Where are all the I.T. support/admin contracts?

eth0_

I cannot believe the drought in I.T. support contract roles in Dublin. I realise there's a recession on but I would have thought this would sustain contracting roles as companies don't want to commit to hiring permanent staff and pay for all the benefits associated with a perm role...

Can anyone recommend an agency for contract work?

Welease

Sadly with contracting, my experience is they get hit harder when times get tough.. It's the easiest and most visible cost to cut when budgets get constrained.

qwertz

OP, what are your main skills and languages spoken fluently?

MysticalRain

I'm also wondering where all the permanent IT support roles of have gone. I know it's the recession and all that, but they seem to have all but vanished in the current climate.

Duggy747

Even across the country the support roles have dried up. Many businesses have decided to get contracts with IT tech support companies rather than have an in-house techie.

The amount of job interviews I have gone to just to find out they're not going to hire anyone and instead use this method.

As for permanent, most IT jobs that ARE available are usually on the 6-month part time contract first with the possibility for full-time.

rolion

I'm looking for a position since end of september (when i've joined the 204pw Club)...but nothing ,nothing serious...

Few jobs advertised oline,sent CV and silence !
Also,recently,few support jobs but mixture of windows and linux !

Last friday ,on 4FM,someone said that jobs are being passed over by word-of-mouth,no more advsertising on the mass media !!

So...slight chances of going back to the bank card,looks that post office will be my "collection point" for a long time .

Duggy747

Heh, I've been looking for IT work since Jan of last year. A few IT vacancies had cropped up since then but many require some Server management, which I had only basic experience in back then.

My only hope is to carry on with my Comptia and Microsoft certs (Though I have a degee in Sys & Networking and a few years experience in IT support. I was given advice by recruitment agencies and job interviewers that I'd need these to have any hope nowadays. A couple of years down the drain, then.)

I was left bewildered when the last job I went for was past over to a girl I knew who had NO IT experience :eek: She ended up getting fired a few weeks later :pac:

IT jobs in the tech support side are rarely seen in the media nowadays, best thing to do is just walk in with you C.V everywhere and hope for the best.

Welease

MysticalRain wrote: »

I'm also wondering where all the permanent IT support roles of have gone. I know it's the recession and all that, but they seem to have all but vanished in the current climate.

I'd imagine most companies are staying flat (to attrition) on headcount, and with minimal opportunities available, most people who would move are staying put which slows down the market even further.

Lots of companies are not bothering to replace staff who leave atm.

kippy

The recession has definitely has had a major effect on the number of contract and permanent positions out there. I know if there are any contract/consulting roles out there the rates are far lower than they had been.

There are also a large number of well qualified people looking for these jobs, and also, with all the newer technologies and hardware out there, less people required to support it.

If I were out of work right now I would make sure I was doing some form of professional qualification, be it Comptia, Microsoft, Linux, Cisco etc and POSTING (not emailing) my CV to HR managers/Companies with a decent cover letter.

Its about all you can do.

If you are that bit more confident and experienced, there are a lot of private individuals out there who now have PC/laptops and they need a bit of support so adds in local shop windows might work for ya....that said they are two a penny here in Galway but if you need the experience it is better than nothing.

Welease

kippy wrote: »

The recession has definitely has had a major effect on the number of contract and permanent positions out there. I know if there are any contract/consulting roles out there the rates are far lower than they had been.

There are also a large number of well qualified people looking for these jobs, and also, with all the newer technologies and hardware out there, less people required to support it.

If I were out of work right now I would make sure I was doing some form of professional qualification, be it Comptia, Microsoft, Linux, Cisco etc and POSTING (not emailing) my CV to HR managers/Companies with a decent cover letter.

Its about all you can do.

If you are that bit more confident and experienced, there are a lot of private individuals out there who now have PC/laptops and they need a bit of support so adds in local shop windows might work for ya....that said they are two a penny here in Galway but if you need the experience it is better than nothing.

