Whats the job market in your area currently like?
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Hi I am based in London and was wondering (regardless of where you are based) what the health of the Web Development market is like in your area/country? Just out of interest. Cheers John
Hi John, I too am in London, and the market as a whole seems to me to be picking up, but very slowly. Check out www.jobstats.co.uk[^] for IT job market stats in the UK.
Dylan
[Bush] said he's praying for guidance about Iraq. I'm thinking there is no way God would direct him to start a war with anyone. Only Satan wants wars. Conclusion: Bush must be a Satan Worshiper. Cathy, Soapbox, 07/03/03 -
Hi I am based in London and was wondering (regardless of where you are based) what the health of the Web Development market is like in your area/country? Just out of interest. Cheers John
johncogan wrote: I am based in London and was wondering (regardless of where you are based) what the health of the Web Development market is like in your area/country? Our market is London web-dev and if you are willing to do things cheaply then there is plenty of business. If you charge the rates of the .com era then you can forget it. Here in SA it is not all that good. Still an employers market.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.
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johncogan wrote: I am based in London and was wondering (regardless of where you are based) what the health of the Web Development market is like in your area/country? Our market is London web-dev and if you are willing to do things cheaply then there is plenty of business. If you charge the rates of the .com era then you can forget it. Here in SA it is not all that good. Still an employers market.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.
Hi Paul Yea I am based in London myself but am from SA originally. Have been considering going back to SA recently (Been here 5 years too long) and looking for work there but the market aint that good there for localised work unless your an exceptional guru of every technology under the sun, at least thats what I am told... How do you guys manage to secure overseas contracts when based overseas, must be a little difficult to liase with the prospective client?
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Hi Paul Yea I am based in London myself but am from SA originally. Have been considering going back to SA recently (Been here 5 years too long) and looking for work there but the market aint that good there for localised work unless your an exceptional guru of every technology under the sun, at least thats what I am told... How do you guys manage to secure overseas contracts when based overseas, must be a little difficult to liase with the prospective client?
johncogan wrote: How do you guys manage to secure overseas contracts when based overseas, must be a little difficult to liase with the prospective client? We have our sales office in London itself. It has some technicians for onsite work. Projects are analysed, specced etc. there and then the spec sent down here where we develop it and then send back to London. Communication is no problem. Time zones, culture, language etc. are very similar. We can undercut the competition which is really what clients are looking for (along with reliability these days.) As for SA jobs we are just hiring a new guy now. Analysist slash developer. Not an entry level job, about mid level experience, not a guru. Other than that though most places are staying with what they have or are shedding developers from what I have seen. Not sure what the story is for gurus vs. normal developers.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.
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johncogan wrote: How do you guys manage to secure overseas contracts when based overseas, must be a little difficult to liase with the prospective client? We have our sales office in London itself. It has some technicians for onsite work. Projects are analysed, specced etc. there and then the spec sent down here where we develop it and then send back to London. Communication is no problem. Time zones, culture, language etc. are very similar. We can undercut the competition which is really what clients are looking for (along with reliability these days.) As for SA jobs we are just hiring a new guy now. Analysist slash developer. Not an entry level job, about mid level experience, not a guru. Other than that though most places are staying with what they have or are shedding developers from what I have seen. Not sure what the story is for gurus vs. normal developers.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.
