anybody on here (or OH) an IT contractor?

[leckershell]

my OH is pissed off at his current job because he doesn't get sick pay (only the legal bare minimum after a certain amount of days), he doesn't get paid overtime but ends up doing a 50 odd hour week, he is being demoted (structural change, he hasn't done anything wrong) and this makes it more difficult for him to become anything more senior than where he is currently at so no career prospects, they don't offer any further training or development, his wage is average, he only gets 20 days holiday which they won't let him take in individual days he has to take full weeks or nothing and even then they pick and choose the weeks depending on which "sale" is on at the time.

and the other day they turned round to him and said he had "commitment issues"

so basically, he's looking to go contracting. just wondered if anyone's OH, or in fact anybody on here, is self-employed/IT contractor and how they made the move from a permanent job, what the current market is wage-wise and demand wise... anywhere in uk...
just anything really that you have to tell us. it's obviously a big risk to take , so not one we are going to take lightly, so any advice is greatly appreciated!



also, i have his CV on my computer and he has listed his "key skills" as...
• Active Server Pages (ASP, VBScript, ADO) (6.5 Years)
• C# (ASP.NET and Winforms) 2.5 Years – .Net 1.1 & .Net 2
• Webservices
• HTML, DHTML, XHTML, CSS & JavaScript
• AJAX
• SQL Server 7 & 2000 (MCP) – Implementing SQL Server 2000) (6 Years)
• SQL Server 2005 (18 Months)
• Microsoft Access (VBA),PostgreSQL
• Microsoft Visual Studio (6, 2003, 2005)
• Internet Information Services (IIS). SSL
• XML, CSV and other data export mediums.
• XSLT
• IIS, Windows XP/ 2000/ 2003
• Visual Basic 6 (VB 6) (3 Years)
• VBA (5 Years)
• COM / COM + (including n-tier programming)
• Subversion (SVN) & Visual Source Safe (VSS)
• Adobe Photoshop

 

[Slinky Sarah]

his cv is awesome!!! i want one like that!!!
sorry shell cant help hun!!! good luck getting something though nat

 

[leckershell]

I just cut and pasted it, lol don't have a clue what most of it is..

 

[Urchin]

I dunno but I've passed it onto a friend who does contract work in IT for Jaguar in Coventry You never know!

 

[Slinky Sarah]

I just cut and pasted it, lol don't have a clue what most of it is..

im gonna be learning most of that lol
(get on msn missy lol)

 

[leckershell]

I dunno but I've passed it onto a friend who does contract work in IT for Jaguar in Coventry You never know!

ooh fab thanks il msn his CV over if your friend thinks it would be of use

 

[maria1976]

Hey honey try jobserve, I was looking at it the other day and there is loads of it work on there and bloody good money!!!

 

[Urchin]

I dunno but I've passed it onto a friend who does contract work in IT for Jaguar in Coventry You never know!

ooh fab thanks il msn his CV over if your friend thinks it would be of use

I'll let you know when I get a reply

 

[babydust]

job serve is the best one, you never get any contracts from the usual job papers , but i remember when dh was looking for something the market can be really slow at times. my oh is a contractor he is an it consultant his cv looks similar to your oh's being a contractor is much much better money you can earn anything from £200 - £450 a day but the down side is you dont get sick pay or holiday pay, he is better setting up a ltd company and getting an accountant to do his tax and stuff or he can go with an umbarella company my dh is with one called parasol but he is in the process of setting up a ltd company.
there is another place that advertise but i cant remember the name, if you google it contract work it might come up with it.

 

[Sherlock]

My OH is a qualified telecommunications engineer (plus major major computer geek) and left his job last year and went self employed and has taken on sub contracting work in other areas.

Atm he is developing bespoke software for companies. Works on all platforms, Unix based - Linux, Mac... Windows.... covers everything from writing the system to support. Plus writing his own applications in his spare time.

I'd suggest your OH go have a look on the tech job websites and submit his CV out to the employment companies. OH had some great interviews when he was job hunting and got a great job near St Albans. Company pension, shares, decent annual leave, gym membership, private health insurance and a relocation allowance. Plus he got travel costs for each interview (£50 cost for fuel for us, reimbursed over £200 from the company and we had a great day out in Cambridge for that interview )

He still gets sent jobs but isn't looking atm. If you are prepared to move possibly, there are some *really* good jobs out there.

