State of the Market

[rootsnall]

I had an interview were they logged me on to dev system and asked me to write some code. 4 tasks that got harder, I just about managed task 1 and my time was up. I was pretty flustered and this amused the person who set me the tasks, he'd forgot to tell me it was only task 1 :-) I got the job. It is the only time I was ever asked to write code I think, a great way of sorting out the time wasters.

[oliverson]

I had an interview were they logged me on to dev system and asked me to write some code. 4 tasks that got harder, I just about managed task 1 and my time was up. I was pretty flustered and this amused the person who set me the tasks, he'd forgot to tell me it was only task 1 :-) I got the job. It is the only time I was ever asked to write code I think, a great way of sorting out the time wasters.

I disagree. Some of the best developers I've ever worked with fail miserably in those kind of situations. It's not representative of the real world.

[SchumiStars]

When do we start giving up?

[coolhandluke]

Do you know what, I think there has been a definite increase in my area of app development and cloud solutions.

My old contracting life as a .Net Dev is long gone though and I can't see it every returning.

Though I really don't mind working as a perm or contractor as long as it's an interesting project.

[SchumiStars]

Do you know what, I think there has been a definite increase in my area of app development and cloud solutions.

My old contracting life as a .Net Dev is long gone though and I can't see it every returning.

Though I really don't mind working as a perm or contractor as long as it's an interesting project.

.Net is dead. Always had poor market share compared to Java. Although both markets have been dead for 2yrs now.

EPiServer CMS C# also dead ATM. Loads of companies using it and very specialized. Very difficult to learn without doing the courses or sponsor.

Node/Angular seems to be picking up but loads of candidates out there ATM.

Not seen any work for AI that I can do or want to do tbh. Not sure when this big AI boom will hit commercial applications and companies will be scrambling to find resources to help them but I am going to guess that it's not going to happen anytime soon, so I don't need to worry about it.

Which means one thing, more cycling and running

[GJABS]

Not seen any work for AI that I can do or want to do tbh. Not sure when this big AI boom will hit commercial applications and companies will be scrambling to find resources to help them but I am going to guess that it's not going to happen anytime soon, so I don't need to worry about it.

Could you try your hand at doing some machine learning perhaps? Download some historical stock prices and try doing some prediction with python and Keras - might keep you occupied if nothing else.

[herestherelad]

i only started contracting in 2018, ive never seen it this bad..... i cant find anything M365 related whatsoever, no migrations happening anywhere nada

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

[SchumiStars]

Could you try your hand at doing some machine learning perhaps? Download some historical stock prices and try doing some prediction with python and Keras - might keep you occupied if nothing else.

TBH, I'm not too interested in learning new stuff unless there is a business case. I'd much prefer to go to the gym.

[ResistanceFighter]

When do we start giving up?

The one thing that's keeping me going is that i'm pretty positive it's not me. If this forum was raging about about a boom in work, my other contractor friends were all in work, and other friends in other industries (and also in other countries) were all booming, and I wasn't, then there would be a problem.

What I don't understand is how much it's all just gone totally off a cliff. Forget inside/outside/perm, there is just nothing (or, there are a few things, but getting no responses which is not normal).

Usually in bad times in the past, there is a short quiet period depending on the time of year, but the work still needs doing so its available but just at a lower rate.

Have my skills suddenly become obsolete? it's possible, but I don't think so.

I've heard so many reasons as to why - AI, NI increases, etc - I'm leaning more into the post-covid rebalancing and the interest rates being way too high, which is in tern leading to cost cutting measures like outsourcing to India - but everybody will have had different experiences so can offer different insights.

And that all leads to my current day to day struggle - I just don't know what to do. Courses? Build something? Interview practice? Just chill and wait? Hit the gym like Schumi?

The longer it goes on, the longer the warchest and mental health dwindles

[dsc]

[...]Not seen any work for AI that I can do or want to do tbh. Not sure when this big AI boom will hit commercial applications and companies will be scrambling to find resources to help them but I am going to guess that it's not going to happen anytime soon, so I don't need to worry about it.[...]

I'd still say it's a rather niche area, yeah growing for sure, but rather specialised, very math heavy. Also, I'm fairly sure the end effect will be lay offs, rather than huge hiring sprees, so I'd prepare for worse times to come :/