State of the Market

[SueEllen]

My son is interested in practical things, if he doesn't eventually go into IT, I can see him becoming an engineer of some sort. He has an interest in robotics.

He seems to want to do something useful rather than just make lots of money. With his advanced maths skills, I don't think he'll go and work for a hedge fund but who knows?!

He doesn't need to do it for all of his working life.

e.g. https://www.instagram.com/garyseconomics/?hl=en

[edison]

He doesn't need to do it for all of his working life.

e.g. https://www.instagram.com/garyseconomics/?hl=en

I know of this guy, have watched a few interviews with him.

My son doesn't appear material at all. I'm not sure he's even that interested in money or spending it but he is aware that for his generation, buying a property is becoming a real challenge, hence you need a good income.

You can still make big money in tech. I passed an AI researcher role to a friend of mine this week that was paying up to £350k base salary. Luckily for my son, his main tech interest at the moment is in AI so hopefully if he does go into tech in 6 or 7 years time, there will still be good opportunities in some sectors.

[ladymuck]

Well, here's hoping the market picks up and I can get something starting in May.

[edison]

Yesterday I thought about all my good friends who have been contractors for anything from 3 to 20 plus years. Only one is in an outside IR35 gig. Two are inside (non-FS) and one has gone fractional (mix of inside/outside roles). Apart from one person looking for their final contract gig before retiring early, the remaining 10 others have either gone perm or looking to go perm.

We are all in our mid-40s to mid-50s and all bar one of us works across IT or digital/business transformation. Nine of us have had senior roles from Head of or Director level up to CIO.

It feels a bit grim when I look at us collectively given our experience and current market.

I had an interview for a perm job yesterday which was promising and I've more or less resigned myself to going back to perm after 11 years contracting.

[Bluenose]

I had an interview for a perm job yesterday which was promising and I've more or less resigned myself to going back to perm after 11 years contracting.

There's no shame in it mate, unless the Government finds a way of revitalising London (and the rest of the country) we will remain in the doldrums. It's also possible that not much is going to move until after the election.

[Fraidycat]

Apart from one person looking for their final contract gig before retiring early, the remaining 10 others have either gone perm or looking to go perm.

Does this mean that when demand does eventually return, clients are going to find it much harder to find good contractors, because so many will have gone perm (on good salaries and benefits)?.

[edison]

Does this mean that when demand does eventually return, clients are going to find it much harder to find good contractors, because so many will have gone perm (on good salaries and benefits)?.

I'm not sure my friends are the best representative sample for the market per se, none are techies and most are in the £800-1500/day rate range, usually £1000 plus.

But I do think it's symptomatic of some structural and specific issues in the UK economy and market and I'm not convinced these will improve significantly for years to come.

[avonleigh]

Does this mean that when demand does eventually return, clients are going to find it much harder to find good contractors, because so many will have gone perm (on good salaries and benefits)?.

That's if demand does return. Sure it will improve at some stage but to what extent nobody knows currently. We have never seen times like this before.

[dsc]

I gave up looking for contracts as my skills are very niche and limited to one industry, but perm isn't looking peachy either. Seems like there's plenty of job ads, but after applying to a few and contacting a few recruiters / managers on LI, I'm getting a big fat nothing (apart from silence)...this won't be fun

[SussexSeagull]

Does this mean that when demand does eventually return, clients are going to find it much harder to find good contractors, because so many will have gone perm (on good salaries and benefits)?.

It will vary from sector to sector and skillset to skillset but I suspect we won't see a return to previous levels of demands as we aren't seeing major projects staffed by contractors anymore. However what may very well happen is supply and demand will, to an extent, even up with contractors becoming permanent employees.

That said the leap into contracting was rarely logical so who knows what people will do?