Ask an Engineer anything

Ask an Engineer anything

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bucksmanuk

2,311 posts

171 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
I don’t know if IR35 has killed off contracting or not…yet….

I get about 3 emails a day with roles of one description or another. Now the agencies are making a big thing of “its outside IR35!...” . If the work is inside, sometimes it’s not even mentioned. I know some companies have made a substantial effort to get their contracts outside IR35.

Some of the rates for specialist defence work are now at £100+/hr. An ex work colleague of mine went onto an MOD site as contract engineering manager level last year at £100/hr. He would have been quite happy to remain on £70/hr but outside IR35. But the MOD being the MOD, said this wasn’t possible so he said “in that case – it has be £100/hr” - Needless to say he is paying generously into his pension…. This rate caused ripples in the contracting world…

Another ex-work colleague has gone back to a prior place and asked for an IR35 friendly contract, which their legal and HR people baulked at (read refused) until the MD told them their actions would be a career limiting move if they didn’t start creating IR35 friendly contracts for the contractors. I don’t know how true this is.

Another mate works at a little software company, and they have had work follow the contractors from a large organisation which said “staff or inside IR35” to theirs which is just 9 of them, and they can be outside IR35…

It’s all early days right now, and I think that it will be a constant battle between switched-on companies and contractors on one side wanting it to go away, outside IR35, and HMRC gradually tightening the net to get them all inside. Then HMRC will go after the genuinely self-employed.

Good to hear about the bearing monitoring technology above. This was PhD research stuff when I was at Cranfield, but that was 28 years ago. One of my tutors was heavily involved in the signal processing analysis. The Civil Aviation Authority was contributing handsomely for the research, as helicopter gearbox failures were an issue.

T6 vanman

3,067 posts

100 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
Bobberoo99 said:
T6 vanman said:
Bobberoo99 said:
To answer your initial question, earlies adds 10% and lates 20 25%, overtime is paid at time and a half. only for the first 2 hours
weeping
hehe One of our T/Ls was caning the O/T and on shift, so £15.13 p/h + T/L rate of 17% + late shift allowance of 20% and then around 20hrs a week O/T, in the 19/20 tax year he hit £53k.
Mainly failure analysis ... Just over £40k ~ closer to £50k with production bonus .. Days woohoo


Of course we'll not discuss the redundancy coming in two~three months


Bobberoo99

38,691 posts

99 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
T6 vanman said:
Bobberoo99 said:
T6 vanman said:
Bobberoo99 said:
To answer your initial question, earlies adds 10% and lates 20 25%, overtime is paid at time and a half. only for the first 2 hours
weeping
hehe One of our T/Ls was caning the O/T and on shift, so £15.13 p/h + T/L rate of 17% + late shift allowance of 20% and then around 20hrs a week O/T, in the 19/20 tax year he hit £53k.
Mainly failure analysis ... Just over £40k ~ closer to £50k with production bonus .. Days woohoo


Of course we'll not discuss the redundancy coming in two~three months
Sorry to hear that mate, what area do you do failure analysis in?

MK1RS Bruce

667 posts

139 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
lemansky said:
Forgive me for the "I'm an engineer..." thing the other week, but does anyone have suggestions about recruitment in Scotland?

Graduated 2020, MEng, currently on a short-term contract with a big rail company in the North West.
Looking to return to Glasgow, most enthusiastic about renewable energies.

He - our youngest - will be very peeved if he finds out I've posted this but he's banging his head off a wall with recruiting firms, I feel.

Not expecting job offers - ha! - but any pointers in the right direction would be very welcome.
Apply to Oil and gas firms plus subsea construction firms in aberdeen as they are all beginning to look at transitioning to renewables plus they pay well. Technipfmc / Subsea7 / Boskalis. Subsea 7 I believe have an office in Glasgow too.



T6 vanman

3,067 posts

100 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
Bobberoo99 said:
Sorry to hear that mate, what area do you do failure analysis in?
Automotive .... but to be honest .. I'll be glad to change to driving a van delivering the wrong shopping to stay at home housewives rofl


Mrs T6 (whilst not S@H) believes I already exhibit the skillset for this new career path


Bobberoo99

38,691 posts

99 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
T6 vanman said:
Bobberoo99 said:
Sorry to hear that mate, what area do you do failure analysis in?
Automotive .... but to be honest .. I'll be glad to change to driving a van delivering the wrong shopping to stay at home housewives rofl


Mrs T6 (whilst not S@H) believes I already exhibit the skillset for this new career path
roflroflrofl Love your sense of humour!!!

