State of the Market

[davetza]

If the Inside rate was sufficiently high so that financially there was little difference to an outside role would you still blankly refuse? What's the reason for not considering it? Is it just the pride of being a 'proper' contractor?

If you only have one contract on the go at a time it is a pain in the ass as you will have no income coming into your Ltd Company but may have outgoings such as accountancy fees, insurance, pension etc that are coming out the company bank account. So if it is a fairly long-term inside contract you need to figure out what to do with all these outgoings and potentially look at closing your Ltd Company. I know there will be many people with 7 figures saved up in their company (who I'm sure will come out in the comments) but not everyone has that much runway before their bank account gets to £0 so you have the admin overhead of dealing with that all.

[Smoggy]

That would suggest you may well be in need of the cash from any sort of contract if your ltd funds are approaching zero. You can always loan personal assets to the company though to cover fees. They need paid one way or another.

I guess I always just prefer money coming in, one way or another. Good luck landing something that's Outside.

[mogga71]

If you only have one contract on the go at a time it is a pain in the ass as you will have no income coming into your Ltd Company but may have outgoings such as accountancy fees, insurance, pension etc that are coming out the company bank account. So if it is a fairly long-term inside contract you need to figure out what to do with all these outgoings and potentially look at closing your Ltd Company. I know there will be many people with 7 figures saved up in their company (who I'm sure will come out in the comments) but not everyone has that much runway before their bank account gets to £0 so you have the admin overhead of dealing with that all.

However on the flip side, only taking outside contracts could land you with a £60K tax bill in 5 years. Personally I would now only take Inside gigs as you can put all the (usually costly) safeguards in place to hopefully protect you from any form of HMRC prosecution but at the end of the day they can change their so called 'law' on a whim ... the recent MSC cases being a perfect example. Personally, I would now rather sleep easy at night than take the risk.

[TheDude]

If the Inside rate was sufficiently high so that financially there was little difference to an outside role would you still blankly refuse? What's the reason for not considering it? Is it just the pride of being a 'proper' contractor?

I honestly think some people are motivated not by how much they net but by how little tax they pay.

[6128k]

Here's my tuppence worth from looking for a week or so. I'm 15 years contracting in exactly the same role end to end. My average gig is around 18 months and tend to get the first gig I interview for in the past. Only been on the market twice before now in four years... and boy has it changed. Only had one interview so far with about 5 or 6 applications in.

Finding Work
Tons of specialist sites like Public Sector and OutsideIR35 job boards but not a sniff from any of them. Jobserve and Linkedin are all I've found anything on so far. Jobserve still top of the pile, more gigs, better response from recruiters but linkedin not so far behind, just not as slick as jobserve. Couple of gigs a week so it's not a bad market.

Getting hold of recruiters is a mare. Last time I was out, a gig popped up, usually with recruiters number on, called them within 5 mins and sent my CV 10 mins later. Top of the pile. Now next to no recruiters put their contact details in and are had to track down by ringing the office number. Very slow to read messages and accept on linkedin in the main appears to be apply and forget. This linked with the comment below is frustrating.

Number of applicants is through the roof and the chancers don't help. A recruiter put a post on for a 600 a day outside gig which is top of the range for what I do and he had 10 comments on the post saying they were interested. Two PMO's, a book keeper, a housing manager and some PM's. And that's just the public post. Managed to speak to him and he says his LI contact and connections went haywire. The noise is destroying any edge you can get by speaking the agent and getting your CV in front of their nose first.
Managed to get hold of one agent chasing a public sector gig and he admits he didn't see my CV with the pile he had and found enough (but turns out much less experienced) people and put them forward.

Speed. Used to be apply Monday, Interview Wednesday and start Monday. It's taking 2 weeks for some of the clients/agents to feedback on the role and then at interview it's taking a week to decide due to the number of interviews they are having. Very weird.

Outside gigs are obviously popular with a good majority of applicants being contractors inside and jumping ship. With the clients being slower for some reason it means short notice periods are a less of a problem so outside gigs are particularly heavily over subscribed. Looks like about 1 outside in 6 or so inside so far for my role.

