State of the Market

[Lilibet]

Sounds about normal, but consider changing aspects of your style/responses/appearance if the interviews aren't securing work.

Thanks for the tip. In all 3 interviews I was the first candidate they have met, unsure whether it contributed to my lack of success (it shouldn't though if one is the best candidate right?) so yeah a bit of a blow to my confidence.

I also want to add that it is the second contract I am trying to secure. My first was a 3 month long right after a perm position, having worked as a perm for many years and slowly but gradually became incredibly disillusioned so decided to take the plunge into contracting. Not so much for the money increase, although its indeed a great motivator, but mostly for the lifestyle i.e. new changing environments, feeling less undervalued, bored and repetitive etc.

[Contractor101101]

Thanks for the tip. In all 3 interviews I was the first candidate they have met, unsure whether it contributed to my lack of success (it shouldn't though if one is the best candidate right?) so yeah a bit of a blow to my confidence.

I also want to add that it is the second contract I am trying to secure. My first was a 3 month long right after a perm position, having worked as a perm for many years and slowly but gradually became incredibly disillusioned so decided to take the plunge into contracting. Not so much for the money increase, although its indeed a great motivator, but mostly for the lifestyle i.e. new changing environments, feeling less undervalued, bored and repetitive etc.

You probably still interview like a permie. There are very good resources online on how contracting interviews differ.

You pitch for the work going, you have to make the client feel that you will be delivering what is required. You need to do as much research as possible beforehand on what they are looking to solve. Get as much feedback from the agent as possible.

Take a notebook to the interview, ask questions and take notes. You must learn to think on your feet. Clients expect you to comfort them during the process. You must come across as someone who is the answer to their problem.

[perplexed]

You probably still interview like a permie. There are very good resources online on how contracting interviews differ.

You pitch for the work going, you have to make the client feel that you will be delivering what is required. You need to do as much research as possible beforehand on what they are looking to solve. Get as much feedback from the agent as possible.

Take a notebook to the interview, ask questions and take notes. You must learn to think on your feet. Clients expect you to comfort them during the process. You must come across as someone who is the answer to their problem.

All good points.

Also, consider maintaining relationships with previous clients. An agent contacted me to catch up; standard trawling. He knew I was available after signed extension fell through due to budget reasons - so asked if I had permission for him to contact an old client of mine ( agent got me the v short term gig ages ago, 6 weeks whilst waiting to start perm job ). Client had been raving about me ( easily pleased ), would have liked the 6 weeks to have been longer. Lo and behold, they have 3 months worth of work, tides me over Christmas period. Not my usual type of gig and the rate is lower than usual by quite a bit, but it's money.

If you can maintain good relations and get a fallback gig, it's always good.

[PerfectStorm]

Getting a few calls about working for 'consultancies' placed within clients - these organisations don't have make my skin crawl.

[BR14]

Getting a few calls about working for 'consultancies' placed within clients - these organisations don't have make my skin crawl.

Do they have names ending in -pro ,or -mahindra ??

[PerfectStorm]

Do they have names ending in -pro ,or -mahindra ??

Haha! No, not those ones. More Crap Gemini or Arsecentture type stuff. You know the types.

[BR14]

Haha! No, not those ones. More Crap Gemini or Arsecentture type stuff. You know the types.

I've had a couple of good gigs with CG, nothing but disdain for arthur's andriods though.

[Contractor101101]

Haha! No, not those ones. More Crap Gemini or Arsecentture type stuff. You know the types.

Same concept as Tata and Infosys, same people. At least the ones I've spoken to recently.

Crap Gemini called me a week or so ago. When I finally understood what the guy was saying (I'm not mocking foreigners, I'm foreign myself), he arranged a call with his manager who called me without notice and more or less just wanted to know what the lowest rate that I would take was.

The calls with the types of consultancies that employ Tier 2 staff always go the same way:

1. They promise you the world, nothing is a problem, 'sure Contractor101101, we are very flexible'
2. 'But what is the lowest rate you would accept really, won't hold it against you'
3. 'Our contracts are IR35 proof, approved by Qdos'

Then you might get a call from some small agency (who always has a cash flow problem, according to Companies House) who will pretend that they can get a gig directly with a client, only to see Tata mentioned as the 'line manager' with time sheet denial rights.

So sick of these calls, they appeared to have peaked, thank god.