Pit Pony

8,621 posts

122 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
bucksmanuk said:
I don’t know if IR35 has killed off contracting or not…yet….

I get about 3 emails a day with roles of one description or another. Now the agencies are making a big thing of “its outside IR35!...” . If the work is inside, sometimes it’s not even mentioned. I know some companies have made a substantial effort to get their contracts outside IR35.
As I'm.not actually looking for a contract at the moment I
I make a point of emailing a reply which just says

"Rate? Location? Inside or outside?"

So far 50% get no reply and 50% get the response, "If you are interested send your CV"

To which I've been responding. How would I know if I'm interested, with having the answer to my 3 questions?

To which 80% get no reply and 20% get <£32 per hour, location too far to travel daily, and inside IR35.

To which I have responded with "Good luck, but it's too little, too far away, with a contract that suggests your client should just employ a permie"

Obviously they never take you off their mailing list.

thewarlock

3,235 posts

46 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
I left an engineering contract job in September, moved to a permanent position with another, similar, company.

I get phone calls at least weekly asking if I'm interested in a particular position.

I keep having to tell them that's the job I left 6 months ago and I don't want it back.

markcoznottz

7,155 posts

225 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
jet_noise said:
markcoznottz said:
Sorry to hijack the thread but are there bearing quality issues nowadays. Had to reject some skf bearings recently.
You tease. How to to wind up an engineer!

Why did you reject them, why did it happen and what's being done to fix?
8D report opened in 24hrs please smile
Ok, normal clearance open 6305 skf made in Italy. Noisy isn’t the word, you could use as a pair of maracas. They were more rumbly than the 15 yr old bearings I removed. They are sending koyo replacements.

jet_noise

5,653 posts

183 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
markcoznottz said:
jet_noise said:
markcoznottz said:
Sorry to hijack the thread but are there bearing quality issues nowadays. Had to reject some skf bearings recently.
You tease. How to to wind up an engineer!

Why did you reject them, why did it happen and what's being done to fix?
8D report opened in 24hrs please smile
Ok, normal clearance open 6305 skf made in Italy. Noisy isn’t the word, you could use as a pair of maracas. They were more rumbly than the 15 yr old bearings I removed. They are sending koyo replacements.
Better. No need for the valium after all smile

GroundEffect

13,840 posts

157 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
For pay questions, I am:

- 33yo (10 years experience)
- Chartered with IMechE
- Automotive Senior Engineer
- £55-60k range
- Based just outside London (which obviously will have a small boost in pay)


Cyder

7,058 posts

221 months

Wednesday 14th April 2021
quotequote all
GroundEffect said:
For pay questions, I am:

- 33yo (10 years experience)
- Chartered with IMechE
- Automotive Senior Engineer
- £55-60k range
- Based just outside London (which obviously will have a small boost in pay)
Very similar to me, also a senior automotive engineer, one year older, one year more experience and £60-65k ish Midlands.

markcoznottz

7,155 posts

225 months

Thursday 15th April 2021
quotequote all
vonuber said:
OpulentBob said:
I'm a senior engineer, chartered civils, and £80k is a dream unless you contract. Which was easy enough a few years ago but IR35 has kind of killed off since.
Hmm, depends how much management rubbish you take on - which is a sad indictment of this country unfortunately.
Technical ability is not valued; it's all about sending emails about not hitting utilisation targets or coming up with another daft rebrand strategy.
Sounds like the civil service. I was reading Cummings blog, all they are concerned with is who was cc’d on email.

mikewilliams79

1,761 posts

42 months

Thursday 15th April 2021
quotequote all
markcoznottz said:
Sounds like the civil service. I was reading Cummings blog, all they are concerned with is who was cc’d on email.
got a link to article please?

markcoznottz

7,155 posts

225 months

Thursday 15th April 2021
quotequote all
mikewilliams79 said:
markcoznottz said:
Sounds like the civil service. I was reading Cummings blog, all they are concerned with is who was cc’d on email.
got a link to article please?
I think this covers most of it

https://youtu.be/GNaWPV5l4j4

mikewilliams79

1,761 posts

42 months

Thursday 15th April 2021
quotequote all
markcoznottz said:
I think this covers most of it

https://youtu.be/GNaWPV5l4j4
Thank you - watched 10mins or so but so many things sound like organizations I have worked in

Fusion777

Original Poster:

2,232 posts

49 months

Thursday 15th April 2021
quotequote all
Getting a bit off topic now with some of the posts chaps.