State of the London IT Finance contract market

[sbakoola]

I'm having serious trouble getting back into the Financial contracts area in London. Having worked in contracts for Investment banks in the last 3.5 years, previously I've had no difficulties getting in.

Now they're asking for a ridiculous long list of skillsets in the C# and C++ area which no-one could possibly have.

I've had some absurd telephone interviews which go into the deepest reaches of theoretical programming e.g. structured exception handling at the O/S low level not say the C++ level and questions like "what is the underlying structures of the STL collections "under the hood" ? for example, they don't actually ask what the STL collections are and how they can be used and their performance implications e.g. say with big 'O' notation, things you need to know in order to be effectve at coding on a daily basis.

Worst still I'm not even getting to see the managers for the roles, I'm either sitting online tests or appearing at their offices and sitting written tests and again not even seeing the managers, now you may think that I'm not up to scratch on the tests. Not so. I've passed more difficult online tests before i.e. IKNet instead of Brainbench and I've sat and succeeded in written tests before with no problems. You sit the tests and then hear nothing.

I think they are just trawling, what do you think ?

The rates that banks are paying are more or less equal to what they were paying 8 years ago, I'm going to give it a few more months and then just quit this industry if this continues.

Honestly what games people are playing, I know the market took a dip but this is just screaming 'go do something else with your life'.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Honestly what games people are playing, I know the market took a dip but this is just screaming 'go do something else with your life'.

All the Bob's are expert in all these things. It's you, and everyone else in the UK is at fault.

[sbakoola]

So what you're saying HAB that its the banks:

a) Outsourcing work to foreign countries such as India.
b) Me not being cheaper or better enough than my Indian equivalents.
c) Its everyone's fault in the UK because the banks adopted this outsourcing strategy and no-one stopped them.

Oh well.

[moorfield]

I don't like technical interviews at the best of times, especially the ones that become an exercise in parroting back to the interviewer what you might have been lucky enough to memorise from a text book. Not useful at all IMO.

But it's a necessary evil, some you win, some you lose. It's a screening process and a numbers game. Keep plugging away and you'll get there.

[swamp]

But it's a necessary evil, some you win, some you lose. It's a screening process and a numbers game. Keep plugging away and you'll get there.

WHoSS ^^^

If you're sitting technical tests then you're not far from a proper interview and you're not far from getting a gig. Unless of course you're crap.

They have a test at the current Client Co for new contractors and it has been written to be very difficult. Why? Because they asked us (contractors) and we told them it should be really hard (because we are the best of the best... ) *





* Well, we're hardly going to tell the permie manager to make the test easy because then he'll know we're easy to replace!

[sbakoola]

My main point is that many IB's seem to be trawling, agencies have given me tales of submitting the CVs of other candidates and hearing nothing also.

I mean you can hope that something turns up and prepare like crazy but its baffles me how bad everything seems right now.

[Svalbaard]

Your ask the question as to whether they are trawling? I think the answer would most likely be yes, but then again it is a buyers market and they can afford to do this as there is a glut of onshore and offshore talent to pick from.

The real question you need to ask though, trawling or not, is what are you going to do about it to get a job? You imply from your post that you are "really good" at the programming language [and I have no doubt that you are] ... yet you still have no job? So perhaps it's not necessarily your programming skills that are letting you down.

In todays market, it's not just primary skill that gets you through the door - it is that, plus that whole that raft of intangibles and value-adds that follow alongside such as : personal presentation, clarity of speech, politeness; do you seem like someone who is going to fit into a team in X's organisation? Do you present yourself as the sort of person who is going to dig in and deliver when the tulip hits the fan etc...

Anyway, best of luck to you and hope something comes your way soon.

[AnthonyQuinn]

Bizarre

Just had me mate turn contractor for the first time. Snapped up a 550 pd rate straightaway. and is holding out for more. Insurance area. The market must be white hot.

[Scary]

Just had me mate turn contractor for the first time. Snapped up a 550 pd rate straightaway. and is holding out for more. Insurance area. The market must be white hot.

That's good to hear, what skills?

[oliverson]

I chanced upon this thread having today received two rejections from final stage interviews. To say I'm disillusioned (again - this happened 6 months ago) would be an almighty understatement.

Todays rejections:

1. Absolutley blazed the final stage interview. My performance was spot on. No proper feedback yet but I do know this company has to exhaust all 'external avenues' (read foreigners coming here knicking the contracts for peanuts) so I'm drawing my own conclusions there. A bit like 8 months ago when I had 4 rounds of interviews with the same lot and same result.
2. Struggled in one area of the final stage interview. The 'heres a piece of paper and a pen. write the code body to return an endless stream of numbers from the Fibonacci series while the three of us here stare at you across the table looking at our watches'. I never perform well under this kind of pressure and I didn't here. It's funny how one area of testing surpasses all the rest of the tests where you did succeed. How much weight it carries compare to every other one that got you to that stage isn't it?

So, last time around I was trying to break into the Microsoft WPF contracts though I had limited commercial experience. This time around I have a load of experience and haven't struggled for interviews but the interview stages are compeltely ridiculous. On that subject another final stager I had involved being thrust a piece of paper with some requirements on them and a guy sat over my shoulder while I fumbled around on the keyboard for an hour trying to deliver what was expected. Feedback - looking for somebody more 'hard core TDD'. For a UI role? Come on.

So, I share the original posters view and despair but I'm not going to give it the timelines he refers to. I finish down here in the City in one weeks time and I'm f***ing off to do something else with my life. OK the money won't be there but neither will this c**p.