State of the Market

[SchumiStars]

Whilst I agree with this to a point, in a market where everybody else is looking to get their CV's in front of the client, you can't afford to go running around London like Forest Gump (not pointing to you SchumiStars!), for two hours. You're going to miss out.

Whilst today's interview got cancelled, that opportunity came about as I was 'trawling' through LinkedIn and landed on the agent's advert within 8 minutes of it being posted, with him calling me back same day. I'm certain that if I'd left it a few hours and became 'applicant 150', we wouldn't have had that call. OK, it's on the burner for now and may never materialise, but it illustrates the point I think.

Running and cycling actually

Agree, I might miss out on a unicorn recruiter and role but I'm not prepared to let my heath and mental state go down the pan. Life is too short to worry.

I do trawal through LI, jobs are posted that are perfect without any contact details or there are links to post CV into a black hole.

I am going to say that most of these do seem either fake or get flooded with hundreds of CVs. It's literally 1/1000 chance ATM.

Most of the posts on LI are from either recuriters giving advice or individuals with a story. Attempting to generate a hype without backing.

Previous downturns, signs of recovery are:
Graduate placements available
Banks hiring C-level managers
Banks hiring permis
Insurance hiring permis
Insurance hiring contractors
Consultancies hiring grads, mid-level

We may have seen some movement but nothing in large enough scales to think we are coming out of this tulip. At least another 12-18mths.

Anyway enjoy weekend, I will be at spurs watching the fight.

[willendure]

Hmm, major mis-understanding here.
Government pension liabilities are an entirely separate issue to personal pension auto-enrolment.

The state pension is barely enough to live on for most and only starts at 67 (for me, currently).
There are questions as to whether it will continue to be paid, be reduced in real terms, taxed, means tested or otherwise changed.
My view is that most changes are fairly unlikely, at least in the short term and changes that are made will be trailed years in advance to allow those who've planned on the current situation continuing at their retirement age.

Auto-enrolment has been very successful and is a Very Good Idea.
As defined benefit pensions were removed by many companies, Gen X in particular were left with insufficient private pension provision.
Younger people now have more chance to build up a decent sum from saving relatively small amounts for a long time.
There are questions again for private pensions - changes to the tax free lump sum (though that's already reducing in real terms for those lucky enough to hit the cap), starting to charge NI on pension income etc.

As for 'dumb money', index trackers win over higher fee active management every time according to all the data.
It becomes more of an issue when very high percentages of trades are automated but we're nowhere near that yet.
Investing is a long term business and everything looks like a blip on a continuously increasing path over the last hundred years - banking crisis, Covid, even the great crash.
Maybe that will change, but it's probably the best risk on offer.
DYOR.

Its mostly a good idea. But its also part of the reason that the stock market keeps going up, which is the what I was trying to explain. If there are always buyers, then the price just about always goes up.

The danger comes if there is a recession and lay offs mean that the constant flow of pension money falters. Those super high P/E valuations will suddenly seem like what they are.

[willendure]

There are some very experienced contractors who seem mystified on not getting roles that look like perfect matches for their CV.
I don't understand the mystification. These are the things:

1) The published job spec
2) The actual job
3) Your history / reputation
4) Market demand
4) The Interview
5) The CV
6) Your Linkedin Profile
7) What the CV sifter is actually looking for
8) What the interviewer is actually looking for
9) Your actual skills and experiences
10) How well you and the interviewer actually interview
11) What the role becomes once you are in it

None of these things actually relate to one another very strongly. It would be nice if they did, but they don't.

Agreed. When the market was stronger I started saying "no" to contracts that I didn't like the look of, and that was the way to find something that I did like the look of, either in terms of money, or doing something interesting and fun and that I am good at.

That was mostly what is different this time, I just said yes and then wondered what I am letting myself in for. Didn't feel like I could afford to say no to todays market.

[Cookielove]

It’s the worst market I’ve ever seen, I applied for hundreds of jobs perm and contract but got nowhere in 6 months …sfa !

Big issue now is the sheer volume of applicants it beggars belief and makes it’s very very difficult to get anywhere …

The reason I am sure I got my role which is far from perfect (micro managing, days commuting with the ££ expense, office environs toxic) but I had to grab it …is that I rang the agent as soon as it was posted and I was the first person they spoke to …speaking to them if you can get hold of them was key otherwise I’d still be searching am sure…

I spent so many hours on LI and in my view now in retrospect it’s pretty much a waste of time it’s too akin to FB and people begging or congratulating themselves …it is far from what it was…you may get lucky but it’s not the useful tool it used to be .

[Smartie]

Its mostly a good idea. But its also part of the reason that the stock market keeps going up, which is the what I was trying to explain. If there are always buyers, then the price just about always goes up.

