State of the Market

[CosmicWave]

Had nothing for the past 4 months. Am I alone?

I have been applying for all applicable roles for the past 4 months, and I have not managed to interview on any role yet.
There are calls coming up from pimps now and then (including the ones I have done business with), and they all put forward my CV, and wait and wait and nothing.

When calls do come, they all seem to be the usual fishing type ones, trying to find out my earlier rates, and clients, etc, and not forthcoming with any info on the role they were supposedly calling me for.

There was one from an agent, and I had to submit a long (a very long) test - an end-to-end app, that would take several hours to finish.
That turned to be a fake role. Waste of time. I don't want to go into the details of that one! Really frustrating one to even think about it.

After that one, I have decided to never do tests (I never had to do one ever before, all of my contracts before).

It could not be my CV, I am pretty sure (some agents have even said they are waiting for feedback from client).
I have managed to secure contracts throughout the past (16+ years), with about 2 weeks max. gap.

Feels dreadful.

I need to get something sorted by end of next month at least, otherwise the usual holiday mood will kick-in and it will be early next year (after Jan) to get any roles showing up, which is also highly unlikely given new rules to kick in soon at that time.

Got some war chest, so can go on for some more time.

Am I alone? Has anyone secured any role in the past 4-5 months (Inside or Outside IR35)?
I am almost on tears!

Never felt this weak!!!! I am struggling to get words out of my mind now!... I will stop here.

[perplexed]

End to end app? Several hours? Sod that. Check published code on my Github if you want to know my development chops...

[edison]

I already explained why targeted applying doesn't work. It would only work if job ads/specs were accurate which they aren't. My own experience plus others shows we routinely get contracts out of applying to job ads that don't match our profiles.

But anyway do you really think they only spend 10 minutes (20 x 30 seconds) scanning cvs when they get 500? They spend longer than that on the phone to a single candidate.

How much money do they make on a single placement?

How much time is spent writing and posting a job ad?

How much time is spent on phone to candidates?

How much time is spent on phone with client?

How much time is spent reaching out to existing contacts/searching databases/etc

Etc, etc, etc

Yet they spend 10 minutes looking at CVs when they get 500 responses?

Come on... no way you believe that.

I'm not sure you really have any idea of how the typical agency recruitment model works or what the purpose of a CV is at the start of the application process. Even headhunter researchers who are looking to fill a job of say, £150k salary, will likely only spend a minute glancing at a CV.

Of course agents spend longer on the one to one interaction with candidates but initial processing of CVs is kept to a bare minimum. If you speak to any good career coach or recruiter, they will tell you the main purpose of a CV is to get you to a first interaction with the agent or recruiter. And the person who is likely the most important in the whole search for you will be the 23 year old junior recruitment consultant who does the initial filtering.

That's why they don't spend a lot of time reading CVs.

[ResistanceFighter]

I have been applying for all applicable roles for the past 4 months, and I have not managed to interview on any role yet.
There are calls coming up from pimps now and then (including the ones I have done business with), and they all put forward my CV, and wait and wait and nothing.

When calls do come, they all seem to be the usual fishing type ones, trying to find out my earlier rates, and clients, etc, and not forthcoming with any info on the role they were supposedly calling me for.

There was one from an agent, and I had to submit a long (a very long) test - an end-to-end app, that would take several hours to finish.
That turned to be a fake role. Waste of time. I don't want to go into the details of that one! Really frustrating one to even think about it.

After that one, I have decided to never do tests (I never had to do one ever before, all of my contracts before).

It could not be my CV, I am pretty sure (some agents have even said they are waiting for feedback from client).
I have managed to secure contracts throughout the past (16+ years), with about 2 weeks max. gap.

Feels dreadful.

I need to get something sorted by end of next month at least, otherwise the usual holiday mood will kick-in and it will be early next year (after Jan) to get any roles showing up, which is also highly unlikely given new rules to kick in soon at that time.

Got some war chest, so can go on for some more time.

Am I alone? Has anyone secured any role in the past 4-5 months (Inside or Outside IR35)?
I am almost on tears!

Never felt this weak!!!! I am struggling to get words out of my mind now!... I will stop here.

