VB SQL Server Contracting

RicardoSmith

Handbags at dawn I reckon. BanjoDanjo mail me will yah. I wanted to find out about your new "project"....if you are who I think you are. Never was any good at cluedo. No point PM'ing you 'cause you'll be banned.

Oh and thanks for bringing up the painful subject of my Honda...sniff...sob...will the pain ever go away.. Still my licence is much safer now :eek:


Personally I think your both right and wrong. (Hows that for fence sitting?)

Can you use too many smilies?

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by BanjoDanjo
Whitewashman,
Sounds to me like you have a problem with somebody keeping a secret from you.
Sorry about that.
You'll ban me,
Who has the power now
I don't think i've said anything that deserves banning for. do you?
By the way,
Some of you here know me personally. Not telling you my name though beacause of the abuse you guys hand out.
I'll give you a bit of proof, since people have to PROVE things here.
Ricardosmith, you used to drive a Silver honda and live in Castleknock. Think of all of the contaractors you know, especially the non-irish ones and there are a few and let whitewashman know that i am speaking fact.

i dont have a problem with secrets, i just hate knobs.

im not too bothered, because im not in the contracting game,and i dont live in ireland, so what you get up to is of no concern to me.

as i have said, i do get hot under the collar when people come on here and tell everyone how wonderful they are, and yet when pressed will not reveal any details, just keep spouting the same rubbish.

and as for people knowing who you are, well, so what?
does it matter? do you think if i knew who you really are id give a fúck? youre still doing the same thing, telling everyone that you can get great contracts and not actually telling anyone about it, and not giving any details.

by the way, your proof sucks. it tells me that you vaguely know someone here. i could tell you better things about most of the people that have posted to this thread, that doesnt mean i know all about contracting.

as for who has the power, well, as long as i dont have to read any shíte from you, i dont care what you do. as for being banned from the work forum, its hardly going to cause you life problems, but if you do have an issue with it, then feel free to chat to god or your local TD or an admin.
i warned you. yeah. im being harsh, but you know what, its friday, ive got a lot of work to do, and i have yet to win an award for being nice...

candowilldo

Let me guess whitewash.
you got bitten by a contractor when you were young and now you detest them. fine for you, but i thought this was a discussion forum. you had no grounds for banning that guy (if indeed you did ban him). all the same it wouls be interesting to read more about contracting. in my company i am the only full time developer. the rest are contractor. bastards get paid a fortune , but i guess they know their stuff and theyll move on when they are finished and leave whats left to poor old me.

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by candowilldo
Let me guess whitewash.
you got bitten by a contractor when you were young and now you detest them. fine for you, but i thought this was a discussion forum. you had no grounds for banning that guy (if indeed you did ban him). all the same it wouls be interesting to read more about contracting. in my company i am the only full time developer. the rest are contractor. bastards get paid a fortune , but i guess they know their stuff and theyll move on when they are finished and leave whats left to poor old me.

ive never done contracting, nor do i wish to.
i have nothing against contractors.

have you actually read anything ive said.
i said i dont like people coming on here and not giving out details or help.
as for banning, yes i did, and its nothing to do with you.
you can talk about contracting all you want, ive never said there cant be discussion on contracting.

please, before you get on your soapbox, read what has been said already, and if you have any further queries, please ask.

candowilldo

Oh Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze pop a chill pill whitewashman.

To the other people reading this

I saw a VB .NET contract on one of the Job sites in Dublin for €250 per day. Is this a normal rate for contracting in Dublin.

RicardoSmith

Its about average I'd say. Though they'll probably be looking for 5yrs+ of .Net experience for it : )

candowilldo

Yeah i noticed that.
You might need a time machine for that tough.
Imagine your CV.
2002 .Net X 4
2003 .Net
equals 5 years.
No other way to do it that i can think of

candowilldo

By the way Ricardo,
do you know know any contractor besides yer man.
If so what experience have they?
I'm getting really pissed off watching those guys drive their sports cars and want some of the action.

madman

Cando - It has gone very quite in contracting. I used to contract but left it late last year as the rates are now half of what they were.

candowilldo

madman,
Are you by any chance a java contractor?
the only reason i ask is that i have a lot of friends who were java contractors and they tell me the contracts have dried up alright.
Some of them have been out of work since last april and may.
But all the .net guys are having no problems whatsoever.
Even the pure vb guys are getting contracts.
This is why i want to move into contracting.
Possibly even use it to travel, but thats probably not an option with the world climate the way it is.

madman

VB, Java, ASP - VB contracts are appearing but are paying around 9 Euro an hour less now than they were in July of last year

candowilldo

hi madman.
What kind of money are you seeing in the contracts?
€9 less an hour than a lot of € an hour is still a lot lol

madman

About min 170 EURO a day to 240 a Day

You have to also take into account that you do not get paid for holidays, sick days or bank holidays
No Health care, no pension
No security and you have to have a nice amount of cash in your account to go and try to get a mortgage or car loan.
You also have to pay an accountant.

