State of the Market

[founder]

still loads of calls but no interviews, recruiters still saying market picking up.

i dont see it

[SueEllen]

still loads of calls but no interviews, recruiters still saying market picking up.

i dont see it

As soon as recruiters see or sniff a project they start talking to people they could put in the role. So keep engaging with them.

[GigiBronz]

There was some consultancy bashing few pages back... sorry I missed that but I’d love to jump on the bandwagon:

Some of them come in place where managers don’t want to have the high turnover under his team. Recruitment effort as well & the 20% a pop fees for finding an employee.(potential tulip role)
They get a disposable resource on short leash (immigrant preferred on a visa or just someone gullible with stockhom syndrome).
If any of the work goes wrong, you suddenly have an external resource you could re-assign the tasks to and blame. And considering the culture in many of the places... you might find that you don’t have enough consultanta around to blame.

Some of them are asked to work on multiple projects and sometimes have lower salaries than client employees.

Management is more gruelsome as that is their bread and butter, brainwashing meetings to keep the minions in place. Repeated catch-ups to ensure that the resource is 110% productive.

I’ve heard as well that there are deals between the higher management and consultancy heads that when a manager retires they get a comfy consultant role to supliment their pension.(in exchange for having a few seats filled)

So yes, worse of all worlds.

[ChimpMaster]

Had a flurry of calls for permie jobs at the end of this week. Bearing in mind that I'm only really looking for perm jobs now (and that half-heartedly).

Not sure why the sudden pick up in calls, but it is reassuring.

Salaries aren't great around the £70k mark on average. I used to earn that much 15 years ago in my last perm job!

But there seems to be a lot more flexibility built into the roles now, like WFH / remote etc, and honestly that's more important to me than another £10k or £20k on top of the salary.

[bownyboy]

Its a numbers game. Expecting something to materialize from 2 recruiters/contract ads just isn't realistic. Probably 50 is a more realistic number.

I understand that.

This was more a comment on my experience of recruiters which I’ve mostly managed to avoid because of just this.

I find reaching out to my network you at least get feedback, intel (and a pint in the pre COVID days).




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[jamesbrown]

Had a flurry of calls for permie jobs at the end of this week. Bearing in mind that I'm only really looking for perm jobs now (and that half-heartedly).

Not sure why the sudden pick up in calls, but it is reassuring.

Salaries aren't great around the £70k mark on average. I used to earn that much 15 years ago in my last perm job!

But there seems to be a lot more flexibility built into the roles now, like WFH / remote etc, and honestly that's more important to me than another £10k or £20k on top of the salary.

Fwiw, I think a boom is coming, not in outside IR35 contract roles, but in work more generally. If you look at the savings ratio during the pandemic, there’s a lot of middle class people sitting on a lot of spare money. There will be a consumption-led boom next spring/summer, which will lead to a wider recovery. I think the strength of that potential rebound is being underestimated. Obviously, the outside IR35 contract market will be pretty dead, but there will be plenty of permie roles, I predict.

[_V_]

Had a flurry of calls for permie jobs at the end of this week. Bearing in mind that I'm only really looking for perm jobs now (and that half-heartedly).

Not sure why the sudden pick up in calls, but it is reassuring.

Salaries aren't great around the £70k mark on average. I used to earn that much 15 years ago in my last perm job!

But there seems to be a lot more flexibility built into the roles now, like WFH / remote etc, and honestly that's more important to me than another £10k or £20k on top of the salary.

IT salaries have barely moved in 20 years. If you don't have large outgoings (like you've paid your mortgage off) then it's not too bad. But if you are looking to buy a large family home, then it is a big problem.

I suspect IT salaries will probably fall with growing number of work permits being issued from next year to "fill the skills gap".

Unfortunately there's very little you and I can do about it.

[nomadd]

IT salaries have barely moved in 20 years. If you don't have large outgoings (like you've paid your mortgage off) then it's not too bad. But if you are looking to buy a large family home, then it is a big problem.

I suspect IT salaries will probably fall with growing number of work permits being issued from next year to "fill the skills gap".

Unfortunately there's very little you and I can do about it.

Amen.

[hugebrain]

But there seems to be a lot more flexibility built into the roles now, like WFH / remote etc, and honestly that's more important to me than another £10k or £20k on top of the salary.

There’s a bad cold going around at the moment. I think you’ll find contracts let you work from home too. But whatever floats your boat...

[vwdan]

Noticed an Inside IR35 role that at first made me laugh, due to the rate, but it stated inside the advert "Rate stated is what you will receive after deductions".

Firstly, I appreciated the honesty, but something to watch before discounting "low paying" roles. Was actually quite decent, on the basis advertised.