Similar to what I am seeing.
Calls and interest have increased but nothing is materialising.
When the furlough scheme ends in October businesses will be forced to start the cogs turning again, so hopefully it will move in the right direction

[edison]

Had it confirmed today - a chef applied for a DBA job this week (one requiring 5 years as a DBA).

I've had a film production assistant apply for a job of Head of Infrastructure and Operations. Judging by their CV, they clearly didn't even know what IT was, never mind understand infrastructure.

[perplexed]

I've had a film production assistant apply for a job of Head of Infrastructure and Operations. Judging by their CV, they clearly didn't even know what IT was, never mind understand infrastructure.

Some clients I've been at, they sound a perfect fit.

[jayn200]

I'm not sure you really have any idea of how the typical agency recruitment model works or what the purpose of a CV is at the start of the application process. Even headhunter researchers who are looking to fill a job of say, £150k salary, will likely only spend a minute glancing at a CV.

Of course agents spend longer on the one to one interaction with candidates but initial processing of CVs is kept to a bare minimum. If you speak to any good career coach or recruiter, they will tell you the main purpose of a CV is to get you to a first interaction with the agent or recruiter. And the person who is likely the most important in the whole search for you will be the 23 year old junior recruitment consultant who does the initial filtering.

That's why they don't spend a lot of time reading CVs.

Just to clarify I have no doubt that cvs get a very quick scan. I have done a lot of hiring myself. I didn't make the 30 second claim but I haven't denied it either, I am sure whether it's 30 second, 1 minute or some other time it's very quick.

The claim that only 20 out of 500 cvs get a human reading them is not true though and I stand by that. I don't care if it's a junior recruiter or senior one who is scanning them but more than 20 out of 500 get a human eye on them. (Unless only 20 are relevant possibly)

Its crazy because it's quite clear the original claim was hyperbole but he just had to keep doubling down on it to save face when he could have simply said it was hyperbole. People and their egos.

[Shezz]

The market's finally getting a bit noisy after several weeks of silence. I've managed to pick up a new role in a lead position earlier today. Since the end of June, I'd been looking solely at contracts and didn't hear anything back from countless applications. In August I decided to send my CV off for some perm positions too and had a fair bit more luck. I managed to arrange it so that I had all 4 interviews booked in this week. The first was a contract, which came back with an offer. The second was perm and also an offer - I've accepted mostly because it was a team lead role using newer tech. I also interviewed with Amazon yesterday, which was honestly one of the worst interview experiences I've ever had. I've not heard back but I don't want to hang around either, especially because their timelines are so stretched that I wouldn't start for several weeks/months potentially. Last interview would have been this afternoon but I cancelled in light of the offer.

I'm not sure how long I can endure as a permie, but I'm more than happy to have the stability for the near future. I really don't fancy getting back on the job market until it picks up again, which might not be until after the corona/IR35 impact.

[AnthonyQuinn]

When it picks up again, which it will, that is 100% certain

Make sure you all remember the agencies/companies offering £150-200 a day contracts now

Don't touch them with a barge pole

Same goes for the companies who tried to blanket IR35 in March and will do the same again

We are being attacked from all angles at the minute, loan charge, IR35 reversal after loads had already resigned or left contracts, no coronavirus help off government, 80%+ drop in advertised roles, about a 25% drop in day rates and while the rest of the economy is getting a huge amount of help to get back on its feet we are getting taxed approx an extra 20% next April with them not even being clever enough to understand that they are going to lose 20% in VAT and in effect not increase tax receipts at all, the whole thing is crazy

Imagine how crazy they would look putting a new 20% tax on retail in April given the current economic conditions, imagine them doing that and not even increasing tax receipts ie as a punitive measure, there would uproar in the press and on social media however we are being portrayed as rich tax avoiders by HMRC/Gov and some clients are taking the p*ss to be frank

Don't forget the ones that do

are you a businessman or a ranter? When someone calls you later evaluate them as a client and the rate they are offering THEN. Not what they were offering NOW.

[KentDogWalker]

coding tests can get lost, never got a job when i did one either, lazy sods can check my github or apps in prod