State of the Market

[northernladuk]

I'm not bound to a specific industry, my skills can be used across many different industries, so far I've done contracts in Finance, travel, energy, retail, betting and gaming, telecoms, (local and national) government and charity. And atm it's dead for all of them. Unfortunately defence is one of the exceptions where they don't need me

I'm the same. Despite being told many times once you are in an industry you are in I've also never been in the same one twice. PS, Pharma, Telecoms, Retail, banks you name it and in my two weeks on the bench I'm finding it a bit of a mare as well. Been about 10 roles in two weeks which I thought was great but each has some kind of problem. 3 or 4 got pulled before offer (apparently), one wasn't the role advertised, two got filled internally, at least three were sub 500 inside rates. It's very very strange. I used to be able to nail the first interview I had but now it's just a complete mess.

I was a tad overconfident about my skills and previous abilitiy to get outside roles and I've come down to earth with a bit of a crunch. It's not great out here at the moment. I'm 100% I'll get something within the month but I'm going to have to fight for it and it doesn't look like it will be the cushy well paid gig all the others were.

[BlueSharp]

I'm the same. Despite being told many times once you are in an industry you are in I've also never been in the same one twice. PS, Pharma, Telecoms, Retail, banks you name it and in my two weeks on the bench I'm finding it a bit of a mare as well. Been about 10 roles in two weeks which I thought was great but each has some kind of problem. 3 or 4 got pulled before offer (apparently), one wasn't the role advertised, two got filled internally, at least three were sub 500 inside rates. It's very very strange. I used to be able to nail the first interview I had but now it's just a complete mess.

I was a tad overconfident about my skills and previous abilitiy to get outside roles and I've come down to earth with a bit of a crunch. It's not great out here at the moment. I'm 100% I'll get something within the month but I'm going to have to fight for it and it doesn't look like it will be the cushy well paid gig all the others were.

It looks like we have similar skill sets and roles we apply for (Software Architecture with cloud?) I like to pick up a new competency every 5 years or so my skills don't become commoditised. I'm at the point of looking to pick up a new skill set as there are a lot of SA Cloud architects and fewer roles and struggling to pick a direction to go. AI seems the next big thing so I'm keeping an eye on the market for signs it's going to provide the boom times for the next 5 years, but there are a lot of Cyber roles about and looking at the absolute state of some of the cloud infra I've dealt with it might be a jump to cyber for me.

[northernladuk]

It looks like we have similar skill sets and roles we apply for (Software Architecture with cloud?) I like to pick up a new competency every 5 years or so my skills don't become commoditised. I'm at the point of looking to pick up a new skill set as there are a lot of SA Cloud architects and fewer roles and struggling to pick a direction to go. AI seems the next big thing so I'm keeping an eye on the market for signs it's going to provide the boom times for the next 5 years, but there are a lot of Cyber roles about and looking at the absolute state of some of the cloud infra I've dealt with it might be a jump to cyber for me.

Nope. I'm service introduction/delivery. No real change to skill sets for me bar the move to cloud/SAAS so much of my last 10 years is still very relevant which is why I've possibly gotten a bit over confident. Three calls this morning alone so my mojo is back up. It will happen, just not used to not getting offers from interviews and all the strange carry ons I've seen over the last week or two.

[willendure]

I'm the same. Despite being told many times once you are in an industry you are in I've also never been in the same one twice. PS, Pharma, Telecoms, Retail, banks you name it and in my two weeks on the bench I'm finding it a bit of a mare as well. Been about 10 roles in two weeks which I thought was great but each has some kind of problem. 3 or 4 got pulled before offer (apparently), one wasn't the role advertised, two got filled internally, at least three were sub 500 inside rates. It's very very strange. I used to be able to nail the first interview I had but now it's just a complete mess.

Also finding it similar. Used to send off my CV, at least 50% of the time get an interview, and I am good at face-to-face interviews so would frequently get offered the job. Now its like my CV just dissappears into a black hole. When I do get an interview its a video one which makes it all the harder to relate on a human level - something I find quite off putting.

Only thing I can think of that is different is that with remote working, every job ad must be getting hundreds or thousands of CVs from all over, whereas before they might be getting 10s from the local area. Probably just filter them with some AI matching algorithm and pick the top few, so if you haven't tuned your CV to exactly match the JD...? But I also have done quite a bit of CV tweaking to try and work with this kind of system but still not having much success.

[wattaj]

...Probably just filter them with some AI matching algorithm and pick the top few, so if you haven't tuned your CV to exactly match the JD...

I feel that this is the crux of the current malaise: too many automated processes filtering out otherwise good candidates before reaching a human. This is compounded by inexperienced recruiters who often times have little wider knowledge for the roles that they are trying to fill.

This situation helps no-one.

Candidates are not getting hired.

Recruiters are failing faster than egg sandwich in the sun and getting binned every other day.

I'd normally say "**** 'em", but they are a necessary evil and we all either sink or swim.

[edison]

I'm the same. Despite being told many times once you are in an industry you are in I've also never been in the same one twice. PS, Pharma, Telecoms, Retail, banks you name it and in my two weeks on the bench I'm finding it a bit of a mare as well. Been about 10 roles in two weeks which I thought was great but each has some kind of problem. 3 or 4 got pulled before offer (apparently), one wasn't the role advertised, two got filled internally, at least three were sub 500 inside rates. It's very very strange. I used to be able to nail the first interview I had but now it's just a complete mess.

