State of the Market

[GJABS]

Just booked a few days for holiday to get away from this tulip.

Come to Thailand for a couple of weeks. Only £400 return on Skyscanner via China at themoment, and apartments in Sin city Pattaya for £500 a fortnight + cheap food. I'm there at the moment, and don't want to come home 🙂

[PerfectStorm]

I'm really fearful at the moment. I don't know why, I've been doing this for 10 years and the trend has been that I've got more work than not - but I hate the feeling of not knowing what the next thing is or how long the gap is going to be.

[dsc]

I have plenty of hobbies to keep me busy if and when I retire from the rat race.

Although I do fancy opening a coffee shop

I'd suggest finding a different dream it's uber hard to run a profitable coffee shop and loads of them go under. Hard to find people who want to work in them and with coffee reaching super high prices recently, you'd be hard against chain competition + need a very good location. If you don't mind loosing money, sure, go ahead but if you'd rather save some or make some, there's other business ideas which are better.

[dsc]

I'm really fearful at the moment. I don't know why, I've been doing this for 10 years and the trend has been that I've got more work than not - but I hate the feeling of not knowing what the next thing is or how long the gap is going to be.

Same tulip here, I'm worried the market "correction" re amount of roles is going to stay with us for some time, especially with the US going through a crazy time, if that market crashes it will pull everything with it. On top of this we have emerging AI agents, China recently released something which looks like it can very quickly make people redundant. tulip times ahead imho

[ResistanceFighter]

I'm really fearful at the moment. I don't know why, I've been doing this for 10 years and the trend has been that I've got more work than not - but I hate the feeling of not knowing what the next thing is or how long the gap is going to be.

Same. Rates going up down, inside outside, I can cope with all of that, it's just the fact that there seems to be absolutely nothing

[oliverson]

I'm physically very active. Need a good mindset in order to train everyday.

Generally, having a good market, does help with interviews. I would normally do numerous, perm and contract to hedge bets and for interview practice.

Unfortunately, being were we are, getting a any interest from agents is hard enough these days.

Nevermind, not the end of the world. Just booked a few days for holiday to get away from this tulip.

That's what I thought, 2 months down in sunny Spain and not having to work, recharge the batteries. Trouble is, it's pissed it down every single day since arriving one week ago and I'm talking monsoon levels of rain. Cold as well. Temperature this time of year is usually around 20 degrees C. Yesterday it was 9. Marble everywhere, no central heating, no insulation. Been no fun I can tell you and it's still far from over with another week of this tulip. Oh, how I wish I was in a nice warm prestigious office in London right now! I know the beers there are probably around £ 8 a pint but my favourite bar over here, down in the marina, a pint of San Miguel is now € 6. Spain, this part of, no longer cheap.

[SussexSeagull]

I'm really fearful at the moment. I don't know why, I've been doing this for 10 years and the trend has been that I've got more work than not - but I hate the feeling of not knowing what the next thing is or how long the gap is going to be.

I do hate to catastrophize but I have been out since last June and am beginning to question if I will ever work in the IT industry again.

[oliverson]

I do hate to catastrophize but I have been out since last June and am beginning to question if I will ever work in the IT industry again.

You're just getting going! I had a 17 month spell on the bench during the pandemic. February 2020 it kicked in when I was up for renewal and the client hadn't a clue about the imminent IR35 reforms. Then the pandemic came in, the reforms postponed a year and we also had brexit! Everybody stopped hiring, including my ex-client.

Experience from the financial crash (I contracted in London banking at the time), taught me how to survive a downturn, so I was ready to deal with a significant period on the bench. It also taught me that something will come along, it always does, and it did, eventually. Out of the blue a headhunter dropped me a line on LinkedIn. It seemed like a perm role so I just batted him away but he came back and said they could do a contract. I batted him away again saying I only did outside IR35 contracts but again he came back, saying they could do that. Last month I finished up on that contract after 3.5 years. Not only did I make a lot of money (much needed) but I worked with some really decent people and was able to gain a lot of cutting edge technologies that I can capitalise on for the next 2-3 years (should I come out of retirement). Over my time on that contract I was aware of the state of the market, this post helped, but the real truth is, and this may come across as selfish to some, but who gives a tulip about the state of the market so long as you're in contract? We are contractors, in business on our own account. Does your local plumber fret because his competitors aren't landing business?

So, the thing is, my inbox might ping later today, or next week, maybe even next quarter, but sure as tulip, that inbox WILL DEFINITELY PING and I'll be back in the game. Your inbox might ping, even if right now it seems like that won't happen. All it takes is one ping and you're back in the game and the state of the market to you won't matter so much. You can then work on reparing any damage that's been done, replenish your war chest, etc. From total anxiety and disbelief to the very opposite, with just one ping!

[SussexSeagull]

You're just getting going! I had a 17 month spell on the bench during the pandemic. February 2020 it kicked in when I was up for renewal and the client hadn't a clue about the imminent IR35 reforms. Then the pandemic came in, the reforms postponed a year and we also had brexit! Everybody stopped hiring, including my ex-client.

Experience from the financial crash (I contracted in London banking at the time), taught me how to survive a downturn, so I was ready to deal with a significant period on the bench. It also taught me that something will come along, it always does, and it did, eventually. Out of the blue a headhunter dropped me a line on LinkedIn. It seemed like a perm role so I just batted him away but he came back and said they could do a contract. I batted him away again saying I only did outside IR35 contracts but again he came back, saying they could do that. Last month I finished up on that contract after 3.5 years. Not only did I make a lot of money (much needed) but I worked with some really decent people and was able to gain a lot of cutting edge technologies that I can capitalise on for the next 2-3 years (should I come out of retirement). Over my time on that contract I was aware of the state of the market, this post helped, but the real truth is, and this may come across as selfish to some, but who gives a tulip about the state of the market so long as you're in contract? We are contractors, in business on our own account. Does your local plumber fret because his competitors aren't landing business?

So, the thing is, my inbox might ping later today, or next week, maybe even next quarter, but sure as tulip, that inbox WILL DEFINITELY PING and I'll be back in the game. Your inbox might ping, even if right now it seems like that won't happen. All it takes is one ping and you're back in the game and the state of the market to you won't matter so much. You can then work on reparing any damage that's been done, replenish your war chest, etc. From total anxiety and disbelief to the very opposite, with just one ping!

I do agree that for the last few years you never think you will get a contract up to the point you get a new contract. Back in the day if you applied for enough things on Jobserve then agents would call you. If enough phone calls from agents happened you got interviews and you would hopefully not need too many of them to get a gig.

The last few years has all been about the network,
although that is struggling as much as me, and approaches out of the blue.

[SchumiStars]

Covid was a bad period for me. 12mths. Jan2020-Jan2021. I didn't think anything would top that.

This time, it has been 2yrs and still counting. For all those that are worried, buckle up, it's going to be a rough ride.

Noone is entitled to a pain-free life.

No contracts, no permi jobs. Absolutely nothing going on.

Interview went ok but not looking great TBH. A few difficult tech questions. Despite being awesome, I do struggle, to articulate tech terms.

Right let's get to the gym and some lift heavy weights.