State of the Market

[BlasterBates]

You sound like a man telling his wife that she doesn't look fat and its the shops fault for making it smaller

I finished my contract to with one client and joining another on Monday.

My new contract is based overseas and I am working remotely until the time comes when I need to go in to the office then I will move. I was lucky and got approached on LinkedIn.

I have also been interviewing for a FTC however I think they will baulk when they see my salary expectations is well over 6 figures.

The job overseas is paying me my full rate which is top rate for a BA in London. Even with their tax system it still works out the same as the UK. There are contracts out there however this one came out of the blue. I know I am extremely lucky and I am also grateful.

I wish everyone the best of luck and maybe gives a few of you that its not all doom and gloom

You need to be a bit careful if you are working in the UK and you're being taxed overseas. You will be declaring this in the UK whilst you're still there. If you work remotely in the UK for a foreign company you should be taxed in the UK not the foreign country. What you need to be careful about is if someone from HMRC decides to enquire whether you travelled to the country, on a regular basis. If you can't produce proof of travel then they may ignore tax you paid in the other country and tax it in full. The trouble is in the era of Covid19 remote working has become normal so the risk of this sort of enquiry is high.

I would take some advice from an Accountant.

[ContractorHardman]

I would take some advice from an Accountant.

Absolutely, before I even accepted the contract I got him to look over all the details. I got him to check over the contract for IR35 as well.

[OwlHoot]

The market for me is deader than corduroy bell-bottoms. It's a bit frustrating because there seem to be alot of ads out there between Jobserve and Linkedin, but I'm not seeing any responses from my applications except for the occasional "no thanks" automated email.

For me this is unusual .. I've always been able to land a contract within 2 weeks of looking. I'm looking at permie now, of course, but no bites. Part of me blames the market, but another part blames my CV. For one, I'm over 50. during that time, I've developed database engine components for a well-known software vendor, and I also developed an operating system for a satellite communications company. I also developed a compiler for a language used to control pill dispensing robots for pharma. So my expertise is in C, Rust, Golang, SQL, etc.

At this point, I get the feeling that either there are no jobs that require those skills or that they look at my CV and figure I'm going to bail on them the minute something better comes along, which isn't necessarily true. I'm not getting enough feedback to know what the issues are, really so I can only speculate.

Same for me, regarding contract applications. I suspect some of these are fake, but also that literally hundreds or even thousands of people are applying for each one, which explains why agents rarely reply - They simply don't have time to go through all the applicants, and it is pot luck if one's application is reached before they have enough relevant candidates to put forward.

[Old Greg]

Absolutely, before I even accepted the contract I got him to look over all the details. I got him to check over the contract for IR35 as well.

I wouldn't be asking an accountant for IR35 advice.

[CheeseSlice]

Same for me, regarding contract applications. I suspect some of these are fake, but also that literally hundreds or even thousands of people are applying for each one, which explains why agents rarely reply - They simply don't have time to go through all the applicants, and it is pot luck if one's application is reached before they have enough relevant candidates to put forward.

Strange thing happened to me today. Saw a couple of ads on JS. Sent a message to the pimps on LinkedIn, and they both came back, asked if 'I' thought I was a good fit, negotiated a rate and put me forward.

This has literally not happened in months of lockdown!

[TheDogsNads]

I wouldn't be asking an accountant for IR35 advice.

Me neither.

[Old Greg]

Me neither.

Do sockies have accountants?

[jamesbrown]

Do sockies have accountants?

They have sockie accountants.

[rocktronAMP]

You sound like a man telling his wife that she doesn't look fat and its the shops fault for making it smaller

I finished my contract to with one client and joining another on Monday.

My new contract is based overseas and I am working remotely until the time comes when I need to go in to the office then I will move. I was lucky and got approached on LinkedIn.

I have also been interviewing for a FTC however I think they will baulk when they see my salary expectations is well over 6 figures.

The job overseas is paying me my full rate which is top rate for a BA in London. Even with their tax system it still works out the same as the UK. There are contracts out there however this one came out of the blue. I know I am extremely lucky and I am also grateful.

I wish everyone the best of luck and maybe gives a few of you that its not all doom and gloom

Would you think of me being rude, if I asked you which country is your new client is?

I get the odd thing in Linkedin here and there still. I am working a FTC and in my mind's eye, I had schedule autumn to find out how the job market is progressing. Like many here on this forum, I'd jump ship on a new contract that offered statement of work and/or outside IR35 for a guaranteed minimum 6 months.

Best of luck yourself

[Old Greg]

They have sockie accountants.

Maybe that could be a niche for Simon Dolan, seeing as he's gone Gricer-Max on face masks.