Good advice.. I would also be looking at specific technologies that are likely to be hot items over the next few months.. Vista installs for examples.. Those companies who are looking to restart hardware refresh cycles will likely move across to Vista etc, Office 2010 etc at the same time.
Support specialists with knowledge in those areas are likely to move to the top of the list.

kippy

Welease wrote: »

Good advice.. I would also be looking at specific technologies that are likely to be hot items over the next few months.. Vista installs for examples.. Those companies who are looking to restart hardware refresh cycles will likely move across to Vista etc, Office 2010 etc at the same time.
Support specialists with knowledge in those areas are likely to move to the top of the list.

Surely you are talking about Windows 7??

There may be a bit of contract work there but MOST companies I know of are not "switiching" over to Win 7 on their existing machines, just ensuring any new machines that come in come with W7. It saves a shed load on licensing costs and ensures a phased update of software.

I do agree in general though, look at what is coming in or getting bigger, Server 2008, W7, Office 2010, VMWare (Also Microsofts upcoming competitor to VMware which may be out already), Unified voice communications............

If you are in the consultancy side of things, change tack a bit and instead of push for support/dev work, push for work in the manner of making cost savings for the customer, ie Advise that you can look at their call costs and advise ways of imporving (VoIP, GSM gateways, Cheaper Video conferencing), Consolidate software licenses, cheaper/more efficient software........
Think outside the box, companies want to save money.

Welease

kippy wrote: »

Surely you are talking about Windows 7??

There may be a bit of contract work there but MOST companies I know of are not "switiching" over to Win 7 on their existing machines, just ensuring any new machines that come in come with W7. It saves a shed load on licensing costs and ensures a phased update of software.

I do agree in general though, look at what is coming in or getting bigger, Server 2008, W7, Office 2010, VMWare (Also Microsofts upcoming competitor to VMware which may be out already), Unified voice communications............

If you are in the consultancy side of things, change tack a bit and instead of push for support/dev work, push for work in the manner of making cost savings for the customer, ie Advise that you can look at their call costs and advise ways of imporving (VoIP, GSM gateways, Cheaper Video conferencing), Consolidate software licenses, cheaper/more efficient software........
Think outside the box, companies want to save money.

/slaps self... lol Yes Windows 7... definately not Vista...

Hence my comment on hardware refreshes .. new machines (if they are not doing a s/w upgrade (which we are)) will come with Win7.. only having XP/Vista on your CV won't look great with the amount of competition out there.

Duggy747

Ha ha, I know a few buisnesses that only upgraded loads of their machines to XP!!

I've been thinking about putting ads on shop windows and providing support for people but, alas, I have no car :pac: No money for one.

Johnny Bitte

Looking at the job sites the IT sector is by far in the best shape.

IT Jobs

kippy

The_Goose135 wrote: »

Looking at the job sites the IT sector is by far in the best shape.

IT Jobs

It is better than most in fairness, but relative to even 12 months ago its relatively quiet out there. 2 pages of jobs, a lot requiring languages and a few not even based in Ireland.

DublinWriter

The IT contracts market is dead in Ireland right now, at all levels.

Usually November/December are the busiest months as companies get budget allocation for the following year, but I've never ever seen it so quiet since the late 80's.

I even saw one large Irish company advertise for a contract Business Intelligence specialist to cover maternity leave and the pro-rata rate turned out to be little more than mimimum wage.

AARRRGH

Would you consider trying to get into software testing?

It's an area in fairly healthy shape at the moment.

rolion

Not sure if Q for me,but software design/testing and all related acts,it may needs years of experience and you'll take it from ground-up ! There you can't have family,kids,wife,cooking time,tv time,weekends away...all is only lines,debug,insert points,gui,and so on !There is a good market taken already by teens that have no commitments.(sorry,no offence)

personal,i'm looking in to a swift in to industrial automatisation/plc programming/electronics...and that after 11 years of microsoft,Cisco,VMware and networking ,servers,exchange,firewalls...money spent on exams,books,routers,servers,labs...though times ahead for it guys !

Mrs OBumble

Companies have cut projects, and massively slowed down the rate at which they change their systems.

Change creates problems, problems create incidents, incidents create work for support people.

No change means less problems etc - and it means that folks (like me!) who usually work on change-projects are on the market to do support.

More supply, reduced demand. Ahh, I love labour economics!

