Informaticien (IT guy)

[Albert the infopikey]

I'm an informaticien, mainly working with databases and similar business IT systems. Been working freelance for 8 years, mainly contracting with big clients.

My French is pretty good (i've done translation work and a bit of business analysis in France) and I'll be moving to Brittany in a year or two (got to organise getting a house built.

What are the chances of

a) getting enough freelance work at a decent rate to make a reasonable living (say, 1500€ a month after cotisations, tax etc.)

b) finding a permanent job with at least 1000€ a month take-home pay

Those are both minima, and I'd like to aim much higher, but...

[Val_2]

The only place you will find such a good job in Brittany is in the large cities like Nantes or Rennes I'm afraid. We've seen one family move from here to Nantes to get such work, my neighbour an experienced IT man has been searching for work for over ten years and works as a night porter and a newly qualified son of our friends here cannot find anything. A local chap with many years IT experience started his own business four years ago and is finding it hard. These are all french nationals and highly qualified. 1500€ per month is  extremely high for rural Brittany and for a foreigner you would probably only qualify for the SMIC - 8,03€/hour in any other job. Do your homework well to a location before starting out, unemplyment is currently very high in France and there are as many fully qualified nationals with computer skills who would get first refusal at job interviews.

[Albert the infopikey]

Val_2 wrote "The only place you will find such a good job in Brittany is in the large cities like Nantes or Rennes I'm afraid."

Thanks. We've already decided that if need be we'll settle somewhere in SE Brittany to be handy for Nantes & Rennes, although I'd prefer somewhere like Paimpol.

You say you've "seen one family move from here to Nantes" for work. Where would "here" be.

I'm also quite prepared to travel if need be (I live in Gloucestershire and my last contract was in Glasgow) for contract work if the rate is right (better that 1500/m).

For a permanent job I'd be less ambitious (1000€ a month net would be nice). Thing is, I'm not a "retail" IT guy. All my work is for companies and so I wouldn't be looking to start a computer shop or a Web design service.

I saw someone posting on here a few weeks ago about industrial-strength IT and I was hoping to get some feedback about that market.

If there's anyone out there who knows the going rate for a Transact SQL / Oracle / VB / Access developer with strong migration ETL experience I'd love to hear.

[Val_2]

I'm a good 40miles west of Paimpol but know it well and there is not a lot there regarding large companies.Brest might offer something but isn't as large as Rennes or Nantes for number of firms dealing with computer stuff.

[Afy]

Infopikey,

 

VB is dead. There is no development happening in VB since it is in extended support. Unless of course youre talking about VB.NET which is a different ball game.

Good Oracle, Certified? Experienced about 350 a day is possible. Do you have niche skills, such as BizTalk then upto 1100 a day is possible.

 

Drop me a mail, I might be able to help

[Albert the infopikey]

Afy

Thanks. Email sent

[Afy]

Albert your email seems to be bouncing... let me know if you recieved my mail. :)