State of the current London IT Contract Market?

[Mister Clark]

My agent tells me a BAML cut is happening imminently. It's just heresay of course, but he's been correct on the others. The list as far as I am aware that have cut a min. of 10% so far is BarCap, BNPP, RBS, Nomura, Citi, UBS, LLoyds, CS, JPM, HSBC, Credit Ag. Not heard anything about DB. But as you say, if you join an IB that hasn't cut yet you run the risk of a cut on arrival. It's all very depressing!!

I was told DB have an enforced 3 week 'break' over xmas. Not as bad as 10% cut but....

BoA sounds like a nice place to work from what I hear, DB on the other hand doesn’t sound quite as appealing.

Still, no point counting chickens and all that, not even interviewed yet.

[TheFaQQer]

My perm job could be under threat of redundancy.

If you are likely to get a pay off, then you may be best off being prepared to go contracting but wait for the cash.

So it might be an idea to get another perm job just for a year or until the contract market really recovers.

What on Earth makes you think that next year will be any better than this?

[craig1]

I was offered a 12 month direct role today at a company I've worked at before. They have always had strict, non-negotiable pre-authorised rates for certain senior roles, including PM, this has never been a problem because their rates are usually good. This time though they offered £150p/d less citing "market forces". No agency involved so there's no double dealing there.

I politely declined and was told quite bluntly that there were plenty of people out there who would take that rate.

[Lewis]

BoA sounds like a nice place to work from what I hear, DB on the other hand doesn’t sound quite as appealing.

I found BAML, Canary Wharf (I assume by BoA you mean Bank of America Merrill Lynch) to be the worst place I've ever worked in in the last decade! But it all depends upon the team.

[nomadd]

I found BAML, Canary Wharf (I assume by BoA you mean Bank of America Merrill Lynch) to be the worst place I've ever worked in in the last decade! But it all depends upon the team.

Then you've never worked at BNP Paribas...

[RayCuts]

Nah, I was at ML in St Pauls for 2.5 years and now I'm at BNPP. ML was by far the worse place I've ever worked. It was a viper pit.

[Mister Clark]

I found BAML, Canary Wharf (I assume by BoA you mean Bank of America Merrill Lynch) to be the worst place I've ever worked in in the last decade! But it all depends upon the team.

Indeed.
Thanks for filling me with joy
What was so bad about it?

[Lewis]

Indeed.
Thanks for filling me with joy
What was so bad about it?

Obsession with bum on seat time ... "I'm in at 7am and here till 8pm, I'm taking this project seriously, why aren't you?".

I took a long lunch once (1.5hrs) as I got delayed in a shop and was immediately told off on my return for "talking long lunch breaks".

Told not to make personal phone calls during the day (which I virtually never did) ... I could literally go on for hours with rediculous stuff like this.

Then they acted all surprised when I left and asked if there was anything they could do to make me stay!

[ddaft]

I found ML ok at St Pauls in terms of hours but this is very dependent on the team/project. Now they have moved the majority of IT over to the old BOA building in the wharf but left the trading floors over at St Pauls I heard that a lot of developers don't see users anymore and morale is low. Some people may find lack of user interaction a bonus mind you!

I am really surprised BAML haven't cut rates yet. In 2008 they cut by 15% when most banks were cutting by 10.

I know a few relatively happy DB contractors. They seem to pay above market from what I've seen.

Generally though the market is terrible. The merry go round may start up again for a few months in feb/march though when the perms all get zero bonuses.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Im in a permanent position , considering leaving and going back into contracting.

How are you finding the state of the current IT contract market especially SQL Server?

I've been looking at the job boards and it looks quiet.

Hopefully its the time of year running up to xmas..and theres hope for the New Year?

I have been contracting in that area + Business Intelligence for nearly 2 years now and the market is not very good now to be honest. It was absolutely great between March and August but has got progressively worse in line with the economy. So if you like to live life on the edge perhaps a good time to go contracting.