Going self employed depends. It's worked for my OH but then he had built up some contacts in this area (he worked away all week before going SE from home here) but its not always easy. Atm he is swamped with work but that might change when this present bespoke software is written. On the other hand, it might be the stepping stone to the next job. But he doesn't get sick pay, no paid holiday and so on. Plus his costs on top, having to buy software, computer stuff, other expenses. The upside is he works from home and works his hours to suit (but often on weekends if there are updates etc to write on the system).

The sub contracting he kind of fell in to. I'm not sure how your OH would go about it. Maybe companies advertise a contract? Worth checking in to.

If he can shed any light I'll drop you a PM

 

[leckershell]

wow thanks for the replies

he's spoken to a guy at an agency he used to use for perm jobs but have a contracting section, and they said he's unlikely to get a job with 4 weeks notice, but more likely to get one at one weeks notice, immediate sort of thing.

he's been looking on jobserve which is why he got the idea that we would be better off if he contracted.

and we discussed limited company last night with me doing his tax and invoicing... im not *that* clued up on tax but if all else fails he did mention companies can do it for you.

 

[mayday]

Hi,
my OH is a self employed consultantat the mid to top end of the bracket, specialising in management consultancy and troubleshooting in IT, mainly in the public sector. There are huge advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages; he gets paid silly money to do what he thinks is often easy work - he is very organised though and a lot of what he does is just shed a bit of common sense on a situation and his clients think he's great for it . He can pick and choose his clients. He can choose when he wants to work.

Disadvantages; his clients expect him to pick up the phone when they want him - whatever the time or day. He doesn't get paid sick or holiday. He has to make sure he keeps up his training so that he can stay abreast of the market - he has to pay for this out of his own pocket and in his own time.

He has always got his jobs at very short notice, so he has to be brave and just go for it when a job comes along. Sometimes this means he has taken a job and a week later a better one has come along, but to maintain his good reputation he has to stick with the one he took first. He has an accountant - makes life so much easier. He also has to do his own pension arrangements. He has to be prepared to travel a bit - atm he is working in central London and has a 2 hour each way commute. He is looking for a job a bit closer to home and that allows him to work from home. He thinks later this year when I go back to work part time he will also cut his days down to 4 days a week - he has the power and freedom to do this. He is set up as a limited company.

He tells me there are all sorts of IT consultants out there - programmers range from £250-450 per day, lower level IT management consultants £300-500, mid end IT management consultants £400-700. I suspect that with the best will in the world your OH doesn't fall into the top end bracket. (OH is mid end, and has had deals of over $2billion to arrange before, so god knows what the top end guys do!) You can assume 200 working days a year (that's 40 weeks.) Meaning that there are 62 working days not billing. Those days breakdown as; 30 days holiday, 10 days training, 7 days sick, 15 days blind panic running round looking for the next contract. Once he is in the game though and gets a reputation, subsequent contracts are always easier. The first is the hardest. If he is billing, say, £300 per day at 200 days per year, that is £60k gross. There are also lots of tax breaks and wheezes (legal, of course!) which can be exploited to ensure he makes the most of things.

 

[leckershell]

wow mayday fair play to your OH

Nat would fit somewhere around the £200-£250 mark..

 

[Misslarue]

Hey Leckershell

My OH had been an IT contractor for years, until last year when he took his first permanent position. He has worked for various companies and agencies and has a very similar list of skills to Nat. Depending on what you do and where you are willing to work depends on what sort of wage you can earn. You can earn silly money esp if you're prepared to work in the city. The only down side is you don't get sick/holiday pay and you have to sort out your tax etc. An umbrella company is a very good idea though (we done self employed and limited company and its not as easy as it all looks! )
Not only will they do all your taxes, NI, but they can put money away for you so you can pay yourself holiday pay!
My OH is on a very good wage, with similar skills to Nat, although he has worked for some major clients and has a background is banking (which puts the money up)

He says though these sites are good for getting contracts:
http://www.miprofile.com/
http://www.planetrecruit.com/
http://www.jobserve.com/

He also said if Nat needs anymore advice, he'd be happy to have a chat (email/msn) He worked as an IT contractor for over 10 years so has a lot of experience!

good luck

 

[Tangerinedream]

I dont know much about IT but my OH uses SPRING.

HTH