I was a tad overconfident about my skills and previous abilitiy to get outside roles and I've come down to earth with a bit of a crunch. It's not great out here at the moment. I'm 100% I'll get something within the month but I'm going to have to fight for it and it doesn't look like it will be the cushy well paid gig all the others were.

I'm similar, have worked in ten sectors in the last 15 years, eight in the last ten as a contractor.

I always thought it was a bit risky to stick with just one industry like financial services. Great when that sector is doing well (and I've got friends who retired in their 40s after contracting in investment banking) but not so good at a time like now.

[edison]

Just about to finish a contract but I haven't made much effort to look for one as I fancied taking August off.

I did get a call yesterday from a recruiter about a nine month FTC to possibly go perm afterwards which I would normally ignore, but the money was very good indeed so I've sent my CV in.

[GigiBronz]

Market here is completely dead here as well, phone rang a few times but it was only bottom of the barrel type of roles, for ex founding engineer on 100k and 5 days on site. While I would not mind working towards a purpose being in Central London everyday is not easy, travel is about £9 per day(Canary wharf to London Bridge bus + underground, from Essex that is £30 only in train tickets).
Then the major cost is food, unless you are happy with less healthy meals, Greggs and that kind on nonsense, you would be easily into £15 per meal. Working long hours then you might have to consider 2 meals per day and potentially even breakfast.

So the math does not make sense, you have to commute everyday for 45 min, spend £40 on food and travel regularly while rent for a 2 bed now is 3k bills included easily anywhere in London. Earn £5.5k net, spend 3k on rent and 1.2k on getting to the actual work.

Even if you are on 200k (lol, you won't see daylight in those kind of roles) it's £9.5k net, if you have childcare for 1 child, once you add food and everything, you'll be saving nothing at all. Nada zilch zero.

I am complaining about this again and again as people seem to be complacent, how are not annoyed?

How do supposedly educated and experienced people agree to this? Your grandfathers that fought in the war would be rolling in their grave seeing this. They would think that the wrong side of the war wan.

I am seeing also more complaints about being pushed into the office from 1 day agreed to 2-3 days. I had that also happen to myself but there were other many things also wrong with the role so I just refused and fought the other fights.
But many people moved to commuter towns outside of London during or after the pandemic so they can raise children and now this.

I always wondered, what was the reason for over hiring in the pandemic? cause I've heard about this many times and it actually makes little sense.

Because wagies come from a position of comfort of relying that salary at the end of the month and "being taken care of" and looking forward to their "golden years".
That's why the accept a wage that only affords them to live month to month.

If you break that trust with them then it will be a lot harder to get them to comply or they will push back. Hence why they are now being boiled slowly like a frog (with inflation) if you create sudden events then the frog might jump out of the pan to a different country or refuse to engage entirely.

[willendure]

Just about to finish a contract but I haven't made much effort to look for one as I fancied taking August off.

I did get a call yesterday from a recruiter about a nine month FTC to possibly go perm afterwards which I would normally ignore, but the money was very good indeed so I've sent my CV in.

I'd say that is a good way to approach a permie role because you will be negotiating the permie contract whilst still on contractor rates and expectations. I still remember when contractors demanded to have fresh fruit brought to them every day!

[TheDude]

Market here is completely dead here as well, phone rang a few times but it was only bottom of the barrel type of roles, for ex founding engineer on 100k and 5 days on site. While I would not mind working towards a purpose being in Central London everyday is not easy, travel is about £9 per day(Canary wharf to London Bridge bus + underground, from Essex that is £30 only in train tickets).
Then the major cost is food, unless you are happy with less healthy meals, Greggs and that kind on nonsense, you would be easily into £15 per meal. Working long hours then you might have to consider 2 meals per day and potentially even breakfast.

So the math does not make sense, you have to commute everyday for 45 min, spend £40 on food and travel regularly while rent for a 2 bed now is 3k bills included easily anywhere in London. Earn £5.5k net, spend 3k on rent and 1.2k on getting to the actual work.

Even if you are on 200k (lol, you won't see daylight in those kind of roles) it's £9.5k net, if you have childcare for 1 child, once you add food and everything, you'll be saving nothing at all. Nada zilch zero.

I am complaining about this again and again as people seem to be complacent, how are not annoyed?

How do supposedly educated and experienced people agree to this? Your grandfathers that fought in the war would be rolling in their grave seeing this. They would think that the wrong side of the war wan.

I am seeing also more complaints about being pushed into the office from 1 day agreed to 2-3 days. I had that also happen to myself but there were other many things also wrong with the role so I just refused and fought the other fights.
But many people moved to commuter towns outside of London during or after the pandemic so they can raise children and now this.



Because wagies come from a position of comfort of relying that salary at the end of the month and "being taken care of" and looking forward to their "golden years".
That's why the accept a wage that only affords them to live month to month.

If you break that trust with them then it will be a lot harder to get them to comply or they will push back. Hence why they are now being boiled slowly like a frog (with inflation) if you create sudden events then the frog might jump out of the pan to a different country or refuse to engage entirely.

I don't know what you do but how much do you expect to earn.

What entitles you to a better life than everyone else out there that is just getting on with it?