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| CURRENT SECTION :: News | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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Pay rates for top contract project managers are being dramatically undercut by an influx of less qualified ex-permanent IT staff starting 2008 as freelancers. Coupled with fears about the economy, price pressure from newcomers to project management has led its senior freelance practitioners to cut their rates by 35 per cent. While these veterans are more skilled, they are foregoing an average of £300 a day just to rival the newcomers – who are less able, less experienced yet lower priced as a result. “New project managers often under value themselves when new to market, therefore under cutting experienced contractors,” said Steve Pragnell, the chief executive of PM3, an IT project management agency, which produced the figures. “Secondly, the current economic climate has made it a buyers market. We are getting many more people approaching… [us] for work than we did last year.” Despite the “flood” of PM candidates, he told CUK it is “too early” to call whether they are more in demand now than they were when economic woes began last year. The agency’s figures, based on its survey of 500 project managers, indicate a looming price war in a sector of the IT jobs market which is now “oversupplied.” They also show more than two-thirds of respondents had more than seven years’ experience, while over half have been project managers for a decade or longer. These candidates are being muscled into working for less, but their future isn’t all doom and gloom: clients are still looking for “professional delivery specialists with a [good] track record.” “This should remain the priority of any business using outside project management professionals,” PM3 added. “Project Management is 95 per cent about experience, [and] yesterday’s consultants will always possess the most experience,” compared to the sector’s newcomers. However Mr Pragnell cautioned that because of the economic climate, “companies are looking to reduce project spend [so] they will take project managers at lower rates – therefore it is now coming down to cost not experience.” “Cost is becoming a more prevalent criterion when selecting [IT] consultants,” he said, “therefore competition is down to rate.” Feb 15, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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