Yes it looks like it is the same everywhere. I just heard back from my old boss in England. He is out of contract at the moment and says that even if he could be bothered to look for another contract the rates are so bad that it would not be worth the effort. He has advised me to stay here and see out the downturn on the beach.

Sorry but I have no sympathy whatsoever. The old saying rings true, if you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen. They are 'contrators' and should have been prepared for the worst (surely one weeks notice is in their contract?). They should have planned a bit more and saved their money or else they should have gotten permanent roles. I've been a contractor for the last 15 years and it's just part of contracting.

Sorry, but it always annoys me when contractors seem to think they should get the same benefits as regular employees - they want the better rates but don't want to accept the contract terminations.

And the UK is no different, many places will terminate without notice or cut rates etc.

A very harsh viewpoint. I dont think that these contractors or myself expect the same benefits as regular employees. However a "contract" implies some sort of agreement between two parties. Every contractor should recognise that when the contract ends, there is no guarantee of a renewal. But, it is poor form for either party to break the contract whenever it suits them. Why even have a contract in that case?

No there is no mention of notice in the contract. One of the JAVA developers decided to jump ship last month before he was pushed, and the department took action against his agency to the tune of several thousand dollars. It only works one way.

I have seen it all before. I was at Norwich Union in 1991 when they sacked all contractors the week before Christmas. No chance of finding any other IT work in Norwich at that time. Also saw an entire project canned at Sun Life Insurance at Basingstoke (got a months pay in the pocket for that ), and my most recent job in the UK was on the NFIT Project working in Leeds, Bradford and London. Sacking contractors was a blood sport there. One guy got sacked there for suggesting at an open meeting with the CIO that the dingy office block in London could be improved with he addition of some indoor plants.

Yes contractors do get treated like dirt. It doesnt make it right though.

No, it doesn't make it right, and I certainly wouldn't deliberately treat people like that, but you just have to have the mentality in contracting that you could go any time and not be surprised or upset.

Disagree/Agree.

Have to admit, I was always under the impression that a contractor can be sacked - just like that - and that it is almost to be expected - one day - in some situations(!)

Thats true, but it also helps to make yourself as irreplaceable as possible, so no matter how much they really really want to get rid of you, they know they have no-one to replace you, and everything would bomb if you left.

It's worked for me so far (fingers crossed)

JTL

I've been a contractor for the past 10+ years (in the US and the UK). In both countries, there is a finite notice period (usually 2 weeks) that's typically built into the contract. As a contractor, you should understand that your contract is only as secure as the length of whatever the notice period is. So long as you realise this, you should be fine.

When you say that as a contractor, you just have to have the mentality that you could go at any time I assume you mean are referring to whatever the contract notice period is, right? There's absolutely no reason whatever to have to expect that being fired on the spot or with no notice (unless it's in the contract) is to be expected or tolorated just because you are a contractor. The contract between employer and employee is no more or less binding than that of between the employer and contractor (albeit a bit more complex with agencies sitting in the middle).

I've been in the situation in the past where my notice period has been involked by my employer before the end of the natural term of the contract (due to financial concerns). Sure, it's not pleasant but I served my notice period and that's just the nature of the game.

If you want to make a living as a contractor, and many of us do so quite successfully, then you really do need to make sure that you've got money ferretted away as a reserve to mitigate against bench or down-time.

If you are a contractor and are living month-to-month, that's just a recipe for disaster. Indeed, this is probably also true if you are a permanent employee - especially in these times!

- CDM

Some good points above about the rights and wrongs of terminating contracts in mid-contract.

My contract has all sorts of blurb about how the organisation can terminate the contractor without notice if there is any inappropriate behaviour or malpractice on the part of the contractor. What is not stated anywhere in the contract is that the organisation can terminate the contract at any time without even having to provide a reason. I think that the lesson to take from this is that before a contractor signs a contract they should insist on having a clear termination clause written into the contract that states explicitly when and why and how the contract can be terminated by either party.

