Reply to: The future of IT contracting

[OwlHoot]

Growth areas;

...
Document management

and general backup and storage management (slightly lower-level)

[AttitudeAdjuster]

The reality of 'permanent' employment

I thought that there were, even in this country, some employment laws that made this sort of activity hard to implement. Contractors, yes, permies, no.

I know companies outsource future work abroad, tell the perms that there's no more new work and then make some of them redundant as a result('cos it's all been outsourced).

Ha, basically, if you have not been at a place for at least a year (or is it two?), you have zero rights. A place I worked at, the director didn't like the face of one person, so the scheme was to make all the s/w people redundant then selectively re-employ under a new job description that the 'trouble-maker' would not match (natch!). There were emails he sent to his legal advisors left on the server for all to see (what a plonker!), so we knew what was happening. Even in the face of this, the one guy who went through the legal process got nowhere.

And I wondered why a company of that size had such a large HR department. Now I know, they had a history of doing dirty deals and fighting individuals in the courts.

[n5gooner]

well its happening here....some people are keeping thier jobs, the rest are in a "pool" that may find a job, but in not will be made redundent

[hyperD]

the contract where I am at the mo - 3 days to go ! are outsourcing to Budapest ......all the permies are being told if they have jobs or not, most seem not!. .........this is for a major oil company..........

I thought that there were, even in this country, some employment laws that made this sort of activity hard to implement. Contractors, yes, permies, no.

I know companies outsource future work abroad, tell the perms that there's no more new work and then make some of them redundant as a result('cos it's all been outsourced).

[n5gooner]

the contract where I am at the mo - 3 days to go ! are outsourcing to Budapest ......all the permies are being told if they have jobs or not, most seem not!. .........this is for a major oil company..........

[hyperD]

Have a look on amazon then quick, by the weekend you could have the full set of "Dummies" books.

Actual fact, 'cos of 3, 4 implied in one system that's live with a major oil co. Full house!

hyperD in "DevilFish" mode.

[DimPrawn]

Yes .NET, BizTalk are at the top on my CV, along with SQL Server, Analysis Services (OLAP) and these are good skills that should last at least another few years.

No IT skill is 100% safe from offshoring, but then most offshored projects are total disasters anyway.

[xinetd.d]

Woo hoo! 3 out of 4!!

Have a look on amazon then quick, by the weekend you could have the full set of "Dummies" books.

[hyperD]

Woo hoo! 3 out of 4!!

[xinetd.d]

No time for IT training in "pakistan and afghanistan", they're too busy farming the worlds drug supply. Nice muslims aren't they?

[zathras]

"the only work in the UK widely available for IT contractors will be rollouts and installs", according to a top recruitment consultant that is. He reckons all the new IT projects will be outsourced to India.

Then he's an idiot.

The failure rate of projects outsourced is High and some outsourcing from India is actually coming here!

Outsouring works in very narrow areas but those that involve the whole IT function have the highest failure rate.

Growth areas;

.Net
Biztalk
Sharepoint
Document management

looking at Windows Vista I think there will be a much tighter link between the OS and applications that run on it and therefore that will become a growth area. For example allowing the searching for invoices direct from windows explorer.

I'll probably try and get a copy of Windows Vista as soon as possible and start developing stuff for it. That way when it does become more mainstream I'll have done something with it.

[sappatz]

urdu

learn to speak urdu (pakistan and afghanistan). china and India are too expensive already

[DimPrawn]

去您油脂说谎的坏蛋

[The Lone Gunman]

Threaded, my pronunciation and spelling is not so good....but


Due lay lo mo chow Hai!!!

[threaded]

And learn to speak Cantonese

Mandarin, dear chap Mandarin.

Like what wo hùi hen hao.

At one of my clients I actually proof read a sale brochure and corrected the (very expensive) Danish to Mandarin translator.

Which earned me a few browny points.

Which was nice.