dbd33

If I was a young person, I wouldn't start out in IT. I think the era when there was a good living in computers is at an end. In any case, one person billing has never been a good living; you've always needed to create and sell a product and/or do some pimping.

Moses2013

I wouldn't say that and it's never been better to be honest. IT is a big word and the main thing is that the OP is happy. It could be anything from software products, technology, gaming, banking, technical support, sales etc. Maybe you mean the typical IT guy from the 90's who could repair a computer? If I read this it doesn't sound that bad: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/jobs...w-jobs-ireland
KPMG managing partner Seamus Hand said: “Increased focus on technology – including areas such as cybersecurity, digital and data analytics – is resulting in strong growth in these services, as well as continued demand for expertise in the audit, tax and advisory areas.”“We’re basing our appeal to graduates on the opportunity to work with a diverse range of clients, across a wide spectrum of disciplines spanning technology and digital transformation, international tax, and deal advisory to name just some of the opportunities,” Hand added.

Maybe I'm old, so call it digital job then:-) https://www.siliconrepublic.com/care...ort-prosperity

craig_hoxton

Have you considered IT work in Waterloo? I wouldn't recommend Toronto as i) expensive as hell to live alone and ii) IT is flooded with cheap labour from a particular part of the world, hired by recruiters and consultancies also from the same part of the world.

Source: 3 years in IT support (non-profit and media industry) and looking to get the hell out as the job boils down to babysitting adults.

Gozit

All the placements I applied for locally have fell through or I was the second runner up and got narrowly beat out by someone else, so right now i'm looking for any kind of temporary contract for 3 months just to bring money in for the summer, then i'll do my last semester in september and finish up and get a full time job.

If i'm going to spend the money to move from my parents I wanted to live in "the city" ... Waterloo isn't that much better then where I currently live for that. (I live in London now.)

dbd33

Is this the "Jewish Mafia" of IT people mentioned on the board recently?

caretaker

Rumspringa! lol I'm a bad choice for career advice (caretaker) but try to get in one of those Public Service Commission jobs where the union locks you in and pension, etc. When I'm picking up community donations stuff I see the young guys in the basement of a few government departments and they run around turning it off and on, and the guys in the belly of the beast at provincial IT central handle the high-brow stuff and act as a clearing house. They're like pen protector tech hobbits, no natural light, but I bet they're getting good wages.

scrubbedexpat091

I have been trying to get a government job just for the benefits alone, especially the retirement.

Shard

Surely there's yet some life in IT ? Plenty of meatware to be automated over the coming twenty years?

Jingsamichty

When I were a lad back in 1989, my then girlfriend was working as an IT recruitment consultant. She spent her days ringing up IT bods seeing if they were interested in contracts she was trying to fill, and these roles were paying GBP 800-2,000 per day back then. Not that I know anything about the IT industry but I suspect that similar roles are about GBP 400-600 per day now, some 30 years later.

Similar with North Sea divers... in the 1970s they were getting GBP 400/day, an absolute fortune then. Now fifty years later, it's still the same rate.

dbd33

That's the essence of it. In the late 70s there was little infra-structure in the business, you could talk your way into a programming job and, if you could actually do it, you could be a contractor. If you were weak at it you'd be an employee and, if useless, work for the government or a quango. I bought my Jensen-Healey from a contractor who was moving up, I liked the flashness of the car and went contracting meself. In another era and another location I might have been hustling stocks or houses or used cars. As it was I churned out assembler code, like doing crosswords all day, and was well paid for it.

The highest rate on a contract where I've been involved (for 40 hours long term) was US350/hr, I've seen, and charged, more for short term jobs in weird places. That was ten years ago though, now there very many people wanting contracts for whom C$50/hr is decent money and they've spent years accumulating certificates from universities and colleges and the like. If you have the funds and ability to be educated you don't need to be a computer person, you can be doctors and lawyers and such. Those jobs offer respectability and money, respectively.

If you are going into the computer business and want a good living then it's pimping or product. The former never changes, either you exploit people (usually new immigrants from your home country, Hi David!) by grabbing half the rate and paying late and deal with constant churn or you pay people properly, hope their contracts go long and maybe fund keeping a single horse from it. Either way there's a lot of negotiation and delays and false starts involved so it's not for everyone. Product may be better. I modelled my pricing on the SAS Institute model; low initial cost, high maintenance. Firms keep software products for twenty years or so (this is not a fast paced innovative business) so if you can get clients at, say, US$25,000/yr and the firm is just you then you don't need hundreds of clients to be able to sustain a whole horse barn (or a disabled child). The problems with product are the same as ever; need for an idea, need for corporate infrastructure. The computing bit is easy, everyone has Unix in their basement and on their phone, getting to the point where people at big companies will return your calls is more difficult. I know some people like it but to me the whole wining/dining/cold calling thing is an unglamorous slog; it's what you do if your eyes aren't good enough to be a pilot.

"Do your homework or you'll wind up in the computer business" was the line I used to scare the children.

Atlantic Xpat

"Steak and Strippers" as an acquaintance in the IT sector used to tell me :-)

I've occasion now to get involved in the procurement of network hardware and software defined networking. As a non-techie I struggle to understand the technicalities in an entirely different way from the very indsutry specific products and services that I also manage procurement of but it strikes me the SDN is the big thing. Certainly, my employer has some young and precocious talents working in that field as we try and understand how best to deploy it for our business. Perhaps that could be an area of interest to the OP?

Gozit

I'm torn between the higher paced/more interesting work in the private sector and the easier jobs / better work/life balance on the public side.

In public sector i'd definitely be able to work my way up to 4-6 weeks of holiday per year eventually.


If I liked kids I should've just became a teacher

dbd33

Military procurement procedures go way beyond steak and strippers. There's all this fuss about Trump allegedly being pissed on in Moscow when everyone who's purchased a mouse for the military has had, at least, that opportunity.