State of the Market

[mookiemoo]

My client has closed the offices that the IT staff normally work from. There are 10 hot desks for about 50 people when you include business people seconded to projects.

The hiring manager has just bought a log cabin!

[Paralytic]

The hiring manager has just bought a log cabin!

How many developers does it seat?

[Zzap]

Never seen it this bad myself, although that could just be because i'm crap now

I've not seen it this bad either. Managed to work through the recessions no problem at all but this feels very different. Been on the bench for a while now. I've got a decent warchest but need a contract for my own sanity.
Contractor UK news article states that demand for contractors hits highest level since March 1998, that sounds great but I'm not seeing it coming through in phone calls.

[BigDataPro]

Never seen it this bad myself, although that could just be because i'm crap now

Don't lose hope. Sit back and work out what is lacking. It could be just one skill or just one latest technology platform like Cloud. Work on it until you become sufficiently confident in it. Amend CV, sprinkle it with that skill. It's doable and it works. Good luck.

[lecyclist]

Just adding to the comment about Cloud. About 2 years ago, I spent £10 on a course from Udemy to learn how to become a Certified AWS Solution Architect. I read the material over a month or so, registered with Amazon (free) to spin up some AWS servers, and copied the practical sessions that the trainer was doing. I tried to pass the certification exam with Pearson ($100 with a discount as I recall) too soon and failed by a few percent. It doesn't really matter for my work as certification is not required, but I learned so much by having focused learning certification objectives, and by aiming high and trying to absorb as much material as possible in a short time, and a lot of that material has sunk in and has enriched my understanding. The Foundation exam was also an option, but the subject matter was not detailed enough for my taste.

If you are not already familiar with Cloud, it is like a paradigm shift in thinking at first glance. Especially where multi-cloud vendor architectures with a federation layer stitching them together are concerned. It is also a paradigm that experienced IT professionals should be able to comfortably overlay over existing knowledge. But it does require a short-term commitment (say 1-2 months) to update your knowledge.

If you're stuck in a rut professionally, I would recommend a similar approach with a new skill of your choosing. Preferably with a certification exam at the end, to keep you goal focused.

[BlueSharp]

Just adding to the comment about Cloud. About 2 years ago, I spent £10 on a course from Udemy to learn how to become a Certified AWS Solution Architect. I read the material over a month or so, registered with Amazon (free) to spin up some AWS servers, and copied the practical sessions that the trainer was doing. I tried to pass the certification exam with Pearson ($100 with a discount as I recall) too soon and failed by a few percent. It doesn't really matter for my work as certification is not required, but I learned so much by having focused learning certification objectives, and by aiming high and trying to absorb as much material as possible in a short time, and a lot of that material has sunk in and has enriched my understanding. The Foundation exam was also an option, but the subject matter was not detailed enough for my taste.

If you are not already familiar with Cloud, it is like a paradigm shift in thinking at first glance. Especially where multi-cloud vendor architectures with a federation layer stitching them together are concerned. It is also a paradigm that experienced IT professionals should be able to comfortably overlay over existing knowledge. But it does require a short-term commitment (say 1-2 months) to update your knowledge.

If you're stuck in a rut professionally, I would recommend a similar approach with a new skill of your choosing. Preferably with a certification exam at the end, to keep you goal focused.

I agree as a contractor your skills must be kept up to date. It's no good trying to sell something that is 10 years past it's sell by date at a premium rate. Every five years I look to take on a contract in a new skills set that is emerging and I think will do me well for the next five years. The added benefit at being at the start of a tech curve is there is little competition for the roles and sometimes I read the book and understood it and answer/blag the interview is enough to land the role. Plenty of life left in Cloud Architecture for me but it won't hurt if I start adding new skill sets to it like Robotic Processing Automation, Cyber Security, AI.

There are roles out there but you need to be selling what people want to buy.

[TwoWolves]

Anyone else think the market is starting to heat up again

Best I have seen it for a long tine at the minute for dev roles (when comparing offers, phone calls, interview requests etc to previous times)

Same here. It's white-hot out there and recruiters are going to incredible lengths to get my attention. I've turned down two inside roles as outside roles are now coming in daily.

The only complaint is everyone is asking for multi-stage interviews now so I have four balls in the air and a fifth trying to get the end client to set a start date.

[quackhandle]

I've not seen it this bad either. Managed to work through the recessions no problem at all but this feels very different. Been on the bench for a while now. I've got a decent warchest but need a contract for my own sanity.
Contractor UK news article states that demand for contractors hits highest level since March 1998, that sounds great but I'm not seeing it coming through in phone calls.

There may be a high demand for contractors, however from what I have seen on job boards the demand is for Inside gigs, which sort of says there's a glut for permitractor jobs and not true freelance gigs. Wonderful times.

qh

[krytonsheep]

Twhat I have seen on job boards the demand is for Inside gigs, which sort of says there's a glut for permitractor jobs and not true freelance gigs. Wonderful times.

Hopefully over time, the demand will exceed the supply, so more companies will be forced in to offering outside IR35 contracts (or ramping up inside rates).

[Lance]

Hopefully over time, the demand will exceed the supply, so more companies will be forced in to offering outside IR35 contracts (or ramping up inside rates).

An inside role is an inside role.
Clients aren't just going to fudge the contracts to make them outside. They're not stupid.
Their entire engagement model, and management of temporary resource needs to change. That is not going to just happen because you desire it to.