Demand for IT contractors rocketing? You're joking.

[lawnmower]

I was surprised to see the article 'Demand for IT contractors rocketed in March to 32-month high' on the front page of the site.
That's certainly not been my experience. The market is pretty much dead - I've not had a contract for 2 years now. Much worse than anything I've seen in 20 years (or even longer). Last year there were actually contracts you could apply for (maybe on average 1 a day) - this year you're lucky to see one a week.
Even if you apply - its very rare you get a call back and even rarer an interview.

It does of course depend on what you do. I am mainly Manual testing and UAT, but I have very good experience particularly in Financial Services and good all round IT skills.

[PerfectStorm]

Seeing the market the best it's been in my career currently.

[northernladuk]

I was surprised to see the article 'Demand for IT contractors rocketed in March to 32-month high' on the front page of the site.
That's certainly not been my experience. The market is pretty much dead - I've not had a contract for 2 years now. Much worse than anything I've seen in 20 years (or even longer). Last year there were actually contracts you could apply for (maybe on average 1 a day) - this year you're lucky to see one a week.
Even if you apply - its very rare you get a call back and even rarer an interview.

It does of course depend on what you do. I am mainly Manual testing and UAT, but I have very good experience particularly in Financial Services and good all round IT skills.

I thought there had been a couple of posts on this stating that market is dead what with automation nowadays?

What I think the article is alluding to is that contracting has become the standard way of getting people in rather than specialist requirements. The market is much bigger than it was 5 years ago on a count of contractor heads for sure so demand has rocketed. Problem is the number of people jumping in to contracting outstrips even the increased demand to the market is flat.

[BigDataPro]

Manual Testing (even with Domain knowledge) is dead. Now a days BA's are doing it in addition to what they normally do.

[Paralytic]

Manual Testing (even with Domain knowledge) is dead. Now a days BA's are doing it in addition to what they normally do.

In my experience, it has largely been moved offshore, and often to managed service companies that can flex resourcing availability to match the peaks and troughs of project work.

[clearedforlanding]

I was surprised to see the article 'Demand for IT contractors rocketed in March to 32-month high' on the front page of the site.
That's certainly not been my experience. The market is pretty much dead - I've not had a contract for 2 years now. Much worse than anything I've seen in 20 years (or even longer). Last year there were actually contracts you could apply for (maybe on average 1 a day) - this year you're lucky to see one a week.
Even if you apply - its very rare you get a call back and even rarer an interview.

It does of course depend on what you do. I am mainly Manual testing and UAT, but I have very good experience particularly in Financial Services and good all round IT skills.

I am a pretty experienced cyber bod. Lot's of tulipty 3-500GBP stuff advertised. Agency calls are coming in on a daily basis 1.2-2k. Still low for the skill set but one hell of an improvement.

Might pick up one as a second gig. When one drills down to what the gigs are actually doing, 90% of it is Remote Access, VPN and patching stuff; so as easy as cyber can get.

[Fraidycat]

The problem is that contracting doesn't really allow you to change what you do - I wouldn't mind maybe doing some BA or even PMO, but unless you've done a lot of that you don't stand a chance of switching.

If your skills are out of date and you cant find contracts. Then you go perm for 3 months, or a year, or however long is needed, pickup some new in demand skills and then get back contracting again.
And you can price yourself attractively so companies look past the fact you were a contractor, as you are more interested in the skills than the perm salary.
Actually the lower the perm salary the more motivation you will have to quit and get back to contracting again.

[SussexSeagull]

Speaking as a mainly manual tester it has most definitely improved from the admittedly very low bar of earlier in the year. Just a case of talking to enough people and eventually you land something.

[GitMaster69]

I am a pretty experienced cyber bod. Lot's of tulipty 3-500GBP stuff advertised. Agency calls are coming in on a daily basis 1.2-2k. Still low for the skill set but one hell of an improvement.

Might pick up one as a second gig. When one drills down to what the gigs are actually doing, 90% of it is Remote Access, VPN and patching stuff; so as easy as cyber can get.

You’re getting daily calls for 1.2-2k a day? Wtf ? I’m unaware of single industry that pays this much . What is your speciality ?

[jamesbrown]

You’re getting daily calls for 1.2-2k a day? Wtf ? I’m unaware of single industry that pays this much . What is your speciality ?

Many sectors pays that much for the right talent in the right specialism. Obviously, you’re not going to get that as an average IT person, but those numbers are pretty routine for actuaries, interims and some medical and engineering roles.