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

[SussexSeagull]

Been there a few times.

1. Dotcom crash - made redundant from my last permie role and out for 12 months - forced me to set up my Ltd company
2. Financial crash - several spells on the bench was enough to see everything come crashing down. I'd overcommitted (car leases, flash houses, holiday homes, etc), thinking things could only ever get better. Booted out of the leased home, both cars repo'd, ruined credit file, less than 48 hours from the Spanish bank taking proceedings to repo the holiday home, loads of tax owed to HMRC. This was a VERY traumatic period of my life so I know what you're going through.
3. Fake-pandemic, IR35-looming and Brexit - I was prepared for this one, having learned lessons from 2. above. Back in the family home in the North, no South-East rental, no car leases, living within our means. Credit file had been repaired, or more specifically, the defaults no longer showed so we were able to borrow our way through it, all SEVENTEEN MONTHS of it. Sure the Ltd is repaying its BBL and we've accumulated some personal debts along the road, but dare I say it, times have never been better, business-wise. However, if/when current gig ends, I think that will be it for me as a contract dev in his upper 50's.

You mentioned having recently moved to a bigger house. Can you not 'move back' to a smaller one? If you can't sell, consider letting out as there's big demand for larger properties. Temporarily let yourself a smaller one.

The market will improve over time, even this one, you have to believe that, and as contractors,
when we are back in contract, the money soon starts pouring in.

Good luck.

Other than it being an actual pandemic, you have pointed out that we have had a lot of once in a generation events happen over the last 15 years.

[swamp]

Is the market particularly bad for software testers?

I ask because in my last two gigs the client has refused to hire testers. We just have to manage without them. And I'm wondering if this is a trend that other people have seen?

[northernladuk]

Is the market particularly bad for software testers?

I ask because in my last two gigs the client has refused to hire testers. We just have to manage without them. And I'm wondering if this is a trend that other people have seen?

I seem to remember testers having a proper complain about the market a few times over quite a period now, even to the point someone said testing market is dead. Automated testing had something to do with it and the obvious offshore elements but can't remember exactly what the issue was in any of the threads.

[SussexSeagull]

I seem to remember testers having a proper complain about the market a few times over quite a period now, even to the point someone said testing market is dead. Automated testing had something to do with it and the obvious offshore elements but can't remember exactly what the issue was in any of the threads.

I have been testing since the mid 90s and practically for all of that time there have been moves to reduce software development to purely being an exercise between Developers and the business in an attempt to save money. Problem is it doesn't work and most eventually have to change there mind.

Automation is important but you need someone to test the software initially and write the test scripts that automated scripts are based on. That can all be one person but Automated Testers are usually more expensive than manual ones so you are somewhat wasting money doing that.

With Agile, BAs look somewhat shaky but in my experience they are actually quite useful in the process.

All of this said, I am not sure trends in software development are the main problem facing testing contractors at the moment. There just isn't the projects being started.

[escapeUK]

There just isn't the projects being started.

That's because we spent all our money as a society on the pandemic you believe in. Then our foolish government decided to rise corp tax by 31% to pay for it, and we all know what happened to interest rates which many businesses had gotten used to low ones.

So there is NO money for new projects.

[northernladuk]

I have been testing since the mid 90s and practically for all of that time there have been moves to reduce software development to purely being an exercise between Developers and the business in an attempt to save money. Problem is it doesn't work and most eventually have to change there mind.

Automation is important but you need someone to test the software initially and write the test scripts that automated scripts are based on. That can all be one person but Automated Testers are usually more expensive than manual ones so you are somewhat wasting money doing that.

With Agile, BAs look somewhat shaky but in my experience they are actually quite useful in the process.

All of this said, I am not sure trends in software development are the main problem facing testing contractors at the moment. There just isn't the projects being started.

Useful feedback. Here is one of the threads I mean. It's a very old one and it went south quick but we seem to have had more than a few of these and testing seems to be the usual topic.

https://forums.contractoruk.com/busi...ng-market.html

[northernladuk]

That's because we spent all our money as a society on the pandemic you believe in. Then our foolish government decided to rise corp tax by 31% to pay for it, and we all know what happened to interest rates which many businesses had gotten used to low ones.

So there is NO money for new projects.

And you say I am the negative one

[SussexSeagull]

That's because we spent all our money as a society on the pandemic you believe in. Then our foolish government decided to rise corp tax by 31% to pay for it, and we all know what happened to interest rates which many businesses had gotten used to low ones.

So there is NO money for new projects.

That would be the pandemic the World Health Organisation believed in.

[SussexSeagull]

Useful feedback. Here is one of the threads I mean. It's a very old one and it went south quick but we seem to have had more than a few of these and testing seems to be the usual topic.

https://forums.contractoruk.com/busi...ng-market.html

A fairly interesting time capsule from 2009! I guess as I am still (just about) going in 2023 it is fair to say the demise was exaggerated back then.

I think since then Automation is finally beginning to be more widely used, possibly on the back of platforms such as Selenium being open sourced but even then you need someone to manually test first and we aren't quite at the stage where Automated Testers are so widely available they can multi task and do Manual Testing as well. There has always been snobbery in the industry that developers are inherently more valuable than testers but it that was the case I would never find problems and wouldn't have been doing it for so long!

[cojak]

Right - I'm rather ticked about this. Wobblyheed has made an incredibly serious thread and it's been polluted by stupid and off-topic posts.

I am now going to clean it up and if I see ANY posts taking it off-topic I will be banning those who try it - I haven't yet decided for how long but it's going to smart.

I'm sorry about this Wobblyheed

This isn't General - Do better people.