IT Contract Workers

DAIR

DAIR

DAIR

Soldato
Joined
23 Jul 2009
Posts
8,920
Location
Cayman Islands
Thinking about looking up some temp roles.

So have a for the contractors out here.

Whats the market like for contractors at the moment?
Whats the pay like?
On average how long does it take you to find work between jobs?

Any other thoughts/advice much appreciated.
 
I see your location is London, which is where I generally work so I'll give my thoughts on things there currently...

Whats the market like for contractors at the moment?

Not brilliant, I generally work in banking and there's not a lot going round in that industry at the moment.
I'm currently looking for a new role. I got offered one last week, which got withdrawn shortly after the offer as the budget was taken away. I know someone else who has had the same thing happen recently.
There are things out there, but not much looks that good from my perspective.

Whats the pay like?

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contract.aspx?page=1&sortby=0&orderby=0&q=&id=0&lid=1853

On average how long does it take you to find work between jobs?

Previously I've found stuff within a few weeks. Never been out of a contract for a reason that wasn't my choosing.
This time I've been looking for a couple of months, but I'm currently in a contract and being reasonably picky with regard to where I want to move. I could have found something by now if I'd widened my scope a little.
I do know a few people that have been out of contract for a good six months though.
 
Depends on what area you work in, how flexible you are etc.

I work in SharePoint but have also done Sys admin and process/DR contracts. Current is SharePoint, but I'm in Basel. Used to be in Cambridge but moved for the contract. So, the work is there if you're willing to move about or be flexible.

I've never been without a contract so far (touchwood) and work over here is pretty steady. My current contract should be for another 12-18months, with possibility of more.

A fair few things in Zurich I would be able to do if here went up the wall. I'm trying to get with a couple of other contractors I work with, for some on the side work as well. Moonlighting if you will! That can be based anywhere.

As for pay...I do pretty well, I'd say c.470GBP pd (in todays exchange). But depends how the exchange rate changes, but that doesn't matter to me as I don't pay/ use GBP.
 
Networks and Security here

Market - rubbish
Rates - the worst they have been for quite a few years

Not had any downtime here between contracts but for the moment if you find something then head down and work away and try to get an extension until this whole economic mess blows away
 
Haircut said:
I see your location is London, which is where I generally work so I'll give my thoughts on things there currently...

Whats the market like for contractors at the moment?

Not brilliant, I generally work in banking and there's not a lot going round in that industry at the moment.
I'm currently looking for a new role. I got offered one last week, which got withdrawn shortly after the offer as the budget was taken away. I know someone else who has had the same thing happen recently.
There are things out there, but not much looks that good from my perspective.

Whats the pay like?

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contract.aspx?page=1&sortby=0&orderby=0&q=&id=0&lid=1853

On average how long does it take you to find work between jobs?

Previously I've found stuff within a few weeks. Never been out of a contract for a reason that wasn't my choosing.
This time I've been looking for a couple of months, but I'm currently in a contract and being reasonably picky with regard to where I want to move. I could have found something by now if I'd widened my scope a little.
I do know a few people that have been out of contract for a good six months though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response.

Funny you should mention backing as I've recently spotted a contract role for an MI Analyst... Hence this thread.

Have just applied for it. Without thinking it through :( . Wouldnt want to take up such a role then be without anything a month or so after the contract is over.

By the way, how accurate would you say those rates are?
 
jimjamuk said:
Networks and Security here

Market - rubbish
Rates - the worst they have been for quite a few years

Not had any downtime here between contracts but for the moment if you find something then head down and work away and try to get an extension until this whole economic mess blows away
Click to expand...

Rubbish and Worse because of the areas you work in or just in general?
 
DAIR said:
Rubbish and Worse because of the areas you work in or just in general?
Click to expand...

Generally outside of the center of London things are quiet and there seems to be a glut of candidates for each role meaning people can undercut each other to get the gigs. Now the rates are beginning to reflect that as the norm. It comes to the point that rates you wouldn't have got out of bed but start to become potential gigs. Probably the worst its been since the .com crash 10 or so years ago.
 
DAIR said:
Have just applied for it. Without thinking it through :( . Wouldnt want to take up such a role then be without anything a month or so after the contract is over.

By the way, how accurate would you say those rates are?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately that is the risk of being a contractor which is why you stash money away and why the rates are what they are.
 
Bear said:
Unfortunately that is the risk of being a contractor which is why you stash money away and why the rates are what they are.
Click to expand...

Yes - if you take that contract then stash as much as you can away - contracting doesn't start to pay off until you have a nice cushion to get you through gaps in work. When you get to that stage then its good times and you can pick and choose your contracts.

