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Contract Market Melting Down

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    #21
    I've been contracting (Dev) for 11 years now and my current gig is paying £10 a day less than my first ever gig. In between it's fluctuated about £30/day up & down so no real movement in all that time.

    I do believe it's time for Dev contractors to seriously put a plan B into action. I need about two more years continual work and then I can afford to contract 6-7 months per annum and leave the rest to Plan B. Really hope it comes off because like others, this contract lark has had its day.

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      #22
      Originally posted by Gaz_M View Post
      I've been contracting (Dev) for 11 years now and my current gig is paying £10 a day less than my first ever gig. In between it's fluctuated about £30/day up & down so no real movement in all that time.

      I do believe it's time for Dev contractors to seriously put a plan B into action. I need about two more years continual work and then I can afford to contract 6-7 months per annum and leave the rest to Plan B. Really hope it comes off because like others, this contract lark has had its day.
      Gosh I hope not, only started a year ago

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        #23
        Originally posted by Gaz_M View Post
        I've been contracting (Dev) for 11 years now and my current gig is paying £10 a day less than my first ever gig. In between it's fluctuated about £30/day up & down so no real movement in all that time.

        I do believe it's time for Dev contractors to seriously put a plan B into action. I need about two more years continual work and then I can afford to contract 6-7 months per annum and leave the rest to Plan B. Really hope it comes off because like others, this contract lark has had its day.
        Ditto. Been a dev contractor for almost 20 years. It has changed hugely in that time. My rate has mostly risen in actual numbers but decreased in real terms. I used to be able to get a contract in a matter of days. Non stop calls from agents all day long. None of this waiting a month business, you were needed to start on Monday and if you couldn't they would find someone else. It seems clients can all wait a month or longer now, opening up the market to permies. Nowadays it takes longer to get a role, you have to jump through more hoops to get it and the rates are not as good. My Plan B is very much an ongoing concern!

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          #24
          Originally posted by Lewis View Post
          Ditto. Been a dev contractor for almost 20 years. It has changed hugely in that time. My rate has mostly risen in actual numbers but decreased in real terms. I used to be able to get a contract in a matter of days. Non stop calls from agents all day long. None of this waiting a month business, you were needed to start on Monday and if you couldn't they would find someone else. It seems clients can all wait a month or longer now, opening up the market to permies. Nowadays it takes longer to get a role, you have to jump through more hoops to get it and the rates are not as good. My Plan B is very much an ongoing concern!
          Sure what you say is right but I have never had a client offer to wait 4 weeks.

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            #25
            If clients wait 4 weeks, then start looking 6 weeks before the end of your gig.

            I am sure things will pick up, it's only the 3rd week in January. Some of the veterans on here should know this and be more positive. Chin up.
            Knock first as I might be balancing my chakras.

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              #26
              Originally posted by suityou01 View Post
              If clients wait 4 weeks, then start looking 6 weeks before the end of your gig.
              Personally I don't look whilst in a contract. I always like to have some time off anyway and it's inconvenient to interview whilst working. It's not all doom and gloom. It's never taken me longer than around 4 weeks from starting to look to being on site and I still love contracting as much as I did when I started

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                #27
                In the city of London, I can only say what I see, there were a ton of ba contracts going during 2009-2012. a lot of the business process change work has gone though leaving a glut benched.

                developers have been subject to consultancies sucking up the slack and a lot of Dev contracting roles used to be advertised by hedge funds. now they have all blown up and the banks have shifted 90% of Dev to India it's basically killed the market.

                in this game what you need now is a skill which is niche and one to fall back on which pays less but has a lot of contracts available even during a downturn.

                in terms of what I have experienced, after four years of downtick, rates are starting to head north and I am optimistic about 2015.
                Last edited by Bluenose; 22 January 2015, 21:14.

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                  #28
                  Offshoring was bad enough, near shoring soon followed and then, on shoring proved the nail in the coffin.

                  Plan B is a case of easier said than done. What to do ?

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                    #29
                    Originally posted by afrocentric View Post
                    Offshoring was bad enough, near shoring soon followed and then, on shoring proved the nail in the coffin.

                    Plan B is a case of easier said than done. What to do ?
                    if Dev then cross train into ba, architecture and project management. it may not be ideal but if you can widen your competencies around developement work rather than pure coding you will be set. either that or move into computer games.


                    all of these areas I have listed typically cannot be offshored or, near shored by Indian outsourcers and you will instead competing with a much smaller talent pool in the EU.

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                      #30
                      Originally posted by Bluenose View Post
                      ba, architecture and project management.

                      ........ < Snip > ......

                      all of these areas I have listed typically cannot be offshored or, near shored by Indian outsourcers

                      Rubbish! In the last two companies I worked for the BA's and architects were mainly provided by Infosys & Wipro.

                      And I have a friend who is currently "deploying" Project-Management-As-A-Service into a large UK company. He works for an Indian outsourcer.

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