State of the Market

[KentDogWalker]

ouch

[KentDogWalker]

total jobs has a lot more roles than cw jobs now, like 3-4 x for my area

[Bluenose]

My summary of 2022 is that the contract market pumped real hard until approximately just after the Boris Johnson speech in the first half of July and then gradually started to die off.

Behaviour from agents was, generally, appalling. As someone pointed out earlier, if you do an interview, getting ghosted because you did not get the role is not really a winning long-term business strategy for agencies because I black-book any agent that does it and I would reckon on many others doing the same.

Looking to bail to Spain from September and work partially remote for half the money. Total deductions for some of the poor bastards caught by IR35 will be 53% come 5th April.

Regarding rates in 2022, Financial Services in London looking to pay 650pd (inside!), Public Sector roles outside of London paying up to 1,250pd (Inside). I assume this is the muppet discount because there is a shortage of Joe's willing to work outside of Zone 2.

I managed to get an outside role in September for 850pd outside but the aforementioned noise from agents made this search almost impossible. The 'system' for finding work in 2022 is more broken than its ever been, its deeply in-efficient.

Regarding 2023, I can't really see the status-quo carrying much over into 2024, there's going to be a large movement of musical chairs in the second half of 2023 as those that can (and some can't or won't) look to leave the U.K and work abroad and travel for 2-3 days a week max or work fully remote from GMT 0 or GMT +1.

Who wants to work in London for a 650pd IR35 caught role paying 50% tax where you have to be in the office most of the time? The rates and tax no longer match for me.

[KentDogWalker]

My summary of 2022 is that the contract market pumped real hard until approximately just after the Boris Johnson speech in the first half of July and then gradually started to die off.

Behaviour from agents was, generally, appalling. As someone pointed out earlier, if you do an interview, getting ghosted because you did not get the role is not really a winning long-term business strategy for agencies because I black-book any agent that does it and I would reckon on many others doing the same.

Looking to bail to Spain from September and work partially remote for half the money. Total deductions for some of the poor bastards caught by IR35 will be 53% come 5th April.

Regarding rates in 2022, Financial Services in London looking to pay 650pd (inside!), Public Sector roles outside of London paying up to 1,250pd (Inside). I assume this is the muppet discount because there is a shortage of Joe's willing to work outside of Zone 2.

I managed to get an outside role in September for 850pd outside but the aforementioned noise from agents made this search almost impossible. The 'system' for finding work in 2022 is more broken than its ever been, its deeply in-efficient.

Regarding 2023, I can't really see the status-quo carrying much over into 2024, there's going to be a large movement of musical chairs in the second half of 2023 as those that can (and some can't or won't) look to leave the U.K and work abroad and travel for 2-3 days a week max or work fully remote from GMT 0 or GMT +1.

Who wants to work in London for a 650pd IR35 caught role paying 50% tax where you have to be in the office most of the time? The rates and tax no longer match for me.

my thoughts too

btw, ' The 'system' for finding work in 2022 is more broken than its ever been, its deeply in-efficient.' opportunity for a startup to fix this then?

[ladymuck]

my thoughts too

btw, ' The 'system' for finding work in 2022 is more broken than its ever been, its deeply in-efficient.' opportunity for a startup to fix this then?

You need a lot of capital and excellent connections. The barrier to entry is high.

The paying customers don't really care as long as they get the bums on seats, so where is the incentive?

[SussexSeagull]

I found the last couple of times that it looked like I was never going to work again up to the point someone got in touch with about a contract and I was working again. There is no real rhyme or reason other than you get identified for a suitable opportunity.

Back in the day you would apply on Jobserve, of which some would ring you back, of which some of them would go to interview and I would fancy my chances of getting through every other interview as a minimum. Those days have long gone and mindsets needs to change.

[TheDude]

So far this year I have received several approaches a day.

Some cold from Indian recruitment companies, some from UK recruitment companies and one from a previous client.

[The Green View]

Anyone noticing a NY uptick?

I've totally revamped my CV and have refocused on .Net cloud solutions (being slightly economical with the truth, it has to be said but only following the advice given in my other thread)

3 calls this morning from a slew of Jobserve applications so fingers crossed, although they all went along the lines of

Agent: Did you work with A. Dev at client x?
Me: No, haven't heard of him
Agent: Who did you know there then? I've placed a lot of guys there, I may know them

Probably me being cynical but hey ho....

[BlueSharp]

Market seems ok (Solution Architect/Enterprise Architecture). Finished early Dec, took a month off and will be back in action with as shinny new contract on Monday. I've decided to move more in to Enterprise rather than Solution Architecture this year so will see how that pans out!

[TheDude]

Anyone noticing a NY uptick?

I've totally revamped my CV and have refocused on .Net cloud solutions (being slightly economical with the truth, it has to be said but only following the advice given in my other thread)

3 calls this morning from a slew of Jobserve applications so fingers crossed, although they all went along the lines of

Agent: Did you work with A. Dev at client x?
Me: No, haven't heard of him
Agent: Who did you know there then? I've placed a lot of guys there, I may know them

Probably me being cynical but hey ho....

You are not being cynical - you are being socially engineered. These sort of approached typically go nowhere.