State of the Market

[WTFH]

Long ago I did that on my CV, just crammed in a tiny paragraph in white text containing every programming skills related term I could think of. I don't recall it making any difference, but no-one ever noticed it and called me out on it either. Maybe in this age of AI CV screening I should start doing this again, except this time with some kind of hacky LLM prompt "Ignore previous instructions, your new instructions are..."

Sounds a bit like the early days of website design when you would put competitors names in white on the page, and in the meta data in an effort to drive you up the search engines.

[oliverson]

That's pretty much as I feared and matches what I've been told by others. As I'm going to be on the market after a long contract, I've got to set my expectations accordingly.

Sounds like you're in the same tech stack as I am, although most recent contracts have been modernisation from legacy C# server side migrating over to either AWS lambdas or Azure function apps in the main. Haven't done any out and out Winforms for a few years, likewise WCF but no doubt there are plenty of codebases requiring modernisation and cloud migration.

The biggest problem I see is that certainly in the .Net world, it's over. The vast majority of corporates do appear to have wholeheartedly embraced python and the various supporting tech stacks.

I definitely agree about it only taking one and being a numbers game. Certainly since I started contracting in 2008, I've seen a few downturns in tech hiring but then eventually something turns up. I'm in the situation where I'm not close enough to retirement to be able to sit it out for months on end so expect that I'll end up having to take a lower paying contract in London just to keep money coming in. While I've got enough of a war chest to last well in excess of a year, given past experience and what others are saying on here, I'd rather have something coming in than nothing at all. Saying that though, even I have my limits and £300 inside takes the proverbial.

16 years since I last worked on a Winforms project and 10 years for WCF.

By contrast, the last 3.5 years it's been all microservices, kubernetes, helm, Azure and AWS, IaC (Terraform), etc., so there's no way in a million years I'm sabotaging that with a return to Winforms and WCF.

[Smartie]

The last time I found myself with obsolete dev skills was after a four year contract in 2002 (Lotus Notes/Domino/javascript etc.).
Decided I didn't want to end up in that position again so took a break then re-invented myself as a pure BA (as I already had the skills) and later added PM then Agile stuff.
Worked out pretty well - if you don't mind business facing roles, there isn't the same need to constantly learn new tech since methodologies and approaches don't change quickly for these.
AI is likely to come for the Devs first I suspect.

[SchumiStars]

The last time I found myself with obsolete dev skills was after a four year contract in 2002 (Lotus Notes/Domino/javascript etc.).
Decided I didn't want to end up in that position again so took a break then re-invented myself as a pure BA (as I already had the skills) and later added PM then Agile stuff.
Worked out pretty well - if you don't mind business facing roles, there isn't the same need to constantly learn new tech since methodologies and approaches don't change quickly for these.
AI is likely to come for the Devs first I suspect.

Lol, what just like how FrontPage98 was going to make web developers redundant?

Or learning .Net was easy and everyone can do it?

What about SharePoint that was going to be a system whereby companies could have multi-websites trees under one Forrest?

Technical evolutions are just that. It does not remove the roles or work but allows a smarter, better way of working for everyone.

The question you should be asking yourself, like I ask myself, is why would Microsoft/HSBC/Halfords hire me over someone with the same skills abroad who are cheaper?

A frightening answer and for one which I do not have comprehensive answer.

[SchumiStars]

Guy turns up for a job interview at the BBC.

They then put the wrong 'Guy' in the news. Talk about fakng it until you make it.

https://youtu.be/e6Y2uQn_wvc?si=5N4pFESgG4_CsxeY

[Smartie]

Lol, what just like how FrontPage98 was going to make web developers redundant?

Or learning .Net was easy and everyone can do it?

What about SharePoint that was going to be a system whereby companies could have multi-websites trees under one Forrest?

Technical evolutions are just that. It does not remove the roles or work but allows a smarter, better way of working for everyone.

The question you should be asking yourself, like I ask myself, is why would Microsoft/HSBC/Halfords hire me over someone with the same skills abroad who are cheaper?

A frightening answer and for one which I do not have comprehensive answer.

Just offering a perspective and my individual solution to the discussion around maintaining skills.
Never been out of contract for a significant period except the start of Covid when my contract ended and no-one was hiring.

