State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

Never met you but I doubt there is anything wrong with you it is just misfortune that like me and others you have encountered an appalling market.

That said, I am 51 this week with about that length of experience in testing as you have in development and I am not sure on balance it does me any good. Contracting used to be about the safe pair of hands that came in to get a project over the line then walk off into the sunset, and some clients still want that, but more and more I am getting interviewed by people younger than me who are more interested in the latest tools rather than the actual process of doing testing well. One bit of feedback I got was that my testing knowledge was 'old fashioned'.

I am no developer but I suspect a similar thing is happening there with the focus being on tick boxing the latest technology rather than actually having a track record of delivery.

This isn't new but get's masked in a better market.

[Fraidycat]

And this is the general 'Developer' role chart from ITJobwatch.


Its actually doubly worse for developers, not only are IT jobs down in general, but developers roles are now just 10% to 15% of a much smaller pie when they used to be 30% of a much bigger pie.

[fatJock]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

Security cleared in an active role I presume because if you've been out of an SC role for 2 years your clearance should have lapsed .... typically after 12 months.

As others have said, I doubt it's anything wrong with you - just the wider market we are in. I've been fortunate to have had a planned year off (Sept 23 - Sept 24) and have been in work since with an extension until April 25. Current role is repeat business though and I've been appreciative of the network I've built and I'll be looking to keep my seat on this particular bus to ride things out as long as I can. I'm a technical / infra PM though with 30 years in Logistics and a network built up during that time.

Nothing going at any places you've been before?

[SussexSeagull]

And this is the general 'Developer' role chart from ITJobwatch.


Its actually doubly worse for developers, not only are IT jobs down in general, but developers roles are now just 10% to 15% of a much smaller pie when they used to be 30% of a much bigger pie.

A lot of development has gone off shore in the last decade. Not so much the other software development disciplines such as testing (and analysis gets protected to a point due to business knowledge).

I genuinely think the running down of the software development industry in this country will become a National Security issue if it is allowed to continue. We are outsourcing it to foreign countries and making it unsustainable in this country, which could come back to haunt us if geo-politics takes a turn against us.

[CodeCobbler]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

Nothing wrong I think. I've been without for over a year. Theres still the little trolls on here who will say its because you don't have a LinkedIn or whatever. But its not about your CV. The reality is its the market that decides these matters for you. Tech as we knew it is Dead. Now its just about choosing what do in the future because dev isn't going to bounce back.

I would think SC would be the ticket. Thats the avenue I would pursue anyway.

[SussexSeagull]

Nothing wrong I think. I've been without for over a year. Theres still the little trolls on here who will say its because you don't have a LinkedIn or whatever. But its not about your CV. The reality is its the market that decides these matters for you. Tech as we knew it is Dead. Now its just about choosing what do in the future because dev isn't going to bounce back.

I would think SC would be the ticket. Thats the avenue I would pursue anyway.

This is the thing. Obviously you have to cover the bases such as having a decent CV, searching the job boards, working your network and using LinkedIn (although that is in dispute) but even if you do that perfectly you are just putting you at the head of the queue, which is of limited use if there are no suitable roles.

[SchumiStars]

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.u...k-an-overview/

[willendure]

I definitely don't agreee with the "tech is dead" hypothesis - but that graph certainly isn't heading in a good direction.

BTW - what does this chart actually show? % of jobs that are developer jobs out of the total IT jobs advertised?

[Fraidycat]

% of jobs that are developer jobs out of the total IT jobs advertised?

Yes that is what it shows.


It is worrying.

For every 100K IT job opening pre down turn, 25K might have been developer jobs (1 quarter)

Now if there are only 30K total IT jobs because of the downturn, but only 5K of these are developer jobs (1 sixth)

Combing the numbers, means Developer job openings would have fallen by around 80%.

[mogga71]

Yes that is what it shows.


It is worrying.

For every 100K IT job opening pre down turn, 25K might have been developer jobs (1 quarter)

Now if there are only 30K total IT jobs because of the downturn, but only 5K of these are developer jobs (1 sixth)

Combing the numbers, means Developer job openings would have fallen by around 80%.

I am one of the lucky few ..... renewed for another year until November 2025. Weird times though .... I was actually renewed without anybody ... agent or my client actually contacting me at all. I simply got an email from my Umbrella Company ... who had been contacted by my agency. There isn't even anything for me to sign ... just an email with a .pdf. I did phone my agent to ask what was going on and told them to ask my client for a pay increase. They said that it would be a waste of time as loads of their contractors are getting finished this December and said I was lucky to still have a job as the market is a disaster. I am lucky that I can still work totally from home ... not been in the office for over 2 years.

Once this gig finishes I am out for good as I don't think I could find another job anyway.

I think Jeff Booth ... author of 'The Price Of Tomorrow' is correct. The future is going to be so different from the past. We just need to accept that many of us spend large parts of our lives unemployed and lesuire comes to the fore.