IT contracting - hows the market?
Discussion
944fan said:
Is it best to go with an umbrella company to begin with or go straight for the limited company?
Straight into the limited company IMO, assuming you're sure contracting is the way forward for you. My top tips:1. Maintain proper separation of YOU and YOUR COMPANY in your mind and actions; and
2. Find a recommended accountant who understands contracting and who you can meet in person.
ewenm said:
944fan said:
Is it best to go with an umbrella company to begin with or go straight for the limited company?
Straight into the limited company IMO, assuming you're sure contracting is the way forward for you. My top tips:1. Maintain proper separation of YOU and YOUR COMPANY in your mind and actions; and
2. Find a recommended accountant who understands contracting and who you can meet in person.
Everything has been carried out via email, with the occasional phone call, and it works very well. There's never been a need to meet so we never have.
However, I would agree that they should definitely have specific knowledge of IT Contracting, if not specialise in it.
If you're dipping your toes into contracting and aren't sure if it's for you, then an Umbrella Company is a good first step. But if you're in it for the long term, then a Limited Company is definitely the most tax-efficient way of working.
You'll also need to get extremely clued up on IR35.
Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 20th May 12:05
hence the lack of CV's
George111 said:
I've been recruiting recently for Citrix/VMware/SQL/Win/Cisco engineer with at least 5-8 years experience in all technologies and a bit of storage knowledge and finding it difficult to get good CVs submitted. What's the market like right now ? We've now decided to get a contractor rather than perm - is that set of skills a big ask these days ? What's the expected day rate for an experienced engineer with these skills in the South East, outside London ? Was thinking £350-£400 a day ?
Depending on what you are actually recruiting for I'd agree that the rate is on the low side. Each vendor you mention has a wide range of products, and "engineer" means different things to different people. It sounds like you want App Delivery, Virtualisation, Database, Windows Desktop/Server, Networks and Storage covering by one jack of all trades...What are you expecting them to do, with what products? Architect? Design? Build? Support? Whereabouts in the South East?
Who knows, I could be interested, but not at that rate!
I don't know the scale of the infrastructure, but that role would have been 5 specialists in most services companies I have worked for. in my experience the multiskilled people I met were generally working at a shallow knowledge in many fields (like me - 10-30,000 ft in the fluffy cloud level), and then we would have a groups of specialists in each area with the actual deep knowledge in each field.
The only exception to this has been NHS and Local Gov where they then have to call speicialists in when it all goes horribly wrong.
The problem you will have is the mutliskilled people tend to be able to bluff a deeper knowledge than they actually have, and will generally be good at learning on the fly, so you will have some weeding to do!
The only exception to this has been NHS and Local Gov where they then have to call speicialists in when it all goes horribly wrong.
The problem you will have is the mutliskilled people tend to be able to bluff a deeper knowledge than they actually have, and will generally be good at learning on the fly, so you will have some weeding to do!
pherlopolus said:
I don't know the scale of the infrastructure, but that role would have been 5 specialists in most services companies I have worked for. in my experience the multiskilled people I met were generally working at a shallow knowledge in many fields (like me - 10-30,000 ft in the fluffy cloud level), and then we would have a groups of specialists in each area with the actual deep knowledge in each field.
The only exception to this has been NHS and Local Gov where they then have to call speicialists in when it all goes horribly wrong.
The problem you will have is the mutliskilled people tend to be able to bluff a deeper knowledge than they actually have, and will generally be good at learning on the fly, so you will have some weeding to do!
I'd agree with that.The only exception to this has been NHS and Local Gov where they then have to call speicialists in when it all goes horribly wrong.
The problem you will have is the mutliskilled people tend to be able to bluff a deeper knowledge than they actually have, and will generally be good at learning on the fly, so you will have some weeding to do!
You can have an architect across the entire infrastructure, but they are going to need SME's to drive out the detail, and you are unlikely to get that level of skill across the disciplines listed. You might get a 3rd line support generalist who is happy to have a go at all of them, but they won't be expert in any. Or you might persuade an SME to do some stuff outside their comfort zone, but they would still want SME money... (well I would!!!)
Strange question here but I could use some honest advice rather than having smoke blown at me.
Due to a very unexpected redundancy (company owner died, widow closed the business and made all staff redundant) I find myself wondering what to do next career wise.
For the last 15 years I have been the sole IT person in 2 very different groups of companies, with the last 8 years spent in oil and gas in Africa and Dubai.
I'm now debating whether or not to go the contracting route rather than looking for another permie position.
Prepared to work anywhere in the world and enjoy all aspects of IT but don't have specific detailed qualifications in any one area.
Am I barking up the wrong tree with this idea? will my lack of in-depth knowledge of any one area count me out or are there contracts for generalists like me?
Due to a very unexpected redundancy (company owner died, widow closed the business and made all staff redundant) I find myself wondering what to do next career wise.
For the last 15 years I have been the sole IT person in 2 very different groups of companies, with the last 8 years spent in oil and gas in Africa and Dubai.
I'm now debating whether or not to go the contracting route rather than looking for another permie position.
Prepared to work anywhere in the world and enjoy all aspects of IT but don't have specific detailed qualifications in any one area.
Am I barking up the wrong tree with this idea? will my lack of in-depth knowledge of any one area count me out or are there contracts for generalists like me?
You will probably have to boil what you did down into a couple of different CV's showing that you specialised in certain aspects, as well as have a generalist CV.
As for the market, best bet is to have a look through Jobsite and Jobserve and see if there is anything on there you could vaguely do. If there is a market, there will be people asking for it....
As for the market, best bet is to have a look through Jobsite and Jobserve and see if there is anything on there you could vaguely do. If there is a market, there will be people asking for it....
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