State of the Market

[willendure]

if your CV's got Z/OS and sysprog or engineer on it, i can almost guarantee it'll get looked at by a human.

What, no AIs running on Z/OS ??

[avonleigh]

Was always told CV's should not be longer than 4 pages. Anymore than that they are binned. Don't know how true that is, but always kept mine to 4 pages anyway. Any roles over 10 years old just get a one-liner and nothing more. Asked Chat GPT to reformat mine a few months back. But can't say it's made any difference. What I do know is some agencies will never contact me regardless. Over 28 years of contracting, if I have reached out to let's say 500 different agencies. Yet I probably have only ever heard from about 10% of them (as a guess). And these agencies will tend to reach out to be time and time again. Never understood this.

[sadkingbilly]

What, no AIs running on Z/OS ??

https://www.ibm.com/new/announcement...ise-innovation

[TheDude]

Was always told CV's should not be longer than 4 pages. Anymore than that they are binned. Don't know how true that is, but always kept mine to 4 pages anyway. Any roles over 10 years old just get a one-liner and nothing more. Asked Chat GPT to reformat mine a few months back. But can't say it's made any difference. What I do know is some agencies will never contact me regardless. Over 28 years of contracting, if I have reached out to let's say 500 different agencies. Yet I probably have only ever heard from about 10% of them (as a guess). And these agencies will tend to reach out to be time and time again. Never understood this.

I saw once five page CV which included an essay describing the candidates philosophy on software development.

That should have been enough to reject them on the spot but they were called in for an interview.

He couldn't even answer the warm up programming questions and was walked after the first 30 minutes.

[sadkingbilly]

was walked after the first 30 minutes.

I don't remember ever having an interview that lasted 30 mins.

[willendure]

Started looking in earnest for a new contract now. Getting about 3 or 4 agents a day calling me. Its like the dotcom era or something. The market is tight, but its not dead.

[willendure]

https://www.ibm.com/new/announcement...ise-innovation

Oooh, fancy! I think IBM will be king of quantum computing era if they don't blow it.

[SchumiStars]

7 and 9 page CVs....😀
Noone in the world will read that.

You are applying for a job, a contract.They have a position available due to a current resource constrait.

They are not your friends, you are not going to their weddings. It's business. Your CV is like a poster, a business card not a book about your life story.

They look at your CV to see if you have the skills, interview to see if you can talk the talk and not disturb the current setup.

I've never had more than 2 pages. If it is, I cut it back.y roles from 2000-2010 are just one line. Why would something from 15yrs ago make any difference today?

[eek]

7 and 9 page CVs....😀
Noone in the world will read that.

You are applying for a job, a contract.They have a position available due to a current resource constrait.

They are not your friends, you are not going to their weddings. It's business. Your CV is like a poster, a business card not a book about your life story.

They look at your CV to see if you have the skills, interview to see if you can talk the talk and not disturb the current setup.

I've never had more than 2 pages. If it is, I cut it back.y roles from 2000-2010 are just one line. Why would something from 15yrs ago make any difference today?

The technology I dev for started in 2003 and although bits have changed an awful lot of it hasn't.

Pointing out i've 18 years of experience and know exactly where most of the bodies of failed projects are buried doesn't do me any harm...

[caminito]

Started looking in earnest for a new contract now. Getting about 3 or 4 agents a day calling me. Its like the dotcom era or something. The market is tight, but its not dead.

I'm just seeing the same pattern, over and over and over again. Agent makes contact on LinkedIn, we have a text chat, it looks a real goer, then...... NOTHING. This happened the last two Fridays running. Take the latest one. Friday had a screening call with internal 'talent acquisition specialist'. Went really well and he's talking about scheduling the next round and it sounded like it would have been same day, except the interviewer was out of office, and they'd be in touch with details of next round. Nothing. It's now Wednesday lunchtime. But this is just the latest example, it's a recurring theme the last few years. LinkedIn chat - "Hey Caminito, take a look at this contract, it's a perfect match for your skills. Fancy a quick chat?". Response goes in within 10 mins, including phone number. Nothing. Rinse and repeat, over and over.