State of the Market

[eek]

Is there a thought to accepting the low rate for three months and, once in and indispensable, negotiate up?

I have said yes to £350 rates and even then nothing happens, so it's not just your saying no that leads to nowt.

Saying yes only puts you on the maybe list better candidates could drop you out of the running order.

This market consists of an awful lot of unemployed contractors alongside a market that doesn't offer many opportunities (look at jobserve and the number of furloughed / unemployed recruiters to confirm things). So don't rule anything out as anything is impossible in this market.

[afrocentric]

Finished last contract in end of June. Been trying for perm and contract after few failed attempts landed a perm job ( half the pay of contract earning) and signed the paper work last week. Then got a contract offer a day later. Rate is not the pre covid rate but outside IR35 and it's till the end of the year.
Now i'm not sure what to do take the perm offer and wait till the pandemic is over ? or take the contract and work till end of the year.
Advice pls..
Both roles are remote so can't compare the distance.
i'm not sure if i can pull out of the perm after signing the papers

To those who are looking for jobs.. I gave up multiple times after 2 contract offers fell through and for one perm role they kept dragging their feet plus multiple rejections and hours spend on doing the take home exercises and codility/hackerrank etc tests.
Don't give up there is something out there might not be ideal but will help to keep afloat.

Well, how do you know that this contract offer will not fall through as well. You can always start the perm and give the usual one week probation period notice. No?

I too spent a lot of time doing Codility, take-home etc tests which did not amount to an offer in the end. It's really tough out there.

I wish you the best.

[afrocentric]

Been canned. Managed to weather the terrible market this far. CV updated and ready to field fake job calls from desperate recruiters starting on Monday.

Not hopeful, but we'll see what happens.

Sorry to hear. Will you consider Perm ?

Do watch out for a certain agency by name of 'Joseph Harry' posting fake jobs on jobserve.

Wish you the best.

[GhostofTarbera]

Finished last contract in end of June. Been trying for perm and contract after few failed attempts landed a perm job ( half the pay of contract earning) and signed the paper work last week. Then got a contract offer a day later. Rate is not the pre covid rate but outside IR35 and it's till the end of the year.
Now i'm not sure what to do take the perm offer and wait till the pandemic is over ? or take the contract and work till end of the year.
Advice pls..
Both roles are remote so can't compare the distance.
i'm not sure if i can pull out of the perm after signing the papers

To those who are looking for jobs.. I gave up multiple times after 2 contract offers fell through and for one perm role they kept dragging their feet plus multiple rejections and hours spend on doing the take home exercises and codility/hackerrank etc tests.
Don't give up there is something out there might not be ideal but will help to keep afloat.

Take both roles, if contact gets canned you have your permie one as backup





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[jayn200]

Finished last contract in end of June. Been trying for perm and contract after few failed attempts landed a perm job ( half the pay of contract earning) and signed the paper work last week. Then got a contract offer a day later. Rate is not the pre covid rate but outside IR35 and it's till the end of the year.
Now i'm not sure what to do take the perm offer and wait till the pandemic is over ? or take the contract and work till end of the year.
Advice pls..
Both roles are remote so can't compare the distance.
i'm not sure if i can pull out of the perm after signing the papers

To those who are looking for jobs.. I gave up multiple times after 2 contract offers fell through and for one perm role they kept dragging their feet plus multiple rejections and hours spend on doing the take home exercises and codility/hackerrank etc tests.
Don't give up there is something out there might not be ideal but will help to keep afloat.

You'll have a notice period for the perm role that's probably either no notice , 1 or possibly 2 weeks during probation (check your contract) ... You can just serve your notice immediately. Likely they won't want you to start.

Hard to say what's the best thing to do. No one really knows what will happen by end of year.

[GhostofTarbera]

You'll have a notice period for the perm role that's probably either no notice , 1 or possibly 2 weeks during probation (check your contract) ... You can just serve your notice immediately. Likely they won't want you to start.

Hard to say what's the best thing to do. No one really knows what will happen by end of year.

I think we do know

By year end the market will be worse as Christmas contractor shutdown

Will pick up a tiny bit by March (but thousands more people looking)

By June next year, big bosses will have finally realised a £600 day java programmer (insert any contractor title here) they previously “needed on site 9-5 Mon to Fri” can be a Java programmer from st perterburgh or Lithuania at £198 a day (all in costs) as everyone still working from home




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[NowPermOutsideUK]

They have been trying to outsource work to india and Poland for 20 years without success

Believe it or not some places are actually bringing back work from offshore to onshore.

So no I don’t buy this argument that stuff moves to Russia.

[eek]

I think we do know

By year end the market will be worse as Christmas contractor shutdown

Will pick up a tiny bit by March (but thousands more people looking)

By June next year, big bosses will have finally realised a £600 day java programmer (insert any contractor title here) they previously “needed on site 9-5 Mon to Fri” can be a Java programmer from st perterburgh or Lithuania at £198 a day (all in costs) as everyone still working from home

And the circle of outsourcing will continue as before.

Except all the outsourcing companies I know are completely and utterly desperate for work...

[Bluenose]

By June next year, big bosses will have finally realised a £600 day java programmer (insert any contractor title here) they previously “needed on site 9-5 Mon to Fri” can be a Java programmer from st perterburgh or Lithuania at £198 a day (all in costs) as everyone still working from home

They have gone quiet for now but there were dozens of vacancies on the U.S east cost offering $250k USD basic for Senior Solution and Security consultants.

The problem with the U.K market (and I am talking pre-Covid) was not demand or pay, its that all the permie tractors working for 15 years at the same place being thrown under the bus all at the same time and its caused total mayhem.

Those guys and girls in Belgrade and Chennai have been there for 20 years now and its the same reason there are $500k software developers in San Francisco - remote working does not and will never beat a team of people working together in the same building, in real-time.

Why not move everyone to Belgrade or Chennai? Nobody wants to live there. They might move from London to Manchester/Birmingham and in my book that would be a great thing because, tbh, London has been a busted flush since the last crash and many of us can see the London situation for what it is, the 90's ended in 2010.

What this little fall to the floor will also accelerate, is the popping of the ridiculous recruitment consultant bubble and their behaviors. There will not be 29,000+ recruitment consultancies in the U.K come 2023 and we need these young people doing something more productive than calling people, emailing people and advertising roles that don't exist, there is little social value in it.

State of the market update from me remains: "£25k Leeds - Perm." or "£350pd London - Inside IR35".

[NowPermOutsideUK]

Thank you bluenose for an insightful post with figure to back up your views. Very very helpful

This in particular “ State of the market update from me remains: "£25k Leeds - Perm." or "£350pd London - Inside IR35".