State of the Market

[oliverson]

Where is the prestige?

Being a developer at an Investment Bank is like being the person who sells the pies at a football club. You are nowhere near the big earners.

Working at Goldman Sachs (Real Madrid) may be more prestigious then Barclays, Credit Suisse or UBS (Southampton) but prestige doesn't pay your mortgage.

Neither does selling pies at a football match!

[SchumiStars]

Where is the prestige?

Being a developer at an Investment Bank is like being the person who sells the pies at a football club. You are nowhere near the big earners.

Working at Goldman Sachs (Real Madrid) may be more prestigious then Barclays, Credit Suisse or UBS (Southampton) but prestige doesn't pay your mortgage.

Sounds about right TBF.

Besides which development work at banks is usually quite boring and has no creative input

[oliverson]

Despite a bit of a flurry last week, and yes, it's early days this week, I'm beginning to share the despair of those that have been looking for work for a while.

What I'm seeing in my search is mainly inside roles, many requiring SC / DV, or rates I was earning 20 years ago as a newbie contractor, but with specs. the length of your arm demanding every skill under the sun. Also, according to stats on LinkedIn, literally hundreds applying for every role.

What a world eh? I may end up staying retired!

[sadkingbilly]

ye'll need an umbrella then.
and plenty of paper hankies.

[uk contractor]

IT Contracting in the UK is almost extinct now!

You will be far more productive if you try to find new business ventures in other industries (if you still can!).

Way too many of the same old offshore based but really onshore based outsourcers all coming in from the same continent .....they get the vast majority of the all available work.....if they cannot find someone to work for the lowest possible bottom feeder rate that's the only time (unless the end client insists forcefully) they will look beyond their own internal hiring pool (do not want to use the word talent pool as its does not apply its just a numbers on seats game by now!).

I know several IBs (including the one I used to work at!) who replaced 1000s of highly skilled experienced IT staff with the lowest possible cost replacement option...the FO Staff like Traders do not even get any input on that anymore its all a race to the bottom.

None of this will ever hit the news either as everyone gets paid off & signs an NDA...you might get a few leaks here & there with no names mentioned but's its a massive problem now...I will take an educated guess & say perhaps 65-70% of all IB IT work in the UK is handled by the massive onshore operations allowed to setup shop here undermining local IT staff.

Even when they make massive losses due to IT errors caused by this underhand but barely legal deception the IB's just suck it up as they are saving 100s of millions per year by going down route.

I just do not see it ending anytime soon no government in the UK will stop it from happening.

[dsc]

IT Contracting in the UK is almost extinct now!
[...]I know several IBs (including the one I used to work at!) who replaced 1000s of highly skilled experienced IT staff with the lowest possible cost replacement option...[...]

[...]I just do not see it ending anytime soon no government in the UK will stop it from happening.

The lowest cost options must still be UK based, as someone in this thread said that SC will only accepted if the holder resides in the UK...unless of course the banks simply bribed their way out of this...

As for gov getting involved in any of this - dream on, they have far bigger things on their mind (like saving the tanking economy and effectively a bankrupt country) than to worry about a bunch of highly paid contractors.

[avonleigh]

The lowest cost options must still be UK based, as someone in this thread said that SC will only accepted if the holder resides in the UK...unless of course the banks simply bribed their way out of this...

As for gov getting involved in any of this - dream on, they have far bigger things on their mind (like saving the tanking economy and effectively a bankrupt country) than to worry about a bunch of highly paid contractors.

Why would you need SC to work for a bank?

[sadkingbilly]

IT Contracting in the UK is almost extinct now!

You will be far more productive if you try to find new business ventures in other industries (if you still can!).

Way too many of the same old offshore based but really onshore based outsourcers all coming in from the same continent .....they get the vast majority of the all available work.....if they cannot find someone to work for the lowest possible bottom feeder rate that's the only time (unless the end client insists forcefully) they will look beyond their own internal hiring pool (do not want to use the word talent pool as its does not apply its just a numbers on seats game by now!).

I know several IBs (including the one I used to work at!) who replaced 1000s of highly skilled experienced IT staff with the lowest possible cost replacement option...the FO Staff like Traders do not even get any input on that anymore its all a race to the bottom.

None of this will ever hit the news either as everyone gets paid off & signs an NDA...you might get a few leaks here & there with no names mentioned but's its a massive problem now...I will take an educated guess & say perhaps 65-70% of all IB IT work in the UK is handled by the massive onshore operations allowed to setup shop here undermining local IT staff.

Even when they make massive losses due to IT errors caused by this underhand but barely legal deception the IB's just suck it up as they are saving 100s of millions per year by going down route.

I just do not see it ending anytime soon no government in the UK will stop it from happening.

deception? - what deception?
If a business outsources, it's a business decision.
Where's the deception?

[hungry_hog]

Luckily we never had a PM married to the daughter of Infosys or we really would be in trouble

[Stevep42]

Yeah, it's definitely slow right now. I'm seeing way fewer opportunities than usual, and the ones that do pop up are either lower-paying or super competitive. Feels like a mix of companies tightening budgets and just less movement in general. Hopefully, things pick up in the next few months, but yeah, not the best time to be looking.