IT Consulting jobs outlook

[paugonzalezr]

Hello Expats,

I would like to find out if someone is aware of the market outlook in terms of IT Consulting jobs (big4, Accenture type of companies), specifically in IT Strategy/IT Infrastructure/Project Management.

I have +8 years experience and I am currently in a sabbatical from Accenture. I have always wanted to work in Singapore for a while. I have several undegraduate/graduate degrees and experience in large companies in Europe and South Africa. My plan is to live there for around 2 months and try to find a job, preferably temp/contractor type of. Is there any chance of getting a job in the country?

Any insight on this will be very helpful, so I can understand the market a bit better.

Thank you very much in advance.
Pau

[Strong Eagle]

My response is based upon my limited experience into one or two big 4 firms and a couple of large MNC's who _used_ to hire them.

a) Except and unless they need highly specialized talent on a temporary basis for a specific project, the consulting companies do not hire contractors. If you are on sabbatical from Accenture, then you know all about the food chain and partner structure. Contractors just mess up the organization chart. Thus, if you are able to find work, it's going to be on a full time basis with one of these companies.

b) I watched Accenture get chopped back in two large MNC's with offices in Singapore, KL, and Hong Kong. And when I say, "chopped back" I mean from dozens of Accenture consultants coming out of the woodwork in each city to one or zero a couple of years later.

Why? The prime motivator is that the MNC's are finally becoming truly globalized with respect to their IT/IS operations. Prior to 2008, so called 'global' players were really regional entities, budgeted and run from the region.

Now, it's all being run out of global headquarters from a global PMO. Strategic directives originate here. Design originates here. Build can be anywhere in the world where the cheapest resources exist for the task at hand. And run moves about from one low cost country to another.

The consultants all get their contracts through headquarters. It's one of the reasons I shut down my project management consultancy in Singapore... increasingly difficult to win well paying contracts at the local or regional level. Accenture may require a few consultants in Singapore to temporarily flesh out a global team but I think the salad days are long gone.

Increasing commoditization of IT also makes high priced consultants unnecessary. Who needs infrastructure advisors when you dump all your servers into a mega datacenter or cloud environment run by someone else? Who needs massive rollout and refresh projects when BYOD changes the whole nature of the game. And continuing standardization means that only one team, globally, makes the decisions.

As a friend of mine who used to work for EDS way back when was fond of saying: We get our projects completed on time and under budget whether they work or not.

[American]

Pau - I work in the IT consulting industry (one of the top 3 Tech Consulting firms) here in Singapore as a foreigner on EP, in addition to being a former freelancer. You cannot be here in Singapore on freelance unless a company sponsors your EP. In my opinion, it would be very difficult to get an EP while on freelance, unless your client company sponsors you. There may be other routes, like getting hired through some kind of consulting company locally, but it seems that it's quite difficult to get an EP these days unless you have a high-demand skillset, or if it's a major corporation sponsoring your EP.

With regards to overall IT consulting outlook, I would say that the market is growing, however, as a country as a whole, the Singapore market is not that large. What area of IT Consulting are you in? If it's higher-value strategy work or if you have a proven track-record of sales, then I would say the market is good, but you need to really differentiate yourself. If you have a commoditized skillset like being a developer or configuration specialist, that can be offshored, then I would say it's tougher to get into the market here.