State of the Market

[ladymuck]

Job specs are either written to replace someone with veeeeery specific skills (like you say either retiree or someone who simply left to a different position) or they are written with a specific person in mind ie. for internal hires (but the job needs to be announced officially to tick boxes).

It could well be written to exclude certain internal people from applying and to prove that the skills don't exist in house but, when it does go external, they don't properly brief the agency because that's handled by HR and not the hiring manager. Maybe

[willendure]

I'm wondering if they do get the EXACT person they are looking for, because how they describe the skills is a unicorn developer, which doesn't exist.

I don't think they do get the exact person described. They get 100s of CVs that have been tailored to the role, and only those that mention all the exact things requested get through automated screening. They interview those and pick who they think is best.

Assuming this is true, the logical approach is to make sure your CV is a 100% match - possibly using some AI software to help with the matching. That way your CV stands a chance at least to get through screening.

By this point you have told a few porkies... so you mug up on what you don't know and then do the interview where you try to be as honest as you can without shooting yourself in the foot. With luck, the job is yours.

[willendure]

My stats show that the overall job number (all skills, all trades) is actually rising, however key IT skills are conversely decreasing. I'm assuming companies are slowing their investment generally and all the factors are mentioned over and over again (Brexit/COL/NIC contribs/AI) are all affecting what companies do.

Interesting - what stats are you looking at?

Don't forget money overall - we had quantative tightening to fight inflation, so all the easy money is gone. A lot of big business is essentially bankrupt right now but continuing in a zombie state. Its 2025 and last big debt rollover was done in 2020 when interest rates were zero on 5 year terms typically. That means it is now time to hit the debt maturity wall, for both corporations and governments, soaking up any spare capital for the purposes of survival alone. In my view this is the biggest factor behind our slowing economy.

[TheScheduler]

Interesting - what stats are you looking at?

Don't forget money overall - we had quantative tightening to fight inflation, so all the easy money is gone. A lot of big business is essentially bankrupt right now but continuing in a zombie state. Its 2025 and last big debt rollover was done in 2020 when interest rates were zero on 5 year terms typically. That means it is now time to hit the debt maturity wall, for both corporations and governments, soaking up any spare capital for the purposes of survival alone. In my view this is the biggest factor behind our slowing economy.

They are my own stats taken from job sites over a long period of time (Jobserve/Indeed and the like). It's a measure like everything else but key IT skills are on the slop (worse than Covid) right now - it's been a noticeable downward decline since the middle of last year.

[willendure]

They are my own stats taken from job sites over a long period of time (Jobserve/Indeed and the like). It's a measure like everything else but key IT skills are on the slop (worse than Covid) right now - it's been a noticeable downward decline since the middle of last year.

What do you consider to be the key IT skills?

[dsc]

It could well be written to exclude certain internal people from applying and to prove that the skills don't exist in house but, when it does go external, they don't properly brief the agency because that's handled by HR and not the hiring manager. Maybe

Indeed, I've seen this happen on the current contract I'm on, the job spec had some very specific lingo / skills which made absolutely no sense from outside the project, but were clearly written internally and then simply passed on to the agencies to go and fetch (they of course had no idea about anything...).

[Protagoras]

What do you consider to be the key IT skills?

Ability to convince others that one is excellent at 'whatever', irrespective of actual evidence

[PerfectStorm]

Infrastructure BA, £280/day Inside IR35

http://www.jobserve.com/diI4J

[Protagoras]

Infrastructure BA, £280/day Inside IR35

http://www.jobserve.com/diI4J

Clearly the skills sought are mere commodities.

This rate would be about £49k permie, but the latter would usually come with a range of benefits. I expect this 'opportunity' is tempting only to those unable to secure a permie position.

[SchumiStars]

Clearly the skills sought are mere commodities.

This rate would be about £49k permie, but the latter would usually come with a range of benefits. I expect this 'opportunity' is tempting only to those unable to secure a permie position.

With us all getting older, securing a permi position is not as simple as it sounds. In this market, it might be prudent to land the first one that is available.