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Interview for 1 Months Contract????

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    Interview for 1 Months Contract????

    I don't know about everyone else but I am struggling this year. I am 24 with almost 5 years hardware break/fix experience. I have worked as a Field Service Engineer for many of the biggest companies around the world and in previous years agencies were always calling me with Contracts. This year everything sucks. I have only had one contract that was meant to last 3 months and it only lasted a month. My umbrella company focused consulting screwed me up with the tax. I paid emergency tax on that contract and because according to them I had requested a P45 at the end of the contract from them, I was not entitled to the tax back from them and would have to claim it back from my next employer, now being my own ltd co.
    Anyway. Anyone else want to share the bitter salt? Recently was close to securing another 1 month contract, when I was told I would be interviewed for it. I asked how many other candidates were being interviewed and was told 4 so far. WTF. Why I am competing with 4 other guys for a one months contract. I asked the agency if my expenses and time would be paid, which they replied that it would not, so I just told them that it was not worth my time.
    I am not in IT hardware because I think its lucrative, I would have made more money delivering pizzas. I work with computers because I have a passion for cumpiting and networking. The only toys I had when I was a kid were a few broken 386's and a 486, that I got working.
    Then is all the posts requiring hardware/field engineers with skill in active directory, sms 2003, exchange server, lotus notes and ghost imaging + any hp or compaq certs beneficial, if thats not enough, Candidates with C?? or n?? security clearence preferred, or willing to undergo clearence. Anyone with defence or MOD experience is highly preferred.
    WTF are these agencies looking for, former soldiers that know how to connect a monitor, with knowledge of computing or networking, or maybe they think its cool to disguise a sys admin role as a hardware engineer role. Perhaps they are just looking for people with no computing experience at all, that just have all the security clearence. Maybe I will see Gordon Brown replacing the system board on my dell desktop in a couple of years.
    I am fully capable of performing a sys admin role, doing the active directory and exchange server bollo*, but I dont specialise in setting user permissions. I repair laptops, desktops, servers and printers, so why I get turned down for these supposedly field engineer is beyond me. Maybe, I should just make myself a guru techie/IT manager for every contract that I have worked on, and when its time for the interview, confuse the idiot interviewing me with everything that I know. Did that ounce. Some guy interviewing me asked a soft question, what software I would use to protect a network. Answer was Proxycap, or a combination of TORCP with Privoxy, for online gaming a hijacked socks 5 proxy server. Could go into it more, but confused the duck out of him. Did not get the contract, but embaressed him for his lack of networking skills.
    Sorry just spitting, the market seems really bad at the moment. If it is this bad next year, I will have to ditch IT for something more profitable. Sorry for ranting. Its not easy when you have a 8k course to pay off and your other half is planning to leave unless you can finance a house rather a cramped studio flat for the family.

    #2
    Not too well up on the hardware job market , think a lot of people on this forum are software guys and gals as well.

    If you dont do Hardware fix next year then what would you do ? Starting from scratch at your age is not a big problem , and if you think that there is no future in what your doing then change now , it will get much harder when you are older.

    In my last contract they had a lot of Cisco equipment (Not sure of spelling ) that nobody seemed to know how to fix it, they had to get someone in from an outsource company to fix the problem in the end.

    I only knew because I was an end user who was using the network ,I was passing some encrypted pipes through it and it stopped working , it took so long to fix that they had to extend my contract by another month but I think I was part of the problem as I was generating streams that were longer than their network would allow.

    Just looked on Google and they have a certification exam. www.cisco.com might be worth a look if you want to go that route

    Comment


      #3
      Sounds to me like you either (a) drive round in a van with 'PC Doctor' gaudily plastered on the side, or (b) you quit contracting, get a proper job where you can work your way up the ladder a little, learn a bit more and then maybe consider contracting again.

      Whatever you are currently doing is obviously not profitable.

      Comment


        #4
        It strikes me that you do have to sell yourself as a sysadmin type. I mean sysadmin and hardware go together. You've got to install the drivers and get them to work when you've put the hardware in.

        But I wouldn't have thought that would be a problem as most companies will assume being a hardware type that you can also do sysadmin.

        Embarassing the interviewer isn't a good idea , his question sounded perfectly valid to me. You could have just listed a few options to show your knowledge outlining the advantages and disadvantages.