For now its even harder to start contracting but not impossible - just dont see the extra cash as a payrise and spend it all like a colleague of mine, when the contract came to an end he had nothing left.
 
DAIR said:
Thinking about looking up some temp roles.

So have a for the contractors out here.

Whats the market like for contractors at the moment?
Whats the pay like?
On average how long does it take you to find work between jobs?

Any other thoughts/advice much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Market is very bad at the moment.

lots of jobs sloshing around but candidates out-number opportunities, not un-common to have 200 applications per job.

What has happened is quite simply the majority of permies who have been let go are trying to get contracts while living off their redundancy pay. Most of them will not be successful but it is creating problems due to number of them.

You will also find senior staff dropping down a level.

The Indians have also cornered about 25% of the total market.

If your workplace is stable, I would give it another 12 months, at least until new financial year (April 2013), there is a high probability the euro area issues will come to a head either this September or in January.

In terms of pay it will vary wildly, the average day rate is £450 per day, specialists and interim managers will get £1500.

It takes me around 2 months to find a contract, some guys will stay benched for 6 or more months at a time.

First contract is easy as you can keep applying whilst permie, its the second one that is the problem.
 
I'm not a contractor but a permie in IT Banking. But from my side of the fence I can see lots of budget cuts and headcount freezes. It doesn't appear to be a great market from where I'm standing.
 
DAIR said:
Thinking about looking up some temp roles.

So have a for the contractors out here.

Whats the market like for contractors at the moment?
Whats the pay like?
On average how long does it take you to find work between jobs?

Any other thoughts/advice much appreciated.
Click to expand...


I'm a freelance Web Developer in London.

Whats the market like for contractors at the moment? Its great and always has been. Get contacted about jobs daily.

Whats the pay like? Pay is alright. Currently on £500pd.

On average how long does it take you to find work between jobs? I haven't been out of work for a single day in the past 2 years, during which time I have had 4 different contracts.
 
Hades said:
I'm not a contractor but a permie in IT Banking. But from my side of the fence I can see lots of budget cuts and headcount freezes. It doesn't appear to be a great market from where I'm standing.
Click to expand...

This is actually prime contractor time - whenever I see a headcount freeze I also see a lot of contractors being hired. Whilst expensive they don't contribute to company headcount.

Perverse as it sounds they will cut permies only to find they are desperately lacking people and then hire contractors (often the permies they have just made redundant!).
 
My contract is up for renewal at the end of this month so I'm putting feelers out at the moment. Updated CV online last Sunday and I'm in for four roles (was six but I know that one has no budget and the other has gone to a perm).

I would suggest this was no better than OK.

Rates on all but one of the roles I've gone for are down on my current role by 10-15%.
 
Getting calls and putting CV's in for jobs has not been the problem this year, its getting face to face interviews with hiring managers that is the problem.

I reckon this year, I applied for about 50 roles, CV got put into client for about half that. Out of those, I got 4 interviews with one offer.

Out of the 50 roles, I reckon at least 10 did not exist in the first place.
 
If you're in virtualisation then things are pretty good judging by the job boards. I've just got a new permie role paying nearly twice what I was earning 3 years ago; the company I'm going to couldn't find permie's with the right skills so was forced to take on contractors on impressive day rates.

Depends on your skillset tbh.
 
Besty said:
Getting calls and putting CV's in for jobs has not been the problem this year, its getting face to face interviews with hiring managers that is the problem.

I reckon this year, I applied for about 50 roles, CV got put into client for about half that. Out of those, I got 4 interviews with one offer.

Out of the 50 roles, I reckon at least 10 did not exist in the first place.
Click to expand...

Have you actually been applying for jobs listed?

I don't think any roles you see on the boards actually exist. I just update my CV and wait for calls to come in.
 
Vanilla said:
This is actually prime contractor time - whenever I see a headcount freeze I also see a lot of contractors being hired. Whilst expensive they don't contribute to company headcount.

Perverse as it sounds they will cut permies only to find they are desperately lacking people and then hire contractors (often the permies they have just made redundant!).
Click to expand...

True. But this time around it's the contractor headcount that is being frozen too. I employ a mixed team of contractors and permies and all are frozen. In fact I'd say the contractors are certainly more at risk than the permies right now because the costs of releasing them are lower (just a 28 day break clause and no redundancy to pay). Some companies are also enforcing a contactor furlow (non paid holiday) for several weeks before the end of the year, and mid contract rate cuts are also quite common in some companies right now.
 
I'd place my bets on networking/security not being too hot at the moment - large amounts of competition due to swathes of redundancies over the past few years.

Saying that, I've seen contractors I know in my field get decent paying work quite easily, and they are not the most experienced I've met.
 
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