State of the Market

[GJABS]

I've had three agents call me back re applications I've made on Jobserve, or in reply to my replies to their job emails on LinkedIn, and they have put my CV forward to the client.
No interviews yet, but I have a hunch now that things are better than I feared they were a month ago when I started looking again in earnest.

[JustKeepSwimming]

Me too.

It could of course be BS.

Just had an interview request for week on Monday so think there is some truth. I guess it must go absolutely dead mid July when schools break up?

[PCTNN]

UX/UI market is very slow at the moment with barely any roles coming up in the last few weeks. I'd be worried if I was out of work because there aren't any permie roles either.

Good thing I've just been extended for another 6 months so I won't have to worry until January 2024.

[DrewG]

UX/UI market is very slow at the moment with barely any roles coming up in the last few weeks. I'd be worried if I was out of work because there aren't any permie roles either.

Good thing I've just been extended for another 6 months so I won't have to worry until January 2024.

What do you mean by UI/UX? You mean genuine interface design taking into account HCI principles? Most people don't care about that, they're looking for figma and react. What do you do?

[PCTNN]

I do all of the above except react, which has nothing to do with design. React is for the front end monkeys. I'm a wireframes/clickable prototypes monkey.

[Mephisto]

Well..... this week I start at £11.50 an hour part time in a Warehouse.

Warchest isn't depleted but I'm not sitting around fighting like this every day staring at the phone. It's miserable and like 2008 when my first ever gig ended.

Also ironically whilst I was in contract, which ended in May, around Jan/Feb/Mar I was getting calls almost weekly and even took another on temporarily for double bubble (different time zone - long bloody hours!). Sooooooo glad I did that now!

Good luck one and all - the amount of applicants per role on LinkedIn is staggering - contract and perm.

[Fraidycat]

Well..... this week I start at £11.50 an hour part time in a Warehouse.

I guess that is fine as long as they let you answer the phone during work hours but most minimum wage don't..

[Mephisto]

I guess that is fine as long as they let you answer the phone during work hours but most minimum wage don't..

Yep. It's a very good point. Luckily its laid back (as we are in Lancashire) and I know them well so applying/taking calls is not restricted. Piss-taking amounts wouldn't go down well, but I'm not expecting them!

[PerfectStorm]

I guess that is fine as long as they let you answer the phone during work hours but most minimum wage don't..

Now that's one thing I don't miss about minimum wage work (other than the money) is the way the managers treat you like absolute dirt

Get used to the phrase "Can we have a little chat?" - likely to be used the next time you spend 30 seconds too long having a poo or similar...

[edison]

Spoken with several agents I know well over the last two weeks who cover a mix of perm, contracting and interim. All admitted it's become pretty quiet over the last few months. It sounds like some clients are preparing to launch major transformation programmes in the autumn though so maybe we will start to see some pickup from September.