DublinWriter

rolion wrote: »

personal,i'm looking in to a swift in to industrial automatisation/plc programming/electronics...and that after 11 years of microsoft,Cisco,VMware and networking ,servers,exchange,firewalls...money spent on exams,books,routers,servers,labs...though times ahead for it guys !

You'd need a degree in Electronic Engineering for that.

As for vendor certification...don't get me started...

youcancallmeal

Its all about specialising.

There are too many people out there now with degrees/industry certs and 1-3 years experience with general phone/desktop support. Its fine when your starting out but there will always be a huge supply of people who are more than happy to do this work at very low wages in order to get experience.

Sleepy

It's the same boat on the ERP consultant / Systems Accountant front more or less. I've over 6 years experience on Agresso (an ERP system), SQL Server, Crystal, IIS, PCI-DSS etc. and there doesn't seem to be much work out there in Ireland.

I'm doing a contract in the UK where demand still seems to be healthy enough (particularly if you've got good Agresso experience - if you do and are from Ireland, say hi, we've worked together in some capacity:p). Unfortunately, contracting over here really doesn't suit my family life so I'm unsure as to whether I'd take an extension / another contract over here.

Raekwon

When I was looking for a job this time 2 years ago there seemed to be a good bit out there even though everyone was only starting to harp on about the recession & job cuts etc, but now 2 years on and it seems like the IT support market is totally dead. What's all this talk about possible economic recovery & job growth that is supposed to be on the horizon :rolleyes:

Anyway, I've been testing the water lately (desperate for a change in working environment) and have only seen about 3 jobs that match my skillset, experience, etc. I applied for them all with a nice cover letter & revamped CV yet everyone of them sent me back emails saying that they were not going to go any further with my application.......which really surprised me because I was being offered interviews before for better roles when I had less experience & qualifications

I cannot believe it has gone so bad, surely companies still need support staff.......it's not like we are sales people and the lack of consumer spending is obviously effecting us. Plus where are all of the support roles that were once filled by the thousands of economic migrants that have left our shores? Evaporated like my once sunny disposition? Bah! :mad:

Kiith

I'm currently working in a 24/7 shift support role, and have been looking for a different job for a while now. Obviously, i have a job so i'm a lot better off then some people, but from looking for support work in Dublin, it seems almost non-existant at the moment. Plenty of jobs out there for people with multiple languages, but your standard desktop support roles are nowhere to be found. And when one does become available, there are far more people applying for the position, with some hugely overqualified people.

I think its time to take my foot out of my ass and actually start getting myself more qualified.

youcancallmeal

Looks like there will be a lot more people out looking for IT work as well soon

Mrs OBumble

Raekwon wrote: »

What's all this talk about possible economic recovery & job growth that is supposed to be on the horizon :rolleyes:

In the last six weeks, I've once again started getting emails from recruiters about positions they have. Mostly in the British Midlands or other similarly attractive locations - one today for Dublin. I don't want these particular roles, but they fact that they're around is a positive sign IMHO, because even they dried up during 2009.

Raekwon wrote: »

I cannot believe it has gone so bad, surely companies still need support staff.......it's not like we are sales people and the lack of consumer spending is obviously effecting us.

Like I said before: demand and supply. And companies have postponed doing change projects because lack of industry confidence is affecting their projected budgets for the year - and lots of entry level support jobs open up when their incumbents get seconded on to project work.

Raekwon

JustMary wrote: »

In the last six weeks, I've once again started getting emails from recruiters about positions they have. Mostly in the British Midlands or other similarly attractive locations - one today for Dublin. I don't want these particular roles, but they fact that they're around is a positive sign IMHO, because even they dried up during 2009.

Well if your assumptions are right then hopefully this trend will continue and more & more support type roles will crop up over the coming weeks or months. I have to admit that I'm not as optimistic as you are............but I guess only time will tell.

JustMary wrote: »

Like I said before: demand and supply. And companies have postponed doing change projects because lack of industry confidence is affecting their projected budgets for the year - and lots of entry level support jobs open up when their incumbents get seconded on to project work.