        It you want to work you need to conform to the market. The other alternative which sounds good is the white van, with the gaudily painted "PC Doctor" (above). You sound like you could earn good money sorting out private pc's and laptops.
        Last edited by BlasterBates; 26 June 2006, 09:02.
        I'm alright Jack

        Comment


          #5
          I am not in IT hardware because I think its lucrative, I would have made more money delivering pizzas

          Interesting comment, rings a bell from erm , let see 15 odd years ago *I know* when a trainee joined an IBM Mainframe Data centre where I was working, it was his first job in IT and when his mother asked him how the job was , his reply was, Its a bit like an Electronic Pizza Hut ... I never forgot that gem.

          Anyway I came across this nice pos for a field engineer on Jobserve which might be of interest

          Field Engineer With European Travel Contract


          Field Engineer with European travel. Salary: 75k-81k per annum. Type: permanent. Location: Spain. Spain Field Engineer. Spain with European travel. This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Field Engineer to really get involved and shine. The client is the no 1 leader in telecommunication software. You will get your jobs sent to your laptop and it will be up to you to organise your day to day work. This role will involve European travel to Spain, France and Germany. You will be solely responsible for implementation and roll out of the companies software to their new clients. If you are an experienced Field Engineer and you would like the opportunity for some European travel. If you fit all of the above send CV today for interview this week! 4 years + experience as a Field Engineer implementations, installations, troubleshooting experience. Working knowledge of Servers and networks. Up to 81k + package.
          Location Spain
          Country Spain
          Start Date ASAP
          Rate 75k-81k
          Employment Business Eligo Recruitment Ltd
          Contact Joanne
          Email [email protected]
          Reference JS038
          Posted Date 23/06/2006 09:51:42

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by AlfredJPruffock
            I am not in IT hardware because I think its lucrative, I would have made more money delivering pizzas

            Interesting comment, rings a bell from erm , let see 15 odd years ago *I know* when a trainee joined an IBM Mainframe Data centre where I was working, it was his first job in IT and when his mother asked him how the job was , his reply was, Its a bit like an Electronic Pizza Hut ... I never forgot that gem.

            Anyway I came across this nice pos for a field engineer on Jobserve which might be of interest

            Field Engineer With European Travel Contract


            Field Engineer with European travel. Salary: 75k-81k per annum. Type: permanent. Location: Spain. Spain Field Engineer. Spain with European travel. This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Field Engineer to really get involved and shine. The client is the no 1 leader in telecommunication software. You will get your jobs sent to your laptop and it will be up to you to organise your day to day work. This role will involve European travel to Spain, France and Germany. You will be solely responsible for implementation and roll out of the companies software to their new clients. If you are an experienced Field Engineer and you would like the opportunity for some European travel. If you fit all of the above send CV today for interview this week! 4 years + experience as a Field Engineer implementations, installations, troubleshooting experience. Working knowledge of Servers and networks. Up to 81k + package.
            Location Spain
            Country Spain
            Start Date ASAP
            Rate 75k-81k
            Employment Business Eligo Recruitment Ltd
            Contact Joanne
            Email [email protected]
            Reference JS038
            Posted Date 23/06/2006 09:51:42
            Cheers for the support. Sorry if I came over the wrong way, in that post. I did see that contract on jobserve and applied for it. Never got a response to my email though. I can't remember if it had a phone number with it. I just remember thinking at the time, either its a fake or there is no way they would pay that much for someone in their twenties, after all it was seniour role. Defeatest attitude I know, but trying to work on it.

            As for driving a van with PC Doctor plastered on it. Good idea, would just use a car though. I would not mind working for private clients, if I knew other field engineers that did just that, as I would know how to deal with private clients. Say you see a client with dead box. You explain to them that the System Board broke. Easiest thing to do would be to take it home and order a replacement part, but they wont let you walk off with their pc partly because your a field engineer, so you order a compatible replacement board, come back there the following day and find that they took the box to pc world. What do you do with the replacement part that you paid for? If anyone does private client repairs, please give me a few hints on how to deal with these situations and a few hints. Cheers.

            Comment


              #7
              "I work with computers because I have a passion for cumpiting and networking."

              Is this a Gay thing? do you live in Brighton?
              How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Troll
                "I work with computers because I have a passion for cumpiting and networking."

                Is this a Gay thing? do you live in Brighton?
                How you got to that I'll never know.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by lORD lUCAN
                  How you got to that I'll never know.
                  It's a gift
                  How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Troll
                    It's a gift
                    Talented

                    Comment

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