State of the Market

[dsc]

https://www.totaljobs.com/job/scrum-...e-job104699198

45-55k perm, London. eDV

I am surprised with the number of jobs requiring DV/eDV now TBH. No idea why the rates are so low but does show what we are up against.

"Join a trusted leader in National Security technology solutions."

So it's the traditional "consultancy" model of employing for a pittance and then selling "solutions" for big bucks.

[sadkingbilly]

It will be a public sector role plus it's a made up title for a useless function job

ftfy

[Bluenose]

I've had a couple today but both were inside, and even at £ 900+ I'm just not interested.

I used to do that, these days I just take those roles and work them from the EU in a low deductions country. Fly back in when you need to. If you can do 900 sheets a day with 25% total deductions (or less) and you can keep that going, its good money.

[rocktronAMP]

Anyone having any success?

Not a single agent has contacted me via email or phone. The jobs listed on LI, don't seem to go anywhere at all.

Why would a company pay a contractor to learn new tech when they can hire a grad and becomes a perk of the job?

I personally love new technology and love learning competence. In the days of getting multiple offers of work, I would always go for the one were I could learn the most. Most of these would often pay less but I was adding to the toolbox.

The posters above hoping for another 10yrs contracting, the market has changed. I suspect, it maybe prudent finding a permi gig for 10yrs.

By the time and with a big if, the market does get going again, the skillset has changed. There will also be a fresh range of contractors who will have the desired skills.

Saying that however, I have a friend who is on an outside contract doing sql2005.

Probably it is the technology choices and achievements on roles on your CV.

If it is Java then show version 17 or 21, get rid of J2EE, it is Jakarta EE. Spring Boot over SPring Framework

If it is testing then get off the Load Runner and onto something like Playwright

If it is frontend then they need to see React or Angular or ExtJS over JQuery etc etc

And finally any soft skills - tech lead, coaching or mentoring and experience, maybe if you were involved inception architecture, product design. Show the class that you have to entire to get previous jobs. Cut and kill any attitude. Be like a twenty-something always smiling always helping

And finally finally there might be personal mental fitness is your blocker - but get those interviews first, tackle any neuro-X-Y-Z in the background, I'm just speculating here,

[SussexSeagull]

If it is testing then get off the Load Runner and onto something like Playwright

JMeter would probably be a better bet for performance testing.

Historically performance testing was something of a dark art, even in testing circles, but that seems to have changed now.

[TheDude]

Had a teams interview for a perm role the other day.

This was the third stage of the process having already had a 30 min recruiter chat and completed an online Codility test.

It didn't go particularly well mainly because the role listed about 20 skills some of which I do not claim to posses or have had limited experience with. The interviewers did not seem to understand that developers with a couple of decades of experience will probably pick up your dev ops/deployment pipeline pretty quickly and have done so numerous times in the past. The interviewers were the worst kind of technologists who seemed to think that just being in the position of interviewing candidates made them gatekeepers of the entire profession.

The hiring manager mentioned that there would be a few other rounds of technical tests with a gap of a week or so between to compare candidates so the entire interview process will take more than a month.

It is not a particularly prestigious firm or well paid role so what makes these people think they need a such an extended process? It may be a buyers market but the longer they take the more the risk of the best candidates finding something else or simply walking away.

[TheDude]

That's a nice bit of age discrimination...

I have omitted a good ten years of experience from my CV for just this reason. Most of the technologies are not relevant anyway.

[TheDude]

I've had a couple today but both were inside, and even at £ 900+ I'm just not interested.

I just don't understand this.

If the net income is sufficient what is the problem?

[sadkingbilly]

I just don't understand this.

If the net income is sufficient what is the problem?

never mind him, he's just showing off.

[oliverson]

I just don't understand this.

If the net income is sufficient what is the problem?

The problem is, I am nobody else's employee. I am committed to my own Limited Company of some 24 years. It has it's own obligations that need to be met.

Then there's the tax. I'm ferociously opposed to paying high levels, actually ANY level of tax, when I see how successive governments have, and continue to, piss it up against a wall, funding illegal immigrants and sending money abroad.