Contract Rates??

[Jon Kibler <Jon.Kibler () aset com>]

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All,

Question: Is the market for SENIOR security architects and and penetration
testers fully saturated or is there a lot of unemployed senior level security
consultants?

The reason I ask, is, I am being inundated by head hunters and job shops looking
for senior level security consultants (10-15+ years of experience) at rates of
$35 to $45 per hour for architects and $25 to $35 per hour for penetration
testers. From the job descriptions, expected knowledge and skills, these appear
to really be senior level consulting contracts.

These rates seem to be absurdly low. In perspective, I was making $40/hr in the
early 1980s. One of my colleagues with only 5 years of experience, who works
full time for a software house, echoed my sentiments, "Dude, I was making more
than that while still in grad school in 2003 doing pen testing on the side!"

A year ago, both pen tester and architect contract rates were in the $75 to $150
per hour range, and some pen tester rates were even higher. Can anyone explain
what is going on here?

The one observation I will add is that most of the low rates seem to be coming
from either off-shore companies, or the on-shore face of an off-shore company.
Are they simply bidding on and winning a bunch of contracts by low-balling the
rate, and then struggling to find people to staff the jobs?

I would really like to get some other perspective on what is going on here.

Finally, I will add that there are still organizations looking for contractors
at reasonable rates, but they seem to have become a small minority.

TIA for all feedback!

Jon
- --
Jon R. Kibler
Chief Technical Officer
Advanced Systems Engineering Technology, Inc.
Charleston, SC  USA
o: 843-849-8214
c: 843-813-2924
s: 843-564-4224
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonrkibler

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