State of the Market

[MonkeysUncle]

Company I am currently with have decided to "align with a strategic partner".....so basically they have outsourced 70% of the IT, HR and Finance functions to TCS/Tata

I feel for the the perms, this came out of nowhere and is due to happen by end of March.

For the UK they can either apply for some of the retained roles but thats 6/7 people applying for 2 open spaces or TUPE across to TCS.

For the US they have been told come march 31st you are gone. Whats worse they did an intro to TCS call where they talked about how amazing TCS USA is, how good the benefits are and how they are one of the best employers to work for in the USA....oh but we are not taking any of you on!


Anyhoo all this means is no renewal on the cards for me, its a shame as I quite enjoyed working here and I hate leaving a project midway through.

[The Green View]

Company I am currently with have decided to "align with a strategic partner".....so basically they have outsourced 70% of the IT, HR and Finance functions to TCS/Tata

I feel for the the perms, this came out of nowhere and is due to happen by end of March.

For the UK they can either apply for some of the retained roles but thats 6/7 people applying for 2 open spaces or TUPE across to TCS.

For the US they have been told come march 31st you are gone. Whats worse they did an intro to TCS call where they talked about how amazing TCS USA is, how good the benefits are and how they are one of the best employers to work for in the USA....oh but we are not taking any of you on!


Anyhoo all this means is no renewal on the cards for me, its a shame as I quite enjoyed working here and I hate leaving a project midway through.

Sorry to hear this. What sort of client is it?

I've had this 3 times - with TCS, Accenture and Infosys. Actually, 4 times if I include the E European outfit whose bods we had to train up to do our jobs before we left.

A bit soul destroying all in all but it does seem the market is picking up, depending on what it is you do.

[PerfectStorm]

Company I am currently with have decided to "align with a strategic partner".....so basically they have outsourced 70% of the IT, HR and Finance functions to TCS/Tata

I feel for the the perms, this came out of nowhere and is due to happen by end of March.

For the UK they can either apply for some of the retained roles but thats 6/7 people applying for 2 open spaces or TUPE across to TCS.

For the US they have been told come march 31st you are gone. Whats worse they did an intro to TCS call where they talked about how amazing TCS USA is, how good the benefits are and how they are one of the best employers to work for in the USA....oh but we are not taking any of you on!


Anyhoo all this means is no renewal on the cards for me, its a shame as I quite enjoyed working here and I hate leaving a project midway through.

Redundancy or an end to a contract is quite often a gift. Seize the opportunity.

[TheDude]

For the US they have been told come march 31st you are gone. Whats worse they did an intro to TCS call where they talked about how amazing TCS USA is, how good the benefits are and how they are one of the best employers to work for in the USA....oh but we are not taking any of you on!

It must be pretty depressing if even TCS won't offer you a job.

[TheGreenBastard]

It must be pretty depressing if even TCS won't offer you a job.

You simply can't compete as a US citizen, TCS placed imports will have their visa status held over their heads, it's this power imbalance that makes TCS not want to hire citizens unless desperate for a skillset.

[ladymuck]

I decided to flick the behind the scenes switch on LI to say that I'm having a look around.

The first approach I got was someone asking me to phone them about an opportunity. Doesn't say anything useful other than a vague job title.

I message back asking:
Is this role permanent or contract? If contract, is it inside or outside IR35? I don't want to waste your time so I'll only call if it's an outside contract.

The reply I get:
It's permanent so I guess that means you're not interested?

Ah well. It's a good job I'm not in any hurry.

[The Green View]

You simply can't compete as a US citizen, TCS placed imports will have their visa status held over their heads, it's this power imbalance that makes TCS not want to hire citizens unless desperate for a skillset.

...and from anecdotal evidence here it seems that they hire a UK based contractor when they can't immediately source somebody from overseas just for the purpose of satisfying the headcount. Once the overseas worker is sourced, the UK contractor is given his marching orders. A number of people I know have experienced this.

[Campylobacterchicken]

Recruiter - Hi HH got a great role for you. Rate X top tier blah. Can you attach your latest CV and we can catch up tomorrow
HH: great here's a latest CV

This has been my experience for the last three months. Get jobs offered by recruiter, send them my CV, they tell me that we should have a response in a couple of days, and then nothing.

When I call back a week later or so the answer is often the same: "haven't heard back from the client yet".

Rinse & repeat.

This is the same all around, no matter what agency.

My sector is aerospace, however my CV should be quite strong and I can offer a lot of niche skills and expertise that's not exactly growing on trees.

What irks me is the complete lack of response. A simple "sorry, role has been filled" or "we decided to go with someone else" is fine, but I still see the same roles open and re-advertised, and I know (from sources) that the clients struggle to fill them due to a lack of suitable candidates.

Interesting to hear that it's not just me.

[SussexSeagull]

Got the paperwork for a new contract on it's way, which is about the third time in four years I have been out of contract on the run up to Christmas and the market to be dead for it to be resolved in January.

Spoke too soon! Client changed requirement for role and I didn't fit the bill.

Got a second interview for a FTC on Friday. Actually not bad money, which begins to make me think about a strategic withdrawal from contracting being a possibility.

[The Green View]

This has been my experience for the last three months. Get jobs offered by recruiter, send them my CV, they tell me that we should have a response in a couple of days, and then nothing.

When I call back a week later or so the answer is often the same: "haven't heard back from the client yet".

Rinse & repeat.

This is the same all around, no matter what agency.

My sector is aerospace, however my CV should be quite strong and I can offer a lot of niche skills and expertise that's not exactly growing on trees.

What irks me is the complete lack of response. A simple "sorry, role has been filled" or "we decided to go with someone else" is fine, but I still see the same roles open and re-advertised, and I know (from sources) that the clients struggle to fill them due to a lack of suitable candidates.

Interesting to hear that it's not just me.

I've been doing this long enough to know that it comes with the territory, unfortunately, but after 4+ months without an interview & then getting an interview that seemed to go very well all for the agent to do the usual disappearing act & not answer my calls or emails is more than a little frustrating.