VB Contracting

les_steaks

Hi all,

Any of you guys working as contractors (VB, SQL, Oracle, SQL Server etc.)?

Any thoughts on the contracting market in this area at the moment?

Thanks a mil,

Les

cousin_borat

It's tough initially since theres usually a big learning curve coming when you start off and you're expected to be the "Expert". However it's very rewarding when you have successful implementations under your belt. I work mainly in Oracle E-Business suite in combination with Middleware products like BEA and some Java as well.

Generally the pay is much higher than salaried, that being said; You do need to take into account considerations such as whether you want to set up your own ltd company or go as a sole trader, finding an accountant, paying your own Health Insurance. Willingness to travel for work since its sometimes hard to dictate exactly where you want to go.

irishjobs.ie have a salary survey including contract rates. Add around 30-35% to the rates they have quoted and you have a realistic rate to ask for. (I guess since they're a recruitment company its not necessarily in their customers interests to post as low of rates as possible).

I'd suggest take a look at askaboutmoney.com as there are some more IT contractors there whereas this forum is mainly for nuts and bolts type questions and you wont get many responses.

Best of luck

NutJob

Expect the first year to hurt cash wise.

i know its hurtin me But after a year it improves

DublinWriter

les_steaks wrote:

Any thoughts on the contracting market in this area at the moment?

Generally with contracting, it's best to do it after at least 5 years working full time.

I find the contract market in Ireland is quite stale compared to the UK and mainland Europe.

Don't underestimate the amount of admin work you'll have to do as a contractor. Agencies will only deal with you if you set yourself up as a Limited Comany, which means registering for VAT and as an employer, doing bi-monthly VAT returns, monthly PAYE/PRSI returns and having a accountant stamp your books at year end, plus your Directors Form 12 and P35.

Generally the rates for stuff like VB and Java tend to be on the lower scale of contracting as they are popular areas.

My advice to people wanting to contract is try and stick to a particular niche area that will be around for the foreseeable - for example SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle Financials, Data Warehousing etc etc.

cousin_borat

DublinWriter wrote:

I find the contract market in Ireland is quite stale compared to the UK and mainland Europe.
My advice to people wanting to contract is try and stick to a particular niche area that will be around for the foreseeable - for example SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle Financials, Data Warehousing etc etc.

I havent looked for contract work in Ireland yet but from notices I received it looks stale compared to UK and Europe.

Would also agree with DublinWriter in that you're better identifying a niche area probably related to ERP systems. VB on it's own it will be quite difficult to sustain being a contractor. If you want to stay in the Microsoft technical area then there is quite alot of work in Europe with Biztalk and the .NET technologies.

DublinWriter

cousin_borat wrote:

Would also agree with DublinWriter in that you're better identifying a niche area probably related to ERP systems. VB on it's own it will be quite difficult to sustain being a contractor. If you want to stay in the Microsoft technical area then there is quite alot of work in Europe with Biztalk and the .NET technologies.

.NET technolgies is still quite a wide area, you are basically talking about VB.NET or C#, and I think the whole area will be over-populated in a year or two.

Biztalk on the other hand is very niche. I know of serval companies who have spent 6 and 7 figure sums buying into it on the advice of Big-6 consultancies (with their own agenda), only to find it's a complete pup in terms of ETL technologies. Microsoft don't have a fantastic history penetrating niche markets (e.g. their OLAP and CRM products) and I wouldn't consider them a safe bet. You're best off finding out who the likes of Gartner have been shilling consistantly for the last three years and aiming there.

Another point I would like to make is the whole fetish about vendor certification. Unlike regular degrees/diploma/certs, vendor qualifications are earned based on the right of the vendor to nullify your entire qualification if you don't keep up with any additional modules.

While you can argue the merits of this, you can also spend the rest of your life maintaining your vendor certification and many people get into the whole vendor certification stream without realising this.

I've found the following site to be a goldmine in terms of spotting IT employment trends, both permanent and contract:

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/