October 23, 2017 at 9:05 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Gigging for a Career
October 24, 2017 at 1:35 am
I like the optimism of the Gig Economy article in the link. In my experience organisations hire contractors to fill short term gaps in resources. Unless they are hiring into management positions and for the explicit purpose of carrying out organisational change they aren't looking for people to shake things up a bit.
I have worked in a team tasked with carrying out a Big Data problem that consisted of myself, one other permanent member of staff and two contractors. It was extremely interesting from the point of view of the task however the politics surrounding the work was extremely toxic. There was a lot of resistance and advocates at management levels so much that we were buffeted from the fallout.
I don't know what other people's experience is but it strikes me that if you are chasing truly innovative and interesting projects you are going to be chasing a small pool in an ocean of standard issue tasks. The change comes from different colleagues, different company, different commute.
October 24, 2017 at 2:39 am
The gig economy is everywhere now and it makes me glad I'm not young and trying to build a career again as there is no job security for the youth of today. I'm a contractor now but with the cushions of years of experience as an employee and the money from that financial stability to live each year on last year's income until the dividends can be taken. I'm hired for specific projects and seem to have found most work in a sector in which I had a permanent role some years ago, so experience of the sector must be useful.
In contrast my daughter is struggling to make her way in the technical side of media where it is almost all gig economy and no security, even at the biggest players in the British media. For her, even renting a flat is not feasible, with no guarantee of income beyond the few months of a contract and pay only a little above minimum wage, so she is unable to build up that essential basic financial stability and she has to spend about three hours a day in her old car driving to and from work from my home.
I really don't envy the younger generation. At her age I had a secure job and a mortgage on my own home. Many of today's twenty and thirty somethings will never experience that.
October 24, 2017 at 5:40 am
For some reason, my second thought on the whole idea of someone coming in to a company on a "gig" position (very short-term contract, essentially,) teasing out some meaning in the data they're handed, then flying off to their next "gig," strikes me as the classic "Dilbert" view of a consultant. Zoom in at managements behest for something, generate a lot of pretty looking reports, then zoom out.
While I don't feel I fall into any of the categories that would most likely work "gig" spots that the article mentioned (Data Architects, Data Scientists) I feel that in order to generate meaningful information about a companies data, you need to have a better feel for where that data came from, what the business purpose of the data is, etc, than you could get on a "gig" time period.
Maybe I'm just a stodgy stick-in-the-mud who's never going to "get it," but I don't see gig jobs being something that's going to be around for a long time, not in any sort of professional field. I see them as more appropriate to the sort of jobs that tend to be "one and done," say for example landscaping (come in, lay out the landscaping, put it in, collect the check, off to the next,) taxi driving (using your personal car, maybe only weekends to make a couple extra bucks,) etc. I do feel a lot of the current so-called gig jobs, aren't (Uber, Lyft, that one that picks up your carry-out and brings it to you,) and that's going to get shown in court at some point...
But IT?
Probably not a good fit for "gig" jobs.
October 24, 2017 at 6:59 am
P Jones - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 2:39 AMThe gig economy is everywhere now and it makes me glad I'm not young and trying to build a career again as there is no job security for the youth of today. I'm a contractor now but with the cushions of years of experience as an employee and the money from that financial stability to live each year on last year's income until the dividends can be taken. I'm hired for specific projects and seem to have found most work in a sector in which I had a permanent role some years ago, so experience of the sector must be useful.
In contrast my daughter is struggling to make her way in the technical side of media where it is almost all gig economy and no security, even at the biggest players in the British media. For her, even renting a flat is not feasible, with no guarantee of income beyond the few months of a contract and pay only a little above minimum wage, so she is unable to build up that essential basic financial stability and she has to spend about three hours a day in her old car driving to and from work from my home.
I really don't envy the younger generation. At her age I had a secure job and a mortgage on my own home. Many of today's twenty and thirty somethings will never experience that.
Define media in this context? Would be interesting to know.