So my point is that

52000

- 14 holidays 2800
- 5 Bank Holidays - 1000
- 2 sick days - 400
- health care - 450

= 4650


So then you are down to 47350

Then take away your accounts expenses, your training costs and the days that you may not work due to movement between contracts then you will then be on almost the same salary as a permanent.

candowilldo

But what about €1.08 expenses per mile.
VAT back on the major overhall that all of my computer equipment needs.
I can do the accounting myself.
I take your point about the holidays and sick days though.
But what about taking a month off between contracts and going on holiday then.
Altho you can't take a day off to wait around for the likes of eircom or chorus without losing money too

rander00

Can ye contractors tell me what it is exactly ye do be contracted to do?? What work do you be doing that someone would pay you E250 a day??

And what advice would ye experienced computer industery workers give to a student like me debating whether i shud go back to college to finish my degree?? Ive a cert in S/W development.

I`d like to work with networks or databases, is there much work out there for network technicians these days??

RicardoSmith

candowilldo - yes.

Only people gettting contracts I know of, are established contractors, going back to previous clients. Still getting ok money. These are guys with 5-10yrs of solid programming and mainly pure VB/SQL not really even asp that much. I know very few people with .net and again they are looking for people with mega experience who can do everything and are not just specialised in one area. Again you are talking about guys with 5-10yrs experience, and they are looking for people who can be business analyst/programmer/dba designer for high end projects.

There seems to be a few minor roles here and there but very few and they are advertised for so long that I suspect most of them aren't projects that are on the long finger, if they are actually real roles.

I know of no one who has recently got a permanent job, and a lot of people I know have left the country to go travelling or to work in the UK. Hence avoiding the issue.

rander00 - at the moment its hard to get work without having a computer science degree. From someone who doesn't have one (my degree is in something else) I'd say the wider computing knowledge you get from a good compter science degree wlll stand to you in any programming work/job you do. Also as for other IT roles a porfessional certification is becoming a requirement too. You'll find it hard to get a job without one. Unless you can demonstrate mega experience.

dazberry

From the Delphi corner of things 3 jobs and 2 contracts have hit the market within the week, all real - and I'm in for them all

I'd say its just a blip though.

D.

yop

Well if ye get any VB jobs going send me the auld pm.

cheers

candowilldo

Good news.
Had my first Contracting interview today.
6 month asp vb sql server .
Thought it went very well.
Although they told me they had a few more to interview.
Asked for E350 on the advice of contractors im currently working with.
Fingers crossed

RicardoSmith

Let us know the outcome won't you!

long_b

Crikey - is it on me or is everyone looking for Oracle contractors these days ?

Looking for a contract at the mo ... things is tight ...

candowilldo

Hi
Not that anyone is checking this thread anymore but
i got the job.
didnt get quiet as much as i asked for but close enough.
have to set up a company now.
does anyone know anything about that?

dazberry

Originally posted by candowilldo
Hi
Not that anyone is checking this thread anymore but
i got the job.
didnt get quiet as much as i asked for but close enough.
have to set up a company now.
does anyone know anything about that?

Well done - hope if goes well for you.

You don't have to set up a company, you can setup as a sole trader and register for VAT. However if you are going via an agency then they may want you to form a limited company for liability reasons.

Anyway, the quickest way is to buy an off the shelf company from one of the company formation places in the Golden Pages. It is easy to setup a company with the forms from the companies office but it can take a short while to get everything sorted and that might not suit you - although it is much cheaper.

[Aside]
All the Delphi jobs (see my previous post) disappeared - grr.

D.

candowilldo

Thanks for the advice Dazberry.
I called an accountant friend, so he'll look after the money end of it for me.
Seems like i get mileage as well.
I forgot about that one.

yop

Well done Candowilldo.

My 10 cents is that if you are doing a short contract (3-6 months) then if the agency are willing to do the tax for you then it saves you a lot of hassle and the pay you into your account. Admittedly they will take a percentage of your daily rate but it saves you from setting up the company and doin the accounts

But if you intend to keep up contracting for a while regardless of the lenght, then you are as well to setup the company and put EVERY expense through it. You will work out better off in the long run and also setup an account so that you can put some money into it to pay your tax at the end of the year

Best of luck with it

vb_wannabee

Don't know if anyone is checking this anymore but what the hell. I've been doing VB for about 2 years now and am seriously tempted by contracting, if for no reason than to get out of the dead end job I'm in now. 2 years may not be much but I reckon that if I pass the MCP / MCSD in vb, I could go for it.

Any advice out there ???

boo-boo

If you're in a permanent job now is NOT the time to try contracting IMHO, esp. if you've only 2 years experience - regardless of the certs. In this context certs count for practically nothing. You'll be competing against people who have 6+ years experience- typically they'll also have a good network of contacts so they 'll get fixed up in a job before you even know that job is available.
Also the guys you're competing against will have a contracting history with agencies / employers. Its very, very hard to break into this at the minute. It should be easier to get into a permanent job for you- also the certs might have some value to an employer here.

Theres a chill wind a blowin' at the minute, I know - I'm getting my a$$ frozen off.

vb_wannabee

Hope they will. Feeling the wind myself. It turns out that Microsoft are terminating the VB6 exams in June next year with the MCP / MCSD qualifications being terminated about a year after that, to add insult to injury. I guess it's .Net or nothing as far as they're concerned.

Anyone out there tried the VB .Net exams yet ??

shabbybaby

Hello wage earners.

Guess if you were as qualified as me, you would not be talking about low pay, but then again, i am a woman, earning almost double! And i do work for it as i am on top in this IT industry.....

Wanna challenge me?

damnyanks

To what ?