Reply to: UK contracting as a career

[milanbenes]

how many times has this discussion gone around


forget about it


get the skillz and do the work


adapt and survive and evolve


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Milan.

[PAH]

It's especially annoying when I'm struggling to find work because clients don't want to pay for supposedly 'expensive' contractors in these austere times.

I had an instance last week where I was put forward for a role at 25% less than 3 other agencies were advertising, being local I thought this would put me in a good position. I didn't get an interview despite a near perfect CV match, I suspect the agent wanted full whack for himself which in turn scuppered any commercial advantage I was offering.

I wonder what the flack might be from approaching the client direct if not offered an interview.

[Mich the Tester]

Yeah when you look at it like that it sucks. But that's looking at it from a permie perspective where you expect to 'progress up the career ladder' and get paid better on each rung.


The way I look at it is that contracting is a way of being free. You don't have to think about brownosing bosses and competing with the plebs who fight for promotion. You don't have to worry about where you'll be in 5 years time at a company. Careers are a way of enslaving the workers into thinking they have a chance of reaching the top when only a few can.

With contracting you get a rate that is still (I hope) better than what you can get doing the same role as a permie (where's their wage inflation gone!?). You can choose to save some of that extra cash if you want to have the flexibility to take time out between contracts, or maybe are forced into it due to lack of opportunities.

I'm not sure there are many industries where people's earnings have improved dramatically over the last 10 years, it's all relative. We're in a trough now and it's not just our noses. The goal is to try to position yourself so you are in the right place skills wise to capitalise when the next upturn comes, then you'll see the rates increase again.

WHS

In the good years you can make a tulipload of money, which is nice, but in the bad years there are other benefits that should make up; the lack of a boss, the lack of brownnosing, no HR assessments, no ‘optional but it will be noticed if you’re not there’ office parties or evening drinks listening to boring speeches by boring CEOs. Variety in your work, earning well for plying your trade and doing what you do well instead of arselicking your way to the boardroom. In short, freedom from the corporate cackness that infests every permie’s life.

I’m a bit richer than I was as a permie (I was a very well paid permie until I quit permiedom 5 years ago), and a hell of a lot happier.

[gingerjedi]

It's especially annoying when I'm struggling to find work because clients don't want to pay for supposedly 'expensive' contractors in these austere times.

I had an instance last week where I was put forward for a role at 25% less than 3 other agencies were advertising, being local I thought this would put me in a good position. I didn't get an interview despite a near perfect CV match, I suspect the agent wanted full whack for himself which in turn scuppered any commercial advantage I was offering.

[PAH]

I asked the question a few weeks back, no prize for guessing who was against the idea.

For me this is the most interesting post on that thread:

There are now some agencies in Holland like TFCNL, Headfirst, Fastflex and ikwileenopdracht.nl who are making their margins very clear and open and see this as a competitive strategy; clients and contractors get transparency and it seems those agents are doing very well out of this strategy. However, these agents are quite lean organisations who aren't funding massive HQ offices or top heavy mangement layers. It remains to be seen whether the UK based agents follow their lead. Personally I'm not that bothered by the margin as long as I'm being paid what I feel is a a tulipload of money, but I've found that the agencies who are transparent about their margins are also more trustworthy in other aspects, like timely payment.

Much of the argument against transparency seems to be concerned with contractors not finding out what rate other contractorsare on as it opens a can of worms.

That's a totally different issue to the one where client -> agent -> contractor know what margin the agent is operating on (or trying to operate on). That's the transparency we need.

[Tarquin Farquhar]

With the increasing world population, oil demand is outstripping supply but programmers are now growing on trees.

Not to mention the stupid open source programmers giving the stuff away for free.

This situation is only set to get worse.

I agree. The days when "pure programming", or coding, no matter how well, could make a good living are long gone. I started off coding, and for many years as my actual work changed, I kept calling myself a "programmer". It was a title I used with pride, a programmer is someone who comes between the human and the machine, and know how to lake the machine do what the human wants. I was more proud of calling myself a programmer than I was of being called some official title like senior systems analyst.

But that doesn't make sense any more. I still make the machine do what the human wants, or try to, but I do it by configuring, not by coding. The human side is now more important than the machine side, and that is probably how it should be. For someone like me, it's less fun, and it does mean that coding is no longer a career. It's no longer interesting anyway.

In his day, Knuth could call his book "The Art of Computer Programming". That wasn't pretentious then IMHO, but it would be now. Like the art of plumbing. BTW Knuth wrote his book by hand. That's how long ago programming was an art.

