What's wrong with the market ?

[SandyD]

Out of curiosity I also checked out the market, tried to apply for some roles, and think its stagnant (well in IB anyway) hardly any calls. Unless people moved on from Jobserve now and started using other method of recruitment. I find looking for jobs at LinkedIn is a total pain, it doesn't have contractor filter (unless I didn't see it)
I do get contacted by recruiters through LinkedIn, but they always contact me at the wrong time !!

[MyUserName]

The market is not that bad, I am not particularly stellar but I am casually looking and have had 3 enquiries about contracts. One in Bristol on 300pd and one in London on 400pd. I laughed at both of them (I was not trying to be rude, I just could not help it). There is another one which has not 'been clarified yet', however my gut instinct tells me there is a role or the agent is a thorough and very good liar. Along with a couple of harvesting calls and general time wasters.

I have been contacted about 2 perm jobs (as that is what I have mainly applied for) - one in London and one near Southampton. I am keeping the salary negotiations at the 75k mark and no one has hung up on me yet.

Perhaps your cv could do with work? I would assume that there are fewer manager contracts than developer ones too.

[SandyD]

The market is not that bad, I am not particularly stellar but I am casually looking and have had 3 enquiries about contracts. One in Bristol on 300pd and one in London on 400pd. I laughed at both of them (I was not trying to be rude, I just could not help it). There is another one which has not 'been clarified yet', however my gut instinct tells me there is a role or the agent is a thorough and very good liar. Along with a couple of harvesting calls and general time wasters.

I have been contacted about 2 perm jobs (as that is what I have mainly applied for) - one in London and one near Southampton. I am keeping the salary negotiations at the 75k mark and no one has hung up on me yet.

Perhaps your cv could do with work? I would assume that there are fewer manager contracts than developer ones too.

Yes I am finding exactly what you said above, but to me what you write above means the market is very bad, only 3 enquirers and rates of £300 to £400 for London IB means very very bad market.

[eek]

Yes I am finding exactly what you said above, but to me what you write above means the market is very bad, only 3 enquirers and rates of £300 to £400 for London IB means very very bad market.

you have made an assumption there that he is talking about IB....

[SandyD]

you have made an assumption there that he is talking about IB....

I am looking at roles advertised in IB myself, not relying on someone else findings, there are less roles, and all advertised on a much lower rate that it used to be (down from 600pd to around 400pd)

[MyUserName]

Yes I am finding exactly what you said above, but to me what you write above means the market is very bad, only 3 enquirers and rates of £300 to £400 for London IB means very very bad market.

It was in line or even slightly better that my expectations to be honest (other than the rates being low) as I am not really applying hard. I found several positions I liked the look of and I think I could do. I have only made a few applications and have got replies for most of them as well as a couple of cold calls.

I guess it depends on what you are expecting the market to be? What would you call a good market?

[SandyD]

It was in line or even slightly better that my expectations to be honest (other than the rates being low) as I am not really applying hard. I found several positions I liked the look of and I think I could do. I have only made a few applications and have got replies for most of them as well as a couple of cold calls.

I guess it depends on what you are expecting the market to be? What would you call a good market?

When the market is good, I get a few calls daily without even applying, plus emails and messages on LinkedIn, rates are mostly over £500 a day, and quite a number is £600 and over.

I agree market is not as bad as its not crashing, but its quite slower than normal, its usually like this in the summer (July /Aug) but it seems to have slowed earlier this year.

[MyUserName]

When the market is good, I get a few calls daily without even applying, plus emails and messages on LinkedIn, rates are mostly over £500 a day, and quite a number is £600 and over.

Okay, by that measure of good then yes - I have found the market to be very bad.

[adam42]

I'd say to BiggieBig that the main thing is your CV. The recruitment consultants can only place you by matching the skills and experience on your CV with the skills and experience in their requirement. If there are 300 other people applying for the role (and often there are), then you aren't going to be noticed by the consultant unless the match is really good.

I found that out the hard way sitting on the bench wondering the same thing as you, and only after 3 months did I really look at what the main skills are in the jobs that I want. I changed my CV and it was like flicking a switch.

Basically the whole process is like speed dating. You have to tick the right boxes. Some of the advice on this thread for your CV is fantastic.

[lukemg]

WHS
Agents dont read between the lines and fortunately they put a job description up - make sure you are a VERY good match for that and you can back up any claims - ish...
After speaking to them, you should know more and consider some more tweaking of CV if needed to emphasise certain stuff (do it in 15 mins and get it back to the agent to put in)

Main problem is that most jobs dont see the light of day and are dished out to someone who knows someone who can do X.
Sort out your networking, tap up any ex-colleagues on linked in etc.