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Bok wrote:
> On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 23:42:25 +1300, K & S wrote:
>
>
>>Well just found out that my neighbor has..
>>From the US and retired at 37 or less.
>>So their is money or was in programming, but may be not here.
>
>
> You can earn good money overseas (in software development or consulting),
> especially on short term contracts. It's easier for younger single people
> to do this, not so good for families to uproot and live out of a suit
> case. I know of several kiwis that were earning around 800 pounds a day
> contracting in London a few years back and similar amounts contracting in
> other EU locations (none have retired yet that I'm aware of). It appears
> to be much harder to get well payed permanent IT employment in the UK.
[snip]
> living. However, some people I know have done very well over there. It's a matter
> of being in the right place at the right time.

Two relevant URLs:
http://www.jobstats.com
http://www.jobserve.com

IR35 has made contracting more difficult in the UK for Brits. But as a
Kiwi and not domiciled in the UK it is possible to avoid it. The trouble
is that most UK agencies do not understand this.

There are similar rules (to IR35) in place in the USA, which have been
in place for much longer, and consequently there has never been the same
USA independent computer services contract market.

BTW the best support contract only rate I have ever seen was, a
contractor in Frankfurt in 1999, who arranged a contract, where if he
was called out of hours, he earned double time for a minimum of 6 hours.
The net result was that he logged more hours a week than there are hours
in a week! His earnings were in excess of 10,000 GBP a week. The
contract only lasted 6 months. Having said that, there were a number
(200+?) of contractors in Frankfurt at the time, who were earning in
excess of 5,000 GBP a week, who's contracts rolled over for 2 years or more.

These numbers may seem large but at the time the big (American)
consultancies were charging 1,500 GBPs a day for a newly qualified
graduate and 2,500 for a team leader. Partners were charged at far more.
So an experienced independent contractor at 1000 GBPs a day with another
10% to the agent were cheap meat for the banking clients.