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Public Sector Jobs in IT

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  • 28-05-2010 4:26pm
    #1
    MungoMan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 353 ✭✭


    Does the state directly employ IT people (or do they always go to IT multinationals for software services)

    I'm thinking about technical IT people (software architects, web developers, project managers).

    I've only ever worked for the private sector.

    I never remember seeing an advertisement from a state body looking for example for a web developer, of a systems person, but then again, maybe I havent looked too hard


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    #2
    Webmonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 9,579 ✭✭✭Webmonkey


    I don't know, I thought the public sector mostly tendered out that work as contract work to private sector companies.


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    #3
    mewso
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 8,954 Mod ✭✭✭✭mewso


    Well I'm a developer for the public service. I started in admin and got promoted into IT. Over the years we have regularly hired on contract and bought systems from third parties but right now there will be nothing.

    If you want to know what it's like to work as a developer in IT for the public service then think being asked to do enterprise level applications in a week or so resulting in me writing code I would be embarrassed to show anyone, no planning whatsoever for anything, being driven by buzz (lets stick twitter on there), good ideas being pushed until they just about work well enough for the upper management bod who suggested it to stick it on their CV then left to rot. Finally despite 10+ years developing applications never being asked your opinion just being asked to do it yesterday. Still it's fun.


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    #4
    Webmonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 9,579 ✭✭✭Webmonkey


    Does sound fun but I not surprized that's what happens alright :)


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    #5
    bobbytables
    Registered Users Posts: 498 ✭✭bobbytables


    Neither am I, not in the slightest. Kudos mewso for confirming what we were already thinking. ;)


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    #6
    mewso
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 8,954 Mod ✭✭✭✭mewso


    Well as ever a bit of exageration in there for effect but it's exasperating at times.


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    #7
    BostonB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    If you want to work on legacy apps (think 10yrs+ Cobol and VB usually very badly written and even worse db's) and have some union scrote have veto on everything you do. You'd love it. Conditions are good work is so so. Its not that different from working in the private sector in a big corporate. Very different from a startup up, or software house.


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    #8
    MungoMan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 353 ✭✭MungoMan


    mewso wrote: »
    Well I'm a developer for the public service. I started in admin and got promoted into IT. Over the years we have regularly hired on contract and bought systems from third parties but right now there will be nothing.

    If you want to know what it's like to work as a developer in IT for the public service then think being asked to do enterprise level applications in a week or so resulting in me writing code I would be embarrassed to show anyone, no planning whatsoever for anything, being driven by buzz (lets stick twitter on there), good ideas being pushed until they just about work well enough for the upper management bod who suggested it to stick it on their CV then left to rot. Finally despite 10+ years developing applications never being asked your opinion just being asked to do it yesterday. Still it's fun.

    At least it's reassuring that people are asked to finish their applications "yesterday". I had the impression that in the public sector, people would be given weeks to do what should only take a few days i.e. inefficiency

    Good to know the taxpayer is getting value for money, and there are tight timelines.

    As a matter of interest, since the cutbacks and deficit reductions, have many public sector projects been abandoned/scaled back ?


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    #9
    dazberry
    Registered Users Posts: 2,150 ✭✭✭dazberry


    MungoMan wrote: »
    At least it's reassuring that people are asked to finish their applications "yesterday". I had the impression that in the public sector, people would be given weeks to do what should only take a few days i.e. inefficiency

    Good to know the taxpayer is getting value for money, and there are tight timelines.

    Ironically it's very unlikely applications "finished" "yesterday" will actually end up being value for money, and I'd go a step further and say that if an "application" has to be finished yesterday, it's already in some trouble.

    D.


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    #10
    E39MSport
    Registered Users Posts: 3,721 ✭✭✭E39MSport


    Most of their big projects are done through etender.gov.ie

    Fujitsu consulting, accenture etc are all over that.

    I wouldn't work directly for the public service if it was the last job on earth. I feel for the previous poster. I have direct experience of these organisations and the way they assimilate the poor b'tards that end up 'working' for them. It's a massive financial black hole and the sooner it's ended the better.


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    #11
    mickoneill30
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,073 ✭✭✭mickoneill30


    dazberry wrote: »
    Ironically it's very unlikely applications "finished" "yesterday" will actually end up being value for money, and I'd go a step further and say that if an "application" has to be finished yesterday, it's already in some trouble.

    D.

    There's a saying that fits there

    It can run quick.
    It can be cheap to create.
    It can be reliable.

    Choose any two :D


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    #12
    BostonB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    E39MSport wrote: »
    Most of their big projects are done through etender.gov.ie

    Fujitsu consulting, accenture etc are all over that.

    I wouldn't work directly for the public service if it was the last job on earth. I feel for the previous poster. I have direct experience of these organisations and the way they assimilate the poor b'tards that end up 'working' for them. It's a massive financial black hole and the sooner it's ended the better.

    Curious what you think is the alternative. Outsourcing and contracting hasn't been a shining example of thrift. I'm sure it will happen though and then in a few years shift back to in house development.


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    #13
    E39MSport
    Registered Users Posts: 3,721 ✭✭✭E39MSport


    BostonB wrote: »
    Curious what you think is the alternative. Outsourcing and contracting hasn't been a shining example of thrift. I'm sure it will happen though and then in a few years shift back to in house development.

    Hi There.

    I mean the financial black hole is the public service itself. We may have crossed wires.


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    #14
    BostonB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    You're in the wrong forum then...;)


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    #15
    DublinWriter
    Registered Users Posts: 9,557 ✭✭✭DublinWriter


    BostonB wrote: »
    Curious what you think is the alternative. Outsourcing and contracting hasn't been a shining example of thrift. I'm sure it will happen though and then in a few years shift back to in house development.
    I doubt they could attract the best and brightest of I.T. people in at CO and EO salaries.

    I'd say the current practise of throwing millions at the likes of Siemens, Accenture and Bearing Point will continue into the future.


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