Anyone else suffering from a holiday lull?

[coe123]

Back to the topic... Some pick up in activity in last couple of days but clients/agents seem to be extremely picky - is there too much supply out there?

[northernladuk]

Depends.

[czakky]

Back to the topic... Some pick up in activity in last couple of days but clients/agents seem to be extremely picky - is there too much supply out there?

Honestly depends what you do - if you write a niche language then not at all, I can't find Ruby devs for love nor money; and I have a role paying a lot of the latter!

To be honest all modern development languages are in demand nationwide, if you are willing to travel then you will get a contract very fast; if you want to stay local, I guess it depends where you live.

If you are in the "softer" skills arena (BA/PM ect.), then alot of people are on the market at the moment, but this is always the case at any point in the year.

[coe123]

Yes, it is the softer skills and as much I think that I have a very good CV that ticks all the boxes there is always something. How I wish I had stuck to doing C++

[northernladuk]

If you are in the "softer" skills arena (BA/PM ect.), then alot of people are on the market at the moment, but this is always the case at any point in the year.

Shame it is seen like this. Quality PM's and proper BA's that know there stuff are hard to come by and get lumped in to the mix. People that think they can PM because they have Prince2 and can use MS Project the ones that are a BA when all they can do is a generic role they can apply to anything are 10 a penny.

[coe123]

Shame it is seen like this. Quality PM's and proper BA's that know there stuff are hard to come by and get lumped in to the mix. People that think they can PM because they have Prince2 and can use MS Project the ones that are a BA when all they can do is a generic role they can apply to anything are 10 a penny.

Yep, drives down the rates too - banks getting away with advertising 300/400pd rates for a PM.

[uk contractor]

Back to the topic... Some pick up in activity in last couple of days but clients/agents seem to be extremely picky - is there too much supply out there?

Been like this for ages as I said earlier if it does not pickup in the next 2-3 weeks I do not expect it to change again this year unless there is a very urgent role required to be filled.

There are way too many unskilled contractors in London Banking especially who are good at talking their way into roles they are unsuited to it. Lowers the rates allround as clients get savvy to this eventually & agencies tell them they can get away with offering lesser rates as they know someone will take the role due to the over saturated job market for Banking in London.

You always get what you pay for just wait for the right role to appear if its meant to be & a genuine role it will happen sooner or later!

[BolshieBastard]

The market goes up and down like a whore's drawers. It happens all through the year now and I do not believe the traditional 'good periods' during the year now exist.

A lot depends on what your skillset is, where you are, where you are prepared to travel to and the rate you want. I was contacted about a role in Greater Manchester in the last week that paid 'upto £180 a day'!

Contracting is ****ed imvho.

[Andy2]

I am an Oracle DBA and been on the bench for 4 months now. Please let me know if anyone is hiring.
This year has been really bad for contracting , never seen a bad market like this before.
It feels like contracting is finished in this country. I only see permie jobs on jobserve paying 40-50k.

[NewCUKMember]

This week was better for me (C++), 4 genuine calls, 2 phishing , hoping to get some feedback next week from the 4s lot.