State of the Market

[PerfectStorm]

The trick to Jobserve is not worrying about what you see on there - it's applying to stuff on there to get you on peoples books for the other roles that aren't advertised

Not sure I've ever actually 'applied' for a role, its always been people finding me

[The Green View]

Is it worse now than 2020 during the lockdowns? I was in contract back then so dont know how bad it got, i remember JobServe dried up quite bad, 5000 postings or something really low like that. But last week there were over 50,000 postings on jobserve.

If things really are bad now, then my guess is it could stay this bad until they start cutting interest rates, when that is, is anyones guess. Could be this year, next year or the year after. But let us hope it is sooner rather than later.

For me personally, yes. More time on the bench, very little activity and just the one interview that converted into an offer.

The cynic in me can't help thinking that WFH is a double edged sword. Great to not have to do those long commutes but it makes it easier to replace you with anyone from anywhere else in the world. And that's what happened in my last role - none of the UK based contractors was renewed and they just hired more bodies from the consultancy they were already using.

The take home from that I guess is to move into something less offshorable, whatever that might be. People always used to say move into roles that focus also on soft skills but all those jobs like scrum master, product owner etc can still be done effectively on a remote basis as the situation in the lockdowns demonstrated.

[TheDude]

The cynic in me can't help thinking that WFH is a double edged sword. Great to not have to do those long commutes but it makes it easier to replace you with anyone from anywhere else in the world. And that's what happened in my last role - none of the UK based contractors was renewed and they just hired more bodies from the consultancy they were already using.

Employers have been trying to replace UK based developers with cheaper from elsewhere for at least two decades.

The trick is to acquire skills that are hard to replace elsewhere.

[ladymuck]

The trick with WFH is to not demand 100% remote work. Be willing to turn up to the office, even at short notice, and actually do that a few times. You can't get offshore resource to do that.

[brightondeveloper]

It's definitely worse than lockdown - I'm a c# developer and generally if I put my CV out I get harrassed with calls for the next week or 2. Jobserve is normally flooded with roles - now there's barely anything - I can't even get a response to a single application and I'm applying for everything going. Worst it's been in my entire career :/

[TheDude]

It's definitely worse than lockdown - I'm a c# developer and generally if I put my CV out I get harrassed with calls for the next week or 2. Jobserve is normally flooded with roles - now there's barely anything - I can't even get a response to a single application and I'm applying for everything going. Worst it's been in my entire career :/

I would be looking to add another string or two to my bow if I were you.

There is plenty of work available for JVM developers.

[SussexSeagull]

The trick to Jobserve is not worrying about what you see on there - it's applying to stuff on there to get you on peoples books for the other roles that aren't advertised

Not sure I've ever actually 'applied' for a role, its always been people finding me

I only really apply for things on Jobserve as it is quite quick and once in a while it does lead to something, although a majority of my contracts in the last decade or so have been agents or contacts coming to me.

[brightondeveloper]

I would be looking to add another string or two to my bow if I were you.

There is plenty of work available for JVM developers.

I’ve been an engineer for over 20 years so aside from REST/API/CQRS/ES I’m well versed in native mobile dev (Xamarin), angular / react / ember / svelte, SQL Server optimisation and I have Kubernetes certifications as well as Azure, I’ve lots of experience with AWS also.

id still consider myself a c# dev though as that’s my bread and butter

[avonleigh]

Been contracting for 25 years. Only ever had time out durng Covid - 5 months. This is much worse. I checked on itjobswatch and for testing, which I do there are currently 10-20% active jobs for the historical average. Other jobs seem to be similar. Doesn't seem to be picking up either.

[edison]

A lot of people mentioning Jobserve not having as many roles as in the past. Worth bearing in mind that it's not the only job board out there and many agents don't use it.

You're always likely to be facing greater competition for roles advertised online. Love them (or mostly hate them it seems), having a solid relationship with a few good agents can help a lot.

Even better, cultivate your network and you might also find those opportunities that aren't widely advertised or be able to go direct, especially with smaller and medium size firms.