Any IT contractors here?

thomasross20

As per title.. Interested to know!

frankus

yes - over a decade now.

thomasross20

I'm at a crossroads job-wise... I'll either stay where I am, switch to electronics in oil & gas or look at making an industry change and wanted to hear from people in the industry. Would you be alright if I sent a pm? 

markslade07

I have been up until recently (now a permie), and did a career change to get into IT a number of years ago. Shout if you want to ask anything

meltedbuzzbox

Me too. Been at it for 7 years or so now. Mainly doing SCCM

guitargeek62

Me as of recently, will be till at least next summer though unless a decent permy role opens up before then.

Bod

I'm in IT.  16 years permanent in the same job - 4 different employers but the same desk.  Despite being pretty good at it, I'm desperate to get out and would rather stack shelves than work for the current bunch of muppets that I've TUPE'd into.  Sadly, personal circumstances dictate that I have to stick it out until they make that choice for me...

thomasross20

Wow, quite a lot of you! OK, might send the odd pm!

Emp_Fab

Never been a contractor but I've been doing it for (sighs)...25 years now.

Jesus...  25 years.....

Anyway, my take on it is that it's one of those weird fields where you don't really get far unless you specialise, and there are literally hundreds of specialities within "I.T.".  The danger is that unlike a lot of trades, IT development moves at a fair lick and there is a good chance that the area you chose to specialise in suddenly becomes obsolete - along with your chances of re-employment.  So, you have to keep current - which means constantly studying new stuff to stay on the curve - which is hard if you're also working full time.  It's even more difficult if you're employed to work mostly with product/technology 'A' which is rapidly becoming obsolete and you need to learn about the latest all-singing technology 'B'.  You can read the books, watch CBT videos (all in your own time) but you need to actually use it on a daily basis for it to sink in - which - you can't because your employer is hanging onto technology 'A'.

I can't complain too much - I've had a fairly decent career without a Uni degree, but I do sometimes wish I'd picked a career that I could have confidently mastered over time - like cabinet making or luthiery.  Nobody ever becomes a true master of their trade in IT.

thomasross20

Sounds like electronics design to a large extent! And I agree with your sentiment at the end there... 

mellowsun

The skills in demand at the moment are machine learning and the big data stack (Hadoop, Hive, Scala/Scalding etc etc). I've been fortunate enough to get into this, I'm finding it pretty demanding but rewarding.

I'd recommend skilling up on the tools and techniques for automated large scale analysis of data and content, there's a lot of demand at the moment but not nearly enough people with the right skills.

Myranda

Emp_Fab said:

Never been a contractor but I've been doing it for (sighs)...25 years now.

Jesus...  25 years.....

Anyway, my take on it is that it's one of those weird fields where you don't really get far unless you specialise, and there are literally hundreds of specialities within "I.T.".  The danger is that unlike a lot of trades, IT development moves at a fair lick and there is a good chance that the area you chose to specialise in suddenly becomes obsolete - along with your chances of re-employment.  So, you have to keep current - which means constantly studying new stuff to stay on the curve - which is hard if you're also working full time.  It's even more difficult if you're employed to work mostly with product/technology 'A' which is rapidly becoming obsolete and you need to learn about the latest all-singing technology 'B'.  You can read the books, watch CBT videos (all in your own time) but you need to actually use it on a daily basis for it to sink in - which - you can't because your employer is hanging onto technology 'A'.

I can't complain too much - I've had a fairly decent career without a Uni degree, but I do sometimes wish I'd picked a career that I could have confidently mastered over time - like cabinet making or luthiery.  Nobody ever becomes a true master of their trade in IT.

Thankfully with the advent of reliable virtualisation there's a lot you can play with without ever physically touching.

dano

Emp_Fab;337795" said:

You can read the books, watch CBT videos .

You like watching Cock and Ball Torture films then Emp ?! Good for you, pretty much all IT people ive worked with have some form.of perversion.

GazLion

Yup been contracting to a big production company managing the 2nd line service for 7 years now. Has ups and downs.

Phil_aka_Pip

Bod said:

I'm in IT.  16 years permanent in the same job - 4 different employers but the same desk.  Despite being pretty good at it, I'm desperate to get out and would rather stack shelves than work for the current bunch of muppets that I've TUPE'd into.  Sadly, personal circumstances dictate that I have to stick it out until they make that choice for me...

stacking shelves ? :-O I bet you don't mean that! It's one thing to get relatively well paid for working for a bunch of muppets, and another thing entirely to be paid half a much to be subservient to an even worse bunch of muppets who don't even have the intelligence to realise that Kermit, Animal et al had twice the intelligence even when a puppeteer's hand wasn't shoved up their arse. I've made software for good people, and I've made it for muppets. I've also been employed at low grade work, and the employers/managers in those situations have always been an order of magnitude worse. I reckon you're just seeing the grass being greener on the other side ...

Axe_meister

I'd get in at the business end of IT rather than the techi end. Business processes will always exist and you will be forced into new technologies

thomasross20

dano said:

Emp_Fab;337795" said:

You can read the books, watch CBT videos .

You like watching Cock and Ball Torture films then Emp ?! Good for you, pretty much all IT people ive worked with have some form.of perversion.

Lol!!!!

CHRISB50

Not contracting but in a perm role. I'm an SAP consultant / business analyst for a large foreign blue chip. It pays ok hence I'm still doing it but my god it's dull.

digitalscream

Been in IT for about 17 years now...recently ditched the self-employed schtick (which I was forced into by my previous employer) for a permanent job on twice the money. Currently trying to work out the tax implications...

Bod

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Bod said:

I'm in IT.  16 years permanent in the same job - 4 different employers but the same desk.  Despite being pretty good at it, I'm desperate to get out and would rather stack shelves than work for the current bunch of muppets that I've TUPE'd into.  Sadly, personal circumstances dictate that I have to stick it out until they make that choice for me...

I reckon you're just seeing the grass being greener on the other side ...

You're right and I'm just on a downer right now.  We were an internal IT department until we were outsourced about 7 years ago, and since then it's gone rapidly downhill in terms of our required skills and duties.  It's completely in my control to do something about it, but I'm stuck in a rut due to the good salary - a fortunate, yet unfortunate situation.  We TUPE'd from one "service solutions provider" to another earlier in the year and I foolish thought the new lot would be better, but if anything they're worse.  The emphasis moves from providing a good service to one of profit and cutting corners.

frankus

The most frustrating thing about contracting is that good money can keep you doing crap work.

Also contractors get the worst work, the better work gets given to permies.

Contractors don't often get a career path so stuck in a rut is a common phrase.

Also permies seem to think that their healthcare, holidays, training budget, pension etc aren't part of their salary - and think contractors are soooo rich.