State of the Market

[quackhandle]

Our Interview process:

* 30 minute call with one of our Talent Acquisition Team
* 1 hour competency based interview
* Take home task & review
* 60 minute values led interview.



And this was for a contract role.

qh

[ShandyDrinker]

This is partly what I was trying to explore in the "Is coding still a viable profession?" poll.
I was attempting to see if there was a link among contractors between unemployment and role. coding specifically.
Inconclusive, the poll was tulip. But I hypothesise that it might be nothing personal.

I don't know that any of this is true, but maybe:

1) Coding isn't as prevalant as it used to be.
2) Languages have their fashion, then are replaced. Often with low-code solutions like PowerPlatform etc. Do keep up, James..
3) What I modestly call the "Dorkeaux Contractor Causal disjunction" – This suggests that the expected causal relationship between events in obtaining a contract that look s perfect for you in your mind have been disrupted or never existed. For example, a job description that looks perfect for you doesn't actually exist as a possible role, the job spec doesn't reflect what the client wants, the budget has disappeared, the job spec was only posted to satisfy a statutory obligation, etc.
4) You are asking for a higher rate than the client wishes to pay (assuming rate has come up).
5) People have it in their mind that coding is best offshored.
6) Something about your CV is putting people off. Make it age, race and genderless as much as possible. Nobody cares about your date of graduation, birthday or old-assed roles, except to estimate your age (young or old) and discriminate against you because of it.
7) You're a dick. I don't think you are, but important to present a cool polite outlook on an interview and all dealings with agents and potential clients. I don't always manage this, but I aspire..

It could be a combination of any of your points... or none.

I think it's potentially much more simple and brutal:

1. Rate expectations are currently too high compared to what companies can pay by offshoring.
2. Far too many well qualified people available so the likelihood is that there will always be someone more experienced, better educated, younger and cheaper than you.

The more conversations I'm having with people and the more posts I see on LinkedIn and elsewhere, the more I'm convinced that AI isn't necessarily the problem here. While there's no doubt it can improve productivity, it's currently not close to replacing developers... yet.

[oliverson]

maybe take off your tinfoil hat for interviews?
just sayin', like.

Interviews would be nice!

[Dorkeaux]

I am in a similar position. Ok, so I've only been working in C# and .NET since 2001 but still lots of experience. Every contract I've done has been C#. After just coming out of a 3+ year contract, it's obvious that the market has changed very much for the worse.

I've applied for over 50 contracts since July. I've had 3 interviews so far, landed none. By interviews I mean getting to the final stage. Oh, there's none of those single stage can you do the contract anymore. Those were the days. Even if you do get interviews for banks and financial services companies now expect the screening call, the tech test (codility seems to be a favourite), then the screen sharing or pair programming test (think fizzbuzz but on steroids, especially refactoring tests under time pressure), potentially followed by another interview with business teams. It's so frustrating to jump through the tech test hoops and then fall at the last hurdle.

If I were in the position to retire now I would but it's just not possible for me yet. I'm hoping I can get through another 9 years until I'm 60 but if I get that far, it'll be downsize and drop out. I've had enough.

This is partly what I was trying to explore in the "Is coding still a viable profession?" poll.
I was attempting to see if there was a link among contractors between unemployment and role. coding specifically.
Inconclusive, the poll was tulip. But I hypothesise that it might be nothing personal.

I don't know that any of this is true, but maybe:

1) Coding isn't as prevalant as it used to be.
2) Languages have their fashion, then are replaced. Often with low-code solutions like PowerPlatform etc. Do keep up, James..
3) What I modestly call the "Dorkeaux Contractor Causal disjunction" – This suggests that the expected causal relationship between events in obtaining a contract that look s perfect for you in your mind have been disrupted or never existed. For example, a job description that looks perfect for you doesn't actually exist as a possible role, the job spec doesn't reflect what the client wants, the budget has disappeared, the job spec was only posted to satisfy a statutory obligation, etc.
4) You are asking for a higher rate than the client wishes to pay (assuming rate has come up).
5) People have it in their mind that coding is best offshored.
6) Something about your CV is putting people off. Make it age, race and genderless as much as possible. Nobody cares about your date of graduation, birthday or old-assed roles, except to estimate your age (young or old) and discriminate against you because of it.
7) You're a dick. I don't think you are, but important to present a cool polite outlook on an interview and all dealings with agents and potential clients. I don't always manage this, but I aspire..

