State of the Market

[porrker]

Had an interview Friday just had an offer come through this morning very happy.... Market been very quiet but the last month seen a noticeable increase in interest. I think the market is on the up.

[oliverson]

Had a good chat with an agent recently that I thought repeating for a chuckle. My context is 'naff all for the last 12 months'. Agents' context is one of enduring hardship.

'You've sent your cv in for this role. To be honest, I thought I would give you a call because I didn't want to seem biased.'
'Biased?'
'Yeah, you've not worked for a year even though the Telco sector has been dead for that time.'
'Well, with my Telco based CV, that then might explain that right there. But I have been productive in other things but that which might confuse if placed on a Telco cv...' (It included voluntary PM work in other sectors.)
'Oh I haven't got the luxury of time to listen to all that.'
'Ok.'
'I've been doing this for some time and I just think your lack of doing PM work will work against you.'
'So, you call me to tell me you're not biased, but finish this call by Being biased...?'

Click.

Through the pandemic I decided to take some meaningful time off. There was nothing to apply for in the early days so instead of getting frustrated I just thought, 'screw it'. That time off soon passed but after 17 months on the bench I was approached on LinkedIn and that was that. I'm still on that project and the debt I took onboard to ride out that storm, both company and personal, is well and truly under control. On the subject of agents, I just told them, given the market and the fact I'd worked pretty much non-stop contracts for 16+ years, I was taking a sabbatical. Turned out well.

[willendure]

Through the pandemic I decided to take some meaningful time off. There was nothing to apply for in the early days so instead of getting frustrated I just thought, 'screw it'. That time off soon passed but after 17 months on the bench I was approached on LinkedIn and that was that. I'm still on that project and the debt I took onboard to ride out that storm, both company and personal, is well and truly under control. On the subject of agents, I just told them, given the market and the fact I'd worked pretty much non-stop contracts for 16+ years, I was taking a sabbatical. Turned out well.

I have been asked in all seriousness, "so what were you doing between Jan 2020 and Dec 2020, seems like a big gap there on your CV??". Erm, remember the Covid pandemic? Wife works for the NHS. I was teaching my kids how to do long division...

"Can you provide a reference to cover this period?". Yeah, all those people I was not allowed to hang out with and did not see, they can vouch for me. Idiot.

[willendure]

I tend to subscribe to jobserve through RSS feeds. I have 2 identical feeds for my skillset, UK wide, one inside IR35, one outside. At the moment, I am getting about 6 times as many hits on the outside channel. So although things are quiet overall, I am still encouraged that outside contracting seems to be going stronger.

[SussexSeagull]

....increasing taxes on companies rather than workers ? Considering you are on a Contractors Bulletin Board and most of those people here are on 'Outside' contracts surely you will understand that a lot of people will be disagreeing with this statement as charging Employer NI on a so called 'disguised employee' is a ridiculous enough .... but then increasing it is just taking the absolute pi$$.

I don't actually care who is in power as I know that all any government can do is akin to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The point of no return came many years ago. I will be amazed if Labour get a second term though .... I think they have come to power at precisely the wrong time and anything they do will do will go down like a lead balloon. The vast majority of this mess came via the Consevatives who let the Country down so badly and nobody is turning that around.

Not entirely sure a majority of us are in Outside contracts anymore. Or in the case of me snd others, no contract at the moment.

[SussexSeagull]

Had an interview Friday just had an offer come through this morning very happy.... Market been very quiet but the last month seen a noticeable increase in interest. I think the market is on the up.

Congratulations. Certainly there does seem to be roles appearing, which hasn't been the case for a while now.

[SussexSeagull]

I have been asked in all seriousness, "so what were you doing between Jan 2020 and Dec 2020, seems like a big gap there on your CV??". Erm, remember the Covid pandemic? Wife works for the NHS. I was teaching my kids how to do long division...

"Can you provide a reference to cover this period?". Yeah, all those people I was not allowed to hang out with and did not see, they can vouch for me. Idiot.

They really should apply some common sense for any periods of not working in 2020 and 2021 but it is beyond them.

Fact of the matter is contractors usually have breaks in their CV because they have chosen not to get s new contract straight away or can't find one. This goes back to the days when getting made redundant was seen as a slight against you in the days when most people worked for two or three companies in their entire life.

More and more people have portfolio careers, including permanent staff, and it is about time recruitment caught up.

[oliverson]

I have been asked in all seriousness, "so what were you doing between Jan 2020 and Dec 2020, seems like a big gap there on your CV??". Erm, remember the Covid pandemic? Wife works for the NHS. I was teaching my kids how to do long division...

"Can you provide a reference to cover this period?". Yeah, all those people I was not allowed to hang out with and did not see, they can vouch for me. Idiot.

When encountering such morons, I'd just drop the call there and then.

[quackhandle]

Seeing a few more outside roles.

This just popped in my LI feed: ERP Data Lead, outside IR35, 6m+ £550-£600

Using SAP S/4 Hana. Remote with occasional trip to office in London.

qh

[squarepeg]

I have been asked in all seriousness, "so what were you doing between Jan 2020 and Dec 2020, seems like a big gap there on your CV??". Erm, remember the Covid pandemic? Wife works for the NHS. I was teaching my kids how to do long division...

"Can you provide a reference to cover this period?". Yeah, all those people I was not allowed to hang out with and did not see, they can vouch for me. Idiot.

I hate to explain time between contracts. I was recently asked to explain what I was doing for the last two months and provide references for the time I "worked on my own projects". We agreed to call it "unemployment". This is for a contract outside IR35, B2B, so why the hell they need to know what I was doing between contracts I will never know. I was told "since you worked with us before, I am going to transfer documents so you do not have to re-upload them" Five minutes later an email arrived in my inbox with a link to... document re-upload page. Recruiters haven't changed, they just have fewer contracts to offer.