Time on the bench

[rocktronAMP]

Well I guess unable to find work. I've seen lots of people saying that they've been unable to find work for months on end.

I don't think I have any particularly niche skills, but I've never been in that situation.

I am based in west London though, so I have the M3/M4 corridor on my doorstep and and work in town too.

I live in South London. I don't have so-called the M3/M4 corridor on my doorstep. I have been on the bench for one month now. The average bench time for me in the financial services 2002 - 2008 was 3 months. I think this is really because I restricted myself to banking IT and nothing else.

I do hope this bench time will be different since I have opened my CV up to sectors outside of banking e.g. web, insurance, retail etc - I still prefer to work in central London though.

[rocktronAMP]

I think its flawed because clearly where you live can determine how frequently you are \ arent benched.

Like I said, in London, you'd have to be a real numpty to be benched. Further away, there's more chance.

As for taking a contract anywhere, yes, some would. You could equally argue some would take any rate ie sub 150 a day or less to stay off the bench.

Again, it illustrates the narrow definition of your question.

Doesn't it balance out for populations? Putting aside the companies / clients that go for scams, outlier, go cheap on hiring for quality and sometimes just don't know what they are doing, in the big cities in London, there are more opportunities but also lots of competition for those opportunities.

There are other qualifiers that I would consider that are more relevant: ageism, prejudice to culture or colour of skin and gender, etc. These are outliers worthy of investigation.

[BlasterBates]

This is the problem in London.

U.K. Banks Cut 189,000 Heads - More Jobs May Go

This of course this is also happening in Frankfurt in Zurich and everyone is in the same job market. I´ve just heard that Credit Suisse want to reduce its IT budget by 30%.

[MyUserName]

I have never been on the bench for a day but then again I have not even reached my second year anniversary of contracting yet!

I got my first and then declined an extension to take a gig closer to home who have renewed several times.

I got contacted yesterday about a perm job in London on 100k + bens and bonus so this might be my last contract for a while!!!!

[Scrag Meister]

2 bench periods in 6 years.

3 month before finding my first contract, is that really being benched?, at the beginning of 2007 and 2 months early 2011 between contracts.

Not bad really.

[flipFlop]

2 bench periods in 6 years.

3 month before finding my first contract, is that really being benched?, at the beginning of 2007 and 2 months early 2011 between contracts.

Not bad really.

That's five months in four years - 01-2007 - 01-2011 - according to your vague recount.

[cojak]

6 months in the winter of 2009, when there were no contracts in my area at all. Nothing. Not even fake ones.

That got a bit uncomfortable towards the end, I should have chilled out more as I wasn't worried about the money.

Lesson learned for next time - I'll spend more time in the garden if and when it happens again.

[norrahe]

8 months in 2008/09 finish a contract mid 2008 and went travelling, had summat sorted out to start in September when I came back, then the credit crunch hit and the the manager who had sorted the gig for me got made redundant, so no gig and consequently nowt after that. After a few months of no calls even from the regular pimps, I ended up volunteerring pretty much full time with the charity I volunteered with occasionally.

I've had consistent periods of bench time every year and have tried to make the most of it.

[Mephisto]

6 months in the winter of 2009, when there were no contracts in my area at all. Nothing. Not even fake ones.

That got a bit uncomfortable towards the end, I should have chilled out more as I wasn't worried about the money.

Lesson learned for next time - I'll spend more time in the garden if and when it happens again.

What if it happens in winter again??

Over the past 18 months I've had a handful of stop/start contracts for one reason or another resulting in two months average bench time in between. Not ideal.

North West has become so Contractor averse it's untrue

[BolshieBastard]

What if it happens in winter again??

Over the past 18 months I've had a handful of stop/start contracts for one reason or another resulting in two months average bench time in between. Not ideal.

North West has become so Contractor averse it's untrue

Tell me about it!

Im looking from the north east to the west mids but some of the rates being offered now mean they doesnt stack up.

Got another telephone interview this evening so, fingers crossed again.

Had a call about a role in lids today. Agent say 300+ cv's received and client wont consider anyone from outside a 50 mile radius.