[ShandyDrinker]

Back onto the subject of work, I'm seeing a very worrying trend and am sure I'm not alone.

JobServe has always been my best friend for sourcing work, particularly in the first half of my 20 year contracting career. But these days I barely get a response from anything I apply for. The only responses I do receive are automated rejection emails, particularly from Lorien. I'm staring at this rejection email right now for a Senior C# Developer contract and shaking my head in disbelieve. I started working with C# and the .NET framework back in September 2000 when it was still in beta. It has featured in almost every contract I've ever done and is likely to see my contracting career out. My CV and LinkedIn profile SHOUT OUT 'Senior C#/.NET Developer'. Why then am I just rejected out of hand on this one? I can understand certain other contracts I apply for where I have 'some' experience in the core technology, but this? Baffled.

I am in a similar position. Ok, so I've only been working in C# and .NET since 2001 but still lots of experience. Every contract I've done has been C#. After just coming out of a 3+ year contract, it's obvious that the market has changed very much for the worse.

I've applied for over 50 contracts since July. I've had 3 interviews so far, landed none. By interviews I mean getting to the final stage. Oh, there's none of those single stage can you do the contract anymore. Those were the days. Even if you do get interviews for banks and financial services companies now expect the screening call, the tech test (codility seems to be a favourite), then the screen sharing or pair programming test (think fizzbuzz but on steroids, especially refactoring tests under time pressure), potentially followed by another interview with business teams. It's so frustrating to jump through the tech test hoops and then fall at the last hurdle.

If I were in the position to retire now I would but it's just not possible for me yet. I'm hoping I can get through another 9 years until I'm 60 but if I get that far, it'll be downsize and drop out. I've had enough.

[avonleigh]

The only responses I do receive are automated rejection emails, particularly from Lorien. I'm staring at this rejection email right now for a Senior C# Developer contract and shaking my head in disbelieve. I started working with C# and the .NET framework back in September 2000 when it was still in beta. It has featured in almost every contract I've ever done and is likely to see my contracting career out. My CV and LinkedIn profile SHOUT OUT 'Senior C#/.NET Developer'. Why then am I just rejected out of hand on this one? I can understand certain other contracts I apply for where I have 'some' experience in the core technology, but this? Baffled.

Had similar. Several agencies advertising for a consultancy to work at the MOD. Done three stints at the MOD and had good relationship with them. Also wanted Dynamics experience. Which I have done for most of the last 10 years. Not one agent even put me forward for the role. One even emailed me to ask if interested, which I replied and never heard from them again. Baffling.

[sadkingbilly]

TLR <antivaxxer nonsense>

Why then am I just rejected out of hand on this one? I can understand certain other contracts I apply for where I have 'some' experience in the core technology, but this? Baffled.

maybe take off your tinfoil hat for interviews?
just sayin', like.

[AndyGarbs]

You can take a horse to water...

If you can establish that the contract had fundamentally different working practices than the employment, then you are in the best case scenario, which means that you (and the client) will still be a target for investigation (), but you will probably be left with the huge benefit of a prolonged period of stress and some lost time and money, but not a huge tax bill. Yay.

Crucially, almost all of these scenarios that involve a transition to or from employment are administered by clueless contractors and clients, so you can be pretty sure that there wasn't a fundamental change in working practices that was carefully documented and, most likely, any assessment of IR35 was itself pretty cursory and engaged with the contractual terms alone. Rather, the numpty contractor continued business as usual and the numpty supply chain was happy to continue as though nothing had changed. Good luck with that.