Hmm yea, but then SA in general has always been on the conservative side of things in terms of internet commercialisation (Which suggests that experienced web application developers are thin on the ground in SA ?!?). Government there hasnt implemented many plans to increase the usage of internet by your average Joe Soap at home like they do here or in the USA. Companies shedding developers, well that seems to be happening all over. Our company only a few weeks ago (Only has me and one other developer) had a round of redundancies. They were looking to get rid of one developer but after we argued our case they saw the light ;) but there are plenty companies getting rid of excess personell, developers or otherwise. Its like a mini-recession... I heard that they were going to be rolling out ADSL in SA soon as a standard option for broadband, is this true or not 'casue it would mean an increse (I hope) of internal business. With your companies method of doing business, nice job. It sounds like you guys are geared for this remote contracting as it seems to be taking off (if only slowly) more and more. BT for instance has moved most of its call centres to India because they can offer the same level of service at a much cheaper rate. Cant see why it cant work for new media in SA :) Ah well, one or two more years and then back to SA for me regardless of the state of IT, I need sun, boerewors and beach on my weekends ;)
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Hmm yea, but then SA in general has always been on the conservative side of things in terms of internet commercialisation (Which suggests that experienced web application developers are thin on the ground in SA ?!?). Government there hasnt implemented many plans to increase the usage of internet by your average Joe Soap at home like they do here or in the USA. Companies shedding developers, well that seems to be happening all over. Our company only a few weeks ago (Only has me and one other developer) had a round of redundancies. They were looking to get rid of one developer but after we argued our case they saw the light ;) but there are plenty companies getting rid of excess personell, developers or otherwise. Its like a mini-recession... I heard that they were going to be rolling out ADSL in SA soon as a standard option for broadband, is this true or not 'casue it would mean an increse (I hope) of internal business. With your companies method of doing business, nice job. It sounds like you guys are geared for this remote contracting as it seems to be taking off (if only slowly) more and more. BT for instance has moved most of its call centres to India because they can offer the same level of service at a much cheaper rate. Cant see why it cant work for new media in SA :) Ah well, one or two more years and then back to SA for me regardless of the state of IT, I need sun, boerewors and beach on my weekends ;)
johncogan wrote: I heard that they were going to be rolling out ADSL in SA soon as a standard option for broadband, is this true or not 'casue it would mean an increse (I hope) of internal business. ADSL is being rolled out country wide. But Telkom in their infinite wisdom are intentionally crippling it to eek out the last few years of their monopoly. Basically we researched ADSL quite a bit and found it is worthless for business here. IT has a 3gig monthly cap (uploads and downloads together.) The speed is good, but nothing like you can get in the UK. It is a good option for home users who want good speeds and were looking at ISDN/leased line. But not for business. johncogan wrote: Ah well, one or two more years and then back to SA for me regardless of the state of IT, I need sun, boerewors and beach on my weekends Well when you do give me a call and I will see if we having any positions available.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.
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johncogan wrote: I heard that they were going to be rolling out ADSL in SA soon as a standard option for broadband, is this true or not 'casue it would mean an increse (I hope) of internal business. ADSL is being rolled out country wide. But Telkom in their infinite wisdom are intentionally crippling it to eek out the last few years of their monopoly. Basically we researched ADSL quite a bit and found it is worthless for business here. IT has a 3gig monthly cap (uploads and downloads together.) The speed is good, but nothing like you can get in the UK. It is a good option for home users who want good speeds and were looking at ISDN/leased line. But not for business. johncogan wrote: Ah well, one or two more years and then back to SA for me regardless of the state of IT, I need sun, boerewors and beach on my weekends Well when you do give me a call and I will see if we having any positions available.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaMacbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.
"Telkom" - They are not much different from BT here, thier UK counterpart. They had a two year monopoly on the ADSL technology within the UK, and they buggered up every aspect of the service until recently when third parties were allowed to supply ADSL without having to keep to BT's Terms and Conditions. Ah well, these companies never learn. They could all take a few lessons from Sweden where almost every suburbian household has broadband or fibre-optic running past thier front door. Know a guy there who has a 10 meg fibre connection into his flat, thats just nuts ;) Ah well lets hope things improve for everyone concerned after bush and blair have finished throwing thier weight around... Cheers Paul, I'll contact you should I find myself at a loose end and wanting to move to SA sooner than later. I never know with this company I am at, each quarter brings the fear of redundancy along with the performance figures from the accounts department...;) BTW, Mark ShuttleWorth an OD of BlueGrass ? If so, small world it seems...