It's always been like that. There are plenty of buyers until there aren't.
The Covid crash or Trump crash demonstrate that markets can still drop quickly and most of the active funds were still buying the big tech stocks at high valuations.
Index buyers who continue to buy will get the assets cheaper, particularly if they're buying American stocks where the currency has devalued by 10% (against GBP).

More generally, the rise of the middle class in many other parts of the world generates more demand for investable assets, but hopefully companies in those areas can soak at least some of that up.
Otherwise, there always art, wine, whisky, cars etc. ;-)

[coolhandluke]

I've never not applied for a role on LinkedIn due to a high number of applicants. 99% will be either fake or chancers from overseas.

There is no denying though that the market is tough at the moment. .Net and Front End contracting seems dead in the water and I can't see it coming back. This work seems now to be almost exclusively delivered by consultancies.

Every person I know who left a contract this year is still looking for work.

I've got 18 months of a nightmare FTC left and I would have usually just resigned. Out of sheer frustration last month I applied for another contract role. Had the interview with the consultancy running the project and it was obvious that it was another tulip show. They had somehow won a public sector contract to supply services with absolutely no idea on how to deliver anything.

Thankfully I didn't get an offer and the role morphed into a FTC at 60k.

[oliverson]

It’s the worst market I’ve ever seen, I applied for hundreds of jobs perm and contract but got nowhere in 6 months …sfa !

Big issue now is the sheer volume of applicants it beggars belief and makes it’s very very difficult to get anywhere …

The reason I am sure I got my role which is far from perfect (micro managing, days commuting with the ££ expense, office environs toxic) but I had to grab it …is that I rang the agent as soon as it was posted and I was the first person they spoke to …speaking to them if you can get hold of them was key otherwise I’d still be searching am sure…

I spent so many hours on LI and in my view now in retrospect it’s pretty much a waste of time it’s too akin to FB and people begging or congratulating themselves …it is far from what it was…you may get lucky but it’s not the useful tool it used to be .

Absolutely this

[Bluenose]

SchumiStars did you try a CV ATS optimiser yet like I suggested some weeks back? if so which one?

[Dorkeaux]

It’s the worst market I’ve ever seen, I applied for hundreds of jobs perm and contract but got nowhere in 6 months …sfa !

Big issue now is the sheer volume of applicants it beggars belief and makes it’s very very difficult to get anywhere …

The reason I am sure I got my role which is far from perfect (micro managing, days commuting with the ££ expense, office environs toxic) but I had to grab it …is that I rang the agent as soon as it was posted and I was the first person they spoke to …speaking to them if you can get hold of them was key otherwise I’d still be searching am sure…

I spent so many hours on LI and in my view now in retrospect it’s pretty much a waste of time it’s too akin to FB and people begging or congratulating themselves …it is far from what it was…you may get lucky but it’s not the useful tool it used to be .

The people posting on Linkedin are irritating, to be sure.

I'm going to be a contrarian (again) and say that Linkedin has been very valuable to me.
But reading the posts and spending more time there than you have to is toxic and useless.

For me, the value is having my profile up, applying to contract postings and responding to messages from agents. That's pretty much it.

I never post, except to occasionaly give an "attaboy" to a colleague. I never accept connections from randos I haven't actually worked with and liked/respected.

My profile only has my name, and a timeline with the clients I've had. No pictures. details nor personal info.
The only other thing I do is apply for jobs that are posted, and update my skills profile from the list that Linkedin helpfully provides for most job applications.

It's been a useful tool for me, but I don't expect too much from it.

[SussexSeagull]

The people posting on Linkedin are irritating, to be sure.

I'm going to be a contrarian (again) and say that Linkedin has been very valuable to me.
But reading the posts and spending more time there than you have to is toxic and useless.

For me, the value is having my profile up, applying to contract postings and responding to messages from agents. That's pretty much it.

I never post, except to occasionaly give an "attaboy" to a colleague. I never accept connections from randos I haven't actually worked with and liked/respected.

My profile only has my name, and a timeline with the clients I've had. No pictures. details nor personal info.
The only other thing I do is apply for jobs that are posted, and update my skills profile from the list that Linkedin helpfully provides for most job applications.

It's been a useful tool for me, but I don't expect too much from it.

This is it. LinkedIn is useful for networking and keeping in touch with your existing network and I have got several contracts off the back of it but the posts have become a vaguely business focussed Facebook where the algorithm promotes click bait rather than some of the interesting stuff that does actually get posted. LinkedIn jobs briefly showed promise but is much the same as every other job board now as everything advertised gets swamped with applications.

Just cancelled my LinkedIn Premium subscription on the grounds it doesn't seem to offer any tangible benefits.