Has anyone pin pointed why the contract has gone tits up - been a while

[courtg9000]

If we want to pin point why the market is bad.
I was at a talk earlier today.
The presenter was telling us all in more general terms (This talk was for wider professional services market) that the bubble has been burst from the top.
The big 4 worldwide have had their wings heavily clipped by their clients because of their behaviour and that this was starting pre-covid. Certain consultancies names are now absolute mud because of this. They cannot get the new clients and the existing clients are unwilling to spend with them unless they have to.
Serious reputational damage has been done by a number of the top guns to the market.
Reductions in headcount and recruitment freezes have been massive in the sector at all levels in PS because of this. He mentioned bonus reductions too.
However the presenter then said that this has filtered down to departments at clients being told to slash costs on external PS resources at every level so from big 4 to one man bands. A preference to using internal resources backed by products was also mentioned.
A question was asked about IT contractors. Presenter said it was the same thing. "Unless its a 'cheap' resource" or a trusted resource - you have good history with the client.
The other problem as he saw it was that groups of staff being made redundant from big 4 setting up in "competition" are not helping the market.
Presenter went on about creating "value" in the market place. Most of this was recycled stuff and not much value available. I have heard presenters knocking out the same recycled tripe every year on this since 1997. (websites, giveaways, talks, freebies) Not much use if you want bum on seat work at banks, councils, government depts etc and only really worth considering if you have or want multiple direct concurrent clients in which case the likes of banks are probably not your market.

[oliverson]

Thanks.

You’re right - our mortgage jumped by £820 and overall other regular costs have gone up totalling about £1500 more than what we used to pay pre-pandemic.

So not only I am being denied the right to work (even as an employee!) but through no fault of my own I am being ripped off £18,000 per annum. That basically eats my partners entire salary.

I really don’t know how this will end. Have two kids, a dog and a cat, and pretty much they all depend financially on me. I’ve made all the right choices, played it safe as much as I could and now I’m facing bankruptcy. Not to mention that I spent the best years of my life working, telling myself that I will reap the rewards once I retire early. Have missed my kids firsts because I was stuck at work firefighting somebody else’s problems. And now I’m thrown out like a piece of trash that nobody needs anymore.

I can see two big mistakes here that are contributing heavily to your dilemma:

1. Your skillset (mentioned in your earlier post). There are just too many JavaScript developers. Almost all the code camps feature this language. There's an army of 'developers' coming through year after year with this skillset, all of them younger than you are and without the financial burden that you have. Many will be still living at home with their parent(s). To them, £ 200 a day is big money. A GRAND A WEEK, they'll be telling their mates down the pub (if they can afford a pint these days that is).
2. Financial ignorance. Maybe it's because I remember mortgage rates being similar or way higher than they currently are, back in the 90's ours went up to 17% or something. Yes, I'm aware that property prices back then weren't the same, and neither were salaries, but did people really think interest rates would remain close to zero forever? Did they not consider affordability when they did eventually return to historical averages? Most of the mortgage calculators on the web have warnings about 'if the rate were to rise to........, this is what the monthly repayment would be. But so much for responsible lending on the part of the banks, in the wake of the financial crisis.

But at least you did have some kind of warchest, though these days, bench time can be measure in years, or part of. My last spell was 17 months. Nobody has a 17 month war chest!

I've posted elsewhere I think on the clobberings I've taken over my career (dotcom crash - 12 months outage, financial crash - several short periods on the bench, but catastrophic, and the latest covid + ir35 reform + brexit). You do learn from these and become more resilient, but recovery depends on the market strengthening. It's looking very bleak out there now and has been for quite a while. I'm not sure it will ever truly recover as I read more posts like this one.

[JustKeepSwimming]

The presenter was telling us all in more general terms (This talk was for wider professional services market) that the bubble has been burst from the top.
The big 4 worldwide have had their wings heavily clipped by their clients because of their behaviour and that this was starting pre-covid. Certain consultancies names are now absolute mud because of this. They cannot get the new clients and the existing clients are unwilling to spend with them unless they have to.
Serious reputational damage has been done by a number of the top guns to the market.

What has changed? CEO and big4 partners have always been revolving door sort of thing. They have always been a rip off.

EY seems to be delaying a lot of their new grad places, confirmed places for Sep 2023 were pushed to Jan 2024 and now pushed again to Sep 2024.

[courtg9000]

What has changed? CEO and big4 partners have always been revolving door sort of thing. They have always been a rip off.

