Any IT contractors (Networks) working in London?

bullyy2k90 · 13 May 2015 at 15:59

Hi folks. I'm in a predicament.

I lead a pretty comfortable life in the North East. Decent paid job for what I do. My commute is only 30 mins each way and I'm close to my friends and family and I have loads of hobbies. Own my own house and car.

What's wrong with that I hear you say?

Well, money! I want more, basically

There could be a chance that work are again offering a very attractive voluntary severance package later in the year.

If they do. Do I jack my comfortable life in and move to hustle and bustle of London and other parts of the UK - for contract work. After a quick look. The majority of contracts are between £250 - 300 p/d.

I'm not CCNA trained yet, but taking the exam later in the year. I have 2 years worth of experience with routing/switching, firewalls, IDS, Wireless, Nexus etc etc with a BSc and MSc in IT and Networking respectively.

Any thoughts on the matter? Anyone doing well down there? Got any contacts?

Cheers

dowie · 13 May 2015 at 16:33

not my particular field but why not test the waters.... (might be slightly unethical to lead on recruiters but in general that whole business is rather low on ethics) - apply for some roles now... see what sort of response you get - you don't have to take any role right away(say you have a 3 month notice period etc...)... or at all - but it would give you and idea of whether this is a feasible plan.

If you want money then work in financial technology - get a role in a bank or financial software vendor(as a technical analyst/technical consultant) and perhaps get familiar with a particular application from a technical perspective... then your contracting rates can be more like 600 a day.

tom_e · 13 May 2015 at 16:36

£250 - 300 p/d seems very very low for contracting especially anywhere near London.

Buffman · 13 May 2015 at 16:46

If it's three times your current salary, maybe (ideally 4+ in my mind to make up the hastle). Otherwise no.

It all depends on how much you want money, housing will at least triple in London (+ commute).

That day rate also seems quite low if it's contracting and not a reliable source of income.

bullyy2k90 · 13 May 2015 at 16:55

Cheers for replies so far. Yeah £250-300 is the bottom end jobs. With only having 2 years experience and no CCNA, that's realistically what I'd be looking at. Its not until you hold a CCNP then the rate goes up to £600 p/d.

smokedog · 13 May 2015 at 17:01

£250 per day is not worth it if you need to relocate to London.

mikelkite · 13 May 2015 at 17:01

I work for an IT consultancy firm in London (Mayfair) and we deal with hedgefunds and asset management companies.

Our website is www.edgetg.co.uk we are a global company.

We are possibly looking to hire in this department soon as a salary position, but it is not my area, I would look to email [email protected]

peterwalkley · 13 May 2015 at 18:12

You need to cost in:

- re-locate vs the weekly commute from home. If you're doing the latter, then travel costs and hotel / b&b / flat share.
- headline rate vs what you get in your pocket after tax and NI are taken out.
- gap between contracts means no money coming in

Everything is more expensive in London and kiss goodbye to a social life until you find your feet.

The rewards are there, but there is some serious graft involved. I did it all 15 years ago and then got very lucky to get a permanent job where I could work from home most of the time. Really wouldn't like to have to start it all over again now I have wife and children.

bullyy2k90 · 14 May 2015 at 10:53

@ mikelkite Thanks very much for link and email addess. I'll look into that.

@peterwalkley Great advice, thank you. Are you in Networks yourself?

peterwalkley · 14 May 2015 at 11:38

bullyy2k90 said:
@peterwalkley Great advice, thank you. Are you in Networks yourself?

Not the level in the stack you are talking about - our customers have people who do that as its core to their business, they would be mad to outsource it.

I work in 'provisioning' - which is the bridge between things like billing and CRM systems and the activation of services provided on the network e.g. email, FTP, cable modems, set-top boxes, many flavours of telephony, voicemail - basically any service that can be provided via an ISP's network.

The bit above me is getting money off the ISP subscriber, the bit below me is what the subscriber gets for their money - my job is to make sure they get what they paid for - no more, no less.