State of the Market

[rocktronAMP]

Well I am not finding it as you are. I am applying for lots and lots.

I think there are lot of time wasters (clients) out there like Barclaycard and Tescos who have no real headcount and/or don't know what they are doing.

[heyya99]

Well I am not finding it as you are. I am applying for lots and lots.

I think there are lot of time wasters (clients) out there like Barclaycard and Tescos who have no real headcount and/or don't know what they are doing.

Is your CV getting overlooked maybe? Re-hash it and see what happens.

[SueEllen]

Well I am not finding it as you are. I am applying for lots and lots.

I think there are lot of time wasters (clients) out there like Barclaycard and Tescos who have no real headcount and/or don't know what they are doing.

CV too short for your level of experience?

Age identifiers on your CV?

Not getting emails from agents and applying asap but only to those that appear on the job boards?

[uk contractor]

Cheers. Good luck with your interview.

Thanks. I turned the role down now it was not what the agent said end client had slightly different job spec requirement & was only 2 months work instead of 6 so happy to let them hire some other mug!

[Big Dawg]

I think it is a very mixed market and it depends on where your specialist area.

I was working was a Cyber BA for one of the banks, having worked on DLP, I&AM and general Cyber stuff. I have been out of work since last year and have found it very hard.

Whereas I have a friend who works as a Op Risk BA and he was saying he always gets call for new roles.

Hopefully with April approaching and the GDPR regulation work can only be around the corner. fingers crossed and good luck to all in a similar boat.

[PrestonChris]

I think it is a very mixed market and it depends on where your specialist area.

Hopefully with April approaching .

I'm very much hoping it picks up after April , new budgets etc !!

Have an interview for a perm role tomorrow , can't say i'm enthused at the prospect :-(

[LondonManc]

I'm very much hoping it picks up after April , new budgets etc !!

Have an interview for a perm role tomorrow , can't say i'm enthused at the prospect :-(

Make sure there are opportunities to climb - could be a different pathway to riches.

[rocktronAMP]

CV too short for your level of experience?

How about 9 pages for the last 8 years!
I have a short one too (3 1/2 pages) and even an elevator pitch one (1 page)

Age identifiers on your CV?

I removed them. I guess they can guess your minimum age with a sentence "I am a senior X with over 20 years commercial experience" or something like that

Not getting emails from agents and applying asap but only to those that appear on the job boards?

I have been getting emails from loads. I usually get phone calls. Of course, I block emails and call from Arrows Group and the other Indian recruitment companies.

I've been told by lots of different agents that actually my CV is excellent and I am very experienced. I don't think these people are buttering me up. I do believe it is the state of the market 2016/2017.

On Slack, I just spoke to another contractor /entrepreneur who said that in his view recruiters are under a deluge 200 - 300 CV for one London developer role. I can believe it, as it is not the first time, I heard this in the past few months.

Some clients are just stupidly abusive and they are taking advantage of the Keynesian economy. Some clients don't have a clue. Some client talk a very game. "We're agile", "We're digital", "We're this, We're that", when you get in there, you find out, it is whick-whack.

The head of recruitment Ms. Sh***o W****e lady at Tescos in Welwyn Garden City told me that they always interview all contractors and permanent staff under a 3 hour assessment. I turned up for an interview that didn't actually happen. The recruitment company failed to get full confirmation from the outsource HR company, who actual never passed on the invite to Tesco HR. Fiasco. It was complete waste of my morning. I immediately thought, no pun intended, about the ThoughtWork monkey interview techniques, especially as I fell in their trap of psychometric interviewing process 9 years ago. In 2007-2008 the market went bad then, I went permie through an ex-ex-manager (I will get my coat).

[DJM17]

Hi All - first time posting here. I have read the discussion of the UK Job Market with interest and can also say from my current experience that it is terrible right now. Ive been looking for 5 months now and despite a busy December where i thought i had something in the bag - the new year has been dire so far. Had hoped it would start picking up but its now March and Im not seeing the improvement in the new year that I expected. For the few roles that are out there - employers are being overly picking, not knowing what they are looking for, taking forever to respond after an interview - if at all. Have had my time wasted by a few companies who i'm not sure were serious about hiring in the first place! tulipe rates/fixed term contracts are rife. Everyone i speak to says there are too many candidates out there.

Have to seriously consider the perm route now which is not easy either but I cant see the market picking up any time soon and wonder if the contractor bubble has well and truly burst!

[SueEllen]

Hi All - first time posting here. I have read the discussion of the UK Job Market with interest and can also say from my current experience that it is terrible right now. Ive been looking for 5 months now and despite a busy December where i thought i had something in the bag - the new year has been dire so far. Had hoped it would start picking up but its now March and Im not seeing the improvement in the new year that I expected. For the few roles that are out there - employers are being overly picking, not knowing what they are looking for, taking forever to respond after an interview - if at all. Have had my time wasted by a few companies who i'm not sure were serious about hiring in the first place! tulipe rates/fixed term contracts are rife. Everyone i speak to says there are too many candidates out there.

Have to seriously consider the perm route now which is not easy either but I cant see the market picking up any time soon and wonder if the contractor bubble has well and truly burst!

Did realise you were looking for a permanent job!!

What's your skillset?