HP sucking up contractors

**raphal** · 13 March 2014, 12:22

Originally posted by GoodBytes View Post

I had a bad couple of years, before my current good contract. One company, England south coast, took me on to do software, and 80% of the work was testing. I left after 6 months. Then a permie job, another false job description and more testing. I walked out after 3 months. Then a permie job at HP, near Basingstoke. Worst job I've ever done, false job description, unbelievable bureaucracy, load of chiefs and few indians, bad software, awful.

Anyway, HP were taking on huge numbers of people, for various projects. I can't talk in any detail, but when I started as a permie, they took on ~40 contractors over a short period. I know quite a few left as soon as they could. I still get emails from agents which are clearly for that site.

It's an odd place, a bit like a holiday camp. They treat staff quite well, lovely canteen, easy work, very very easy work. If you like easy boring dull work and are happy to work on bad code it's for you. A permie who started a few months before me, and who I used to work with elsewhere, just walked out after less than 6 months, boredom apparently. I found a contract after 6 months, and left due to boredom.

It's not hard to see why so many big government IT projects go mammaries skyward.

The moral of my story is don't give up. If things look bad, they can turn around. My current contract is brilliant, nearly done 6 months, 6 months more guaranteed, decent rate, nice people.

Can u name the agencies who hire for HP contract roles ? If you can point to any active job posts that will be great!

**stek** · 13 March 2014, 12:55

Originally posted by raphal View Post

Can u name the agencies who hire for HP contract roles ? If you can point to any active job posts that will be great!

TEK Systems but you'd be mad to go with them.

**kal** · 13 March 2014, 13:17

Originally posted by stek View Post

TEK Systems but you'd be mad to go with them.

Aah yes, I was practically stalked by an agent from there when I applied for a role. He phoned me on the day of the interview to make sure I was awake and on the way there (it was a long drive to client site), then while I'm waiting I'm reception he phones me again. My phone went off twice WHILE I was in the interview (guess who), he then called again 15 minutes after I had finished and was In the car, later that day he phoned me again to deliver the good news of the offer, I turned it down...

**BigTime** · 13 March 2014, 16:04

Originally posted by raphal View Post

Can u name the agencies who hire for HP contract roles ? If you can point to any active job posts that will be great!

I believe Technical Recruitment - Engineering Jobs, IT Jobs | ARM belongs to HP.

**NorthWestPerm2Contr** · 13 March 2014, 16:22

Originally posted by stek View Post

TEK Systems but you'd be mad to go with them.

Yeah I wasn't very impressed by them to be honest.

**GoodBytes** · 13 March 2014, 18:34

Originally posted by raphal View Post

Can u name the agencies who hire for HP contract roles ? If you can point to any active job posts that will be great!

You can apply direct. That's how I was recruited. You must be desperate.

**Cenobite** · 14 March 2014, 00:04

I applied for a HP "contract" direct in December but turned out to be FTC so I turned down the interview.

**Sausage Surprise** · 14 March 2014, 08:50

I was outsourced to EDS/HP in 1995. By 2002 I really had had enough. It's a big trough if you're prepared to lick ar*e and accept the ridiculous bureaucracy.

**GoodBytes** · 15 March 2014, 07:56

Originally posted by Sausage Surprise View Post

I was outsourced to EDS/HP in 1995. By 2002 I really had had enough. It's a big trough if you're prepared to lick ar*e and accept the ridiculous bureaucracy.

Yes, it is the old EDS, feeding from big government contracts.

I've never seen such bureaucracy. On one occasion I spotted a trivial bug, a boolean attribute was not initialised. I had to create a document, describe the fault and describe the proposed solution. The document was reviewed. It was then forwarded to the change control board (a group including manager and testers) for review then approval. Once approved I had to design and create tests. These were reviewed. Then I did the work. Elsewhere this would take 1 hour if that, including code inspection to verify that it was done. At HP this took days. And the irony is that the code is appallingly badly written.

Some of the old hands, the favoured engineers, write huge amounts of code, poorly designed, not documented and full of bugs.

I wanted to understand a feature, and I was given the user documentation, 1,000 pages, completely unusable, even if it contained the required information, finding it was not possible.

Not surprisingly they are laying off staff, whilst recruiting, which I do not understand. I'm told they recruit permies with very good salaries, then give poor pay rises, and after 10 years you are poorly paid, and your skills have become obsolete, so you can't get work elsewhere.

HP sucking up contractors