State of the Market

[Dorkeaux]

Just tell them what they want to hear. And lay it on thick.

What you say in the interview and what you actually do on the job are not the same.

After the initial probation period and you have shown them how amazing you are, then you can put your feet up (on remote days anyway).

I am currently a permie and fully remote, and embarrassed to say how little I work compared to when I was a contractor as there is

1) no renewal to work for

2) the take home pay is about half what I was getting as a contractor, so I put in about half the effort (actually is more like one quarter if I'm honest ).

I have gotten good at always acting very busy and stretching out work that would take a day into a week.

I was always a 4x developer, so even if I put in a quarter of the effort I used to do, it is still the same output as an average developer. I have worked with developers who have been even more productive than me, I would call them 6x developers. I have never met a 10x developer but I am sure they are out there.

Thanks for being forthright about your situation. One of the good things about this forum.

I agree with "What you say in the interview and what you actually do on the job are not the same.", but for the rest of it, that's not how I roll.

I don't say anything to get the role, in an interview I influence it to be more like two professional businesses working out if they are a good fit for one another. I tell the agent and client this going in.

I'm leaving the current role I'm partially because the actual work is thin on the ground. I have no interest in swinging the lead, nor working every hour God sends.

The permie interview I did was me failing. I shouldn't have lost my cool, and I should have managed the interview process better.

[hobnob]

I have three Ltd companies, none of which do web development.

Out of interest, why 3 companies? As I understand it, they'd be "associated companies" if they have the same shareholder(s), and then the corporation tax threshold gets split equally between them.

[willendure]

2 interviews and one of those bulltulip psychometric test (never done one before), then in final int they say this question around five times: "what would you do if you received no help on the project?"

Sweet FA because I would be a permie obviously!

[coolhandluke]

I'm on a FTC, initially 2 years been extended for another year and it's been mentioned that another year is on the cards.

No different to an inside contract really, except you get a pension and paid holidays. My salary is what my average daily rate was.

[ladymuck]

I've posted about my only permie interview ever.. not for me. Good on you for trying it on, I couldn't do it.
In addition to my massively inappropriate gabbling, the HR doofus actually asked me "If you were a bug, what sort of bug would you be?"
I wasn't cool about it, I gawped at him for a second then told him what an irrelevent question it was for a technical interview..

I'd probably be a memory leak because I've got the brains of a sieve

[quackhandle]

Maybe because I'm getting old... I just don't suffer fools gladly.

This.


Life is too short to be dealing with dickheads.

qh

[SueEllen]

I've posted about my only permie interview ever.. not for me. Good on you for trying it on, I couldn't do it.
In addition to my massively inappropriate gabbling, the HR doofus actually asked me "If you were a bug, what sort of bug would you be?"

A fly because I enjoy dealing with sh....

A spider so I could lure you into my web and eat you...

A dragonfly as I only bite if severely provoked...

No?

(Think I watched too much Blind Date as a kid)

[Fraidycat]

Applied for permy roles but they are like pulling my own teeth.

2 interviews and one of those bulltulip psychometric test (never done one before), then in final int they say this question around five times: "what would you do if you received no help on the project?"

Spidey-sense off the scale, I'd be walking into a tulipshow and no help provided. When you are in an outside gig, that's fine as you get paid for all work, however I can see the email/voice now: "We expect you to go the extra mile."

Not for the salary you are offering, bub.

Just tell them what they want to hear. And lay it on thick.

What you say in the interview and what you actually do on the job are not the same.

After the initial probation period and you have shown them how amazing you are, then you can put your feet up (on remote days anyway).

I am currently a permie and fully remote, and embarrassed to say how little I work compared to when I was a contractor as there is

1) no renewal to work for

2) the take home pay is about half what I was getting as a contractor, so I put in about half the effort (actually is more like one quarter if I'm honest ).

I have gotten good at always acting very busy and stretching out work that would take a day into a week.

I was always a 4x developer, so even if I put in a quarter of the effort I used to do, it is still the same output as an average developer. I have worked with developers who have been even more productive than me, I would call them 6x developers. I have never met a 10x developer but I am sure they are out there.

[oliverson]

Yeah.. You know, I'm not seeing a lot of FTCs in my area. I've never been offered one, and only seen one or two in the wild.
I don't know how common they are really, but the are certainly a terrible deal. At least the couple I've clocked.

I've posted about my only permie interview ever.. not for me. Good on you for trying it on, I couldn't do it.
In addition to my massively inappropriate gabbling, the HR doofus actually asked me "If you were a bug, what sort of bug would you be?"
I wasn't cool about it, I gawped at him for a second then told him what an irrelevent question it was for a technical interview..

Just not cut out for permie roles.

Regarding inside vs outside, all the posters keep saying that outside roles are disappearing but I have found until recently the vast majority of the roles in my area are outside.
Now however, I'm seeing a bit of a shift towards inside.

Maybe because I'm getting old, but I don't have time for idiots either and it definitely comes across at interview....

Round about April or May time, I had a zoom call for a large firm with offices quite close by. They needed somebody to work on rearchitecting some backend code. First question out of the bag and screen shared. What was presented was a an ADO.NET stored procedure, the kind nobody has really written for 15+ years. I looked at the code and it was obviously open to SQL injection attacks. Then I asked the interviewer if this was their code and if the project required working with stored procedures, to which he replied negative on both counts. Then I asked him why he was asking me questions about technologies that the project doesn't require. Couldn't really answer it so moved onto question 2. This was a horrible lump of obfuscated javascript and within it reference to browser window. So I asked him why he was asking me a question on front-end development when this was a backend piece of work. No answer, so he moved onto question 3. I didn't even bother reading it and just called time on the interview, wishing them luck.

Maybe a few years ago, certainly pre-covid, I might not have been so aloof, I don't know. I just don't suffer fools gladly.

[Bluenose]

Well I won an Outside IR35 contract in mid-July and setup the whole Jamboree as a LTD company.
This week the contract of engagement was cancelled. Official reason was "Due to a change in our business commercial priorities and situation" for 3 months rolling and 2 week either way cancel clause.

thats a kick in the teeth, get a few beers down you tonight and go again tomorrow.