[Info-vax] Contract Opportunity: VMS Developer

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Scott Dorsey
> via Info-vax
> Sent: April 14, 2019 12:13 PM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Contract Opportunity: VMS Developer
> 
> Kerry Main  <kemain.nospam at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >There are likely not going to be many software development
> >opportunities = anywhere to get USD $150 (CAD $200/hr) or in other
> >terms, CAD = $400,000/yr (2000 hr typical year). Big difference between
> >minimum wage = and what you were asking for.
> 
> As a consultant on a contract, you get no benefits, no stability, no
office, in
> fact you are paying out of pocket for many of the services that an
employer
> would normally provide.
> 
> Health insurance is likely not the problem in Canada that it is here, but
in the
> US it adds a huge chunk onto the costs that a consultant has to pay out
> instead of the employer.
> 
> On top of this, a consultant likely spends as much time doing overhead
work
> (like looking for jobs) as he does working, so that has to be figured as a
> substantial additional cost and somebody has to pay it so it's going to be
the
> employer.
> 
> So expect a consulting price to be between two and five times what you
> would expect to pay for an employee.  Sometimes I have seen it as much as
> ten.  If this is too much for you... then hire an employee and not a
consultant.
> 

I know very well the life and challenges of a Consultant. Also, the pros and
cons.

You need to have highly specialized skills that are relatively scarce in
order to get 3+ times what a regular employee gets. In Canada, a typical FTE
(full time employee) "loaded cost" (salary + benefits) is around CAD
$90K-$125K.

SAP types are not paid for being SAP "generalists". Their companies are paid
$2K+ / day for these resources because they have specific expertise in a
specific module of SAP. There are many, many modules in SAP which is often
why companies hire "teams" of SAP programmers (I don't agree with SAP
approach, but obviously many companies do).

OpenVMS programming skills are certainly not as readily available as Windows
or Linux programming, hence one can argue OpenVMS programmers should be paid
more, but at least here in Canada, there are few companies that will pay any
of their general application developers on any platform a rate that works
out to CAD $400K per year (USD $150/hr). 

> >Another tip - just because you sent one email to the staffing firm and
> >= received no response, don't assume there was no interest (ok,
> >actually = requesting CAD $200/hr would likely not receive much
> >interest).=20
> 
> That's a more or less normal rate for a consulting programmer.  Figure
that in
> the end he's actually making about what a full-time employee would make at
> $40/hr once he pays for the costs of doing business and general overhead.
> 
> Yes, you can hire someone offshore for a lot less, and there are cases
where
> that can be a win, and other cases where that can be a disaster.
> --scott
> 

Fwiw, regardless of their location, I have seen a small trend in a number of
companies to again start hiring senior programmers that really understand
and have previous experience in the business models of the applications they
are creating. 


Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com