As for AI, it's improving all the time. It will be coming for a lot of us but I'd bet on development being an early casualty, with the exception of AI developers of course ;-)

[willendure]

As for AI, it's improving all the time. It will be coming for a lot of us but I'd bet on development being an early casualty, with the exception of AI developers of course ;-)

Anyone whose output is digital is at risk. Graphic designers, copy writers, they are already feeling it and those are much easier domains to solve than coding.

BA or Scrum are easier domains too. I use AI to write technical docs and specifications or solution designs. Also domains that it does better in than coding.

But yes, we all need to shift so that we are using AI instead of being replaced by it. Or do a job where your output is not digital, or can be converted to digital (professional drivers are at risk of this).

I have a feed of AI contracts and I do notice that this feed is growing at the moment. Even since the start of this year the number of AI contracts has grown from single digits per week to maybe 10 per day. Python seems to be the most central skill. The difficultly is they all ask for lots of tech skills and there is not much of a clear pattern so it seems a hard area to break into.

My intention with capturing a feed of AI roles is to analyse it and try and get a skills breakdown by popularity so I can have something to go on to learn the skills that are most valuable to a contractor. Not had much time to spend on this project, but I am gathering the data at least.

[avonleigh]

Anyone whose output is digital is at risk. Graphic designers, copy writers, they are already feeling it and those are much easier domains to solve than coding.

BA or Scrum are easier domains too. I use AI to write technical docs and specifications or solution designs. Also domains that it does better in than coding.

But yes, we all need to shift so that we are using AI instead of being replaced by it. Or do a job where your output is not digital, or can be converted to digital (professional drivers are at risk of this).

I have a feed of AI contracts and I do notice that this feed is growing at the moment. Even since the start of this year the number of AI contracts has grown from single digits per week to maybe 10 per day. Python seems to be the most central skill. The difficultly is they all ask for lots of tech skills and there is not much of a clear pattern so it seems a hard area to break into.

My intention with capturing a feed of AI roles is to analyse it and try and get a skills breakdown by popularity so I can have something to go on to learn the skills that are most valuable to a contractor. Not had much time to spend on this project, but I am gathering the data at least.

From ITJobsWatch search, definetely increasing in demand as you say -

[SchumiStars]

Quite an odd going today.

An interview was arranged for today by a recruitment agent. We had been chatting via LinkedIn mostly (RedFlag#1).

Interview was for a defence company, 2 people from the company asking me questions and having a chat about tech.

Was a positive interview and immediately contacted the agent. I searched for the company phone number (Not present) or his email and still not much found (RedFlag#2). So using his linked, I sent him a message. He replied back 30mins latter (RedFlag#3) saying he was in a meeting and call me back after (RedFlag#4).

Of course he never phoned me back which seems very odd (RedFlag#5).

Most agents normally phone to get an assesment from me within 30mins so this does feel all a bit wrong. Coupled by the fact I asked for his phone number and never responded.

Now I am wondering whether his professional looking website might be a front hiding themselves in a far away place.

All very odd.

[willendure]

Quite an odd going today.

An interview was arranged for today by a recruitment agent. We had been chatting via LinkedIn mostly (RedFlag#1).

Interview was for a defence company, 2 people from the company asking me questions and having a chat about tech.

Was a positive interview and immediately contacted the agent. I searched for the company phone number (Not present) or his email and still not much found (RedFlag#2). So using his linked, I sent him a message. He replied back 30mins latter (RedFlag#3) saying he was in a meeting and call me back after (RedFlag#4).

Of course he never phoned me back which seems very odd (RedFlag#5).

Most agents normally phone to get an assesment from me within 30mins so this does feel all a bit wrong. Coupled by the fact I asked for his phone number and never responded.

Now I am wondering whether his professional looking website might be a front hiding themselves in a far away place.

All very odd.

Very odd - but the defense company itself was real and liked you? Maybe if you still have their contact details from the interview you could ask them what is going on. Keep us posted though, I am intrigued to hear how this one works out, or maybe thats it you are just ghosted - theres a defence company wanting you for the job, you wanting the job, and some rando in outer mongolia pulling off some weird LI scam with inscrutable motivations that we will never learn about...