Paul Dack's Blog

One of the first in ‘aspects’ of contracting I encountered when I started in 1995, was the comments from permie colleagues regarding my new status. In their eyes, I was suddenly earning vasts amounts of money and paying little tax. I responded to the these comments then as I still to today, "if it’s so good, why aren’t you doing it?"

In their eyes, I was suddenly earning vasts amounts of money and paying little tax.

These remarks were correct on several aspect of contracting, yes, the earning are higher and yes, generally you do pay less tax percentage than an equivalent permie role. However, what many permies fail to fully appreciate is the many risks involved contracting.

These risks take many forms, from HMRC legislation (IR35, Section 660a, BN66 to name but a few of the latest), zero job security, higher client expectations and the risk of your agency (as most contractors do work via an agency)  going bust.

I’ve been living with these risks since I started contracting but lately, I fell victim to the later of these – agency liquidation!

The writing had been on the wall for for a few years. The regular fortnightly payment schedule suddenly became erratic. Email and phone calls to the agency were either not returned or fobbed off with the promise of a "payment soon".

A few days alter and the agency enter into voluntary liquidation.

Things cam to a crunch in November 09 with several weeks invoice outstanding, the agency phoned me to inform that they would be ‘”relinquishing” my contract with the client.  A few days later the agency enter into voluntary liquidation. I ended up losing some ten weeks of payments with several other contractors losing similar amounts.

This is one of the risk of contracting and if it’s not something you’re willing\able to tolerate then contracting is not for you.

I never dreamed about being a software developer as a child (odd I know). I actually aspired to be a RAF pilot!  I had it all mapped out, join the RAF after leaving school at 16, become one of the country’s top fighter pilots. At 35, I would side step into commercial piloting, finally retiring at 55 on the combined big fat RAF and private pensions.

But alas, I failed an RAF eye sight test and my plan had fallen at the first hurdle.

To cut a long story short, I rather stumbled into doing a degree in IT. This move was based more upon that fact that I found computers easy to understand rather than any deep rooted fascination.

I left university in 1992, goodbye to the partying years, hello to harsh reality of building a career. It was at this point that I began to develop a deep interest and understanding of the magical world of IT.

Variety is the Spice of Life

To me one of the most fascinating aspects of my work is the variety. By that I’m referring to the different types of businesses that I’ve worked for. To be able to develop any IT system, you have to attain and understanding of how the current system works. This step gives a fascinating insight into the business processes involved in the operation of the company.

I’ve developed systems for clients across a multitude of different business areas. These include:

The toolset I was employing 3-4 years ago has pretty much been fully replaced or updated.

Another variety is in the constant and rapid change in technologies and methodologies utilised within software development. The internet has resulted in an arms race in development tools, each desperate to gain a share in the increasing (and lucrative) software development industry.

The toolset I was employing 3-4 years ago has pretty much been fully replaced or updated. All stages of software development have changed. Sure the basic principles remain, you still need to gather requirements, design, build, test, deploy and support any IT system but how you go about this has changed dramatically.

The Future?

IT in the 90′s was all about developing systems to run back office systems. The 00′s has seen an explosion in customer facing applications, delivered via the web. I think this trend will only grow as customers demand richer, more powerful applications.

I’ve worked on many business to business applications and this is where I see the biggest growth occurring. Web services and readily available telecoms allow businesses to remotely exchange data in a secure and rapid manner. This opens the way for a new generation of highly interconnected IT systems.

IT systems are becoming more and more complicated as projects become more ambitious. When it comes to contractors, clients are placing less emphasis on IT technical skills and more on business experience and communication skills. Long gone are the days of the IT nerd spending his entire day sat at a keyboard churning out code. As a result, youth and enthusiasm have given way to age and experience.

This shift in the industry works out very nicely for yours truly. I started contracting in 1995 aged 25 at a time when ‘youth’ was all the rage. Twelve years later and at the ripe old age of thirty seven, it’s experience that wets a client’s appetite. My youth may have gone by but experience is something I have in abundance.

AN exiled South Tynesider has extended his virtual reality kingdom – after receiving hundreds of hits through the Gazette.
We recently told how IT expert Paul Dack had launched the website www.JarrowLife.co.uk, to help Jarrovians around the world keep in touch online.
More than 130 people quickly signed up as members of the Jarrow website after reading our story, persuading Paul to launch two more websites, covering neighbouring Hebburn and South Shields.

Paul, 38, a contract software developer, living in Langstone, outside Newport, South Wales, said: “After launching JarrowLife.co.uk, several family and friends asked me if I would be doing one for Hebburn.

“My extended family is spread over Jarrow and Hebburn, with my dad and his family all from the town.

“I lived in Hebburn until I was five and later bought my first house in Sullivan Walk, and lived there for two years before moving down to Wales, so I have a lot of ties to the town.”

Also raised in Wuppertal Court, Jarrow, Paul used to travel back at weekends from all parts of the UK to visit his beloved home town.

He added: “South Shields is the closest town with a night life, so we all started our drinking days down there. I have many memories of great nights out.

“I also worked for the council’s beach control in 1993, dishing out deckchairs, and that was a very memorable summer.

“South Shields has always been the place that I, my family and friends would go to spend time, especially in the summer. I always go down to the beach whenever I’m home.”

People can click on to www.JarrowLife.co.uk, plus the new www.HebburnLife.co.uk and www.South ShieldsLife.co.uk

Below is an article from the Shields Gazette about a community forum website I run for my home town of Jarrow.

JARROVIANS around the world can now go online to keep in touch with people in their home town.

IT expert Paul Dack recently launched the website JarrowLife.co.uk, which has quickly become a popular forum for debate of all kinds about Jarrow.

Although he has lived in Langstone, just outside Newport, South Wales, since 2000, Paul remains as passionate as ever about his home town.

Paul, 38, a contract software developer, said: "I wanted to launch a website where people in and outside Jarrow could keep in touch, and couldn’t really find anything, apart from Facebook and other sites.

"JarrowLife.co.uk has only been running since June, but we already have more than 50 members, and I want more people to learn about the site."

Brought up in Wuppertal Court, Jarrow, Paul used to travel back at weekends from various parts of the UK to his beloved Jarrow.

He still has family in the town and is keen to get as many Jarrovians as possible to visit the website on a regular basis.

A married man, with two young children, Paul also plans to launch two sister websites, covering Hebburn and South Shields.

"I couldn’t find any forums about Jarrow on the web, so decided to launch my own.

"I would love to hear from more Jarrow people and get them to contribute thoughts, ideas and feelings about the town," Paul added.

JarrowLife.co.uk, which incorporates news feeds from the Gazette, covers numerous topics relating to Jarrow, including events, the town’s history, things to do, pubs and clubs, future developments, and much more.

People in and outside Jarrow are invited to click on to JarrowLife.co.uk