H'mm the land of contractors and there pimp's.
You really have 3 people envolved.
You,the customer, company and the pimp.
I personally have never had a problem with the customer. I am quite happy and do put a quality days work in with minimal fuss and i tend just to get on with it and not bitch if i get given something to do which is below a sysadmins job spek. I have been in my time one of the highest payed removal men / floor sweepers in europe. But i have seen other people being screwed left right and center by them. And the amount of stress it gives them is huge sometimes i wonder why they stay as a contractor.
The pimp's are a evil which you have to put up with. They seem to pull there staff from a school of cheeky wide boys who are professional bull!!!!! artist's. I sometimes wonder if they even know when they are lying and when they are telling the truth themselves. Basically if they are going to make more money out of you, they are your best mate but once your placed you won't hear a peep from them until they muck your pay and you have to shout at them. And it's not unusal for them to earn between 15-25% on your rate per hour. Which i don't have a problem with on the first contract but if you get extended they don't do anything more for me or the customer.
The reason why i have found it good for flying is that it is very easy to take breaks to fit in courses and blocks of hour building. And the pay is good.
the pay
first line PC support /helpdesk 8 - 15 UKP/hr
secondline pc support /helpdesk 12 - 20
server stuff and network 15 - 35
unix support 20 - 40
These are just an outline and the rates are very dependent on the client your reputation and if you have any special in demand skills eg Orcale DBA etc.
Contracting has been good fun and has been a means to an end for me. I have been told i am crazy to leave it but everyone on this forum will know why.
So 1 month to go on this contact then load the car up and i am going to take 4 months off and get everything completed so the plan is MCC before xmas.
MJ