State of the Market

[SteelyDan]

Funny you should say that. I've just started walking dogs (missus won't let us have a dog) at the local animal sanctuary to give me some routine and time out and it's bloody great!! I'm absolutely awful on the bench, no routine, motivation but the dog walking is the best thing I've done in a very long time. Now I've something to look forward to and have to do when I get back and feel proper invigorated when I get home and fired in to the hunting. Definitely recommend it.

You're on the bench too?

[northernladuk]

You're on the bench too?

Yup. Hit the 2 year rule at the clients recently. In the past 12 years the best bit has been leaving a client and looking for new exciting roles. Have to say not so this time. Market is awful and the agents worse than ever.

[northernladuk]

Until winter comes around!

Ah'm frm't Yorkshire. Ahhhs just put t'hat on like.

[PCTNN]

Market in my area of expertise (design) has definitely picked up in the last 2 weeks. Quite a few new roles every week, now.

Applied for one and got an offer. One shot one kill

[SussexSeagull]

This is all good advice. Obviously bear in mind you can stand looking at your phone for 5 hours and an agent will ring you the minute you go into the kitchen to get a drink!

[PerfectStorm]

This is all good advice. Obviously bear in mind you can stand looking at your phone for 5 hours and an agent will ring you the minute you go into the kitchen to get a drink!

Or when you're sat on the toilet, phone in hand. Judicious muting is sometimes necessary.

[Mephisto]

uncomfortably familiar last few posts.

[BigJohn]

For the more experienced contractors that have built relationships with the pimps for many years, are your phones still ringing?


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[GigiBronz]

Benched as well. Finished a contract in automotive which hated every bit of it. A mix of programming and engineering. Big US comp but small city and bad mix of people. Nothing worked there. Now trying to get into IT world in london, finance and python, some of the previous things i’ve been doing were more advanced, others not. But still find it difficult to get managers to trust me, at all job levels. Had a few discussions but they haven’t gone very far. Thinking there is a lot of supply out there and they are not open to taking risk but could be me as well...
I probably could return to prev industry but find that as appealing as jumping in front of a train.
What it helped me is going for a run in the morning, gets you in a good mood for the rest of the day.
My advice is not to taken anything personal about the market, as someone said above these things might last for some time. My opinion is also that brexit is a front to ramp up capitalism and soon there will be less employee protection and payed nhs tightening the screws on everyone. Restrictions to live uk so only work work work...
it might be a good time for everyone to have a honest talk with themselves because if “employment at will” will be the norm, nobody would pay extra for a contractor. And plenty of people around here like the dosh but some also prefer not to be part of the corporate world so much...
Maybe there is a sunny country out there that you have been thinking about...
I am thinking of getting a job for those fake taxi’s that you see in movies, see if it actually works that way...

[globalBA]

contract fallen through!

So that contract that I had "secured" in Manchester but they wanted me to wait 2 weeks before starting....well its fallen through.

The agency (Pontoons) have stated that the client will not overlook that my surname is spelt slightly different on my passport by one character. Its never been an issue before and i have been contracting for a long time and also have contracted through the agency before as well.

personally i think the roll has lost funding.