified expert in your field and can hit the ground running from day one and deliver exactly what the client wants. They do not want to be re-training or skilling up generics.

Put your jack of all CV next to someone that has delivered the clients needs for the last 10 years an day and I will show you a guy with more bench splinters in his arse than soft Mick.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Possibly, but in my experience, jack of all trades are masters of none.

Well I think being specialised is crucial to help you easily get the roles that you are most suited to. However it is good to have a bit of experience in several areas in case of emergency. I managed to pick up some .NET in all my roles and could quite easily advertise myself as a .NET developer.

[BolshieBastard]

Or if you have generic skills and aren't fussy, sometimes it's good to be a jack of all trades

Possibly, but in my experience, jack of all trades are masters of none.

[TestMangler]

depends on the area - it's very tough in senior test management.

i've been benched for over 5 months now (much of it un-intentional)

yes I can afford to be picky but it's far from easy in my area

What area is that ?

[amcdonald]

The market is only 'picking up' if your skillset is in demand.

Or if you have generic skills and aren't fussy, sometimes it's good to be a jack of all trades

[HeadOfTesting]

depends on the area - it's very tough in senior test management.

i've been benched for over 5 months now (much of it un-intentional)

yes I can afford to be picky but it's far from easy in my area

[BolshieBastard]

The market is only 'picking up' if your skillset is in demand.

Had a chance of an interview with a former client but in a junior role compared to last time there. Jibbed that off.

Spoke to an agent about an MOJ SC role but once again, it's an 'urgent' role (yeah, right, that's why it's been advertised for over 2 weeks now) so only submitted if you have current clearance.

But, I was very well suited for the role, he said. somehow I smell BS.

Holiday mode this week and next although Im doing another ISEB course to boost the qualifications. Roll on Christmas.

[Wobblyheed]

I've had an interview for a job in Abu Dhabi this week (the agent phoned me before it was advertised). Never had a sniff of these posts since I started contracting in 2004.

[amcdonald]

I've not got a CV on jobserve, and based on 3 year old CVs that agency pimps still have I've been flooded with interview offers

This week current client is dangling a renewal and I've got two other job offers after two interviews

Not bad considering I've not even looked for another contract

The economy might be fubar, but London is awash with .net IT contracts

[inferno]

I've been receiving anything up to 8 calls a day the last few weeks which is promising. Whether they amount to anything with the bench looming is another thing!

Good luck everyone

[craig1]

I've been on deliberate downtime since my last contract finished recently and my only contract hunting activity was to put a new CV on the main job sites, I've not gone job hunting at all. Since then I've had about 5-6 calls a day from agencies with the greatest majority being genuine. I've just been offered a new role following a telephone interview in an area outside of my normal narrow niche.

That's the level of activity I was last seeing in 2007-8. Compare that with late 2008 to 2010 where I had to go hunting hard to get a sniff at an interview. So, in my very narrow subjective experience, the market is definitely on an up.

An agent that I know very well says that the number of roles is up but so is the number of candidates applying. He said that the quality of CV is down significantly, especially from the newer entrants to the contracting market, so those of us that have been around for a while with polished CVs still get through the sifting process. He also mentioned that the number of people with outright lies on their CV is up with one role he advertised in a very narrow market had eight applicants all saying they'd run the same project at a competitor when, in reality, they'd been involved only in either spin-off smaller projects or managing tiny tasks within the main project.