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| CURRENT SECTION :: News | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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Despite the facts that Easter was earlier this year than at anytime for the last 43,000 years, and that this March saw Alistair Darling deliver a scintillating budget speech, judging by the fervour on the CUK bulletin board the most exciting event of the month was the new series of The Apprentice on TV. Contractor OracleSlave even noted the strange similarity between one apprentice, known as "eyebrow toff" and the chancellor of the exchequer. "Those eyebrows were indeed darlingesque, [sic]" he wrote. But most contractor ire was reserved for the candidate eventually fired by Alan Sugar, "He was a bit 'wet' especially when he harped on about liking art and music and not football, and he started whining on about a class divide in the team, Toffs vs Commoners," said IT contractor Eliquant. It's no surprise that a program glamorising the interview process should be popular with contractors. After all, your livelihood depends on your ability to win contracts through a selection process. Yet that makes it all the odder that a survey commissioned by REC (the Recruitment and Employment Confederation) found applicants are failing to brush-up for interviews, "Many job hunters are being a little too blasé when it comes to preparing," said Tom Hadley, REC director. According to input from 200 recruitment agencies, the most common complaint was applicants' poor personal appearance and bad first impression. This is dozy stuff, but the recruitment agents quizzed included IT specialist agencies. Maybe, like the hopeful barrister in last night's apprentice, candidates believe the interviewer will "see through to the truth of the matter." However, getting the basics right – such as your interview technique – is going to be more important this year than for a long time. The failing economy and shrinking IT budgets are likely to increase competition for contractors, and research by IT recruiters, Arras People, found that over half of all freelance project managers say their biggest fear in 2008 is that the IT industry will be short of opportunity. One wonders what freelance project managers expect by way of "opportunity". A semi-finalist place on X Factor perhaps, a surprise invitation to head up a government task force, or maybe a million pound offer to novelise their extremely funny IT musings on their Facebook wall? Forgive me, you don't go into IT project management for exciting opportunities – those exist solely in the job-advert-speak of recruitment agencies. But no matter. There are bigger things to worry about. In a month that the Antarctic’s Wilkins ice shelf began its demise, the world's glacier-based water supply was shown to be in dangerous decline threatening millions of dependent soles, and Business Continuity Expo 2008 found 87% of businesses see climate change as the single biggest threat in terms of risk assessment, Alistair Darling delivered his scintillating green budget to sort it all out. Except that it didn't. Sure, he deferred the husband-wife taxation proposals for 12 months, in a moved described by Martin Hesketh, managing director of Brookson, an IT contractor umbrella company, as "positive for IT contractors." And he delayed the fuel-tax escalator so those of you with big car-based commutes will make savings. Darling also reaffirmed his war on MSCs and umbrellas prompting the following from Bauer & Cottrell, an IT contractor legal advisory. "HMRC do not need any new legislation or consultation written into the Budget, they already have the power to withdraw dispensations from umbrella companies and can also do so retrospectively." "Contractors operating through umbrella companies should start to ask some questions of their providers now to ensure that they are compliant," the firm added. Yet Martin Caddick, leader, business continuity management team at Marsh, which sponsored the Expo Survey, said "Climate change and energy risk consistently rank among the biggest challenges facing global businesses in 2008. While the majority of firms surveyed have accurately identified the major risks that could affect their businesses, fewer seem to be successful in tackling them head on. This lack of preparedness continues to be a major issue." Be in no doubt, if big business is hit by worries of climate change, it will change the prospects for suppliers such as contractors. Their concerns are contractors concerns. Yet Darling missed the plot. Given the sleep-inducing pace at which government moves, he will probably put the finishing touches to new 'income-shifting' legislation just as the North Sea spills over the top of the Thames Barrier and the entire population of drought-stricken Africa rides the wave onto the South coast. At least he'll stop husband and wives making the most of their status as company directors. But enough of the future, this month many of those same directors will have been reminiscing about their first computer, known affectionately as the Beeb. The creators of the BBC Micro are reuniting at the Science Museum in London to discuss the legacy, and an exhibition will follow in 2009. "I believe the history of the BBC Micro is really a fundamental one to understanding where we are today and explaining the British computer industry and our culture of computing," Dr Blyth, curator of computing and information at the Science Museum, told the BBC. Yet the machine is consigned to museums and dusty lofts, no longer useful, just an artefact of history. It would be nice if other artefacts could be so assigned. We should look to Alan Sugar to inspire the last words of this month's round up. Given the chancellor's promise to go green and then turning yellow, the most appropriate response is, "You're fired." William Knight Mar 28, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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