Seriously, do you really think that someone doing roughly the same things under two separate contractual arrangements will really win their argument that they were apples and pears? Literally the whole point of IR35 is to look through this cretinous fluff to establish a hypothetical contract based on actual working practices. Your absolute best hope is that you never get investigated. There is a good chance you won't, to be fair.

As I keep saying, Chapter 10 is far from risk free w/r to where the liabilities will eventually fall. Ultimately, if there is an employer and employee and the employer makes a mistake with the taxation of employee income, any underpaid tax will be recovered from the employee. You don't get to keep the money. In principle, the same could happen with Chapter 10. We'll have to wait and see.

Can any of the Brexiteers name one single net positive of leaving the EU?

Other than "we won, you lost - get over it!!!"?

We got our blue passport back - not that crappy burgundy one

[oliverson]

A flop? OK, I'll give it a crack, God help me..

It was produced at cost. If you mean a commercial flop, it was never meant to make a profit. And it didn't.
Pfizer and the rest of them hated that, it made them look like the profiteering weasels many take "Big Pharma" to be.
Some people were unable to understand or believe a company could behave in the interest of the world population, some Europeans referred to it as the "Lidl vaccine" due to it's low cost.

If you mean it was ineffective, it wasn't. Something like 81.3% effective after the second dose against symptomatic COVID. That's very, very good.
For comparison, rule of thumb is that if a vaccine is 50% effective the job's a good 'un.

Possibly you are referring to the increased risk of blood clots? That's a thing, there is an increased risk of clotting in 1 out of 100,000 people.
That is not to say that it actually happens to 1 out of 100,000. The actual cases counted in Europe were 222 out of 34 million.
Think of that.. 34 million people in Europe protected against COVID at a time when it was wiping out hundreds of thousands.
222 out of 34 million is 0.0007%.

Mate, seriously..

The vast majority of the population didn't need an experimental 'vaccine' for what in essence was just the flu. Jabbing children and babies with experimental vaccines, FFS.

Talk stats all you like but my real world experience of the 'vaccines' in particular is the wife of a friend, forced to take the vaccine as she worked in a residential home, within 5 mins taking it suffered a stroke, subsequent hair loss, a sensation of water flowing down one side of her body, etc. Hasn't fully recovered. Another one took it as he wanted to board a plane. Young guy in his 30's. Now he's on medication for the rest of his life to deal with the consequences. Such is the hoax, another one, killed in a car accident, cause of death went down as covid. Another one, a friend's lost his father and mother with a 24 hour spell. Father was in hospital suffering with cancer. Cause of death? Covid. Mother was rushed into hospital after a fall I believe. Next thing, she's dead. Covid.

I live in the 6th largest city in England and on a rather large modern housing estate. How many people do I know who've died of Covid, as in rushed to hospital, on a ventilator, etc. Until last week, none. Last week I learned of the death of another dog walker at the height of the hoax. Late 40's, overweight asian man. Opted to go into hospital as he wasn't well. Sounds like the ventilators killed him.

Back onto the subject of work, I'm seeing a very worrying trend and am sure I'm not alone.

JobServe has always been my best friend for sourcing work, particularly in the first half of my 20 year contracting career. But these days I barely get a response from anything I apply for. The only responses I do receive are automated rejection emails, particularly from Lorien. I'm staring at this rejection email right now for a Senior C# Developer contract and shaking my head in disbelieve. I started working with C# and the .NET framework back in September 2000 when it was still in beta. It has featured in almost every contract I've ever done and is likely to see my contracting career out. My CV and LinkedIn profile SHOUT OUT 'Senior C#/.NET Developer'. Why then am I just rejected out of hand on this one? I can understand certain other contracts I apply for where I have 'some' experience in the core technology, but this? Baffled.

[Smartie]

Getting back on topic.

According to linkedin there was an increase of 33% new jobs for test managers over the last 7 days. So market probably is improving a bit but don't know what 33% equates to in numbers.

You can use this site to check https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/

BA roles have picked up a bit recently. Test Manager looks like it's fallen off a cliff but you can also check QA Manager, QA Test Manager etc.