I have worked with contractors in the UK who will not sign a contract unless they have such a clause written in. That is OK for rare specialists and in the boom times. At the moment in this tight market the pimp would laugh you out of their office.

I just found another source of info about the Oz IT market as well if anyone is interested.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum....cfm?t=1151163

I cant vouch for how useful it is, but you cant have too much information.

I think its pretty dire at the moment.

My 1 year contract as an IT Manager finishes this Friday, I have been actively applying for posts for three weeks now, and seem to be getting nowhere. I am currently applying for everything that suits my skills and experience, regardless of salary (to a certain extent) or length of contract.

I would say that for every 10 posts I apply for, 7 don't respond at all, 2 say (after two weeks) that I have been unsuccessful, and 1 will call you in for a meeting with the recruiter who then tells you that the post has been filled.

This seems to be quite common according to people in the same boat.

Also, the jobs on mycareer and seek are just being rotated at the moment. A job that appeared two weeks ago will suddenly appear again at the top of the list or with 'NEW' listed against it. I fear that these do not exist and are a resume/cv collection exercise.

By the way, anybody know somebody that works at Peoplebank?

I don't think they need to collect resumes at the moment, simon - they have more than enough already. The re-posting and the posting of the same job 6 times in a row really pisses me off.

I've been seeing a career coach and she stressed to me that only 20% of vacancies are advertised, so it's imperative to network network network. Also, always call the recruiter. Some put a number on the ads, some you have to hunt down via their websites, but it really does help to get your name known, make a personal connection. Call to ask for more information on the role; call up to check they got your resume and can you provide any further information.

In the old days the couple of times I was retrenched I walked round the agencies, CV in hand. It was the done thing before email took away our ability to talk out loud. I don't see why you can't do that now (they can only tell you to sod off!) or at least offer to buy the recruiter a coffee in return for a chat.

BTW there is a recent thread, I think entitled Unemployment. Not IT specific but it's relevant to share experiences and jobsearch tips.

Hang in there. I applied for about 15 jobs in the last couple of months - should have been more, I know, but I had other things going on and was in no rush. I got one interview. I got the job. I start next week (IT for a non-profit - just what I wanted.)

Where I work contractors were laid off with a four week notice so that handover could happen. Companies operating with the flexible model lay off contractors as soon as the budget gets tight and projects are cut back.

I've been contracting on and off for years and the FIRST thing [well, second thing after checking the rate ] you do when reading the contract is to check the notice period the organisation employing you has to give. If it's not specified, you don't sign it.

Regardless of the economic situation, I've always found January/February pretty useless for getting jobs.

I'm in Sydney and have worked in IT Recruitment since 1995.

The IT Market is worse than it was 12 months ago (when there were no skills available) but it is still possible to pick up a job.

NSW is definitely more depressed than the other eastern states as it is a financial centre and that industry is obviously bad currently.

Having said that its probably a lot stronger than both the UK and USA currenly and even in NSW the unemployment rate (generally) is only 5.8 and nationally 5.2. IT unemployment is substantially less than this still.

If you dont want a job in Finance, Construction or Mining then you should have no problems. If you are an SAP / Oracle Fins /DBA, C++ or any of the other skills on MODL list again, they are listed for a reason.

If you want to work in Retail, Medical or Gov, you will be fine. Telco is also
a bit dicey but with the NBN about to be announced I think this will grow over the next 12 months.

The person who mentioned ANZ, they are a Melbourne based bank and have no relevant employment in NSW. Erricson and Hutchison are overseas companies and not surprisingly they have OS operations and Australia is a small market for them compariatively.

Commbank has just had a major relocation and many firms are still hiring. The Majority of offshoring is occuring in Call Centres, Data Centres and Legacy systems where there are no available staffing here in Australia, typically its not driven by cost but availability of staff here in Australia which is why IT (some areas) is on the ODL list.

Check out www.seek.com.au for job listings.

Hope this helps and gives you

cheers

You are wrong about ANZ not having any relevant positions in NSW. I work for them in a decent sized development team in Sydney. They are just not recruiting and are not extending contracts.