SC clearance is required on close to half the gigs advertised for me in the last 10 days.

Getting the Work
Location is still a factor even in the hybrid world. I used to prefer stay away gigs (not London) before Covid so travel isn't an issue but not been put forward for two gigs because they've picked people closer to London. Granted could be an agent lie because they don't want the hassle of telling me I was tulip but I do believe them, particularly with the number of applicants.

I always enquire about Umbrella list in first chats ready to do battle if it's the usual crowd that won't pay my holiday pay or leak my details. Surprisingly all bar one so far have a list but will take any FCSA brolly and one has Clarity on the the list. Still push the big guys that give kickbacks first though.

As I say just short of two weeks evidence but a big change from two years ago and a far cry from 4+ years ago. Hope that helps someone.

I have a very similar experience to you, with 3 weeks on the bench. In all my years of contracting I have never been on the bench, so this is a first for me.

[hungry_hog]

Market seems terrible to me (BA in FS). As bad as I can remember.

In a not very nice gig at the moment, having a look around as an exit plan.
Zero interest on LI. A year ago was not even looking and getting 3/4 approaches a day. Genuine ones as well not "bob a jobs" from Chennai. Now even bob a jobs not contacting. Oh how I miss their "250 a day rates" and "please send your CV within the next 4 nanoseconds of the Earth will implode approach"

[sreed]

Thanks northernladuk for the detailed post.

I've just changed contracts (starting next week) so I'll give it a go in a similar format!

I've been contracting (day-rate) and consulting (fixed price and day-rate with variable days/week) for about 4-5 years now. Until recently it was all outside in fintech startups but that dried up by autumn last year, so I moved on to an inside PS contract.

I'm a tech PM with only very superficial technical knowledge but decent at herding cats! Prior to the PS contract, the contracts and gigs that I've been on were almost all through people I knew and word of mouth rather than formal applications, interviews etc. Usual length of contract was 6-12 months and I also often did 2 contracts simultaneously (one of them was on a variable 1-3 days/week basis)

Finding Work
Lots of decently paid PM roles visible on the usual websites, about 3-4 new roles a day that seemed legit and fit my profile. Lots more flexibility on remote working than when I was looking the last time around about 7-8 months ago. "Hybrid" roles that only need 1 day/week in the office or 1-2 days a month in the office. At least in theory, that increased the pool of potential roles.

I'm not fussed about inside/outside as long as the day-rate is acceptable and the inside rate is sufficiently higher than the equivalent outside rate. I got no human response to any of the applications I sent in over a week which was a change from last time.

Like NLUK, a significant proportion of the contracts that matched were asking for SC clearance which I don't have. It's a damn shame that.

Getting work
I eventually got an interview (and then a contract) by changing tack and pestering a Hays recruiter that I'd spoken to last year and who was quite optimistic about my chances at the time. Inside, and the same rate that I was on previously. So all good for now.

Overall it took me a lot more time and effort this time around, probably due to recruiters having far too many applicants for the same role so they just fall back on the people they already know or shortlisting is just based on luck! The main issue is probably just being able to cut through the noise and get a recruiter's attention so they can put your CV forward.

It's certainly changed my attitude towards the new contract and I'll probably try harder than I usually do to keep the client sweet. Let's see how it goes!

[Bluenose]

Oh how I miss their "250 a day rates" and "please send your CV within the next 4 nanoseconds of the Earth will implode approach"

Two things have happened, there was a scandal at one of the big Indian outsourcers with regards to corruption and recruitment. I do wonder whether this has contributed to the sudden silence on the 'Indian Recruiters Operating Out Of The U.K' thread and general lack of cold calling from dodgy land-line numbers in south west London

There is also big negative news coming out of one Indian outsourcer with regards to attrition rates and taking on new graduates. All in all, the analysts that cover the Indian outsourcing sector are now saying that FY2024 (from now until next April) is a wash as customers have placed big projects on hold.

I think both of these are a bell weather of the current situation closer to home.

[Fraidycat]

from now until next April) is a wash as customers have placed big projects on hold

So nine more months of

[Bluenose]

So nine more months of

There's so many people on the bench it might take 18 months to sort this mess out.