State of the Market

[tjccjt01]

Genuine question: what makes you think you'll have more luck in the permanent job market?

The permanent job market is just as bad, with not many opportunities and loads of people looking. And hiring managers are notoriously skeptical about bringing in ex contractors that may jump ship the second they get a contract.

Well I can't do any worse! There do seem to be more perm vacancies for what I do (Java developer) than contract at the moment so there is that. As for hiring I was able to go perm during lockdown without the question about jumping ship being asked.

There's nothing to lose looking at perm roles and if nothing else it's a chance for some interview prep and identifying any weaknesses in my tech knowledge.

T

[tjccjt01]

Adding to this, ex-contractors / temp-perms typically want crazy money because "I used to be on £91283091802938 per day, I'm not taking a job that pays less than what the CEO is on".

I was pleasantly surprised with the offer I received last time I went for a perm role. Given the rates currently on offer there's not a lot of difference between contract and perm roles.

T

[tjccjt01]

First interview of 2024 secured. Wish me luck.

T

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

First interview of 2024 secured. Wish me luck.

T

Good luck!

I found out that my gov gig forbids working outside the UK, which is a real blow because I wanted to spend some time working from Europe.

As a result I may not renew in 6 months if offered just for this reason Which sucks because the market might be crappy then and I will have to choose.

[Destiny2]

Good luck!

I found out that my gov gig forbids working outside the UK, which is a real blow because I wanted to spend some time working from Europe.

As a result I may not renew in 6 months if offered just for this reason Which sucks because the market might be crappy then and I will have to choose.

Asus VPN router £200
NordVPN subscription ~ £25 from ebuyer for 6 months
Configure Asus router and ensure your work laptop's IP address / MAC address is set to use the UK VPN server.
Your work Azure servers will see that you have a UK IP address and will allow you in.

Been there, done that from the other side of the world for a year and never got caught.

[SchumiStars]

Asus VPN router £200
NordVPN subscription ~ £25 from ebuyer for 6 months
Configure Asus router and ensure your work laptop's IP address / MAC address is set to use the UK VPN server.
Your work Azure servers will see that you have a UK IP address and will allow you in.

Been there, done that from the other side of the world for a year and never got caught.

Was working for HMRC, when a contractor decided to take his laptop outside the country, over Christmas, to keep his day rate rolling.

Cue, no-one being able to login the following day due to a security breach.

Said contractor, was not invited to report back the following day.

[SchumiStars]

Serious question about contractors that are struggling in general to secure even calls:
What's keeping your spirits up, and are you considering continue doing contracting under the current market conditions?

Cycling, running, gym. Downtime usually means I keep the body fit and healthy.

I have loads of hobbies to keep me busy TBH.

[dsc]

I was pleasantly surprised with the offer I received last time I went for a perm role. Given the rates currently on offer there's not a lot of difference between contract and perm roles.

T

As long as one is reasonable about what they can get salary wise at a given position, then all is fine. But I've seen many on here saying "well I was offered perm, so I multiplied my day rate times 260 and they rejected that" which is the most retarded approach to perm ever.

At this point it seems contracts are paying less than perm, although perm might have dropped heavily as well, so not sure where things stand there. The issue is the sheer amount of people applying, it's hard to even get to the first stage of the interview, let alone get an offer. Saying that, good luck with yours

[wattaj]

I was pleasantly surprised with the offer I received last time I went for a perm role. Given the rates currently on offer there's not a lot of difference between contract and perm roles.

T

There never really was once one accounted for the permanent benefits TBH... if one puts much stock into maternity, sickness, holiday, etc...

[northernladuk]

There never really was once one accounted for the permanent benefits TBH... if one puts much stock into maternity, sickness, holiday, etc...

Not properly because it can't really be done. We've had that question hundreds of times and loads of people have tried and never got it close enough. I believe 450 day day needed around 110k gross package but that 110k would pay plus benefits and you've have to take a stab at what the benefits are worth. Most people forget benefits actually cost something. Back in the day I remember CSC launching a flex package where everyone's salary was converted to a gross figure with zero benefits and you could chose to buy it from a massive catalogue. Most people thought they'd got a massive 5 figure raise but when they bought their basic package of 22 days holiday, health insurnce and the like it came back down to their existing wage and they were howling. Very surreal. That set up would have been absolutely perfect to compare 450 a day vs perm gross but I don't think any companies do it that way for obvious reasons.