As a precursor to this post, I should explain some of my employment history. I'm currently eight months into my fourth job since leaving university in the summer of 2010 (2:1 CompSci BSc from Aberystwyth). My first job in IT support lasted six months, followed by an 18-month stint in IT support and junior sysadmin (progressing from internal systems to production, and then operations support), then five months in a relatively high-end sysadmin. Leaving each job was a considered and rational decision, first because there were no learning/progression prospects, second because my move into operations support didn't go as planned (the company was a financial software company, and I very quickly found that the finance industry wasn't for me), and I was poached by my ex-CTO to join him in my current job. The upshot is that I have left each job for honourable reasons, but I'm concerned about the effect this has on my CV, especially to people who look at someone on face-value. I'm also slowly beginning to think that I'm more of an itchy-feet person than I thought, so I want to get some feedback on an embryonic idea I've had over the last few days. I've been seriously considering getting into consultancy/contracting (is there a difference?) when I eventually move out of London in a year or two (my current boss is aware of these plans and is happy with them - he actually actively encouraged me to formulate a long-term career plan), and I've always kind-of liked the idea of travelling. Given that systems/IT knowledge is relatively universal and transferable (my main area is Linux/LAMP admin, with AWS and Puppet experience and a good working knowledge of PHP), what kind of market is there for "alien" contractors across Europe and beyond? Is it a particularly hard market to break into? What should I be wary of? Personal circumstances apart (family, relationships etc) is there anything that could stand against me? Do these kind of jobs pay well enough to cover commuting/living costs? Lots of questions, huge topic, but forewarned is forearmed!
Have you considered the oil industry? My uncle has been rather successful and has travelled the world and has worked up to project consultancy, he bounces back and forth between firms as projects finish and that is pretty standard. He is currently in Kyrgyzstan, before that Panama, Dubai, Borneo and Kazakhstan along with many many other places. Plenty of jobs available for sysadmins, and I sure the travelling would help with itchy feet, plus changing companies is common. Just my 2p, hopefully someone with actually experience can chime in.
Yes they pay well if you're contracting (you'll be going out at £400-800 a day) but you'll need a steady supply of work to pay the bills. This means you may have to drop your rate down a bit to get some regular jobs. Consulting & contracting are 2 different things. You can take contracting like a temp job so you'll do a week here & there for maybe £150-250 a day or so. Consultancy on the other hand is where the big money is but you need to be good at business as well as you'll be spending a lot of time in meetings etc.
I know this is going to sound stupid, but you're at a good advantage in some ways because you aren't Indian. I know I couple of guys in your position that went to Uni and did similar things all with the goal that you are talking about now, high level IT contracting, and the Indian guys on their course were immensely jealous of the english folk because of the disparity in ability getting employed. Sadly it is actually true in reality. Contracting is a good choice for some people - it's a truly personal thing though. You have to be comfortable with a degree of instability, in that you are never truly secure in your job. As a result, you get paid higher and generally your time is much more flexible. One thing you need to be very aware of is a thing called IR35, that only really applies to work in this country though. It has big implications in terms of tax. The normal path as a contractor is to set up a limited company, you then take a base salary out which just pushes you into NI contributions (currently £644 a month but that will be going up), and then you take out around £36,000 in dividends across the year for the lion share of your pay, which are tax free for you but classed as company profits so the company has a straight 20% corporation tax fee. Before anyone says it, this is not tax avoidance. To avoid IR35, you basically have to work at a couple of companies across a year. It's to stop people taking advantage of the aforementioned tax breaks when really they just work for one company. My one concern is that you don't have much experience yet. Contractors who get the real money are generally the best in their fields (hence why they go contracting, best money + flexibility), so you may struggle at first. Put yourself out there, you may do well, be prepared for rejections, just part of the game. Premier Group are a decent recruiting company that may be able to find you your first contracting place. I'd be surprised if you got any more than £100-150 per day right now though. Don't take this personally, but as someone who uses contractors and knows the world quite well - you're probably not worth any more than that at the moment. I'd plump for another proper job for 2 years if you can hack it, and then come back to this. Two years just isn't enough time to get the experience that someone who might want a contractor is looking for in my view. As a result, I'm not sure you would get anything international right now, especially not without a more acclaimed university on your CV.
It's normal in IT to move around on a regular basis, internal promotion into third line jobs is often impossible in a realistic time frame. I now work in Public Sector where people tend to stay around longer (everyone's hanging on for dear life at the moment!), but before that I didn't stay at any company for more than two years. After that time I'd generally learnt what I could and was coasting at a steady level, so it was time to move onto a new job that moved me up my career progressions ladder. Any potential employer is going to look at your experience and skills to see what you can bring to their business, being young it's almost expected for you to be hungry for knowledge and that enthusiasm is what you bring to a job over other candidates. From what you've written there is a clear progression path in your career and you're builsing up your skills to get you into the area you want to be in. I can't help you with furthering your career as personally I'm a mainly a Wintel dude. All hail the GUI hehe.
