State of the Market

[edison]

As a generalist PM, I’m quite surprised to hear about your friend’s experience with looking for PM roles, at least based on when I was last in the market (last summer), and the superficial view of what I’m seeing since then on the job portals.

One that he could find more than 1-2 contract roles to apply for on a daily basis and two that he couldn’t find a suitable role for many months. Perhaps he’s been quite discerning or is locationally restricted?

The pay on offer isn’t anything to shout about but there are a decent number of inside tech-ish/generalist PM roles out there paying £500+ imho. All the inside PM roles I’ve landed in the past few years have been through applying on LI, PSR, Reed and following up with a short note on LI. I only get the odd contact from recruiters on LI, it’s almost always for a perm role.

I'm not 100% sure, I think a large proportion have been perm applications. He has been a contractor for over 15 years which as well documented on this forum, is a high barrier to overcome when applying for perm roles. He's based in London which is in close proximity to many jobs and he's been more flexible on rate as his bench time has increased.

I know many contractor friends who have been looking for anything from three to nine months. Several have got roles in the last 4-5 weeks so there is still hope (I keep telling myself!)

[PerfectStorm]

Really seeing things open up since start of financial year. Lots of remote, Outside roles for proper contractors.

[Cookielove]

I'm starting to feel that way! Someone I know had an interview for a senior PMO role yesterday and it turned out the rate was just £150/day inside. Might as well stack supermarket shelves.

Seems the agent lied to him before his CV was sent over about the real rate...

Only thing keeping me going is a few friends have landed gigs in the last 3-4 weeks albeit at relatively low rates. Something has got to land soon

Really £150 inside?? wow....for a senior PMO.

Yep better off stacking selves in Tesco and getting staff discount on your shopping...that is mad!

[willendure]

Really seeing things open up since start of financial year. Lots of remote, Outside roles for proper contractors.

Where do you look to see this?

[northernladuk]

Where do you look to see this?

I was thinking the same

[Unix]

Really seeing things open up since start of financial year. Lots of remote, Outside roles for proper contractors.

Yeah seeing the same, really picking up now boom!!!

[sreed]

Couldn't say specifically for outside contracts or for other roles, but generally speaking there's definitely been a jump in PM, change and transformation roles across perm, FTC and contracts over the past couple of months - looking on LI, Reed and Jobserve. The pay isn't anything to shout about but still it is positive.

Linkedin "insight" from this morning

[edison]

I'm seeing a noticeable increase in perm roles in my niches over the last month but only a very small uptick on the contract side.

I got a nice email yesterday from a world famous FMCG company saying there were 'impressed with my application' but still didn't want to interview me LOL. In the current market, that's almost a victory!

[avonleigh]

Where do you look to see this?

She must have some secret place where only 'proper' contractors have access to.

[Fraidycat]

She must have some secret place where only 'proper' contractors have access to.

Sounds like Only Fans