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| CURRENT SECTION :: Market Reports | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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After my debacle with broadband last week, I thought I’d do my research early, just in case. Anyway, it’s raining outside. So, on a lovely Sunday afternoon, here’s the news: The major topic of the week is testing. Yes – testing. You boy – at the back – stopping sighing and shrugging your shoulders like a teenager. It’s not unfair. Testing is a major part of any development cycle whether you like it or not. Okay they’re all mini-Hitlers with about as much flexibility and understanding of developers as Nurse Ratchett (qv One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest) had about her psychiatric patients, but that’s life. And, anyway, the analogy isn’t so inaccurate on either side. So pay attention and you might improve your coding. And see me afterwards for a flogging – er – caning – er – some counselling. Actually, looking at the rates – you may want to change job… Not that you would have thought so in October last year. Almost everything to do with testing plummeted then. Some contracts didn’t even exist and demand was at a pretty low ebb. Since then, market rates have taken a tremendous upswing. Test managers have seen the best improvement in contract rate, rising from £31 in September last year to £49/yr in February, although they’ve now dipped down to around the £42 mark. Having Oracle or SQL (as a tester) in your CV will get you a rate of around the £30/hr mark, while our old friend Sybase can get you up to £47/hr! I wish I’d learned Sybase. Test Director – a job I’ve rarely heard about in the contract field before – really has seen a surge in demand. The number of contracts posted has zoomed from almost nothing in 2003 to over 100 postings last month – and looks to stay that way for the foreseeable future. January was the time to look, though, because rates were around the £45/hr mark then. They’ve since dropped to about £32/hr. ISEB and testing has begun to take hold, although there were only about 50 contracts posted last month. That’s still a good sign as there were only 17 posted in November. Rates have improved too, up to £32/hr on average at the moment. Unix testing has remained popular throughout with rates barely dipping below £32/hr and demand tracking the curve of other testing skills, shooting up from 24 postings in November to 167 in March. Telecoms testing, has not been quite such a diva, with rates around the £30/hr mark (although April looks like it might be a good month) and only 60 contracts posted last month. As I have said many times, these rates are averages for the whole of the UK over the last 8 months. They take no account of length of experience, location, additional skills, etc. However, they are a useful yardstick when negotiating a new contract! So – what about experience of various testing tools? I have to thank Michael Phillips for his suggestions of keywords to use. He suggested Mercury, WinRunner, LoadRunner – and I added Rational. I also put in “test tools” and “automated test” just for the hell of it. It may not surprise you, but rates for these skills showed the same curve as for testing generally. Suddenly, everyone’s got interested in testing! Perhaps it’s due to all the outsourcing. It’s all very well trying to save money by paying people a pittance abroad for your projects; but sometimes it’s no safer than buying something from one of those auction rooms that temporarily pop up in high streets around Xmas, or from a Soukh when you’re on a package holiday. I’m sure there are quality developers there but, as companies are discovering, the number of problems that come with the idea of outplacement frequently outweigh the advantages. And while the developers themselves may work all hours that God gives (in all his forms) for a penance, the people at the top know a quick buck when they see one. I’m now off my soapbox, which is beginning to get a little worn out. Back to the figures. The real upswing in rates came, strangely, around Christmas time. This is usually a time where people are so busy wrapping things that they forget to hire people (that was my nice interpretation of what people are doing in the two weeks up to Christmas). The only skill to see a dip in rate around that period was Rational and that’s picked up again. With requirements last month around the 50 mark, and rates around the £49/hr mark (how very symmetrical) it’s doing well. WinRunner and LoadRunner have both been very popular with requirements hovering around the 100/mnth level and rates of £42/hr for WinRunner and £38/hr for LoadRunner. Mercury experience has been one of the greatest ascenders, leaping from only one contract in October to nearly 70 last month. In January this year there were 28 postings and then in February it soared to 66! (My thesaurus is running out of synonyms for going upwards quickly). Rates-wise, you could expect anything from £33-£40 per hour. Automated testing tools generally have shown a very good upcurve too, with rates going from nothing mid-last year to around £35/hr now. Demand isn’t huge, but there’s still around 60-70 contracts posted per month. If you forget the word “automated”, the phrase “test tools” gets you an even better rate (around £37/hr) if you include it in your CV or search criteria. Having said that, last month there were over 60 contracts posted that required automated test tool experience, compared to only 34 who asked for test tools alone. What search criteria should you put in your searches when looking for a new contract in testing? Which of the words: test, testing or tester is the best to use? Currently, 1,380 contracts were posted that included the word “test”, 850 included the word “testing” and 450 included the word “tester”. As for rates, there’s very little difference. So – if you’re willing to pick through lots of job notifications, just put “test”, however if you want more focussed roles, it looks like there’s enough contracts around at the moment to allow you to be a little picky. So – I hope this all helps. Before I go for the blatant advertising, I’ll let you know what next week’s article is going to cover. Well, we’re going to the MAX! What are the highest rates offered in various skills and locations and how far are they from the norm? Just to give you a taster, maximum rates for C++ have dropped from £81/hr in Jan and Feb this year to £75/hr now. VB is at £69. You will be seeing these figures again next week, but I thought I’d let you see what you can achieve! So – if you’re looking for a contract go to www.servalertz.com. If you have any requests for analysis of skill sets or locations, let me know at alan.potter@webalertz.com. I’m always open to requests. Until next week, happy testing! Alan www.webalertz.com Apr 22, 2004 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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