State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

I got SC in 2015 and thought it would lead to loads of work but I never used it again and it has long lapsed.

[billybiro]

Must admit that was my first impression as well. Hard to understand how bad it can be for some people but this isn't the way. Does him zero favours and poses more questions than it solves. I get that it might be a passionate plea from the heart and he really is in dire straights but this is just not the way to fix it. This is business and sadly when clients have needs and agents have targets/commission to protect there is little place for charity I am afraid.

He'll get a ton of internet hugs but I can't see any agent or client taking him on based on the fact he's desperate sadly.

Someone earlier said the SC won't make any difference. I'd say that's wrong. Having SC is a massive benefit as he's in a market with a vastly reduced people pool. It's well known many people get gigs they aren't fully skilled in just because they have SC. So if he's experienced AND has SC he's in a prime place to hover up roles. My question is why he hasn't been able to do this with that in place. Something has got to be wrong at a more fundamental level meaning he isn't getting the gigs based on experience and SC. His interview techniques, poor CV, not looking in the right places. Something is broken and he needs to fix that rather than posting like this.

Hate to see someone in that position but something isn't right here.

Agreed but if there's no market for his skills, then the SC makes no difference. I work in a very niche area and have SC, in the last two years there was two contracts I've seen for what I do, the SC made absolutely no difference in hoovering up roles, as there was no roles to hover up.

Well, according to at least one of the comments on the post, he's based in York and is only looking for contracts in York. That reduces his pool quite considerably.

[northernladuk]

Well, according to at least one of the comments on the post, he's based in York and is only looking for contracts in York. That reduces his pool quite considerably.

Not half!!! Good spot that so yes, a few more details start to paint a very different picture of where his difficulties lie.

[swamp]

DevOps was always a niche, and it seems to be getting smaller these days. Software engineers are expected to do a lot of that work themselves these days.

[tjccjt01]

DevOps was always a niche, and it seems to be getting smaller these days. Software engineers are expected to do a lot of that work themselves these days.

I had a telephone interview last night for a Java/Spring developer role. I've been doing that for the last seventeen years and I've been on the client's site many times. It's obvious from the start this is an initial screen with bog standard questions that bear no relation to the project.

Do I have experience of AWS? Docker? Kubernetes? Kafka?

If they had bothered to read my CV they would know I don't so why they go through this ridiculous pantomime is beyond me. I ask about this at the end of the call and the interviewer tells me that they expect everyone to have all of this stuff now.

The agency called this morning and asked how things went. When I tell them they are sympathetic but say the market now is dreadful and ask if I thought of going perm.

FML.

[BigDataPro]

I had a telephone interview last night for a Java/Spring developer role. I've been doing that for the last seventeen years and I've been on the client's site many times. It's obvious from the start this is an initial screen with bog standard questions that bear no relation to the project.

Do I have experience of AWS? Docker? Kubernetes? Kafka?

If they had bothered to read my CV they would know I don't so why they go through this ridiculous pantomime is beyond me. I ask about this at the end of the call and the interviewer tells me that they expect everyone to have all of this stuff now.

The agency called this morning and asked how things went. When I tell them they are sympathetic but say the market now is dreadful and ask if I thought of going perm.

FML.

It is true that they expect every one to have knowledge/experience in at least 1 or 2 cloud offerings among AWS, Azure and GCP. In addition to exposure to DevOps (Docker, Kube, Terraform, Helm etc) + 1 or 2 programming languages + few SQL, NoSQL DBs + one Cloud Dataware house + at least one BI tool (e.g. Power BI/Tableau). Oh, exposure to Kafka or RabbitMQ is advantageous.

[swamp]

It is true that they expect every one to have knowledge/experience in at least 1 or 2 cloud offerings among AWS, Azure and GCP. In addition to exposure to DevOps (Docker, Kube, Terraform, Helm etc) + 1 or 2 programming languages + few SQL, NoSQL DBs + one Cloud Dataware house + at least one BI tool (e.g. Power BI/Tableau). Oh, exposure to Kafka or RabbitMQ is advantageous.

That's a small list

You forgot about all the front-end stuff too, like typescript, node.js etc.

[dx4100]

It is true that they expect every one to have knowledge/experience in at least 1 or 2 cloud offerings among AWS, Azure and GCP. In addition to exposure to DevOps (Docker, Kube, Terraform, Helm etc) + 1 or 2 programming languages + few SQL, NoSQL DBs + one Cloud Dataware house + at least one BI tool (e.g. Power BI/Tableau). Oh, exposure to Kafka or RabbitMQ is advantageous.

Then you start the gig to find they have a dedicated dev ops, dba, cloud team and they just wanted to make sure you knew how to build a containerised app.

I think there is sometimes a disconnect between the client and agents on this stuff. A "good" agent wants to be putting the best candidates in front of the client. So the client might say, oh it would be nice if they know about Kube so they know how to build a containerised app. And that becomes, must have worked with Kube in depth for 5 years. Specially given the number of contractors looking for work.

I have a very healthy and modern wide ranging set of skills and even I find myself scrolling past ads thinking they are asking for too much.

[dx4100]

That's a small list

You forgot about all the front-end stuff too, like typescript, node.js etc.

Every add seems to ask for React now. It leaves me wondering what happened to all the angular front end work everyone did a few years back. Companies must love rewriting frontends for no apparent reason lol.

[SussexSeagull]

Clients can have a tendency to hold out for a unicorn, especially in a buyers market like now, if left to their own devices.