[gingerjedi]

Exactly. There's only one reason scumbag agents won't disclose their margins (and if they do who's to say they're being truthful) and also put it in their T&Cs that you won't discuss your rate with anyone else.

About time someone came up with a way of clearing the scum from the marketplace*, but while the clients are scared to take contractors on direct for fear of employment rights (as being seen with the Temp worker scenario) the agents can continue to run amock.

* All it would take is one rule of regulation: All contracts must be disclosed to all interested parties to ensure complete transparency.

Somehow I don't think this will happen anytime soon, too many EDS/Accenture type pigs with noses in the trough, controlling it from the top.

http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...ghlight=agents

I asked the question a few weeks back, no prize for guessing who was against the idea.

[Iron Condor]

When i started uni in 1990 we were told on the first day, that after oil software was the scarcest resource for industries around the world.

This may have been true in the 70s and 80s, and even carried over until the end of the 90s but in the 00s the world was awash with cheap software developers.

The Mac in the early 80s. It failed to beat the PC because no one was writing any software for it. How many apps have been written for the iphone in the last two years?

With the increasing world population, oil demand is outstripping supply but programmers are now growing on trees.

Not to mention the stupid open source programmers giving the stuff away for free.

This situation is only set to get worse.

[cojak]

Hmm. Hmmmm. Every time Milan talks about .NET, I get the strangest feeling that there is something going on under the surface, almost as if he's not really talking about .NET ............

But there is good sense in Milan's post (happens): becoming strongly technical in a vertical area of an integrated platform is a good way to stay ahead of the competition, who will mostly have horizontal skills, or at least be pigeon-holed that way.

I am not sure how it apples to .NET though ......

You're right, he isn't.

The advice is still valid however...

[DieScum]

About time someone came up with a way of clearing the scum from the marketplace

Dexter?

[milanbenes]

Hmm. Hmmmm. Every time Milan talks about .NET, I get the strangest feeling that there is something going on under the surface, almost as if he's not really talking about .NET ............

Tarkers,

what exactly are you suggesting ?

All aboard the (TOOT)(TOOT) .Net gravy train, plenty of room for all

Milan.

[PAH]

Rate cuts = Pay increases for canny Agents

Exactly. There's only one reason scumbag agents won't disclose their margins (and if they do who's to say they're being truthful) and also put it in their T&Cs that you won't discuss your rate with anyone else.

About time someone came up with a way of clearing the scum from the marketplace*, but while the clients are scared to take contractors on direct for fear of employment rights (as being seen with the Temp worker scenario) the agents can continue to run amock.

* All it would take is one rule of regulation: All contracts must be disclosed to all interested parties to ensure complete transparency.

Somehow I don't think this will happen anytime soon, too many EDS/Accenture type pigs with noses in the trough, controlling it from the top.

[DimPrawn]

In 2000/2001 I was on £65 per hour.

Now I'm on £40 per hour.

Thank god inflation has been negative all these years.

[Tarquin Farquhar]

Milan has an excellent alternative point of view regarding .NET

Well worth a read...

Hmm. Hmmmm. Every time Milan talks about .NET, I get the strangest feeling that there is something going on under the surface, almost as if he's not really talking about .NET ............

But there is good sense in Milan's post (happens): becoming strongly technical in a vertical area of an integrated platform is a good way to stay ahead of the competition, who will mostly have horizontal skills, or at least be pigeon-holed that way.

I am not sure how it apples to .NET though ......

[cojak]

I've been a UK contractor for 13 years now. My rate got slashed last year and I'm now making about the same in nominal terms as I did back in 2001 (back then it was a 7 hour day, now it's 8, but let's ignore that). In real terms that's a big wage cut, but I know that I'm a much better (and therefore more productive) developer than I was all those years ago.

I love programming and I can't imagine doing anything else (_definitely_ not management), but if I keep going in this long term direction I'll fade away to nothing. I've been trying to figure out where I've gone wrong. Here are some ideas:

1. Maybe comparing with 2000 isn't fair because that was the height of the dotcom boom, and the market we have now is the "real" IT market.
2. Maybe outsourcing is pushing rates down, and maybe this will continue long term.
3. Maybe I backed the wrong horse (.NET).
4. Maybe by this stage in my career I should have graduated to being an architect (but who wants to draw UML diagrams all day?)
5. Maybe, unless you're in finance, the opportunities for advancement as a contract developer are just plain limited.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance.

Milan has an excellent alternative point of view regarding .NET

Well worth a read...