State of the Market

[Kprad35]

Recently had few good interviews without any success, where I reached to 2nd round, had nice long conversation to the point where :


1 Hiring manager proactively requested to be patient for 2 weeks as they have to interview some more candidate. they later sent feedback via agency that I am still running.

2 After the 2nd round, the interviewer said we will offer role and cancel future interviews but other members suggested carry on future one ( though overall feedback was positive , as they said they could hire both of us but only one position( I know feedback means nothing)

Difficult to keep myself motivated as not sure what am I doing wrong?

[northernladuk]

Recently had few good interviews without any success, where I reached to 2nd round, had nice long conversation to the point where :


1 Hiring manager proactively requested to be patient for 2 weeks as they have to interview some more candidate. they later sent feedback via agency that I am still running.

2 After the 2nd round, the interviewer said we will offer role and cancel future interviews but other members suggested carry on future one ( though overall feedback was positive , as they said they could hire both of us but only one position( I know feedback means nothing)

Difficult to keep myself motivated as not sure what am I doing wrong?

To be honest looking at the above I think you've been proper fobbed off there. The 2 weeks starts alarm bells ringing for a start and then that bollox in item 2. Sounds like a right crock that does.... but in general, I was the same when I was interviewing. From memory I've got an offer from every gig I've interviewed in the old days and had the luxury of turning some down. A few months ago I was back on the market and it was brutal. I didn't even get to interview for gigs I've been delivering for 15 years, failing interviews for the weirdest of reasons. Just too many applicants and chancers so agents couldn't be bothered to sift properly and so on. It's not you, it's the market. Just means you've got to step up. Make sure CV's are tailored, get hold of agent (if you can) and just keep firing.

[JustKeepSwimming]

I think there are two things.

1) Some companies do not allow 'cancelling' off interviews, part of the whole 'We don't do nepotism, honest!' and that applies to contractors too.

2) Many managers, like many people, suffer FOMO. Scared they are going to miss out on a better candidate. I've seen managers struggle to recruit because they couldn't pull the trigger on a 'good enough'.

You just have to be resilient. I had feedback once that I 'would be more suitable for a much junior role', easy to take that as a crippling confidence blow. **** em, their outfit was genuine immature (process/technology wise). Call me junior when the best you can offer on a project metrics is headcount and made up delivery date.

[avonleigh]

Last week I saw a SQL DBA role from BT with a salary of 28k (don' t think it was for a junior role), that's a good way to tell your customers we don't give a tulip about your data.

Then conversely I saw an 18m outside IR35 gig working for AWE at Aldermaston, however there was no remote and they wanted DV.

qh

Don't think any DV roles would ever be remote due to the nature of the work. Have to be in a secure environment.

[quackhandle]

Don't think any DV roles would ever be remote due to the nature of the work. Have to be in a secure environment.

Indeed, if you lived in Reading or Newbury it would be ideal.

qh

[biergarten]

Starting a new contract next Tuesday after my ongoing PS contract was nixed abruptly due to the department being asked to slash budgets and freeze hiring. My observations (mid-senior PM roles) from the last 2 weeks of hunting for a new contract in any sector -

- saw very few outside PM contracts.

- PS recruitment seems extremely unpredictable at the moment, at least as a PM. After my current PS contract was nixed, I quickly landed another PS contract through PSR, that was pulled a couple of days before I was supposed to start. Lots of roles advertised over the past weeks just disappeared.

- I had an NHS PM role that I landed at 550pd only for the agency to come back and sheepishly say that the NHS client changed the grade for the role which means that the day rate is now closer to 300 not 550! As far as I could tell it was the same bloody role.

- after the above, I gave up on PS contracts as it seemed like a bit of a waste of time unless I had SC clearance

- plenty of PM contracts on offer (though recruiters did say that they're getting tons of applicants for these roles), a huge variety of rates for very similar roles with no real rhyme or reason. Financial services still paying the best

- lots of hybrid-in-name-only (ad-hoc office visits if needed) roles advertised, so don't get put off if you see Hybrid-Leeds as all it might mean is that you may need to go to Leeds once or twice during the contract

Got a decent 6 month contract with an insurance firm in the end, remote with rare travel to their office up north. The company is going through restructuring at the moment so god only knows how long this will last but that's the way it goes, no complaints.

sorry, probably known for everyone except me...PS stands for?

[JustKeepSwimming]

sorry, probably known for everyone except me...PS stands for?

PS = Public Sector.

PSR = Public Sector Resourcing (www.publicsectorresourcing.co.uk)

[northernladuk]

PS = Public Sector.

PSR = Public Sector Resourcing (www.publicsectorresourcing.co.uk)

It's a strange situation that PS is the same acronym for both Private Sector and Public Sector but as JKS says we tend to relate PS to Public Sector.

You might also see the acronym AMS which is Alexander Mann Solutions who is PSR.

[Robinho]

Recently had few good interviews without any success, where I reached to 2nd round, had nice long conversation to the point where :

I remember the heady days when 2 interviews were unthinkable.

[BigDataPro]

Recently had few good interviews without any success, where I reached to 2nd round, had nice long conversation to the point where :


1 Hiring manager proactively requested to be patient for 2 weeks as they have to interview some more candidate. they later sent feedback via agency that I am still running.

2 After the 2nd round, the interviewer said we will offer role and cancel future interviews but other members suggested carry on future one ( though overall feedback was positive , as they said they could hire both of us but only one position( I know feedback means nothing)

Difficult to keep myself motivated as not sure what am I doing wrong?

You are not doing anything wrong. I was without a role for almost a year and it bothered me a lot, felt depressed and useless. But the reality is not you, just that the requirements/demands of the market has come down.

Something will turn-up. Just enjoy the break and up-skill yourself in your domain.

Try not to do the mistake I did, which is worrying. Now when I look back, I feel that I have wasted that free time. I should have enjoyed the break to become healthy, fitter etc.