Are you prepared for next IT contractor downturn?

[bobhope]

IT staff demand for London:

http://jobstats.co.uk/jobstats.d/Det...N.d/index.html


It feels like we just came out of the last downturn!

[sunnysan]

Where have you been

Gordon said years ago that boom and bust cycles have ended, we are going to be living in one perpetual bust.

Or was it boom? One of us is wrong anyway

[ThomasSoerensen]

Seen in this light - the recurring extensions from my client don't look so bad anymore.

Good luck to all of us

[TheBigYinJames]

My experience of the last couple of downturns isn't such much that there are no jobs, you just have to be prepared to take a rate cut and perhaps stay somewhere you'd tell them to swivel in better times.

For some, this is too much, and they leave the industry. That in itself helps the recovery.

[rootsnall]

My experience of the last couple of downturns isn't such much that there are no jobs, you just have to be prepared to take a rate cut and perhaps stay somewhere you'd tell them to swivel in better times.

For some, this is too much, and they leave the industry. That in itself helps the recovery.

Sounds about right, I got asked to take a rate cut last time while oblivious to what was going on ( thanks DP et al for Uber Doomed stuff as I'll be ready this time ) and went for the swivel option. I then discovered rates had just about halved in a matter of a month or two What surprised me was how quickly rates picked up again as supply and demand balanced up.

[LittlestHobbo]

agents seem to be trying to bang down rates which is suprising as they work on a % unless of course they are trying to just increase their margins.

I wouldn't believe they would do that for a minute though.

I'm well and truly hedging my bets...teasing my current client with going permie...starting 2 months after my current contract with them expires due to holidays and prior comittments (they have a freeze on contract hire-grrrhhh).

If nothing comes up in September i'll stick with them for a year update my skills on their time and hopefully come out smelling of roses.

If that all goes wrong then I'm going to dig a big hole and become a survivalist anyway. I already have 3276 tins of value baked beans.

[aussielong]

if you go perm...

how long do you have to stick it out?

i've gone permie after contracting for 5 years. i've been permie 9 months now. if i leave a perm job after 1 year it looks bad right? i've got to stick it out for 2 years?

[Moscow Mule]

Happy Days

Just agreed a new contract here when I get back from honeymoon -

12.5% increase
Work location changed to MyCo office (will be on-site about 3 days a week).

Downturn?

[pmeswani]

how long do you have to stick it out?

i've gone permie after contracting for 5 years. i've been permie 9 months now. if i leave a perm job after 1 year it looks bad right? i've got to stick it out for 2 years?

each of my last 3 permie jobs lasted less than a year each. That's what helped me into contracting. Luckily I had good reasons for it too. First job, fell ill (bad reaction to medication), second job, department was making redundancies, third job wasn't the job I applied for, and there was a bit of a personality clash.

[oracleslave]

Just agreed a new contract here when I get back from honeymoon -

12.5% increase
Work location changed to MyCo office (will be on-site about 3 days a week).

Downturn?

Well done MM.

Of course soon when it becomes 'what's hers is hers and what's yours is hers' you won't get a sniff of that inceased rate.