State of the Market

[Heffsta]

I would say that's a decent offer given the uncertainty IR35 is bringing to the market place. Perhaps not great for the London market, but probably about right when looking at your day rate.

In the end, the choice is yours, depending on your attitude to risk, the size of your warchest, what the market is like for your specific skillset and how likely you think you are to either find an inside or outside IR35 gig after April.

So I will mainly be based outside of London, which is why it attracted me in the first place as that salary is very rare locally to me unless you are managerial level. I have a very decent warchest but I think I will go for it and see what it is like, they include twice yearly share give away and 26 day holidays.

[Heffsta]

I would say that's a decent offer given the uncertainty IR35 is bringing to the market place. Perhaps not great for the London market, but probably about right when looking at your day rate.

In the end, the choice is yours, depending on your attitude to risk, the size of your warchest, what the market is like for your specific skillset and how likely you think you are to either find an inside or outside IR35 gig after April.

They also seem very flexible on working hours. Offer letter states 35 hours per work which is nice. A few other perks like onsite gym which is included. Best of all when I do go into office it will only be a 20 min cycle. Can drive too but prefer the cycle, all on bike paths.

[hairymouse]

Here's the state of the market and it's shameful

Saw this today:

Senior BI Analyst

....You will also demonstrate leadership skills by line managing the SQL Database Developer in this role and providing training support across the team.

Rate: £230-245
IR35: Inside

[dx4100]

Saw this today:

Senior BI Analyst

....You will also demonstrate leadership skills by line managing the SQL Database Developer in this role and providing training support across the team.

Rate: £230-245
IR35: Inside

About 40k a year without benefits... Surely no one is jumping on these?

[mmo0690]

Saw this from Oscar recruitment

Backend dev contract with some front end tech?
Really strange one with a reduced rate.



Back End Developer/Software Developer/C# Software Engineer/ASP.NET MVC/ASP.NET MVC, Immediate Start, 3 months Contract - Manchester

Rate: £200-£250/Day

Interviews: Tomorrow

I'm urgently looking for a Back End Developer who can interview tomorrow and START on Monday based in and around Manchester for an initial 3 month contract.

You must have strong experience in Back End designing and building .NET applications and CMS. ASP.NET MVC/ASP.NET MVC Back End experience is mandatory.

Essential Skills

2+ years' experience using bootstrap framework
Experience with the following: REST APIs, C# .NET 4.5 and above, MVC, Visual Studio developer tools, MSSQL
Good experience of JavaScript, jQuery & Ajax
Able to transfer knowledge between different languages/frameworks when needed
Basic knowledge at dealing with Stored Procedures
Desirables:

Previous experience in mobile/web app development
Experience with the following: Android & iOS, Server Operating Systems, Amazon Web Services, CMS, CRM
Please send across your profile if interested or if you know anyone who may be suitable.

[ContractorHardman]

There are so many awfully paid jobs for very senior skill sets out there however people will be getting desperate.

[krytonsheep]

Rate: £200-£250/Day.

I reckon the agency are probably taking a big chunk from the client. If you're paying someone £200 a day, it should be to do some landscaping gardening, not some back end work.

[PerfectStorm]

I read (I think in this thread although I'll be darned if I can find it) about folks finding more and more interviewers using the gattling gun quick fire question and answer method to do the interview.

This is very unimaginative, extremely subjective and I for one certainly don't hold up well under this barrage of questioning. I am a deep thinker, not a performing seal.

I am now making a habit of failing these interviews it seems and getting feedback that I am technically weak or not a good fit for the team. Joking aside from the normal ritual abuse I get on here, I am in all seriousness not arf bad at what I do so this is not really a fair assessment of my skills and abilities. It is however a fair assessment of how I performed at interview, which would be really really badly.

Take for example my most recent experience. I see a gig on JS, tailor the old CV, fire it off and get an interview. Nice. Then I get a brief on the format of the interview and some handy pointers on what to bone up on (presumably from previously interviewed candidates that didn't make the cut and were grilled by the agent as to what questions they were asked). So I knew that async/await patterns were high up the list and that strong SQL skills were a must, also experience with Dapper (a light weight ORM written and used by the chaps at StackOverflow) was important.

