State of the Market

[JohnM]

Well I have always been lucky so far and is a risk I am willing to take. I can commute into London so there is less of a need to be away from home.

I think you are missing out on some great opportunities by not being willing to travel, however I accept that everyone is different

[PerfectStorm]

London here and looking as if usual client is taking an age to offer a very small extension. Burning cash here so looking, and not seeing a lot.

Also, what's MIFID when it's at home? Swear every Tom Dick and Harry wasn't asking for that last time around.

[AndrewK]

London here and looking as if usual client is taking an age to offer a very small extension. Burning cash here so looking, and not seeing a lot.

Also, what's MIFID when it's at home? Swear every Tom Dick and Harry wasn't asking for that last time around.

MIFID 2 deadline is before 2018. So half a year left.

[DrGUID]

Just been looking for C#/.NET jobs in London the last couple of months. Things seem pretty grim. Thankfully it looks like my current contract is being extended for another few months, so the can will be kicked down the road a bit longer.

Things I've noticed:

1. Lots more very good candidates about.
2. Agents not really hassling you if you don't reply to emails about interviews etc.
3. Many vacancies from companies who continually recruit (e.g. Reed, TotalJobs). These places have vacancies for a reason...
4. Lots more testing involved, e.g. the Houses of Parliament asked me to do a mini-project which I estimated to be a week's work. And that's before the first interview stage. The sad thing is I am currently working for a political organisation and have picked up valuable domain experience. But they'd rather discriminate against people who are busy. Anyway, I will stick to my no-home-coding-tests policy.
5. Lots of inappropriate testing, e.g. St John Ambulance setting a tremendously difficult C# test for a bog standard web app support role. 90% of what was in the test I have never needed to know in 15 years of ASP.NET/MVC dev.
Lots of immigrant devs around as well - agent mailed me an Indian's CV by mistake and they were seeking around 20% less than a native would ask for. And yet my FB "friends" rubbish my claims that immigration holds down salaries.
6. If you are looking then I would say outside London is probably better.

Other than that the usual rubbish about needing version 1.11.2.4 of a specific tool and no training ever offered to candidates who might be lacking that rarer skill such as Umbraco or SiteCore.

Wish I could wind the clock back and have gone into accountancy or law...

[northernladyuk]

I think you are missing out on some great opportunities by not being willing to travel, however I accept that everyone is different

It does depend on your family situation. If you have young kids, you don't want to miss those years. If you're Mrs MF, then a 12 monther in Iraq is ideal.

[MrMarkyMark]

It does depend on your family situation. If you have young kids, you don't want to miss those years. If you're Mrs MF, then a 12 monther in Iraq is ideal.

Absolutely, providing she has the appropriate fully comprehensive insurances in place first.

[northernladyuk]

Absolutely, providing she has the appropriate fully comprehensive insurances in place first.

£10,000,000 if he makes it back? Would soften the blow a little.

[PerfectStorm]

Still looking a bit quiet

[Brummie]

Still looking a bit quiet

It is. I am now considering an inside IR35 role, away from home. Planning to take it rather than being in bench.

[uk contractor]

Still looking a bit quiet

Until or if ever the EU passporting battle over client onboarding rules are settled its not going to change much unless the project is an urgent requirement or someone leaves & they need a replacement many projects are being put on hold. Its not looking very realistic that the EU & UK can agree on this either they are worlds apart so unless there is a sensible approach from the EU towards Brexit cannot see much changing in the next month or so. Perhaps when the UK general election (all Brexit talks are suspended until then) is finished they will sit down together have a sensible discussion & agree the way forward but when you see some of the negative comments leaked (by the EU) from recent meetings its clear any agreement is probably highly unlikely as EU would love to break the UK financial services sector up and push it into the EU when UK leaves. This uncertainty along with cost cutting appears to be the main reasons why the Financial Service's sector jobs role wise is suffering and pulling the entire service sector down with it.