EY seems to be delaying a lot of their new grad places, confirmed places for Sep 2023 were pushed to Jan 2024 and now pushed again to Sep 2024.

A lot of "naughties" are coming out of the woodwork and having been coming out of said wood work over the past 12 months. "Naughties" involving the big4 have always been around just not at this "highish" level.
Clients are not happy. I knew this bit I just haven't been realising how unhappy they actually are. To be fair large client (HSBC, JLR, NHS, Sony BT, etc) are not exactly my space any more.
All big 4 and lots of those below have made cuts already. Not just new grad.

[avonleigh]

If we want to pin point why the market is bad.
I was at a talk earlier today.
The presenter was telling us all in more general terms (This talk was for wider professional services market) that the bubble has been burst from the top.
The big 4 worldwide have had their wings heavily clipped by their clients because of their behaviour and that this was starting pre-covid. Certain consultancies names are now absolute mud because of this. They cannot get the new clients and the existing clients are unwilling to spend with them unless they have to.
Serious reputational damage has been done by a number of the top guns to the market.
Reductions in headcount and recruitment freezes have been massive in the sector at all levels in PS because of this. He mentioned bonus reductions too.
However the presenter then said that this has filtered down to departments at clients being told to slash costs on external PS resources at every level so from big 4 to one man bands. A preference to using internal resources backed by products was also mentioned.
A question was asked about IT contractors. Presenter said it was the same thing. "Unless its a 'cheap' resource" or a trusted resource - you have good history with the client.
The other problem as he saw it was that groups of staff being made redundant from big 4 setting up in "competition" are not helping the market.
Presenter went on about creating "value" in the market place. Most of this was recycled stuff and not much value available. I have heard presenters knocking out the same recycled tripe every year on this since 1997. (websites, giveaways, talks, freebies) Not much use if you want bum on seat work at banks, councils, government depts etc and only really worth considering if you have or want multiple direct concurrent clients in which case the likes of banks are probably not your market.

Can't say I buy this at all. Consultancies have always made huge errors, particularly in the public sector. Don't see why it would be an issue now.

[hildaoblivion]

A lot of "naughties" are coming out of the woodwork and having been coming out of said wood work over the past 12 months. "Naughties" involving the big4 have always been around just not at this "highish" level.
Clients are not happy. I knew this bit I just haven't been realising how unhappy they actually are. To be fair large client (HSBC, JLR, NHS, Sony BT, etc) are not exactly my space any more.
All big 4 and lots of those below have made cuts already. Not just new grad.

Is this mainly in the Audit and other non tech consulting space (tax and financial consultating)?

I know there have been a number of audit disasters and the assurance depts are getting cut heavily.

But it sounds like you're saying it's across all areas. If SAP clients begin moving to S4 and want to avoid BigCorp that could be good for freelancers.
But if clients decide to delay the move then....not so much.

Useful insight though - thanks for posting

[courtg9000]

Can't say I buy this at all. Consultancies have always made huge errors, particularly in the public sector. Don't see why it would be an issue now.

Its the high number of errors and where some of errors have been made. Its also the value of the "huge errors".
Basically the clients are unhappy and they pay the bills.
Its not a good look for PS.
My own view taking more time to think is that this has been brewing for a number of years. Time is catching up.
I'm fairly happy taking the view ( as much as I don't like the fact that its happening) that this damage to the sector is in progress, its not finished yet and it is filtering down.

[courtg9000]

Is this mainly in the Audit and other non tech consulting space (tax and financial consultating)?

I know there have been a number of audit disasters and the assurance depts are getting cut heavily.

But it sounds like you're saying it's across all areas. If SAP clients begin moving to S4 and want to avoid BigCorp that could be good for freelancers.
But if clients decide to delay the move then....not so much.

Useful insight though - thanks for posting

This is across the lot, legal, tax, financials, tech, strategy, you name it....

[JustKeepSwimming]

There is widespread cost cutting. Consultancies are absurdly expensive so it's natural for them to be the first one's on the cutting block. I've never worked on a project with Big4 input and not had the director gasp when they see the costs.

The headcount for the Big4 has ballooned over the last few years. Most have doubled since 2010, I just can't see where the work is.

[Martin@AS Financial]

Sorry to hear that you are having a terrible time.

If you are struggling with your mortgage, the first thing to do is speak to your lender. Options to consider would be to see if you can extend your term, a payment holiday, go interest only or maybe even part interest and part repayment.

Fingers crossed everything falls back into place soon