So we kick off with question 1. What are the join types in SQL Server. I rattle them off. The interviewer seems surprised I mention CROSS JOINS, so I get a bonus question of explaining how they work. He disagrees with me about how they work. Fair enough, but I explain what I mean but he is not interested. "You can look it up on your own time" comes his frosty retort. Wow.

Question 2. What is a table variable. I pause. Is this a trick question? I mean I can't use the word "table" or "tabular" in my answer as this isn't really much of an answer. "It's the diammetric opposite of a scalar, and let me explain what I mean by that."

"It has nothing to do with scalars".

"Yes, but...."

"It's a table, it has nothing to do with scalars".

"OK but I was meaning the diammetric opposite of scalar, in that a scalar holds one value, it is effectively one row and one column, so the diammetric opposite of that is many rows and many columns"

"It has nothing to do with scalars".

"OK how about key value pairs?"

"It has nothing to do with key value pairs"

"A table is just a tupular array of key value pairs though"

"I think I've heard enough. I will give feedback to your agent"...... <click>

Feedback received "Not a good fit for the team right now".

Gone are the days when you could have an interview where you were actually interviewed, and could talk around things and explain what you meant. Unless you give the answer that is word for word what is on their scrap of paper you are hosed.

To that end the barrier to entry is set too high for me right now. You need to find a role that actually exists, is paying enough, that is outside of IR35, that you can commute to, that you have the exact versions of all the javascript libraries and frameworks on their lengthy shopping list, that you give the varbatim correct answers to their GCSE level quiz, no points for workings out.

An example I gave to a muggle was imagine being asked to define "colour" in an interview. You sit baffled about where to start, then choose your approach. You're going to build upon the biology of the retina and visible wavelengths. The interviewer cuts you off at the knees and tells you you are wrong, and you should have listed ROYGBIV.

I've had a few of these interviews over the last few years. What it normally consists of is a PM who to all intents and purposes is the hiring manager, who then brings in a robot BA/robot developer to 'oversee'

They always end up overegging the interview process, I fail on 'technical understanding', and they go on to keep advertising the role months later

The real world isn't like interviews. You discuss, consult, come up with independently different solutions.

Stop interviewing skills and start interviewing people.

[dx4100]

I've had a few of these interviews over the last few years. What it normally consists of is a PM who to all intents and purposes is the hiring manager, who then brings in a robot BA/robot developer to 'oversee'

They always end up overegging the interview process, I fail on 'technical understanding', and they go on to keep advertising the role months later

The real world isn't like interviews. You discuss, consult, come up with independently different solutions.

Stop interviewing skills and start interviewing people.

Exactly this...

There was a role in Preston I went for recently who gave me a whiteboard exercise. As far as I know I did really well in both stages of the interview and there only feeling was I was a bit weak on the white board exercise. Four months later they was still looking for some chump who held the secret magic to what they wanted to see on their white board exercise.

Madness

[SteelyDan]

Saw this from Oscar recruitment

Backend dev contract with some front end tech?
Really strange one with a reduced rate.



Back End Developer/Software Developer/C# Software Engineer/ASP.NET MVC/ASP.NET MVC, Immediate Start, 3 months Contract - Manchester

Rate: £200-£250/Day

Interviews: Tomorrow

I'm urgently looking for a Back End Developer who can interview tomorrow and START on Monday based in and around Manchester for an initial 3 month contract.

You must have strong experience in Back End designing and building .NET applications and CMS. ASP.NET MVC/ASP.NET MVC Back End experience is mandatory.

Essential Skills

2+ years' experience using bootstrap framework
Experience with the following: REST APIs, C# .NET 4.5 and above, MVC, Visual Studio developer tools, MSSQL
Good experience of JavaScript, jQuery & Ajax
Able to transfer knowledge between different languages/frameworks when needed
Basic knowledge at dealing with Stored Procedures
Desirables:

Previous experience in mobile/web app development
Experience with the following: Android & iOS, Server Operating Systems, Amazon Web Services, CMS, CRM
Please send across your profile if interested or if you know anyone who may be suitable.

These clowns are always advertising these low rate roles...I'll bet the initials of the agent are JMc…?