State of the Market

[oliverson]

Another cracker....

Frontend Developer | Mostly Remote | 3 months initial | £275 per day

Leeds
ContractPosted by: RecOps
Posted: Thursday, 31 July 2025

Think it's the same parasites who advertised the last one I posted.

[hobnob]

Surely under GDPR you have the right to not have automated decisions made about you? Or some such, I forget the exact wording.

I think the best defence/justification (for the recruiters) in that situation is consent. I.e. if you apply for a job and you tick a box that says "I agree to the terms and conditions", there might be something in the T&C that says "we send your CV to a cloud-based AI".

[Fraidycat]

Another cracker....
Frontend Developer | Mostly Remote | 3 months initial | £275 per day
ContractPosted by: RecOps
Think it's the same parasites who advertised the last one I posted.

As Perfectstorm said above 'the truly hungry are getting fed', you are just not hungry enough, not desperate enough..

[rocktronAMP]

Or you could relocate to the Abu Dhabi, this morning, a recruiter reached out to me on Linkedin

I am seeking an exceptional Java Developer to join my client based in Abu Dhabi. This is a exciting opportunity for an experienced Java Developer to work in the UAE for a world-leading applied research organization developing breakthrough technologies across ten cutting-edge fields.

This is an onsite position in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Full relocation support will be provided.

-- CUT -- CUT --

Responsibilities & Requirements:

Integrate cryptographic libraries into real world applications.
work within a continuous integration environment and auto tests.
5+ years with Java/Kotlin.
Skilled with Git.
Design using REST APIs
Experience with testing, clean code and SOLID principles.
Minimum of a bachelors degree.


Salary & Benefits:

Tax free salary up to 8,000 Euro per month.
Amazing Relocation Support – Double your first month's salary to assist with setting up in Abu Dhabi.
Up to 25% bonus per year
Flights – Free Annual flights home for you and your family.
Education Allowance – 30,000 AED per child for education support.
Healthcare & Dental – Full FREE private healthcare and dental coverage for you and your family.
Accommodation Support – One month's hotel stay provided.
Holidays – 25 days annual leave plus 14 public holidays.
Free Lunch on-site

-- SNIP SNIP --

EUR 8000 translates to 6938 GBP without tax. I decent contract of say even £600 per day at the Outside IR35 beats that out of the park with the tax efficiencies. By my guess the match would say be to about £515 per day, with corporation tax. In other words, the starter EUR 8000 seems a bit cheap and not so outstanding, but I have no work / lived experience. Maybe it is attractive to Love Islanders or Lasses. The other thing to consider is do you want to cover for someone that has left Abu Dhabi, who has determined that the politics in the Middle East is just not worth it any longer for them and, imortantly, their family.

[oliverson]

Or you could relocate to the Abu Dhabi, this morning, a recruiter reached out to me on Linkedin



EUR 8000 translates to 6938 GBP without tax. I decent contract of say even £600 per day at the Outside IR35 beats that out of the park with the tax efficiencies. By my guess the match would say be to about £515 per day, with corporation tax. In other words, the starter EUR 8000 seems a bit cheap and not so outstanding, but I have no work / lived experience. Maybe it is attractive to Love Islanders or Lasses. The other thing to consider is do you want to cover for someone that has left Abu Dhabi, who has determined that the politics in the Middle East is just not worth it any longer for them and, imortantly, their family.

The £6k would be gone in air-conditioning!

[WTFH]

...but I have no work / lived experience. Maybe it is attractive to Love Islanders or Lasses. The other thing to consider is do you want to cover for someone that has left Abu Dhabi, who has determined that the politics in the Middle East is just not worth it any longer for them and, imortantly, their family.

So, you have no experience of Abu Dhabi, but have already managed to get all your prejudices out there.
"Attractive to Love Islanders or Lasses"
"Covering for someone who has determined the politics of the whole region is not worth it for them or their family"

Based on your personal prejudice, it's definitely not for you.
For those of us who have been to parts of the Middle East, or are open to new experiences, maybe its worth considering.
€8000 in your personal bank account is better than £0 in a company account waiting for an outside IR35 contract.

Oh, and your Inside/Outside numbers seem a bit off, but I realise people have various ways of employing family members, etc, so no one calculation is 100% reflective of everyone.
But throwing the numbers into Contractor Calculator:
Net income per month of £6,944
- To earn the same contracting, outside of IR35, you would need a rate of £673 per day
- To earn the same contracting, inside of IR35, you would need a rate of £796 per day

Neither of which is near the £515 you quoted

[Snooky]

So, you have no experience of Abu Dhabi, but have already managed to get all your prejudices out there.
"Attractive to Love Islanders or Lasses"
"Covering for someone who has determined the politics of the whole region is not worth it for them or their family"

Based on your personal prejudice, it's definitely not for you.
For those of us who have been to parts of the Middle East, or are open to new experiences, maybe its worth considering.

Living in, or contributing in any way towards, a country which has such a poor human rights record is a new experience I'm not open to. YMMV.

[oliverson]

Living in, or contributing in any way towards, a country which has such a poor human rights record is a new experience I'm not open to. YMMV.

You're talking about the UK, right? And worsening by the day.

[WTFH]

Living in, or contributing in any way towards, a country which has such a poor human rights record is a new experience I'm not open to. YMMV.

The other guy talked about "The Middle East", not just a single country, but tarring the whole region with the same brush. It's also worth noting there are those in the UK who want us to leave the ECHR, e.g. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...o-alternative/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...-leaving-echr/
etc, etc.

[malvolio]

The other guy talked about "The Middle East", not just a single country, but tarring the whole region with the same brush. It's also worth noting there are those in the UK who want us to leave the ECHR, e.g. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...o-alternative/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...-leaving-echr/
etc, etc.

But all that means is we replace a generic European set of rules with our own set of rules, without the risk of being overridden by a non-UK judiciary. Since we wrote most of the original rules after WW2, we aren't about to step back into the dark ages, merely set our own parameters.

Of course if Starmer and Hermer weren't slave to any "international" court ruling that comes up in the Guardian it wouldn't matter. And we would most likely not be spending several billions renting back our own property...