State of the Market

[bees2020]

advice please

Hi Everyone, I'm new to this forum and need some advice with the current market and jobs.

I have been a contractor(programmer) for over 12 years. but with covid no contract and started applying for perm roles.
Usually for contract roles been through on short telephone interview and an onsite interview with a technical assessment or just one interview ( i'm sure many of you had the same experience)
Now all the perm roles are asking to do "take home exercises" and some take good few days. Then to be told it's not what we expected...

Finally after passing 2 stages i am on to the third stage which is 2 hours and 45 mins interview. This is a fairly new company established in the last 5 years.

The role is not in my main programming language it's moving to a less popular language.

I need some advice here
1)is it worth switching carrier now?
2)say i got the offer and i don't like the new language i won't be able to leave as it's a perm role.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.
i know the market is pretty bad but i don't want to take the wrong decision.

[Old Greg]

Hi Everyone, I'm new to this forum and need some advice with the current market and jobs.

I have been a contractor(programmer) for over 12 years. but with covid no contract and started applying for perm roles.
Usually for contract roles been through on short telephone interview and an onsite interview with a technical assessment or just one interview ( i'm sure many of you had the same experience)
Now all the perm roles are asking to do "take home exercises" and some take good few days. Then to be told it's not what we expected...

Finally after passing 2 stages i am on to the third stage which is 2 hours and 45 mins interview. This is a fairly new company established in the last 5 years.

The role is not in my main programming language it's moving to a less popular language.

I need some advice here
1)is it worth switching carrier now?
2)say i got the offer and i don't like the new language i won't be able to leave as it's a perm role.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.
i know the market is pretty bad but i don't want to take the wrong decision.

You can leave a perm role, so don't let that stop you.

[eek]

You can leave a perm role, so don't let that stop you.

The only difference with a permie job is the notice period will be a month (or more) rather than nothing.

But you can escape if you need to - saying stress to a doctor will give you 2 weeks off work instantly if required

[dsc]

Typically if you leave before the probation period ends (3-6 months normally) you get one week of notice.

[Lance]

The only difference with a permie job is the notice period will be a month (or more) rather than nothing.

But you can escape if you need to - saying stress to a doctor will give you 2 weeks off work instantly if required

Self certify sick for one week, then as you say, sick note from doctor. That’s 3 of the 4 weeks. They’ll probably tell you not to come back in at that point if you’ve handed your notice anyway.

[ladymuck]

Hi Everyone, I'm new to this forum and need some advice with the current market and jobs.

I have been a contractor(programmer) for over 12 years. but with covid no contract and started applying for perm roles.
Usually for contract roles been through on short telephone interview and an onsite interview with a technical assessment or just one interview ( i'm sure many of you had the same experience)
Now all the perm roles are asking to do "take home exercises" and some take good few days. Then to be told it's not what we expected...

Finally after passing 2 stages i am on to the third stage which is 2 hours and 45 mins interview. This is a fairly new company established in the last 5 years.

The role is not in my main programming language it's moving to a less popular language.

I need some advice here
1)is it worth switching carrier now?
2)say i got the offer and i don't like the new language i won't be able to leave as it's a perm role.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.
i know the market is pretty bad but i don't want to take the wrong decision.

Regarding #2 - is there no way you can look at the programming language to see if you do like it before you start? What's stopping you doing that? Not being a programmer, is not liking the client's (employer's) choice sufficient grounds to leave a job? Surely the language is just a tool and it's much like turning up to find a company uses WordPerfect instead of GoogleDocs. Is it worth flouncing over? There are far better reasons to call a sickie and quit.

[ladymuck]

Self certify sick for one week, then as you say, sick note from doctor. That’s 3 of the 4 weeks. They’ll probably tell you not to come back in at that point if you’ve handed your notice anyway.

Self cert is way easier with this virus malarkey too - choose that one and you get sick pay from Day 1

[dangerouswhensober]

A sad comment on the state of the market ...

This contract was posted yesterday on Jobserve.

I don't think I have ever seen a longer list of required experience & expertise ...

IMO - It's a sad comment on the state of the market at the moment
================================================== =====================================
Software development engineer in test
Coventry, Warwickshire - 250-275 per day

Qualifications:

- 5+ years of experience as a software developer or SDET
- Experience with JavaScript, SQL, WCF, ASP.NET, C# and .NET
- Excellent testing skills to determine root causes of issues required
- Experience with automated testing tools and frameworks
- Knowledge of performance and scalability test approaches and automation desired
- Experience with DevOps principles, tools, and processes desired
- Demonstrated skill in using coding standards and being an active participant in code reviews
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- 4+ years of experience in Microsoft Technologies is desired
- Demonstrable experience in applying Agile testing (preferably Scrum and Kanban) methodology, skills, and techniques to projects. To confidently discuss Agile testing processes from an overall software development perspective.
- Demonstrable experience of Test-Driven Development (TDD), Behaviour Driven Development (BDD), Continuous Integration (CI) and pair-testing activities. Experience of component integration testing (CIT) and system integration testing (SIT).
- Demonstrable experience of analysing and executing Risk-based and Context-driven approaches to testing, together with demonstrable experience of using Exploratory testing techniques.
- Demonstrable experience of automation testing using Agile with architecture, design and configuration of testing frameworks. Including Selenium with IDEs for C# and Java development. Also, SpecFlow; Cucumber; and other tooling.
- Demonstrable experience of MS SQL database testing skills, including validating stored procedures, jobs, and triggers.
- Demonstrable experience of data warehousing, ETL, data migration processing and data quality assurance management, testing.
- Demonstrable experience of Application Program Interface (API) testing within Agile sprints, using tools such as Postman and/or other industry recognised API testing tools.
- Demonstrable experience of accessibility testing
- Demonstrable experience of performance, scalability, and security testing of a variety of digital services, especially with Apache JMeter and OWASP top-ten security testing.
- Demonstrable experience of presenting test outcomes to technical and non-technical teams. Presenting all types of findings to a range of audiences, including Demos, Show and Tells, Retrospectives and walkthroughs.
- Demonstrable experience of producing Test Approaches and Sprint Test Plans collaboratively with the team and suppliers, in accordance with the Department's overall approach and test strategy.
- Testing certification: ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level and ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level Agile tester extension
- Performance testing, automated generation of test data, etc.
- Automate the acceptance test by leveraging their coding skills
- Deal with end users or customers and their experiences. They already possessed engineering skills so they can also think like a developer.
- Extensive code coverage through unit testing
- Can build, deploy, run & manage the application individually
- Influence the development, program management, & design teams on technical implementation and user scenarios

Communication skill:
A SDET must have excellent verbal and written communication skill. Testing materials like test cases, plans, test strategies, bug reports created should be easy to read and comprehend.

GREAT Attitude:
To become good Software Development Engineer in Test, you must have a GREAT attitude. You should able to upgrade your technical skills with the changing technologies. Your attitude should have some level of independence. So that, you can take ownership of the task allocated without too much supervision.
================================================== =====================================

[Peoplesoft bloke]

This contract was posted yesterday on Jobserve.


GREAT Attitude:
To become good Software Development Engineer in Test, you must have a GREAT attitude.

That's me ruled out, right there. My attitude stinks.

[Old Greg]

The only difference with a permie job is the notice period will be a month (or more) rather than nothing.

But you can escape if you need to - saying stress to a doctor will give you 2 weeks off work instantly if required

Also keep a couple of weeks leave on hand, so you can book your leave starting in two weeks time (plead an emergency if necessary) and then when they agree, hand in your notice.