State of the Market

[oliverson]

I've never had more than a couple of months bench time. I find it interesting that people don't seem to do much network building in order to use that to source work. I also have repeat clients who I'll do a stint with, leave and go back to a couple of years later. I have friends at one major client who tell me what's going on and, if I'm coming available, I'll drop certain people a 'remember me?' email to see if there's anything I can help with.

During Covid, I moved from working at a major airport to a pharmaceutical adjacent client the week of the first lockdowns and remained in work throughout. Luck? Maybe, but I had lined up the move in the 4-6 weeks before it all kicked off, not knowing what was around the corner. Both gigs came via my network.

I am no genius and I'm not even sure I pass muster as competent some days. We all know I've spent two decades working on a one-line macro. So if I can still be trading after 20 years, why can't you?

I have a pretty expansive network but this time around it has yielded nothing (yet). i also have, or should I say 'had', repeat customers but they both buckled under IR35 reforms and they chose not to engage PSC's. Real shame as one of them was only 5 miles from my UK home. It was quicker to drive home for lunch than queue at the single sandwich shop downstairs! :-(

[Smartie]

Ethnicity is a ancestry/race/culture not where you are born, a dog can be born in a stable but it is still a dog not a horse.

As the human race began in Africa and spread from there, at what point does the dog become a horse?

[Smartie]

The place I work at the tech / dev is around 80% provided by Indians - both on shore and off shore.

My experience in the past 10 years in banking/insurance/trading has been that 80% of the devs and QAs have been Indian (heritage).
There has also been a fair bit of use of East European consultancies and mostly, they've all been very good.
My current client has definitely offshored a lot more dev work to a consultancy using Ukrainians across Europe and that is a lot cheaper than UK resource.
BAs, PMs etc. tend to be less like that.

Some of it is certainly immigration, but I remember on my IT degree course in London in the 90s, 80% or more were Indian or other non-white UK students. More women than you might expect too, probably because a professional job confers status, which helps in less equal societies.

[ShandyDrinker]

New Visas are not part of the discussions, according to Starmer

Starmer might have said it, but what does that actually mean? He's lied about plenty of other things already.

Given that my local MP is also a member of the cabinet and effectively said to me point blank in a meeting that it doesn't matter what people like me think, we need to level of immigration to make us all better off and to potentially have the babies that the Brits aren't having.

That, plus both Reeves and Starmer inviting people to come to the UK impacted by the recent US announcements to tighten H-1B hiring, means I don't trust a word they say.

Until Labour goes, nothing will change.

[simes]

Starting year3 on the bench. Might find a new hobby.

Yup, me too.

As to the alternatives and the attempts. Have applied for permie, contractor as Inside or Outside. Nada.

Have done some film extra work, temporary work in a warehouse, and I am now a published author. This last probably being my 'new hobby'; to be sure there is no money in it.

[dx4100]

Until Labour goes, nothing will change.

We had 14 years of decline and mismanagement under the Tories and Kemi Badenoch is clearly not a solution to anything.

[malvolio]

We had 14 years of decline and mismanagement under the Tories and Kemi Badenoch is clearly not a solution to anything.

So what are the realistic alternatives? Ed Davey falling off a log? Nigel Fantasy Farage?

People keep picking parties on the basis if the leader's appeal. Perhaps we should look at the actual policies...

[sadkingbilly]

So what are the realistic alternatives? Ed Davey falling off a log? Nigel Fantasy Farage?

People keep picking parties on the basis if the leader's appeal. Perhaps we should look at the actual policies...

and where would we find those?
All the UK parties do is attack the competition, without ever laying out any detail on their own so-called 'policies'

[jamesbrown]

and where would we find those?
All the UK parties do is attack the competition, without ever laying out any detail on their own so-called 'policies'

The chances of current Tory opposition policy making it into law (or even making it to the next election) are pretty remote, even if the Tories win the next election (the chances of which are pretty remote). You can safely ignore their policy agenda.

[malvolio]

and where would we find those?
All the UK parties do is attack the competition, without ever laying out any detail on their own so-called 'policies'

And when they do lay out the detail, your reaction is to say you don't like their leader - or in this case, their last two leaders.

Starmer is the classic example of the modern politician. Lie to get elected as leader, lie to get elected (their manifesto was every bit as realistic as Corbyn's) and lie to support their usually untenable position on a whole host of issues. And people complain about Boris...