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| CURRENT SECTION :: News | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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Suspected war criminal, murderer and alleged planner of genocide, Radovan Karadzic, was arrested this month on his way to a holiday resort some fifty miles from Belgrade, Serbia. Having been Europe's most wanted since 1995, he was discovered living and working under the name of Dragan David Dabic, and conducting a career of psychiatrist, holistic health guru and mystic. Despite the gloom in the economic weather and the generally flimsy outlook for contracting, since this man is accused of the massacre of over 8000 men and boys at Srebrenica, his detainment must count as a fabulous success for justice, and it's likely to be a turning point in Serb-EU relations. And yet it is sickening that a man wanted for such ghastly crimes should simply grow a beard and return, in part at least, to his former profession. Almost as if the Bosnian war was a minor interruption in an otherwise successful line of business; Karadzic kept his options open just in case the career change to mass murderer didn't work out. Here, things definitely are not working out, and for another month the prospect of enforced career change hangs above contracting like a dark cloud. The chancellor, Alistair Darling, as reported by the Times, warned that the economic woes would likely continue for years rather than months, and Nomura International and Commerzbank became the City’s latest financial services groups to respond to the credit crunch by slashing contractor rates. Contractors were told to opt for a rate cut of up to 10% or face a speedy exit. Agents at ReThink Recruitment said that the number of IT jobs it advertised for managers and application developers has fallen by 30% and 18% respectively since 2006. No wonder then that Contractor UK ran a series on how to make a bit of extra cash between contracts, and it seems that second jobs are all the rage. According to City analysts Capital Economics, 1.15 million people now declare income from second jobs - up 5% since the start of the credit crisis. And the number could be much higher according to consumer and debt specialist, Vicky Redwood, since many multi-jobbers are unlikely to draw the taxman's attention to their moonlighting. It was even suggested contractors consider bashing out a few Facebook applications. You know the sort of thing, "Roger Madeupname has invited you to install the War Crimes application. He scored 19,300. Can you beat him?" Grants of up to $250,000 are available for developers, in return for first refusal on venture capital funding. Given the deluge of entirely pointless social-networking applications available on Facebook, it seems unlikely any intelligence in your game will be rewarded. But good luck if that's how you want to spend your time. And yet it is very easy to lose money on Facebook, if not to make it. Earlier this month Grant Raphael was ordered to pay £17,000 in damages (£15,000 for libel and £2,000 for breach of privacy) to a former school friend, after he invented a vindictive fake profile. According to the High Court, The Facebook page falsely suggested Matthew Firsht was looking for same-sex relationships and was signed up with groups including Gay in the Wood and Gay Jews in London. It seems unlikely Raphael was gainfully employed as an IT contractor and God-fearers do say the Devil makes work for idle hands. Always be careful when you have too much time to kill. You may think, for example that saving a few pennies by downloading your music is a good idea. Especially if you're between contracts, but this month the illegal download business got tougher. ISPs have agreed to send letters to users whom the BPI believes are sharing music illegally, warning them that their activity is against the law. You are being watched, is the message, so it is far better to avoid periods of idleness if you can possibly do so. And there is some good news here if you don't mind working abroad. While the UK is falling into the pit of despair, Asian companies are hungry for skills, and are about to spend, spend, spend. The Indian business press has been full of rumours that French-based Capgemini is one such target, with Indian IT giants Wipro and Infosys both showing interest. According to the annual survey by India's IT services association NASSCOM, India's software and services exports grew by 29% over the last year. Could these Indian White Knights yet save some contractors from a period of thumb twiddling? It's possible, but in all this we mustn't forget the real villains; the credit-crunch-crazies, those who gambled with the world's prosperity and lost. As hero of the intelligentsia, George Bush, so eloquently put it this month. "Wall Street got drunk," yet we're all suffering the hangover. Humans are curious. July 2008 sees more than one no-hoper posing as president, murderers posing as physicians, school friends posing as each other and IT contractors posing as the unemployed. Great fiction will doubtless be written about this period, but only if it's based on the truth. William Knight Jul 25, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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