State of the Market

[dsc]

[...]

Personally, I'm finding the call rate has ticked up somewhat.

I had that roughly end of Jan / start of Feb, lasted a week and died a rather quick death

[oliverson]

Apologies wasn't questioning its genuinity (unlike others might) purely interested in the tech. As I'm not a dev what is "elite front end"? or rather what tech is that using?

Just my description of what some might call 'rockstar coder', or whatever, judging by the description of the role.

[gables]

Just my description of what some might call 'rockstar coder', or whatever, judging by the description of the role.

Does that mean the role had a requirements list as long as your arm covering everything? I've never met a rockstar coder so don't know what they bring to the table

[TheDude]

This thread has become the main discussion point of the entire CUK forum, for good reason.
The IT Contractor market has changed, become smaller and less lucrative.
Also running a small company has become a lot more difficult.

Am I the only one here who thinks it's not that bad?
Not humblebragging or putting myself forward as awesome. Just an average contractor, truly.

My day rates are lower than they were, by about 15-20%.
But over the last few months I've been getting a lot of honest (and a little dishonest) contact for roles in my area.
Probably approaching the amount of calls I used to get in the bad old days.

I'm thinking it's the agencies getting more organised, and trolling through Linkedin and old copies of my CV thay have lying around.

Anyone else experiencing an uptick?

No uptick - pre pandemic I would get a couple of calls per day. I haven't had a call since mid Feb. Part of this is due to companies changing their position on Scala which is my core skill.

My current outside rate is 50% of my previous inside rate and I have had to step outside of financial services for the first time ever.

I'm not complaining - it's more than enough to live on certainly preferable to being unemployed.

I thought there would be enough well paid city work to keep me going for another decade but now I am not so sure.

The only good thing about the current market is the death of the braggart contractor and their stories about second homes, cars and bumper pension pots.

[Bluenose]

Does that mean the role had a requirements list as long as your arm covering everything? I've never met a rockstar coder so don't know what they bring to the table

they are too busy coding to meet people.

[TheScheduler]

This thread has become the main discussion point of the entire CUK forum, for good reason.
The IT Contractor market has changed, become smaller and less lucrative.
Also running a small company has become a lot more difficult.

Am I the only one here who thinks it's not that bad?
Not humblebragging or putting myself forward as awesome. Just an average contractor, truly.

My day rates are lower than they were, by about 15-20%.
But over the last few months I've been getting a lot of honest (and a little dishonest) contact for roles in my area.
Probably approaching the amount of calls I used to get in the bad old days.

I'm thinking it's the agencies getting more organised, and trolling through Linkedin and old copies of my CV thay have lying around.

Anyone else experiencing an uptick?

My stats in the skills I have, have shown there's no uptick right now. I've not gone through perm stats yet, but will start taking a note maybe next week.
Not sure the overall reason, but I think contracting has become difficult for companies hiring. They don't want to commit to stating IN/OUT and therefore just hopefully get a permie in. The hiring market is generally flat what with the new PAYE regimes coming in next month. Hiring has probably stopped altogether and gone in reverse.
There's the usual reasons of course international trade, brexit and cost of living that are always trotted out.

Overall it's flat, not sure when it's going to change either?

[oliverson]

No uptick - pre pandemic I would get a couple of calls per day. I haven't had a call since mid Feb. Part of this is due to companies changing their position on Scala which is my core skill.

My current outside rate is 50% of my previous inside rate and I have had to step outside of financial services for the first time ever.

I'm not complaining - it's more than enough to live on certainly preferable to being unemployed.

I thought there would be enough well paid city work to keep me going for another decade but now I am not so sure.

The only good thing about the current market is the death of the braggart contractor and their stories about second homes, cars and bumper pension pots.

I'm currently sat in my holiday home in Andalucia with my Tesla parked outside. Trouble is, it's cold and grey down here and the forecast looks set for more of the same, along with heavy rain. The Tesla goes back in September and I haven't a pension pot to piss in :-(

[SussexSeagull]

As others have said we are encountering something of a perfect storm. The broader economic picture isn't great and there is a lot of uncertainty at the moment with, amongst other things, tariffs. More specific to IT I think a lot of outsourcing and offshoring (which can be the same thing, obviously) have taken away work contractors would have previously done. People who were issued Visas in the better times now have indefinite leave to remain and are either in jobs or looking for jobs like the rest of us in these bad times. Throw in the HMRC have almost made Outside IR35 contracts socially unacceptable and the perception that AI is going to make any work done now out of date in a couple of years time so decision makers are reluctant to start any major projects.

[sadkingbilly]

I'm currently sat in my holiday home in Andalucia with my Tesla parked outside. Trouble is, it's cold and grey down here and the forecast looks set for more of the same, along with heavy rain. The Tesla goes back in September and I haven't a pension pot to piss in :-(

bad financial planning.
you newcomers always thought it would last forever, though.
oh, well.

[oliverson]

bad financial planning.
you newcomers always thought it would last forever, though.
oh, well.

The holiday home was always the pension pot and something we could enjoy over time, like the last 20 years! I know of a few people who squirreled money away into conventional pension schemes but never lived long enough to enjoy them, sadly. The classic 'deferred life programme'.