State of the Market

[BolshieBastard]

Corroborated with people at the named clients I know...

Had a speculative bulk format email from an agent, urging me to sign up to that agency online... reading the email, well reading the text makes me think I'd rather volunteer to have thousands cough on me than sign up...

"Answer: Right now is the PERFECT time! 1) My guess is that you probably actually have some free time where you can research. And 2), the #1 skillset you can possibly have during good times and bad is your ability to make it rain. (i.e. getting opportunities in the door).

Now is the time to sharpen your saw, so you can get the best career opportunity today...but also, as the quarantines lift, to be able to stabilise and build upon your career in the coming months."

Make it rain? Isn't that the practice where rappers and clebs in America throw money around nightclubs, causing fights and shootings?

Sharpen my saw? What the almighty living ***** does that even mean? I need a sharp saw to get the best career opportunity how? By hacking up other candidates and contractors?

And now?

[coolhandluke]

Had 3 interviews after aggressively sending out my CV.

1 Contract - India based so rate was a massive issue.
2 Perm - Ok Salary - Will stop the depletion of the war chest - Good tech stacks so a chance to learn and improve.

I'm currently using the downtime to up-skill and hoping to get a couple of cloud based certifications. My main worry though is jumping into something too early and seeing the contract market booming in May / June.

A £350 p/d contract is quite hard to beat in my area with a full stack developer perm salary. So commuting to London and getting £500+ would be worth waiting for.

Finally, have to agree about the increase in fake adverts. Noir Agency seem to be advertising the same job in every city in England at the moment. 90k C# - Remote working etc etc - still applied though

[LondonManc]

Had 3 interviews after aggressively sending out my CV.

1 Contract - India based so rate was a massive issue.
2 Perm - Ok Salary - Will stop the depletion of the war chest - Good tech stacks so a chance to learn and improve.

I'm currently using the downtime to up-skill and hoping to get a couple of cloud based certifications. My main worry though is jumping into something too early and seeing the contract market booming in May / June.

A £350 p/d contract is quite hard to beat in my area with a full stack developer perm salary. So commuting to London and getting £500+ would be worth waiting for.

Finally, have to agree about the increase in fake adverts. Noir Agency seem to be advertising the same job in every city in England at the moment. 90k C# - Remote working etc etc - still applied though

Even inside IR35?

[GhostofTarbera]

Had 3 interviews after aggressively sending out my CV.

1 Contract - India based so rate was a massive issue.
2 Perm - Ok Salary - Will stop the depletion of the war chest - Good tech stacks so a chance to learn and improve.

I'm currently using the downtime to up-skill and hoping to get a couple of cloud based certifications. My main worry though is jumping into something too early and seeing the contract market booming in May / June.

A £350 p/d contract is quite hard to beat in my area with a full stack developer perm salary. So commuting to London and getting £500+ would be worth waiting for.

Finally, have to agree about the increase in fake adverts. Noir Agency seem to be advertising the same job in every city in England at the moment. 90k C# - Remote working etc etc - still applied though

Yes - expect a mega boom in June when companies are struggling to still exist and pay staff and keep the lights on, market will be like this for a year


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[coolhandluke]

Yes - expect a mega boom in June when companies are struggling to still exist and pay staff and keep the lights on, market will be like this for a year


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

Who knows for sure? Some companies are doing rather well out of the current situation.

[Tindog]

Finally, have to agree about the increase in fake adverts. Noir Agency seem to be advertising the same job in every city in England at the moment. 90k C# - Remote working etc etc - still applied though

I've noticed the same, they've been using the same fake job formula for years and seem to be ramping up their spam now.

[perplexed]

And now?

No idea, wasn't something of interest.

[LondonManc]

Who knows for sure? Some companies are doing rather well out of the current situation.

While there's potentially money to be made, I don't see mass hirings taking place. There will also be plenty of agencies fighting over the same scraps, so good luck figuring out which ones are on each PSL.

[jayn200]

Who knows for sure? Some companies are doing rather well out of the current situation.

Yeah I mean on a personal level it doesn't matter what the market is doing just matters what you are doing. But this thread is called state of the market and the market is horrible and will be horrible for the rest of the year.
Does that mean that every single contractor will be out of work? Of course not but I wouldn't be surprised if half or more than half were.

I still have a contract but I'm just waiting for them to kill it, they keep delaying my project but are letting me keep working on one component of it but i don't think they'll keep doing that for much longer. I probably got another couple weeks or a month. I really hope restrictions get relaxed in the next month and I manage to scrape by without losing this contract because I don't know if I'd even bother trying to find something else right now.

Probably just find somewhere super cheap to live and hide out for a year.

[mrdonuts]

Probably just find somewhere super cheap to live and hide out for a year.

you really havent been following along have you