State of the Market

[dsc]

Yes, because being seen in the office is an important barometer for your output.

Some direct experience from me recently on this (I am fully remote btw).

All of my friends (various tech. roles) have told their employers to shove it re: 3 days per week in the office either this year or, last year. None of them had to walk. None of them had to walk because they are really good in their chosen tech. fields.

I do get people trying it on and telling me what their policy is but I inform them that I am not a permie and the office working rules don't apply to me.

As for Amazon, the turn-over rate there for tech. staff reflects what they are like to work for as a company - tulip. Same applies to the legacy 'big 4' drones, the (non)Investment banks (aka not for profit) and legacy Insurance that pay crap wages.

They will all be in a race to the bottom between each other for cheap resources that do what they are told but cannot innovate whilst the real tech firms keep nibbling away at their lunch by offering the best people the best conditions and pay.

That's not why Amazon is doing it, it's mostly permies and they will mostly succeed in this fecked job market.

[dsc]

Reading all the doom and gloom scenarios on here and on LinkedIn I was expecting a long stint on the bench once my current contract ended.

After I put a message out on LinkedIn that I am available for new contracts from so and so date (outside IR35 only) I had probably 10 people reach out with 3 strong leads. I also applied to about 10 job ads on jobsite.co.uk, got an interview from that too. First interview 8 days after my LinkedIn post with 2 others scheduled for next week - Embedded Software Development (medical devices). Got the first contract I interviewed for.

Good luck everyone!

Medical seems to be doing fairly well at the moment and also embedded is very different to what most people do here, so I'd say you're in a very different part of the market, hence different conditions apply.

[zonkkk]

Medical seems to be doing fairly well at the moment and also embedded is very different to what most people do here, so I'd say you're in a very different part of the market, hence different conditions apply.

I totally agree. I have spent a lot of time upskilling to C#, .NET, Cloud... (which I have actively used in my previous contracts) and all approaches bar 1 have been for Embedded devices which was surprising to me.

[coolhandluke]

The .Net contract market from what I can see if all but dead outside of London and financial services.

I've got a year left on a FTC and I'm setting myself up for a remote £50k-£65k a year perm job when it ends as a worse case scenario.

[zonkkk]

The .Net contract market from what I can see if all but dead outside of London and financial services.

I've got a year left on a FTC and I'm setting myself up for a remote £50k-£65k a year perm job when it ends as a worse case scenario.

Unfortunately that's the case, and it's all inside IR35.

[dsc]

I totally agree. I have spent a lot of time upskilling to C#, .NET, Cloud... (which I have actively used in my previous contracts) and all approaches bar 1 have been for Embedded devices which was surprising to me.

What are you using for embedded out of curiosity? I always assumed it was C, but perhaps the scene is different these days. At some stage I wanted to move to Intel (even had an interview via a buddy that works there, but they went with an internal hire), but since they announced tulipe results, I think that ship has sailed...

[zonkkk]

What are you using for embedded out of curiosity? I always assumed it was C, but perhaps the scene is different these days. At some stage I wanted to move to Intel (even had an interview via a buddy that works there, but they went with an internal hire), but since they announced tulipe results, I think that ship has sailed...

Mostly Embedded C and C++ (same old, same old, on different OS-es SafeRTOS, FreeRTOS, OSEK, etc depending on industry and Linux).

[eek]

Just seen an advert for Barclays for 2 solution architects.

Pay was £382 inside with 2 days in Knutsford, good luck finding anyone willing to do that at that rate...

[avonleigh]

Just seen an advert for Barclays for 2 solution architects.

Pay was £382 inside with 2 days in Knutsford, good luck finding anyone willing to do that at that rate...

People with do it though when they haven't worked for 6 or 12 months. They will know that. Done it myself back in 2003. Took a shocking rate for 9 months in Milton Keynes. Awful. But glad I did as kept the mortgage being paid.

[eek]

People with do it though when they haven't worked for 6 or 12 months. They will know that. Done it myself back in 2003. Took a shocking rate for 9 months in Milton Keynes. Awful. But glad I did as kept the mortgage being paid.

The issue there is the inside rate - unless you are very local (i.e. based in Manchester / Chester) the journey costs will destroy the rate.

Equally it's half what a competitor was paying me 2 years ago..