State of the Market

[willendure]

Well done to anyone who has found anything, contract or permanent, and keep on going to those who haven’t.

in my (non IT) new role I setup an admittedly straightforward Access database and it took about 5 minutes in Co Pilot. Beginning to see why a lot of us are struggling.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgx4yd1gl2o

It doesn't look like AI is saving anyone any time though. Which is how I think AI is going to play out, it just means that people can achieve more and faster, but companies will just become more ambitious and create larger and more complex products that will soak up all the "free time".

I think the issue is that if Access databases is your core skill, no-one cares anymore, its not worth employing someone to do something that trivial. So its not a question of AI taking over all the work, its a question of the kinds of skills that we promote changing, and forcing us to move higher up the food chain.

[SussexSeagull]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgx4yd1gl2o

It doesn't look like AI is saving anyone any time though. Which is how I think AI is going to play out, it just means that people can achieve more and faster, but companies will just become more ambitious and create larger and more complex products that will soak up all the "free time".

I think the issue is that if Access databases is your core skill, no-one cares anymore, its not worth employing someone to do something that trivial. So its not a question of AI taking over all the work, its a question of the kinds of skills that we promote changing, and forcing us to move higher up the food chain.

Never was my core skill (or anyone for several decades) and I am not in the IT industry anymore and it was the only tool available. But from my very meagre experience of AI in development I can see why it can speed up some of the grunt work. That said, I did have to expand the database design and found it quicker to do the changes in Access.

It's a tool.

[edison]

Just started a new 6 month gig. Whoop whoop!

Decent rate, albeit inside IR35.

Started after my previous three month FTC in Spring with potential to move into another role at the company was ended.

First time since 2023 that I've got contracts back to back with no significant break in between.

Hopefully things are picking up after a truly terrible 2025 on the contracting and personal front.

[SchumiStars]

Market is dead Jim

[sadkingbilly]

for developers, apparently so.

[SchumiStars]

for developers, apparently so.

Without developers, there is no need for testers, devopps or project management. Developers are required for applicatiom changes.

The alternative is to have agencies or offshore development teams which will then mean a race to the bottom. I.e. cheap agencies low costs.

[hobnob]

Without developers, there is no need for testers, devopps or project management. Developers are required for applicatiom changes.

There are other projects which need managers, separate from development. E.g. if a company has a bunch of Windows 2016 servers which are approaching EOL (Jan 2027) so they need to migrate to a newer OS.

[sadkingbilly]

Without developers, there is no need for testers, devopps or project management. Developers are required for applicatiom changes.

The alternative is to have agencies or offshore development teams which will then mean a race to the bottom. I.e. cheap agencies low costs.

I'd argue there's never much need for PM's, but i'm biased

[SchumiStars]

I'd argue there's never much need for PM's, but i'm biased

There is always budget for a PM, regardless of required or not 😀

Management need someone to blame.

[Grah]

Pre-interview 'screening interview'

I had a technical screening interview with the agent a couple of weeks back 'because their client was on-boarding a couple of starters next week' and didn't have time to take more interviews for the next contractor. It was recorded with them asking me 6 technical/approach questions about what I would do in a similar situation.

They said they would get back to me at the end of the following week but, as you guessed, nothing. No email, no phone call either way. I haven't chased as maybe I'm not that desperate yet.

Is this recorded pre-interview screening a new pattern or has anybody else had something like this?