Whither Contracting?

moycullen14

Just wondering what people feel about the current state and future prospects of IT contracting in Ireland?



I've been contracting off and on for the last 20 odd years, between here and the UK. I've only a few years to go to retirement but I am getting concerned about some developments in the industry, namely:

Globalisation - Outsourcing & Insourcing
Tax treatment
Rates - specifically the contractors premium.
Costs of running a 'closed' company - accountant, professional indemnity

When I started, contracting was definitely the way to go - at least from a financial point of view. You were considered an expert resource, worth the extra money. You were treated well because if you weren't, you'd go next door.

Increasingly I'm seeing contracting as a way for companies to avoid their obligations rather than to attract skilled resources.

It may be that I've just had a couple of bad contracts or it could be a trend, Don't know.

What think you?

14ned

moycullen14 wrote: »

Just wondering what people feel about the current state and future prospects of IT contracting in Ireland?

These months since the Brexit vote it's been as bad for C++ contracting in Ireland and remotely as I've ever seen it. The fact I have the current contract at all, despite its much reduced day rate and being onsite in expensive Dublin, is a god send. Ten months without income last year. It was getting worrying.

There has been a hollowing out of the really highly skilled and best paid work in Europe for nearly a decade now. It's moved mostly to the US and China. If I physically moved myself to the US, I could work remotely for $200/hour upwards. People have offered that to me, but I can't be based here in the recent climate. They're scared of being seen to employ foreigners. I've even been offered choice contracts in China, but I'd need to go onsite there, same for the UAE.

And then on top of that Ireland - and the UK - has seen an additional hollowing out with respect to Europe, particularly France, Germany and Spain, though Eastern Europe is catching up fast in terms of doing cutting edge R&D type work where world class domain experts are needed, and they're willing to pay for them. A Berlin company is currently paying €120k base salary for top level C++ engineers, with up to €30k bonus, and wrapped into a contracting structure so you're not murdered by German taxes.

Ireland just isn't competitive. The Americans and Chinese are pulling far ahead, Continental Europe has sparks of keeping up, meanwhile the UK and Ireland ... we're just dead in the water. Treading ground at best. Going nowhere.

I'm still hoping that the pendulum swings back, but of what I've seen of the local startups here and in the UK, I am not impressed. They are consistently badly managed, unlike most Continental European startups, and don't have the raw hunger for success at any cost like the American startups. We increasingly are just being left behind. We're not competitive at the bleeding edge. I think we've become complacent, afraid of disruption, and to a certain extent lazy. Though I'll grant you that the enormous uncertainty currently in Ireland and the UK makes taking any initiative too risky, hence my unusual current unemployability.

That's where I'm at anyway. I don't doubt that in other parts of tech away from C++ and Python there are no doubt clusters of excellence in the UK and Ireland. But in C++ it's a fading landscape here despite C/C++ still occupying 18% of worldwide software development, and in Python I've not seen much to impress me compared to what the Europeans and Americans are doing. Other technologies I cannot say much about.

Niall

LambDev

14ned wrote: »

These months since the Brexit vote it's been as bad for C++ contracting in Ireland and remotely as I've ever seen it. The fact I have the current contract at all, despite its much reduced day rate and being onsite in expensive Dublin, is a god send. Ten months without income last year. It was getting worrying.

There has been a hollowing out of the really highly skilled and best paid work in Europe for nearly a decade now. It's moved mostly to the US and China. If I physically moved myself to the US, I could work remotely for $200/hour upwards. People have offered that to me, but I can't be based here in the recent climate. They're scared of being seen to employ foreigners. I've even been offered choice contracts in China, but I'd need to go onsite there, same for the UAE.

And then on top of that Ireland - and the UK - has seen an additional hollowing out with respect to Europe, particularly France, Germany and Spain, though Eastern Europe is catching up fast in terms of doing cutting edge R&D type work where world class domain experts are needed, and they're willing to pay for them. A Berlin company is currently paying €120k base salary for top level C++ engineers, with up to €30k bonus, and wrapped into a contracting structure so you're not murdered by German taxes.

Ireland just isn't competitive. The Americans and Chinese are pulling far ahead, Continental Europe has sparks of keeping up, meanwhile the UK and Ireland ... we're just dead in the water. Treading ground at best. Going nowhere.

I'm still hoping that the pendulum swings back, but of what I've seen of the local startups here and in the UK, I am not impressed. They are consistently badly managed, unlike most Continental European startups, and don't have the raw hunger for success at any cost like the American startups. We increasingly are just being left behind. We're not competitive at the bleeding edge. I think we've become complacent, afraid of disruption, and to a certain extent lazy. Though I'll grant you that the enormous uncertainty currently in Ireland and the UK makes taking any initiative too risky, hence my unusual current unemployability.

That's where I'm at anyway. I don't doubt that in other parts of tech away from C++ and Python there are no doubt clusters of excellence in the UK and Ireland. But in C++ it's a fading landscape here despite C/C++ still occupying 18% of worldwide software development, and in Python I've not seen much to impress me compared to what the Europeans and Americans are doing. Other technologies I cannot say much about.

Niall

What is the state of PHP contracting like?

14ned

LambDev wrote: »

What is the state of PHP contracting like?

No idea. Far from what I monitor closely. I would say that my general impression is that web dev is booming right now, as is C# and Java. Big enterprise-y technologies like C++ are hurting, I would assume the same is also true for SAP and so on.

Niall

John_Mc

LambDev wrote: »

What is the state of PHP contracting like?

Wouldn't say it's great to be be honest. Java and C# are what the organisations willing to pay good rates are using. PHP isn't enterprise enough

Mort5000

I saw this on StackOverflow. Reposting here in case it interests any of you:

Arista

14ned

Mort5000 wrote: »

I saw this on StackOverflow. Reposting here in case it interests any of you:

Arista

Heh I was only there last month. They were hosting last month's Dublin C++ users group meeting.

Nice offices, the guys presenting from Arista were competent and knew what they didn't know, which was refreshing. However they don't employ remote, don't employ contractors, and their permanent pay is a good bit below market rates for Dublin. I appreciate that they think that they can't fill their open positions, but if they were willing to hire long term contract, and allowed 95% remote, I'd strongly consider it even at the below market pay as I came away relatively impressed by them.

Niall