State of the Market

[Bluenose]

The Super-Powerfully built UK contractor:

1. 7 months out on the street
2. Makes the agency take the knee on BPSS screening costs.

EFA

I would not want to negotiate with Cookielove LOL

Also, Congratulations Cookielove.

[oliverson]

Early days yet for me (trying to get back into the game), but WTF is wrong with these agents on LinkedIn?

I've had a several messages, specs sent, etc. and the "You look perfect for this, when can we chat?, so I reply reasonably promptly with my phone number, etc. Nothing. it's not just once in a while, it's almost every ******* time.

I've known a few good agents over the years and some really bad ones, but it's like wind your clock forward to today's agents and normal behaviour seems to be waste people's time.

Bad enough for me but for those who are desperately looking for work, it must be pushing you to the brink? I doubt it's not only me getting this treatment.

[Bluenose]

Bad enough for me but for those who are desperately looking for work, it must be pushing you to the brink? I doubt it's not only me getting this treatment.

It's happening at all levels of IT contract recruitment, even if you are not on the bench.

If you can, create a small list of smaller consultancies (under 100 heads) and spend time getting onto their radar with their resourcers.

[quackhandle]

Thanks to all the positive messages and some good information in all of them.

If it's not obvious, although I have a good background, I don't have an ego and would be happy to stack shelves and clean toilets. I got here by delivering newspapers on paper rounds.

I have had conversations concerning sports during interviews when we spotted each others garmin watches.

Endurance sports are not easy and knowing how to solve problems with crossing finishing lines can show the determination required for success.

Why don't you become a personal trainer? I think you'd be much happier.

qh

[oliverson]

Why don't you become a personal trainer? I think you'd be much happier.

qh

Probably because like coffee shops, there's no money in that either!

[Dorkeaux]

It's happening at all levels of IT contract recruitment, even if you are not on the bench.

If you can, create a small list of smaller consultancies (under 100 heads) and spend time getting onto their radar with their resourcers.

Bluenose is right, it's all over.
You can't influence this behaviour in any meaningful way, so I'd suggest rolling with it and not let it wind you up.

[oliverson]

So, first conversation with a real agent and whilst the role doesn't really appeal to me, he did confirm that it's a good time to be entering the market as he's seen an increase of over 20% contract roles the last few weeks. I know 20% of a small number is still a small number, but it does support my own findings the last week or two.

[sadkingbilly]

has the rain stopped yet?

[Bluenose]

- Update your CV, and keep it up to date. Put your phone number, email address and linkedin profile link on. This is not the time to be precious about distributing personal details.

- You do have a Linkedin profile, right? Fill it full of all your roles and associated skills and connect to people. I know Linkedin is pain in the posterior with all the psycho corporate tulip. Do it anyway.

I have said it before but it will post it again - increasingly its not a person reading your profile or your CV, its an AI algo.

If you cant do it yourself you need to pay someone to optimise both your CV and linked-in profile for an AI algo.

For agencies this is how it seems to be working:

Once the AI algo flags you in linked in, the drone-bot recruiter (a human on minimum wage) will do an intro chat with you and ask for your CV.

Once the CV is taken it is then fed into the recruiters internal SaaS AI Algo (not on linkedin), the algo will then tell the drone, based on your CV whether to create a profile to give to their account manager.

If the AI generates an incorrect conclusion from your CV you will be binned off and the drone won't re-initiate contact with you as the drone is busy with the CV's that the AI flagged as good.

If you want to test out your own profile, use linked in premium, go to the jobs section, find a job that is pretty much a perfect match for you (in principle) and click on the linked-in AI assistant button, ask it to do an assessment and see what it gives you back. If it returns bad news, your linked in profile needs tweaking.

[SussexSeagull]

Early days yet for me (trying to get back into the game), but WTF is wrong with these agents on LinkedIn?

I've had a several messages, specs sent, etc. and the "You look perfect for this, when can we chat?, so I reply reasonably promptly with my phone number, etc. Nothing. it's not just once in a while, it's almost every ******* time.

I've known a few good agents over the years and some really bad ones, but it's like wind your clock forward to today's agents and normal behaviour seems to be waste people's time.

Bad enough for me but for those who are desperately looking for work, it must be pushing you to the brink? I doubt it's not only me getting this treatment.

I think the industry has been obliterated over the last couple of years. Certainly the ones I have had dealings with have either gone underground or are doing something else.