David.Poole - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 1:35 AMI don't know what other people's experience is but it strikes me that if you are chasing truly innovative and interesting projects you are going to be chasing a small pool in an ocean of standard issue tasks. The change comes from different colleagues, different company, different commute.
Sure, but it's all relative to the end user in what they consider truly innovative or interesting projects. In my experience, it's a small niche market of jobs.
I for one only work for organizations where the project seems interesting or innovative. I cannot just be a traditional DBA. I must be pushing the envelope in some way and or shaking things up with some new idea. Something I feel is not really in the gig experience unless for some reason you are highly specialized and a master at some specific domain area that no one can really fill. Other than that, it's just filling resource gaps for a limited time and that's it.
October 24, 2017 at 8:08 am
I wonder if this will grow. Like most of you, I think this is limited to a few narrow niche areas, but I also could see this as more than a few days work. There are plenty of BI people that essentially do this, but work on projects for months before moving on. I could certainly see a better set of eyes on some things, like building heavy ETL or designing a DW or extensive tuning (beyond finding what's wrong) in a company. We do this with consultants, but I wouldnt' be surprised to see more outsourcing of different parts of app dev as well.
I've done this in the past. I've come in to handle data conversions for a few weeks, or I've had friends come in for a few months of XQuery/XSD work.
I don't know this would be the majority of IT people (I doubt it), but I do worry a bit about this. Like a few of you, I'm glad that I'm closer to the end of my career than the beginning.
October 24, 2017 at 9:51 am
Thoughtful thoughts, as always, Mr. Jones.
I wonder if The Year of Reporting to the Office (my description of all the articles dissing working from home during the first part of 2017) is contributing to the Gig Economy. I am not sure...
You are correct about BI gigs running months and years, while performance-tuning gigs typically last weeks. They are two completely different markets with all sorts of mismatched characteristics. I agree that a large chunk of the job of an independent consultant is sales and marketing but, let's face it: If the gigs last longer, the percentages vary wildly. Shorter delivery cycles means one has to secure more gigs. Because a chunk of performance-tuning is in response to a server melting somewhere, causing a business to grind to a halt, a lot of that work is customer-response-driven. BI projects tend to run longer and are not operationally critical (at least not RIGHT NOW). One side-effect is BI consultants need less gigs to maintain cash flow. It's not fair.
For either tuners or BI coders, a good way to market is to present and write. Writing can be done right here! Or at a WordPress blog. If you write, gigs are easier to find. Many gigs will find you. (Ask me how I know...) Some reading this may smirk and think, "That's easy for YOU to write, Andy Leonard." That's true. There's a reason that's easy for me to write, though. And that reason is that I started writing right here at SQL Server Central back in the day. That article was written almost 13 years ago. 2030 is coming, folks. Are you going to look back on a similar link with your name in the by-line? If I can do it, I know you can. If you start writing, speaking will follow.
It's only the end of October, but if you make New Year's resolutions, why not make one to start a blog? You can get started right now and schedule your first post to go live 1 Jan.
Go ahead. I triple-dog-dare you.
:{>
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
October 24, 2017 at 1:41 pm
I'm not so sure about whether I work in the gig economy, but I've been a freelancer since mid 2008 (yeah, great timing, but I was fed up after a decade of work at a company where I felt underappreciated and misunderstood). 2009 was the first time and the last time I was out of work. I spent that year writing an article in a magazine, gained a lot of acquaintances and even friends through that one, decorated and fixed my attic, and spent a lot of time with my young son. I always considered it one of my happiest years.
Nowadays I spend the time between jobs as a holiday, but I rarely get more than 2 weeks, filled with interviews and all of the things i need to do at home (like painting stuff). Since my jobs usually last 6-12 months, that's very little overhead. But I am lucky: I work as data warehouse solution architect, data modeler, BI architect, ETL designer, etc. and can basically do all functions. I only refuse to do project leadership (yuck) and DBA-work (a specialty I'm not trained for and have no intention to start training for either - I'm a generalist).