I get what you are saying & you are correct in one regard but scraping projects doesn't necessarily mean job shortages, it usually means that money for new equipment, technologies or ventures are put on the backburner until a later date. I think that you'll agree that the vast majority of companies need some kind of IT support to function on a day to day basis. If a network goes down they cannot operate, ditto with a data/mail server, PBX phone system, etc, etc, etc..........Christ if one employees hard drive fails and they cannot work for a few hours alot of revenue could be lost. In a nut shell IT is the backbone to alot of companies and without the adequate support in place then an issue can have a domino effect and the business suffers accordingly.

I will go back to my point about the jobs that migrant workers have 'possibly' left vacant. I'm sure we have all worked in IT departments with lots of Polish, Chinese, Indians etc and these workers have left in their thousands during the last 18 months, so where have all these vacancies gone? In my own experience a couple of vacant roles got merged together but these positions never lasted long as staff were getting over burdened with work and it soon became clear to management that productivity was suffering. I just find it strange that there should be plenty of support roles out there but it seems like the polar opposite at the moment.

the_syco

Duggy747 wrote: »

Ha ha, I know a few buisnesses that only upgraded loads of their machines to XP!!

I can't see any "old" companies switching to Windows7 anytime soon. Most companies wait a year to ensure most of the bugs are out of the system before "switching". Also, most have to test all of their internal programs, to ensure it works on the new system, etc. I supported a company that went from Windows2k to XP only last year. They wanted to ensure all their inhouse stuff worked, before making the leap. Unless the company only uses office, I'd say a lot of companies are still using XP and Vista.

kippy wrote: »

2 pages of jobs

2 page of jobs, with at least 3 of them reworded for the same job, if past experience is anything to go by. 29 of them are jobs with CPL which are no doubt mainly in one of two places :pac:

For those with MS Certs, maybe up North?

http://news.eircom.net/breakingnews/17162975/?view=Standard
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/it-company-to-create-94-jobs-442593.html
http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/national-news/it-company-will-create-94-jobs-2021782.html

A Belfast IT company will create almost 100 new highly-skilled jobs, it was revealed today.

Parity Solutions is to establish a Microsoft centre of excellence with software development and consultancy positions to be filled by 2012.

Company chief executive Alwyn Welch said experienced professionals would work with local graduates.

“We are delighted with the support and funding from Invest NI and this investment truly illustrates Parity’s strategy to capitalise on new technologies and market opportunities that we have identified,” he said.

The business will provide internet-based business productivity packages for customers and employ 94 people.

It received more than £630,000 (€722,274) support from Invest NI.

Parity specialises in IT recruitment, especially for the public sector.

It has clients across the UK and Ireland, including BT, the Ministry of Defence and Northern Ireland Electricity.

Parity is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and has a turnover of around £150m (€171.97m). Its Belfast office is on the Dargan Road.

Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said: “Parity has over 40 years’ experience in delivering IT, business and recruitment solutions in the UK and Ireland.

“The decision to expand operations in Belfast reflects the success of Parity’s current operation, the confidence it has in being able to recruit high calibre information technology professionals and its commitment to Northern Ireland.

“In addition, it underlines the competitiveness of this region as a location for investment, even during difficult economic times.”

The centre of excellence will contribute almost £3m (€3.43m) in salaries to the economy and will further strengthen the important and growing IT sector, the minister added.

PLIIM

The_Goose135 wrote: »

Looking at the job sites the IT sector is by far in the best shape.

IT Jobs

True.
We cant find enough developers and salaries we are offering for them are actually higher than 2 years ago. We are trying to avoid Contractors but may have to cave in.

Most of the Dev CVs we get are people with less than 5 years experience. They will find it tough as we are looking for more experienced people.

For IT support we are flooded with CVs, but its developers we need badly.

HashSlinging

IT outsourcing seems to be the only option but you need to be able to work for free! well with these guys anyway.

6 months slavery anyone!?

AARRRGH

The linux.ie mailing list sometimes has vacancies advertised on it...

Raekwon

HashSlinging wrote: »

IT outsourcing seems to be the only option but you need to be able to work for free! well with these guys anyway.

6 months slavery anyone!?

I was just about to post that but you beat me to it!

