State of the Market

[CheeseSlice]

Passed four (!) interviews, the last one was a day-long technical task. So far so good, during the whole process, my agent was told I am their preferred candidate. When it came to signing up a contract - the client postponed hiring for an uncertain period of time. Very sorry...

You what? Sounds like they were taking you for a ride..

[MisterLysenkiy]

Sounds like they were taking you for a ride..

Not really, they just wanted to ensure I gain the right vison and how I can assess some abstract problem, by the nature of job it could not be tested quite in a short time.
I did not have issues with that kind of test tasks, was happy to do it and learned much of relevant stuff while doing that, that fas a fun for me. The problem is that they postponed hiring.

[jayn200]

Not really, they just wanted to ensure I gain the right vison and how I can assess some abstract problem, by the nature of job it could not be tested quite in a short time.
I did not have issues with that kind of test tasks, was happy to do it and learned much of relevant stuff while doing that, that fas a fun for me. The problem is that they postponed hiring.

4 interviews + 1 day long technical test for a contract role is insane.

If it's so technically minded that you need a whole day to test for it then surely the 4 interviews are completely unnecessary.

[MisterLysenkiy]

4 interviews + 1 day long technical test for a contract role is insane.
If it's so technically minded that you need a whole day to test for it then surely the 4 interviews are completely unnecessary.

3 interviews plus one technical task. 4 in total. From 3 blah-blah type of interview, 2 indeed were unnecessary and could be omitted.

Maybe insane, but I am not in a position to dispute - that was my one and only opportunity of avoiding at least 3 months bench. By the days when I applied (end of March), I did realize that state of the market plus mass postponement of recruitment won't leave me another chance to start a role ASAP. Plus I know I fully suitable for this role and can cope with it and tech. challenges, just need to come and take this contract. And I made it, but still too late when the decision to lay down all the recruitment came within next few days, sadly ...

[PlanB]

Just my 2c and I'm not trying to be alarmist and if someone wants to persuade me I am wrong then that's fine.
The talk of countries relaxing their lockdown rules is cause for real concern.
Although the NHS came out today to say that they now had sufficient resources to cope with a Coronavirus peak - the mortality rate continues to run at extremely high numbers.
People are not dying because they cannot get a bed in ICU or not being admitted into hospitals - they are dying in ICU, on ventilators.
There is a 50:50 chance of survival if you get admitted into ICU despite the best efforts of the brave NHS staff. There is no cure, all they can do is manage the symptoms and hope that your body can fight off the infection.
We cannot afford to relax the lockdown until a cure or vaccine is available and that's how long the market is going to depressed.

Steve

The thing to look for is the infection fatality rate and the truth is until we do mass testing nobody knows what that is although it could be extremely low.

Of the countries that did any significant testing like Iceland the rate was 0.4%.

It’s all well and good locking down until we have a cure but if the economy collapses and we can no longer afford a health service then there really is a limit to how long this can last despite the risks.

New Scientist article which explains a little better.


Why we still don't know what the death rate is for covid-19 | New Scientist

[Highland]

Had a couple of telephone interviews yesterday - 1 perm 1 contract. Direct with clients and no agent involved in the process. Cyber security work.

One a small(er) consultancy and the other a larger Pharma co., both looking to complete recruitment asap and onboard remotely.

Current contract workload is.....light.

[hairymouse]

Direct with clients and no agent involved in the process

That's a coincidence, the only two leads I've got at the moment are direct with clients as well. It seems like a really long time since I've talked to an agent with a real role.

[SussexSeagull]

I am in contact until June at the moment but after that i don't know. Will obviously depend on how long restrictions are in place but I suppose the hope is that being a supply side problem the economy will recover quicker than previous crashes?

[valleycom]

Locking down to when a vaccine is found is ridiculous as its at least a year off, if not more. Even though people say one is imminent it’s way off in reality.


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[GhostofTarbera]

Locking down to when a vaccine is found is ridiculous as its at least a year off, if not more. Even though people say one is imminent it’s way off in reality.


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Under 30 released from lockdown in May
Under 40 released from lockdown in June
Under 50 released from lockdown in august
Under 60 released from lockdown in October
60+ kept in lockdown until cure

Will be the pattern I suspect

The jobs and contracts will go to the younger folk rather than older (with more experience)


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