State of the Market

[dsc]

There are whole classes of people who are not directly effected by interest rate increases, those who rent, those who have paid off the morgtage, those who have only small mortgages left, those who live with parents, those that have long fixes. None of those groups is directly effected.

They will have a cause a recession with mass layoffs and increased unemployment. Then those that get effected will be from all groups listed above not just those with variable rate large debts.

I think for BoE it's a sacrifice they are willing to make, besides it's always been this way, hike interest rates, cause a recession and prices drop down nicely as people can't afford food. Another approach would be keep rates lowish and then suffer for years to come, don't forget you are meant to increase interest rates above inflation to make it work properly and we aren't even close yet.

[dx4100]

I also think some more peripheral IT roles are in decline. For example, in my last two gigs we've had no testers. I also see fewer devops engineers -- the developers are expected to write their own kubernetes config etc.

Cyber security roles are the exception to this, of course.

Its a little bit of everything being said but this certainly a thing...

The current gig I started last week is the first time in a long time I have worked on teams with testers. And knowing DevOps a few years back stood me out from the crowd and now its pretty much a requirement for anyone working in any dev capacity.

[oliverson]

Jane Street might be setting the bar a bit to high for a first job in finance. Most contractors already in finance and working for banks wouldn't have much chance of getting into Jane Street either.

What is your skillset and how have you been trying to get into finance? I would start at one of the banks first.

Not all banks are the same and if you want to get your foot into the door it will be easier to get into a League Two firm like RBS or Barclays who set the bar a lot lower than Premier League firms like Goldman or Morgan Stanley.

For a perm role with a few years experience you could be looking at between 50k to 90k. A few years banking experience and you could be looking at up to 120k if you move around a bit.

I can't for the life of me think why anybody would want to get into banking as a contractor given where we currently are. But for what it's worth, my route into investment banking was initially to gain some accreditation. However, the subject matter bored the living tulip out of me so I ditched that idea. At the time I was contracting in banking but 'retail' banking, with over 2 years under my belt. When that gravy train ended it was to another retail bank, which could easily have been taken to be their investment banking arm by anybody reading the profile/cv. Next up a proper investment bank. Started Monday, rate cut 10% Wednesday. After a few weeks I told them go do one and found a contract with a commodities trading firm. Mid-2008, I must have had much bigger balls in those days. So glad I'm not contracting in that sector these days. 10 years is enough.

[DrewG]

I can't for the life of me think why anybody would want to get into banking as a contractor given where we currently are. But for what it's worth, my route into investment banking was initially to gain some accreditation. However, the subject matter bored the living tulip out of me so I ditched that idea. At the time I was contracting in banking but 'retail' banking, with over 2 years under my belt. When that gravy train ended it was to another retail bank, which could easily have been taken to be their investment banking arm by anybody reading the profile/cv. Next up a proper investment bank. Started Monday, rate cut 10% Wednesday. After a few weeks I told them go do one and found a contract with a commodities trading firm. Mid-2008, I must have had much bigger balls in those days. So glad I'm not contracting in that sector these days. 10 years is enough.

I wouldn't lump the likes of Jane Street in with your typical City or Canary Wharf bank.

With JS, you're looking at salaries around 130k for a mid-level software engineer. This is assuming you don't have quant dev skills in which case you can retire in your late 30s.

[TheDude]

I wouldn't lump the likes of Jane Street in with your typical City or Canary Wharf bank.

With JS, you're looking at salaries around 130k for a mid-level software engineer. This is assuming you don't have quant dev skills in which case you can retire in your late 30s.

They are not going to be interested in your typical £800pd Java dev either.

[mem80]

14 years in contracting as Software Developer (Python, Java, JavaScript and DevOps experience) and never had been looking for next contract longer than 1 month.

Now 5 months on the bench and counting... During that time 5 interviews - all of them finished with something like 'feedback was great, but project is delayed OR we are still waiting for finances OR we had X candidates and we selected someone else'.

That's my state of the contracting market now

[TheDude]

14 years in contracting as Software Developer (Python, Java, JavaScript and DevOps experience) and never had been looking for next contract longer than 1 month.

Now 5 months on the bench and counting... During that time 5 interviews - all of them finished with something like 'feedback was great, but project is delayed OR we are still waiting for finances OR we had X candidates and we selected someone else'.

That's my state of the contracting market now

Have you considered using the downtime to add another string to your bow?

A personal project or two on github can set you apart from other candidates.

[Fraidycat]

Now 5 months on the bench and counting...

Are you looking at perm roles as well? If they they cant bring down inflation things are going to get even more ugly over the next 12 months. Find somewhere to ride out the storm.

[Snooky]

I think for BoE it's a sacrifice they are willing to make, besides it's always been this way, hike interest rates, cause a recession and prices drop down nicely as people can't afford food. Another approach would be keep rates lowish and then suffer for years to come, don't forget you are meant to increase interest rates above inflation to make it work properly and we aren't even close yet.

Interesting discussion about which approach historically suits a particular type of economic scenario here https://www.lynalden.com/inflation-vs-interest-rates/

[mem80]

Have you considered using the downtime to add another string to your bow?

A personal project or two on github can set you apart from other candidates.

Yes - I do personal projects and upskill myself (especially with DevOps where I have only 2 years experience). Also have more time to spend with my family which is positive (especially that have new 6 month old baby). It was fine for 2-3 months, but now it starts to be bit frustrating...

Likely need to start to consider permanents soon.
Even consider to go back to my country of origin (Poland) where the IT market still seems to be in the good fit.I tested it last week - applied to 3 jobs and got 2 interviews. However, they all require to be based in Poland for those contracts and while I don't want to do revolution in my live and go back, especially with 2 babies.

After that experience I am wondering whether the IT contracting market is broken generally or just in the UK.