Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have completely misunderstood the UK market - note that the OP talked about London. Perhaps as a way to get past the recruiting problem, UK corporates pay a premium for exerienced programmers on the basis that if they cannot do the job, they are let go immediately without severance. Most contractors are 30+, don't want to be 'in charge' (at meetings, giving interviews, being trained in the latest corporate 'value…
True, when I was contracting I did attend less meetings although it always felt like too many and the pay was good (not so much now). But I always found it a little bit of a lie when the idea of a contractor coming in and working on a problem from day 2 or 3. Granted this usually was because the problem was poorly defined and/or limited but even when I joined teams that had really good project managers it still was n…
What did you do instead? There is a wave of people looking to get out of contracting in the UK right now exactly because of the messes HMRC keep making.