Where is the ad?
Link please (rubs hands together with antici............pation)
The government is hiring an IT cloud director at a cool £1,000 per day, for a bod proficient in Microsoft cloud systems – and just about every other form of enterprise IT. The advert did not specify which department it was advertising for. However, at £1,000 per day over a six month period, that comes to a total of £150,000; …
Unless you had your secretary post this request, you don't stand a chance.
The ideal candidate will do nothing except hire third parties and outsource outsource offshore outsource.
We all know it.
As soon as anyone's "IT Director" it means they know nothing except how to go to the same school as the CEO.
"And yet it will still end up being filled by someone with a resume full of lies and no ability to prevent all the politics that will derail any project he is tasked with."
that was going to be my strategy: blag it, new laptop, big monitors on desk, comfy chair, enjoy life, a few fact finding missions somewhere warm and sunny, rake in the cash as fast as possible until it's obvious even to uk.gov that things may, just possibly, be a smidge overdue, exit with a golden handshake for personal reasons as the price of not rocking the boat, then with reputation and cv enhanced, automatically be shortlisted for the next one on an even bigger package
I predict the person who has (already) filled this post (what ? You *really* thought this was an above-board business) doesn't have security clearance, and
has proven knowledge and experience of operating within a Microsoft private cloud system system, plus proven knowledge in non-Microsoft technologies, such as Agresso, Cisco core networking, NetApp Storage, and HP Blade Centre and Compute.
There are a few of us who tick all those boxes and have SC. Ever wonder why some of the guys working in the City earn good money (or 'outrageous money' if the tone of the article is anything to judge)? Because those that do are usually polymaths with a lot of of depth and breadth of experience. It comes from working in the Engineering rather than Operations teams within the larger multinational banks- you have to have that experience to just do the day job or no one would be able to get cash out of the ATMs.
But, I personally wouldn't take a 6 month contracting gig- I make the same without needing to find a new gig every 6 months. Then there is the fact it's government- it's not the skills that are the worry with this job, it's the belief that in 6 months, a skilled person can turn the ship of a bunch of civil servants who are very vested in their own pet stacks and projects and get them on board. The skill not listed there is 'messianic diplomat' because you'd really need that. Or hypnotism. Or lots of cake.
Also- it's not that expensive. Professional Services for most of the vendor technologies listed is between £1200-2000 a day- and I know of projects within SIs and Government where those are multi-year agreements with quite a few people in from those vendors. It's a drop in the bucket- and it's part of the Russian doll effect of outsourced IT pricing- the guy who gets the salary usually ends up with less than 10% of what was actually paid to the first tier outsourcer for the role leading to a warping of the perception of the cost vs the reward for a job. Good on them for going direct.
"I personally wouldn't take a 6 month contracting gig- I make the same without needing to find a new gig every 6 months."
Contracting is not the same as having a permanent job, some of us like the idea of changing jobs frequently - and the tax a contractor will pay on 300k a year (face it there will be at least one extension on this contract) will be much less than a permie would pay!
Candidates must have proven knowledge and experience of operating within a Microsoft private cloud system system, it said. However, they should also have proven knowledge in non-Microsoft technologies, such as Agresso, Cisco core networking, NetApp Storage, and HP Blade Centre and Compute.
Translation: We've bought all the above technologies because we were dazzled by sales representatives and now we need somebody to cobble together something useful from them, or we'll be indicted for improper purchasing.
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"And for six months work the lucky bod will be able to -e-v-a-d-e- avoid tax like the very dickens."
Avoid PAYE, they will still pay 30k in Corporation tax...
Then of course the 120 remaining attracts a 21% tax of £24,760
So close to 55k in tax assuming they take the money from the company in the same tax year...
As opposed to just under 54k if it was a PAYE wage...
They do of course save almost 7k in NI payments... but you said avoid TAX.. not NI so Im going to skim over that to make my point look stronger! :)
"An IT director who is directing operations for infrastructure and also overseeing development and design, with detailed technical knowledge of a whole series of platforms from Microsoft to non-Microsoft? I would pay £1,000/day for someone who could do all of that,"
easy. done that, still do it. give me a ring :-)
I'm enthusiastic about this... if he/she is successful, then maybe UK citizens with RFC2822-compliant e-mail addresses (i.e. all e-mail addresses from around the world that can happily be used for... errmmm... e-mail!) can register to use Government IT systems and not be told that their e-mail address is "invalid" - in other words, it's refused by Microsoft systems that are worried that it's somebody naughty, trying to use an e-mail address that might break the precarious and almost non-existent security of WinME, or whatever dated pile of Microsoft dog-crap is installed as the operating system running the public sector application that Joe Citizen wants to use.
I had a very surreal series of e-mail exchanges with a number of desk jockeys in HMRC, and from there to the Cabinet Office, as to why my e-mail address was "invalid"... using the same e-mail address to conduct the correspondence! In short, the answer boiled down to "Microsoft runs the world so we don't think IETF standards should have any relevance when taxpayers - who are probably terrorists - are stupid enough to try to use non-Microsoft software to register for public services".
Ahem.