People often ask me, “How are the rates? Are they as good as
5-6 years ago? “. They do not
necessarily want to work as contractors, but are looking for a
confirmation that the IT market is good in general.
The logic is simple: if companies are willing to pay good
money to contractors, this means that the
new well budgeted projects are being created, which is good for everyone.
A medical patient is willing to pay to a famous doctor $500 for a five-minute
consultation.
Yes, he could have gotten an intern’s opinion for 50 bucks.
While there are free public lawyers, their famous colleagues
charge about $1000 an hour, and as we’ve seen on multiple occasions,
they keep their clients out of jail.
This applies to the software development as well. Employers could have hired a dozen
of consultants overseas instead of hiring such contractor… So are they wasting money? I do not think so. On a slow day such contractor may be just browsing the Internet, while ten Java developers in Bangalore are typing if-else statements at the speed of 20 words per minute. But
guess what, once in a while he can
suggest a solution that will save this employer tons of money by creating a
scalable and highly available system. And experienced project managers know this.
IMHO, high paid IT contractors will never extinct regardless
of flourishing outsourcing or
recessions. Their rates may go down 25-30% but eventually they come back as
long as you maintain your skills at the high and up to date level. Just read, write, code, attend professional
seminars, learn the hot technologies and … never stop. The rates are probably
10% lower today than 5 years ago, which is not bad at all.
You can say that you know a very experienced guru Joe Shmo, and he’s out of job for a year. There are only three
reasons for this to happen:
Joe Shmo’s rate is to high for this geographical area at the moment and he’s
not willing to relocate.The requested
rate does not match Joe Shmo’e resume, but he’s not willing to accept this
and lower the rate.
3. Joe Shmo’s skills became outdated while he’s out of work.
I’d love to hear some other valid reasons… Anyone?
Yakov Fain