State of the Market

[Bluenose]

Just to get the thread back on track:

- the state of the market is in the toilet
- there are people on this thread and watching the thread that have been out for 18 months
- there are contractors on linkedin posting that they have 2-3 months of money left and after that they cant pay the bills, this is not financial mis-management in all cases, its just a very bad situation that really, most will not have planned for.

What i have seen is a small trickle of high-paying contracts getting filled by unicorn hunters in the past 3 weeks, the usual bear market shenanigans where lady luck is a bigger factor and your skills and experience count for less.

The Bob shells have started to twitch back into life, which is probably indicative that the bottom is in.

[dsc]

Had two interviews today for contracts outside the UK, one Ireland, one Denmark, both remote with maybe some occassional visits . I'm a good fit for both and the Denmark rates are absolutely crazy high, but I'm not getting my hopes up, I wouldn't be surprised if they have 20 other CVs stronger than mine considering how many people are looking. Absolutely nothing in the UK for the last two months, kid you not I think I've seen maybe a total of 3 contracts which had additional requirements like sole British nationality, SC clearance etc. so were "special" anyway (which explains why they were contracts).

Seriously, if you can, consider going outside the UK as I wouldn't be surprised if it carries on like this till Brexit is in full swing and companies can assess what the reality is like.

[LondonPM1]

Had two interviews today for contracts outside the UK, one Ireland, one Denmark, both remote with maybe some occassional visits . I'm a good fit for both and the Denmark rates are absolutely crazy high, but I'm not getting my hopes up, I wouldn't be surprised if they have 20 other CVs stronger than mine considering how many people are looking. Absolutely nothing in the UK for the last two months, kid you not I think I've seen maybe a total of 3 contracts which had additional requirements like sole British nationality, SC clearance etc. so were "special" anyway (which explains why they were contracts).

Seriously, if you can, consider going outside the UK as I wouldn't be surprised if it carries on like this till Brexit is in full swing and companies can assess what the reality is like.

Very interesting thanks for sharing

Can you disclose the industry and rates in Copenhagen and Ireland so that people can understand options

[dsc]

Non-IT and engineering related so not very applicable here (thus no point talking rates), nonetheless shows how different markets outside the UK can be (yes, it might've been sheer luck as well).

Before any bashing starts, I'm not saying this is the magical solution to lack of contracts in the UK, just pointing out an option which might be helpful to someone.

[SussexSeagull]

Nice one, tips hat to you sir

I wasted mine on hookers and coke


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

Did you just waste the rest of it?

[eek]

Did you just waste the rest of it?

The CUK Xmas does used to be truly epic (and Tarbera was paying).

[barely_pointless]

not sure if people know this...

if you are looking through Linkedin, many outside UK recruiters/contacts have filters set to exclude applicants from outside their region, so if you are applying for a role via an agency/pimp in say the Netherlands, then set your linkedin location to NL and you will not be filtered out.

I did, and it worked.

oh, and don't sweat that you have a UK +44 phone number, it does not seem to matter at all with eu roaming

[dsc]

if you are looking through Linkedin, many outside UK recruiters/contacts have filters set to exclude applicants from outside their region, so if you are applying for a role via an agency/pimp in say the Netherlands, then set your linkedin location to NL and you will not be filtered out.

I did, and it worked.

oh, and don't sweat that you have a UK +44 phone number, it does not seem to matter at all with eu roaming

I've connected with a recruiter in Holland recently and in her profile it said something along the lines of "don't contact me for English only roles in Holland!".

So are they fine with no Dutch for some roles? Or is the role remote which then makes the whole exclusion pointless?

[eek]

I've connected with a recruiter in Holland recently and in her profile it said something along the lines of "don't contact me for English only roles in Holland!".

So are they fine with no Dutch for some roles? Or is the role remote which then makes the whole exclusion pointless?

The Dutch are incredibly racist (or at least languist - as you can get away with that in europe) as some posters on here have discovered over the years.

[barely_pointless]

I've connected with a recruiter in Holland recently and in her profile it said something along the lines of "don't contact me for English only roles in Holland!".

So are they fine with no Dutch for some roles? Or is the role remote which then makes the whole exclusion pointless?

my example above is not meant to be confined only to NL, if you're applying for roles in Ireland then set your location to IRL, same for ESP etc, not foolproof, but keeps you in the ring for the opportunity, does not fix recuiter bias, but your point is valid about remote work, I think many companies are struggling to work out exactly what the mechanism will be for onboarding and working remotely, some would do it better than others, and for some will be a disaster (for candidate and co) , HR departments and hiring managers were just not prepared in many cases.

I was remote 2 days a week in 2018-19 with a banking client in the city, then almost remote similar amount of time from 19-2020 (full from march for obvious reasons) both these clients were already geared up, so in fact the last one did not give a hoot where I was - pity as they were a major airline systems provider - really enjoyed that work.