State of the Market

[jamesbrown]

Expertise appreciated - I know my knowledge is sketchy in places but I wasn't just imagining the 1099 thing

I'm not saying that you're imagining it. A 1099 is a real IRS form and a real shorthand for a particular category of worker (or, rather, several). I'm saying that there is no comparable contract scene in the US for all sorts of good historical and current reasons. There are plenty of FTCs though, people working on fixed length contracts as employees.

[PerfectStorm]

Make room one more for the bench

After getting agreement with the directors my extension would be outside IR35 and thinking life’s good - tech lead leaves and is replaced with someone who is only going to destroy my mental health and probably get the ir35 agreement reversed to boot - so declined the extension and now I’m on a countdown to leave

This is why I start looking weeks before even the most 'assured' extensions...

[redgiant]

1099 is just an IRS income tax return form, so that doesn't mean much to me. To clarify, there are avenues to earn income in the US without employment, but there is nothing analogous to the massive scale and broad scope of the UK contracting scene in the US. There are several historical reasons for this, one being the different labour markets (much easier to hire/fire in the US than the UK), another being the strict definition of what constitutes an independent contractor in the US (previously the "twenty factor test" - now see https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15a.pdf - plus a bunch of state-specific tests that can be even tougher), another being the absence of large differences in taxation that you see in the UK (at least until recent years). There are probably others too.

This echoes my experience in the US. Majority of the widely advertised independent IT contract work in the US is handled through consultancies and agencies. Many of these insist on consultants being on their payroll as a W2 (another IRS income tax form) which means you are paid, taxed but also have the benefits (healthcare, pension etc.) of being a permanent member of staff and are usually fixed term (6-12 months). The rates vary immensely depending on the industry and location and there are the usual suspects advertising low rates in exchange for H1B visa sponsorship.

There is a market for independent consultants but it is niche and much smaller than the UK. The majority of my US contracts (most of my work is outside of IT these days) come from my contact network and I have to negotiate the work order terms with each.

[BritishLad88]

I'm in cloud computing (azure and 365) I program using c#, JavaScript, reactJS. Background is in SharePoint since 2003.

Most roles are around dynamics 365 which is quite healthy but don't have the skill. Thinking to go perm into dynamics then contract again so I would have full 365 and azure.

I'm in a similar market. Predominatetly web based, use JavaScript, ReactJS also. I'm not from the Microsoft space so not entirely sure about Sharepoint, i thought there would still be some demand for it. If you know azure i recommend you to put that into good use. It seems that's the trend where its going with all those cloud stuff

However, having said that, I have a feeling Microsoft are no longer the biggest player in the IT market. They have been pretty much been taken over by Amazon (AWS) and Google (GCP). So i'm sorry to say. Microsoft tech are pretty much limited to big enterprises these days so you probably limited to those kind of roles.

[BritishLad88]

What's the difference between Dynamics 365 and 365? Just curious.

I'd have thought that Azure, C# and JavaScript are very hot skills right now. I see tons of ads for those every day, so many that I thought getting certified in Azure would be my ticket off the bench. Am I completely mistaken?

Yeah, i'm curious to know what the difference is, I'd assumed he meant the same thing but used interchangeability? Or perhaps he was referring to Office 365?

I share same believe that Azure, C#, and JavaScript are very hot skills right now. Regardless of whether certs are worthwhile, the industry trend is heading towards Cloud in IT. so knowing Azure would be very handy indeed.

[GigiBronz]

Make room one more for the bench

After getting agreement with the directors my extension would be outside IR35 and thinking life’s good - tech lead leaves and is replaced with someone who is only going to destroy my mental health and probably get the ir35 agreement reversed to boot - so declined the extension and now I’m on a countdown to leave

That's way we choose to stay contractors. I've been trying to explain to some people why the tech roles have some particularities and going perm is not always the best solution. The ones that seem to listen I'd point them to Death March by Edward Yourdon.
But probably wasting my words anyway, most of them understand only tempie and tax advantage.

Life is not only about work anyway and sometimes it takes us too long to understand that.

[cosmic]

What's the difference between Dynamics 365 and 365? Just curious.

I'd have thought that Azure, C# and JavaScript are very hot skills right now. I see tons of ads for those every day, so many that I thought getting certified in Azure would be my ticket off the bench. Am I completely mistaken?

365 is a suite of technologies tied together with the underlying tech being azure. 365 is an SaaS. Dynamics 365 is a rehashed crm that's on the cloud as SaaS.

In my line of field as a developer it's getting harder and harder. Clients want everything under the sun with azure plus 365 stuff. Yes there are roles out for azure but actually landing an interview is next to none due to cheap foreign labour or client axing contract before it starts which is common due to costs involved.

Some contracts but not paying anywhere near to cover costs and most are within ir35 at around 250pd. Just not feesable.

Before ir35 trash it was ok and getting plenty of calls but last 4 months it's been quiet. Job ads about but most are fishing or don't hear back.

[cosmic]

Yeah, i'm curious to know what the difference is, I'd assumed he meant the same thing but used interchangeability? Or perhaps he was referring to Office 365?

I share same believe that Azure, C#, and JavaScript are very hot skills right now. Regardless of whether certs are worthwhile, the industry trend is heading towards Cloud in IT. so knowing Azure would be very handy indeed.

Yes referring to office 365 that holds d365

Vanilla reactJS with vanilla JavaScript and nodeJS is the tech but recruitment agents can't get past azure and 365. If you get what I mean? Confusing I know!

If you do vanilla stuff and within last two roles you are fine and some jobs about but if it's mixed in with 365 and SharePoint It kinda gets lost in translation lol and recritment/Clients get confused.

React on 365 is different to vanilla. Same goes for JavaScript vanilla vs js on a html page as an example. Code wise same and methodology is the same but the underlying SaaS is different.

I just have to wait it out a little longer for contracts which I hope it picks up. Applying to perm roles within my field and also to perm roles that allow my to cross over to vanilla work or dynamics.

Last two years been around migrating to azure cloud and development on azure/SharePoint. My role is more of a azure cloud consultant but background is mainly dev work.

[BritishLad88]

Last two years been around migrating to azure cloud and development on azure/SharePoint. My role is more of a azure cloud consultant but background is mainly dev work.

Perhaps you could sell yourself as that (azure cloud consultant) as your USP and hope to bargain for a higher rate, no? Looks like your role is a niche specialist role which is quite good from a contracting POW, as being a 'specialist' sort of makes you stand out a bit from the crowd plus I would da imagined with a background in dev would give you an even better advantage.. but yeah i'm surprised to see that most roles in that area are £250 within IR35..

Then again, the Microsoft space is not my field so ... what do I know eh...

[PlanB]

Linkedin info

From my linkedin feed, this was from a consulting company posting some recruitment info.

1. We had 210 applications for Agile delivery managers, interviewed 10, rejected 9
2. Rejected around 12 people in UX interviews and still have an open role and
3. Java devs I lost the count of the applications. Was around 1k+, more than 130+ interviews to on-board 40 devs so far.

So for a delivery manager role: 200/1, UX: 12/0 and Java Dev: 1000/40.

Fair enough some of these may be coming from outside the UK but those are some tough odds to overcome. You are going to need to be very good and very lucky.