Q&A with an IT Contractor

If you’ve read my recent ITC Made Simple series, you’ll know that a lot of work goes into becoming a successful IT contractor.  In my latest article I wanted to talk to someone who was already experienced in the contracting world to see what more we could learn about securing longevity in ITC.

Piotr Krzyżanowski began his IT career in 2005 when he joined telecoms giant Orange Polska on an internship. Graduating from the University of Warsaw with a Telecommunications degree, he found himself in the Quality Assurance (QA) department and has been in related positions ever since.

In 2012 he made the move to contracting and hopes to stay there for the foreseeable future. Here’s what he told me about his ITC experience when I spoke to him recently:

1. What first attracted you to contracting?

What first attracted me to contracting was the independence it offered, I am able to choose the projects I want to do and the clients I want to work for. In the past, Polish companies only really used to hire people on a permanent basis, but around 2012 (when I became a contractor) the situation began to change and they became more open to hiring contractors. This made it the right time for me to make the move. Of course it’s always nice to earn a bit more money as well!

2. Do you feel like your skills will be in demand in the future?

They will be in demand definitely. More and more companies are launching IT projects and as such this creates more opportunities for QAs and Testers.

Personally I try to keep up-to-date by reading books and blogs, participating in conferences or gaining new certifications. ISTQB provide a good path for progression, from foundation up to expert certifications. They have even started offering Agile Methodology courses – but from a QA perspective.

3. What are the IT trends affecting your area of work?

For me the main trends are Agile Methodology and automation. More and more projects are working on Agile Methodology and I’ve even seen Agile principles seep into general working practices, such as stand-up meetings and iterations. In my line of work more and more tests are becoming automated and I think automation engineers will be in high demand in the future. As such I am looking to get more confident in this area – as a technical person I like to keep up to date with the latest innovations.

4. What’s the most exciting and rewarding project you’ve ever worked on?

I worked on a very demanding project for a pharmaceutical company back in 2010. This was a migration project from an old system to a new one with three streams for the QA: 1) testing the graphical user interface 2) testing the migration data from the old to the new system 3) testing the interfaces between the old and new system in the company environment.

People from all over the world worked on the project: Australia, San Francisco, Poland, the UK, Switzerland and India. This made things interesting, with the different cultures and working hours in the mix. We had a team of 30 testers in Warsaw, which is massive! Of course the coordination of such a big team is always an issue-there was huge pressure on completing this project on time so there was lots of work, overtime and travel. The demands were great but these were matched by the rewards of the experience!

5. How do you deal with your taxes and personal administration?

To budget, each month I start with an estimate of how many days I will work and how many I will have off, taking into account possible sick or personal days. What’s really important for me in my current company is that even if I’m not in the office for a day or so my manager will let me do flexible hours so I can make up the time and maintain my pay.

You can pay tax quarterly in Poland and I use a Book Keeper to help me with this and other legal stuff. You need to understand how much you must save in your account each month to pay your taxes so there are no nasty surprises. Like with any pay cheque it’s tempting to spend all the money at once!

6. Have you ever taken a project outside of your home country?

I’ve never worked outside of Poland but I have worked on a number of projects that have involved multi-national teams. In all of these the working language was English – so it‘s clearly important to be proficient if you want to work internationally. I also speak a little German and there lots of offers for people in Poland to work in German/Swiss/Austrian companies if they are fluent. Sometimes they only require you to speak English with a view of teaching you German in the longer term.

7. How do you integrate yourself into a new team when you start a project?

The first and most basic thing is to get to know the system you have to work on and the business processes behind it. I ask more experienced team members to help me with this as they have the knowledge. The other thing is to get to know the team I will work with – what their processes are, rules, practices etc. Preparing before your start date is important but you do your real learning face to face.

8. How difficult is it to find your next project when you’re at the end of a contract?

The market is very strong for IT projects at the moment so I haven’t had any problems finding new ones. I’ve been lucky to work on multiple projects in the same company since I became a contractor and at this point in my career I would turn down offers if the company or project didn’t suit me.

Networking is really important and I would ask my contacts about a company and how innovative their projects were before I would accept an offer from them.

A lot of IT people have good technical skills but soft skills can really make a difference in getting recommendations and getting hired. You don’t work in a silo and need to be approachable and work with different non-technical departments to achieve results.

9. Have you ever used recruitment companies to help you find work?

I have worked with Hays since I became a contractor and using a recruitment company is a plus because if you’re turned down for a project or not selected from an interview they can easily find you a new opportunity. They have multiple offers available from many clients, so I always have options. If you’re looking for yourself, it’s not like this – you have to start all over again.

They can also act as a filter at times when there are too many offers on the market – picking the best one for your profile based on direct information from the client which you wouldn’t be privy to. This saves you a lot of time.

10. Do you think you will be a contractor for life or would you ever consider moving back to perm?

Right now I would be a contractor for life, but who knows in the future! Independence is most important for me and once you get the contracting experience and the great benefits it’s hard to go back.

11. Do you have any tips for someone looking to join the IT contracting world?

To be a good contractor you need to have really good skills. Be experienced and have lots of projects behind you before you make the move. Start your career in a perm role to grow your skills and take every opportunity to go to conferences, get certificates and work on different projects. When you’ve got the skills, just do it!

Feel free to connect with Piotr on LinkedIn to check out his experience to date. You can also get in touch with one of our local recruitment experts to find out how IT contracting could work for you.

Hopefully you found this blog interesting. Here are some related articles which you also might enjoy:

• 3 tips for finding your next IT contracting project
• 3 necessary steps to becoming an IT contractor
• 3 questions I’m always asked about IT Contracting
• 5 ways to ensure the success of your IT contract
• 6 countries, hundreds of IT contracting opportunities

 

Share this blog: