Is UK IT doomed

[BlackenedBiker]

Just wondering what the thoughts of the readership on this were.

Are we facing an end to UK contracting, and if so how long do we have.

Also what are the plans of the readers in changing career?

[Andy2]

I will give it 2-3 years max till IT contracting in UK is finished

[digerido]

If we can clean the market up and stop seeing it as a quick buck but more of a career then I cannot see why the contracting market can't continue as before.

This is a start:

http://www.contractoruk.com/news/004556.html


Just my optimistic view...

[The Lone Gunman]

It is very much in the balance, but my feeling is that it will go the way of manufacturing. If there is a will to protect UK work and workers then it may survive. I am not sure that protection is possible, nor am I sure that we should enforce protection. Protection would get very complex and may have unintended consequences like losing the IT industry altogether.
The large scale and mainstream stuff will go offshore or cheaper imports will replace the locals.
Niche markets and specialist skills will survive and may even thrive.

I have no idea what I will do if I can no longer do this.

[BlackenedBiker]

In the company I am working in we have Ukranian, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Russian, Bangladeshi, French and UK.

I was brought in to manage off-shore team as I have had experience of that before.

I think that in the interim this will be a good area to focus oneself as there will be a requirement for this kind of liason.

In the longer term I am not sure what I should be doing.

Re-training would seem to be the order of the day.

So I will be warchesting for the next 5 years (or however long I can get sensibly paid work) and then re-training for a couple of years.

See you all on LawyerUK in 7 years time

[darmstadt]

In the company I am working in we have Ukranian, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Russian, Bangladeshi, French and UK.

Where I'm working they're all German except for me

[TimberWolf]

IT isn't a viable career in the UK and I feel sorry for newly indebted IT graduates.

[Moscow Mule]

Where I'm working they're all German except for me

Those Germans don't mind Johnny Foreigner, it's Victor, Jacek, Sanjay, Han, Alexey and Pierre Foreigner they don't like...

[Brussels Slumdog]

Europe IT Contracting is doomed

Just wondering what the thoughts of the readership on this were.

Are we facing an end to UK contracting, and if so how long do we have.

Also what are the plans of the readers in changing career?

1We have priced ourselves out of the market. The reason we have to charge so much is because we pay employer SSec,employee SSec+Tax between 40-
50%. The Asians and Americans don't have these high Social security charges.

Changing career will not help escape these high Social security charges.

2 The English language used to be our advantage but now it's becoming
our disadvantage. The French do not put up with my bad French but
we put up with foreigners speaking bad English.

Focusing on communication skills should be included in any future career strategy

3 The one one half of the IT market is too dependent on Multi National companies who regard a country as a sales area. They don't care whether you are British,European or foreign. The other half of the IT market depends
on the Public service. When governments wish to reduce spending then they cut Public service jobs.
Your new career should be neither Multi National nor Public service focused.
Invent a new programming language or work in pure development.

[sweetandsour]

I don't think that IT contracting will end completely but it will change to short-term specialist skills and there will be much less of it.

The advances that we have seen in worldwide connectivity over the past decade have meant that there are ever fewer barriers to getting work done more cheaply in a low cost location.

There is no way that you are going to stop companies taking advantage of that so you had better accept it and change or end up like the 2nd or 3rd generation unemployed in the former industrial parts of England and Wales.