The gig economy has enabled me to earn a lot more, and change my one employer of 10 years into 10 employers for a year. "For you, ten others" has been turned around. But I admit: I am lucky that my skillset is in high demand. It could have been otherwise.
October 24, 2017 at 1:42 pm
I'm not so sure about whether I work in the gig economy, but I've been a freelancer since mid 2008 (yeah, great timing, but I was fed up after a decade of work at a company where I felt underappreciated and misunderstood). 2009 was the first time and the last time I was out of work. I spent that year writing an article in a magazine, gained a lot of acquaintances and even friends through that one, decorated and fixed my attic, and spent a lot of time with my young son. I always considered it one of my happiest years.
Nowadays I spend the time between jobs as a holiday, but I rarely get more than 2 weeks, filled with interviews and all of the things i need to do at home (like painting stuff). Since my jobs usually last 6-12 months, that's very little overhead. But I am lucky: I work as data warehouse solution architect, data modeler, BI architect, ETL designer, etc. and can basically do all functions. I only refuse to do project leadership (yuck) and DBA-work (a specialty I'm not trained for and have no intention to start training for either - I'm a generalist).
The gig economy has enabled me to earn a lot more, and change my one employer of 10 years into 10 employers for a year. "For you, ten others" has been turned around. But I admit: I am lucky that my skillset is in high demand. It could have been otherwise.
October 25, 2017 at 2:14 am
I had a friend who left full time employment to specialise in IT training as a contractor. I've also got several friends who have done well in the contractor market. The one thing they all have in common is that they have a tremendously positive attitude. They are confident in their ability without being overconfident/arrogant. The idea of being out of work for a few weeks does not phase them at all.
As one of them put it "I'm a 55 year old woman operating in a young man's game and I have to turn down work"!
I also know a contractor who's attitude to contracting is based on the weather. When it rains he works, when it's sunny he goes rock climbing. In Wales it rains often enough to be a financially viable strategy.
October 26, 2017 at 8:56 am
It's expensive, risky, and unproductive for companies to continually lose and replace experienced staff. Smart companies understand that smart employees need variety and challenge, and they provide opportunities for staff to move between projects and roles within the organization. Failing to acquire, retain, and leverage IT talent is how companies become victims of Digital Darwinism.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
December 15, 2017 at 3:28 am
Eric M Russell - Thursday, October 26, 2017 8:56 AMIt's expensive, risky, and unproductive for companies to continually lose and replace experienced staff. Smart companies understand that smart employees need variety and challenge, and they provide opportunities for staff to move between projects and roles within the organization. Failing to acquire, retain, and leverage IT talent is how companies become victims of Digital Darwinism.
Still goes on. A major worldwide bank in the UK let go almost 300 IT staff. They then replaced them with almost 300 contractors. The Gig economy won't go away as in many ways it is dictated by the large companies. Hire a full time guy who wants large salary, sick pay, pension, etc? Nope, lets get a contractor in who we can let go whenever we want. Much cheaper.
qh
November 13, 2023 at 2:36 pm
One of the affects of the gig economy you all should be aware of is what I hear is a current trend.
I've been retired now for 13 years and living on SS and my investments. Through lots of my 42 years in IT it was pretty normal for employers to have profit-sharing plans, employee stock purchase plans and matching 401k contributions. I got my start building assets for retirement at one employer who contributed to a company plan, the best deal I ever had. When it began it was a 15% annual salary bonus, put into the plan by the company. By the time I left after eleven years, it had been reduced to 3%, but was still a nice deal. At the end I rolled it over to my first IRA. Other employers had matching contributions and stock purchase plans into my various retirement accounts.
I hear now that this is lots less common even for full-time employees but if available is a very good thing for your future. If not available, which is probably the case with most gig-type positions, you certainly want to take this into account. The things we hear regarding your SS prospects are not encouraging, so you need to care for yourself.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
November 15, 2023 at 4:35 pm
Necessity is usually the mother of IT consulting.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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