I never usually check the FAS website but thought I'd check it out tonight and saw a good few roles (see) but you don't get paid for a fair few of them (marked WPP1/2; unless you are receiving social welfare, which of course you can still receive).

Is this what it is coming too? Working for nothing in one of the most over priced countries in the world? I hope the government are geared up for all of the riots and looting that is bound to take place :P

HashSlinging

Its unacceptable IMO there are charities out there where you can volunteer your services where at least then your getting a moral reward but this is just taking the piss IMO.

I can understand someone doing 3 months on a work placement but doing 6 months without possibility of perm is seriously taking the piss..

kippy

HashSlinging wrote: »

Its unacceptable IMO there are charities out there where you can volunteer your services where at least then your getting a moral reward but this is just taking the piss IMO.

I can understand someone doing 3 months on a work placement but doing 6 months without possibility of perm is seriously taking the piss..

The WPP is extracting the urine.
I dont mind so much the guys in college with little or no experience, who get to work for a few months perhaps for nothing but employers are getting skilled staff for nought under the scheme. A bit of a joke.
Even the guys in college shouldnt have to work for NOTHING. I did 6 months experience before while in college and in fairness, earned 17k euros pro rata while in Dublin which was pretty good for my experience level at the time.
Employers WILL take advantage of times like these and unfortunately the tables have completely turned from a few years ago, it is an employers market now.

AARRRGH

kippy wrote: »

Even the guys in college shouldnt have to work for NOTHING.

I disagree. When I first went to college (95 - 99) we were delighted just to find employers who were kind enough to offer our useless arses a bit of experience.

A student with no experience only working for 6 months is of little to no use to an employer. If anything they probably cause the employer to lose money.

kippy

AARRRGH wrote: »

I disagree. When I first went to college (95 - 99) we were delighted just to find employers who were kind enough to offer our useless arses a bit of experience.

A student with no experience only working for 6 months is of little to no use to an employer. If anything they probably cause the employer to lose money.

It depends on the role.
In IT support, I know I was very green going in with only 6 months college behind me.
I suppose I was a bit of a drain in resources the first month, in month two I was resolving more issues than anyone on the helpdesk of 4 people (some with much more experience) and I even ended up towards the end of it, implementing a few improvements which I had learned about while working that saved the other helpdesk people time.....
I've been learning and improving ever since.
Even if the student is doing the most menial and basic of tasks, it frees up someone else to do the other tasks in the organisation and SHOULD at least garner minimum wage or dole rates.
If the student is taking the piss, then the employer lets them go, simple as.
If we had enough people out there allowed to work for nothing, sooner or later we'd all have to work for nothing.....
I dont mind volunteering and can also fully understand why students may end up working for nothing to get experience, however I dont agree with it.

Raekwon

I've had one interview since I last posted on this thread. It was a very similar job to what I am already doing and I thought the interview when very well. I was told they would be in contact with me by the end of last week.........but I haven't heard a tap from them.

I haven't really seen or heard of anything else around unfortunately.

Has anyone else got a sniff of any available IT support role or lately?

KTRIC

I just landed a 1 year support contract doing level 2 and 3.

Should be starting it soon. I was only looking 2 weeks before I got it too.

The money isn't fantastic but it'll do until I can upskill a bit.

MysticalRain

I think if the government is relying on the "Knowledge Economy" to pull us out of this recession, this country truly is fcuked.

jimoc

A lot of the more unscrupulous companies now are taking advantage of peoples desperation and replacing 40-50K roles with WPP applications.
they are fully aware that there are now loads of people on the dole desperate for a job who will apply through WPP in the hope of getting a permanent position.
Of course the company in question says 'thanks very much' after 9 months, turfs you out and gets the next poor shmoe from the list.

Raekwon

KTRIC wrote: »

I just landed a 1 year support contract doing level 2 and 3.

Should be starting it soon. I was only looking 2 weeks before I got it too.

The money isn't fantastic but it'll do until I can upskill a bit.

Nice work KTRIC! Did you get it via a recruiter or by applying directly to the company? I ask because I usually apply directly to companies as to avoid time wasting recruiters.