State of the Market

[oliverson]

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.

I think we are seeing the start of the recovery.

One of my LinkedIn contacts liked a post by another contractor today who was on the bench for 18 months without a sniff. The last week he's had conversations for 3 x outside contracts. The comments sections has 'several' others saying a similar thing, one claiming to have had 6 roles put his way. This appears to substantiate my own findings that the market is not as bad as I'd feared. The trick of course is getting your CV in front of the agent, getting through the noise that is hundreds of people not equipped for the role in question but clicking 'apply' anyway. In the past I'd never just apply for a role on Jobserve then sit and wait, I'd always follow it up. I think this time round, the calls don't get answered, perhaps due to volume, but equally due to tulip/rookie snowflake agents. It's galling that your future is in the hands of some 'couldn't care less' snowflake to some extent, but there we have it.

[IVR247]

I have been looking since mid-December. Things were looking good at first, but the roles I interviewed for were not quite the perfect match and I did not get the roles. It seems to have gone quiet Jan and Feb, hopefully more will come up in the spring. I'm a Genesys Cloud engineer.

[SussexSeagull]

I think we are seeing the start of the recovery.

One of my LinkedIn contacts liked a post by another contractor today who was on the bench for 18 months without a sniff. The last week he's had conversations for 3 x outside contracts. The comments sections has 'several' others saying a similar thing, one claiming to have had 6 roles put his way. This appears to substantiate my own findings that the market is not as bad as I'd feared. The trick of course is getting your CV in front of the agent, getting through the noise that is hundreds of people not equipped for the role in question but clicking 'apply' anyway. In the past I'd never just apply for a role on Jobserve then sit and wait, I'd always follow it up. I think this time round, the calls don't get answered, perhaps due to volume, but equally due to tulip/rookie snowflake agents. It's galling that your future is in the hands of some 'couldn't care less' snowflake to some extent, but there we have it.

Why is an agent doing their job, admittedly quite possibly badly, a snowflake?

[oliverson]

Why is an agent doing their job, admittedly quite possibly badly, a snowflake?

Check out their photos on LinkedIn and you’ll know exactly what I mean. Lazy, feckless snowflakes. Probably still ‘working’ (watching Netflix) from their parents dining room table.

[SussexSeagull]

Check out their photos on LinkedIn and you’ll know exactly what I mean. Lazy, feckless snowflakes. Probably still ‘working’ (watching Netflix) from their parents dining room table.

On the back of this I looked up what a snowflake apparently is: 'someone who is perceived as too sensitive, easily offended, or entitled'.

Not sure why an agent not doing as you want fits into this category.

[oliverson]

On the back of this I looked up what a snowflake apparently is: 'someone who is perceived as too sensitive, easily offended, or entitled'.

Not sure why an agent not doing as you want fits into this category.

Instead of looking up pointless definitions, maybe you’d be better off looking into why your attempts at finding work are so unsuccessful?

[SchumiStars]

Why is an agent doing their job, admittedly quite possibly badly, a snowflake?

I would love to know how and what the agents are actually doing in this market. They have all the contacts in the companies and should be banging on their doors for business.

They are not even calling for references these days, it really shows you that they are quite useless.

In the boom times, they are usually expanding and opening new divisions to cater for different markets. When it's dead, they seem to all but disappear and seem to be the least motivated out of everyone to get moving.

[SussexSeagull]

Instead of looking up pointless definitions, maybe you’d be better off looking into why your attempts at finding work are so unsuccessful?

Absolutely. I should follow your lead and make up a few stories about how much in demand I am.

[SussexSeagull]

I would love to know how and what the agents are actually doing in this market. They have all the contacts in the companies and should be banging on their doors for business.

They are not even calling for references these days, it really shows you that they are quite useless.

In the boom times, they are usually expanding and opening new divisions to cater for different markets. When it's dead, they seem to all but disappear and seem to be the least motivated out of everyone to get moving.

I would take a guess there are a lot less of them around as they used to be, although even in the good times I question how so many of them made a living. In my career agents have gone from being a fairly important part of the process to everything being transactional with them.

[WTFH]

On the back of this I looked up what a snowflake apparently is: 'someone who is perceived as too sensitive, easily offended, or entitled'.

Not sure why an agent not doing as you want fits into this category.

I would suggest that the poster who referred to the agent as a "snowflake" is one who better fits the description