IT Contracting in Ireland – What, Why, Where, How, and Who?

IT Contracting: What is it? Instead of being a permanent employee, relying on your employer to pay your pension and holidays, IT contracting involves providing your essential services to a company as a freelancer, charging a rate per day or per hour.  

Why do people do it? Flexibility. Choice. Variety. Freedom.

Contracting gives you far greater freedom than working in a permanent role. You can pick or choose the types of roles, locations, and length of work assignments.  Instead of trying to figure out how to spend 20 days holidays a year, or how to balance work/family life in a traditional manner, contractors can work for as long as they wish, and then take a break for as long as they wish between projects. 

As you are charging a day rate, you are self-employed, so you can configure your tax responsibilities in a way that works best for you, and with the rise in demand for key skills, there are far more options to work remotely instead of being stuck in the centre of a big city, spending time in a car/bus commuting for 2-4 hours a day.  Depending on specialisations, experience and education and type of role, top contractors can earn anywhere between €400-€1000 per day!

Where? Ireland! The Irish IT contract market is booming! Huge demand for hard to find skills – C#/.Net and Java Development, Dev Ops, IT/Cyber Security, Machine Learning, Solution architecture, Cloud specialists, PM’s, BA’s and all the rest. This is driven by the growth in the economy and the presence of so many of the worlds top IT companies in Ireland – Microsoft, HP, Cisco, IBM, Intel, Facebook, Google (Alphabet) to name but a few, and the growth in other sectors. Life sciences R&D organisations and Financial organisations are also very strong drivers for growth and this brings a rising tide across the sector. Excellent IT jobs are available from Donegal to Clonakilty and all points in between – in case you weren’t keen on Dublin 😉

How? Send in a CV! FRS works with a number of providers of services to the IT contracting market, and can facilitate your movement into contracting from fulltime employment as you wish. Trusted partners will happy to explain your options and suggest which ones would suit you best. We have previously been instrumental in helping people relocate from Australia to Ireland and have a track record in this area. FRS Recruitment is unique in being truly country wide and can work with you from any of our many offices – we don’t focus on one part of the country over another. We are hugely experienced in helping people to relocate to Ireland from all over the world, and we would be delighted to work with you too.

GDP growth of 4% is expected for Ireland for 2019, double the growth rate predicted for the EU and the euro area. Inflation in Ireland is expected to reach 1% this year and 1.3% in 2019, below the 1.7% rate forecast for the EU for both 2018 and 2019.  (The European Commission's Summer 2018 Interim Economic Forecast, July 2018) If you have been thinking about this move for a while, now is the time to do it!

Who? Together! FRS Recruitment and you can reach the right solution for you. If you are a skilled IT professional in any of the roles outlined above, and interested in contracting, please send your CV at noelle@frsrecruitment.com now! We’d be happy to discuss your options in more detail