[Bluenose]

A pimp was telling me the other day that the sheer volume of CVs out there being sent in for a role advertisement is currently very high. In my experience you can always tell when it's a buyer's market as the job specs are like mini novels and list such a long list of skills that even if you have version 1.4 of something and they want 1.5 you are binned.

This is the market I am seeing currently. Remember people are still coming back from holiday and it takes time for the market to ramp back up. Plus firms are probably being cautious until they get a clearer idea of the issues in Westminster and with Brexit.

Soon enough there will be lots of gigs out there to frantically save failing Brexit projects. Keep the faith, it's not you or your CV! Chin up.

Suity

Yep, too much unicorn chasing but much of this i put down to database building because of GDPR.

this is a warning to all contractors out there in a role right now.

Make sure you take your renewal.

The arse started to fall out of the contract market from around April, it was a slow death and the squeeze has been slow but steady. Its not been this bad since 2012, the single and only time I have been benched in my entire career.

I am seeing £350 per day roles with seniority and experience requirements enough to give a PHD at cape Canaveral a funny turn.

I am not in Infrastructure, I switched to software a while back, but if you are in Infrastructure, make sure you are AWS and Azure certified otherwise you are in for a very big shock when you hit the market.

An insiders perspective on this is that companies have hit the panic button on cloud migrations to allow them to move to Europe at the flick of a switch. Old hands will baulk at this concept but it's actually possible and a reality of the political climate.

There was also a big push last 18 months to get rid of contract staff and replace them with permies, the IR35 public sector changes I think accelerated this because what happened in a lot of cases is that the contract roles got replaced with consultancy roles and the consultancies simply employed permies only to work the same roles for less money (and admittedly, less hassle for the client).

All this talk of 'lots of calls' i have been told is due to the slave traders having to keep up their phone time and rebuilding their contact books and databases which have been decimated by GDPR.

The number of actual roles out there, for decent money is small.

There is plenty of software development and security work out there at the moment but I am not seeing signs of life any of the other major markets. Data, Project Management, Service Delivery, Infra.

wow, its truly awful out there, I could go on, some of the calls I have had from agents recently and how they are going about their business, truly appalling.

Like Suity said, we are waiting for a starter gun but it's going to be painful until then.

[molsang]

Returning to India

Yep, too much unicorn chasing but much of this i put down to database building because of GDPR.

this is a warning to all contractors out there in a role right now.

Make sure you take your renewal.

The arse started to fall out of the contract market from around April, it was a slow death and the squeeze has been slow but steady. Its not been this bad since 2012, the single and only time I have been benched in my entire career.

I am seeing £350 per day roles with seniority and experience requirements enough to give a PHD at cape Canaveral a funny turn.

I am not in Infrastructure, I switched to software a while back, but if you are in Infrastructure, make sure you are AWS and Azure certified otherwise you are in for a very big shock when you hit the market.

An insiders perspective on this is that companies have hit the panic button on cloud migrations to allow them to move to Europe at the flick of a switch. Old hands will baulk at this concept but it's actually possible and a reality of the political climate.

There was also a big push last 18 months to get rid of contract staff and replace them with permies, the IR35 public sector changes I think accelerated this because what happened in a lot of cases is that the contract roles got replaced with consultancy roles and the consultancies simply employed permies only to work the same roles for less money (and admittedly, less hassle for the client).

All this talk of 'lots of calls' i have been told is due to the slave traders having to keep up their phone time and rebuilding their contact books and databases which have been decimated by GDPR.

The number of actual roles out there, for decent money is small.

There is plenty of software development and security work out there at the moment but I am not seeing signs of life any of the other major markets. Data, Project Management, Service Delivery, Infra.

wow, its truly awful out there, I could go on, some of the calls I have had from agents recently and how they are going about their business, truly appalling.

Like Suity said, we are waiting for a starter gun but it's going to be painful until then.

I agree with you what you said. I am an Naturalised UK Citizen of Indian origin, came to UK on Jan 2009 only purpose of doing freelancing. I am extremely successful in the gamble I took coming to UK on deep recession. I experience there is hardly any good roles in my multiple infra skillsets. I plan to stay in my current contract upto end of 2019 (if possible) and then return to India permanently and reskil in AWS security. There are lots of start-ups in Bangalore, currently India is 3rd on start-ups right after US and China. And that is next technology boom is happening and I wish to take good chunk of it until i retire. Lucky me, I did not invest a penny in UK housing market and can relocate to India in 72 hrs notice lol