State of the Market

[elsergiovolador]

This one's just cropped up as well, £130-200/day for a dev in London.

https://www.jobserve.com/gb/en/JobLa...C92B5C5CE2AB8F

They want someone hard working as opposed to someone working smart...

[LondonManc]

This one's just cropped up as well, £130-200/day for a dev in London.

https://www.jobserve.com/gb/en/JobLa...C92B5C5CE2AB8F

They want someone hard working as opposed to someone working smart...

Sounds deep in IR35, minimal experience, ideal for a mid-20s dev and a decent rate for that little experience.
A proper disguised permie role rather than a true contract. Not all contract roles are advertised at the senior(ish) level.

[Excursion UK]

There seem to be one or two agencies that email me or call about roles that I really do not think exist.

The two that leap to mind are Computer Futures and Opus RS.

Even in the good times, from all the time I've wasted with them on the phone, I have not even had a single interview from any of their leads. And I've got a very good conversion rate, generally.

So the heart sinks when I get what seems like a perfect role land in my inbox and then I see it's from either of these 2 outfits.

Tank Recruitment can be added to that list too.

Why do they ring me just to ask how I am finding the market at the moment? After all the preamble, it's taken me 10 minutes to realise this is a wasted 10 minutes that I'm never getting back

[BlasterBates]

Tank Recruitment can be added to that list too.

Why do they ring me just to ask how I am finding the market at the moment? After all the preamble, it's taken me 10 minutes to realise this is a wasted 10 minutes that I'm never getting back

It's a two way conversation. In difficult times I used to like those conversations as it helped me gauge the market. Recruiters like to talk.

[LondonManc]

It's a two way conversation. In difficult times I used to like those conversations as it helped me gauge the market. Recruiters like to talk.

Yep. If the market is quiet and you've chased all your leads, I've found useful to stick yourself in their memory. Often had a "Hey LM, great to chat last week, this role's just come in, can I run it past you?"

[sira]

Almost no jobs adverts my end. Only 1 call from a recruiter in 2 weeks. Never seen anything like it.

More or less given up for the time being

[Dolphin232]

Agency piggy backing

In the PM world, there are 294,647 agencies all fighting over the same Cloud/Azure PM role in Warwickshire.

The last few days, this same bloody role is popped up again and again.

One does wonder if it is the client who has instructed all these agencies. Or that all the agencies are picking over the remaining bones in a mad scramble.

I think what is happening here is other agencies trying to find a candidate and presenting them to the primary agency so they can earn some commission. It happened to me in late 2009. An agency was scraping £80 off the top. Found out the person sitting next to me (who was with the principle agency) was on £90 more than me (also less senior). "MY" agency had presented me to the other agency and them onto the end client. Oh and payment terms 30 days from submitting invoice = 60 days between working and getting paid. Yes, yes I was "properly tucked up!"at the time by that agency.

[DimPrawn]

Yep. If the market is quiet and you've chased all your leads, I've found useful to stick yourself in their memory. Often had a "Hey LM, great to chat last week, this role's just come in, can I run it past you?"

I wonder if the pimps mark the CVs when they are bored

"arrogant ****er hard to talk to"
"sound well balanced, not an arrogant ****er"

etc, so that when a role comes up they have some frame of reference when looking at CV's to put forward?

Or maybe I'm attributing something useful to their pointless calls?

[sira]

I wonder if the pimps mark the CVs when they are bored

"arrogant ****er hard to talk to"
"sound well balanced, not an arrogant ****er"

etc, so that when a role comes up they have some frame of reference when looking at CV's to put forward?

Or maybe I'm attributing something useful to their pointless calls?

In the same way that we mark them for posting fake jobs, fishing & generally being ****s? Yes.

[LondonManc]

I wonder if the pimps mark the CVs when they are bored

"arrogant ****er hard to talk to"
"sound well balanced, not an arrogant ****er"

etc, so that when a role comes up they have some frame of reference when looking at CV's to put forward?

Or maybe I'm attributing something useful to their pointless calls?

Absolutely. I either ignored the spam emails that I got for gigs completely if I was nowhere near interested, politely declined via email if I was two months away from finishing but asked them to let me know of anything coming up near end date or rang them back if I was on the hunt. There won't be a note on the system but their might be some sort of note that has a coded meaning (because you can ask for your file notes).