User Profile

[SussexSeagull]

As a rule of thumb unless there is a falling out (which has happened to me once), I finish a contract. I would have absolutely no problem serving notice on a client who was low balling me if something better appeared.

[SussexSeagull]

I had several contracts where I travelled up first thing Monday and came back on Friday evening and travelled round the country for others but Inside IR35 stops them being finanically viable, plus I think clients want to hire local now....

[SussexSeagull]

As several people predicted at the time it was announced and subsequently, Inside IR35 contracts have become a way to get cheap resource, without having to pay Employer NI contributions, with no employment rights. With a relatively healthy permanent and contract market those roles would mostly get...

[SussexSeagull]

If you look on the big thread about such things it is the exception who get a new contract in any period of time and even they know they are lucky and it might not happen next time. Compare that to other times when I was out of work and others were getting new contracts easily (and vice versa, I sometimes...

[SussexSeagull]

Bearing in mind I have my first meeting about Universal Credit today I will take anything that is financial viable (i.e. everything that isn't £150 inside at the other end of the country).

That said I had a conversation about a contract I was qualified for that would have been my best...

[SussexSeagull]

I don't think the permanent market is much better at the moment so it isn't contractor specific.

I haven't worked on a large (more than 10 testers) project in about 8 years. That ship has sailed to the consultancies. Up until now the economies of scale of getting in a consultancy haven't...

[SussexSeagull]

I just hear a list of events that will apparently need to happen before a recovery starts that happen then a recovery doesn't start.

I am not sure Labour winning a GE then producing a budget that didn't go down well with some in business or a Trump win should have been that surprising to...

[SussexSeagull]

Our lack of energy independence has caused problems in the last few years due to energy bills rising. Putin has used gas supplies as a weapon previously. As for the other two we won't know until we ever reach a point that we could have down with still having a steel or ship industry....

[SussexSeagull]

For all the shiny new toys and methodologies that have appeared over the last 30 years, I don’t think software development has actually got any quicker because end users now have higher expectations and still have a tendency to change their mind.

Not really a silver bullet but I am not...

[SussexSeagull]

I can definitively say that I am unsure. I still suspect that the main problems are business not wanting to invest in new projects and outsourcing. Holding off for AI to make everything outdated in the near future feels a bit premature at the moment.

I work in testing and it has taken...

[SussexSeagull]

Would need to be a year on year comparison with Autumn last year.

Not saying that the market is in any way good but I am not sure Jobserve is the force it used to be. I can't remember the last contract I got through it and am fairly sure the ones I have got were never advertised on th...

[SussexSeagull]

It doesn't really serve much, either....

[SussexSeagull]

I know people, me being one of them, enjoying the contractor lifestyle of new challenges and avoiding office politics but ultimately it is a way of paying the mortgage and rates going through the floor is just going to push the better people into permanent roles to either weather the storm or see them...

[SussexSeagull]

I got SC in 2016 and thought my work finding problems were over but never used it again. I think my problem was it was actually quite a boring contract with few sellable skills, although I am sure that isn't the case for everyone....

[SussexSeagull]

There always used to be quite a good living to be had if you were experienced in legacy platforms that they didn't want to train permanent staff on as they had a limited shelf life.

I suspect we are in the middle of a perfect storm at the moment caused by a combination of interest rstes,...

[SussexSeagull]

It's a wonderful thought but there will still be a lot of manual jobs that can't be automated for a very long time and I don't imagine the DWP and wider society will be too happy letting us all work three months a year while others are still in full time jobs....

[SussexSeagull]

This is the thing. Obviously you have to cover the bases such as having a decent CV, searching the job boards, working your network and using LinkedIn (although that is in dispute) but even if you do that perfectly you are just putting you at the head of the queue, which is of limited use if there...

[SussexSeagull]

A lot of development has gone off shore in the last decade. Not so much the other software development disciplines such as testing (and analysis gets protected to a point due to business knowledge).

I genuinely think the running down of the software development industry in this country...

[SussexSeagull]

Never met you but I doubt there is anything wrong with you it is just misfortune that like me and others you have encountered an appalling market.

That said, I am 51 this week with about that length of experience in testing as you have in development and I am not sure on balance it does...

[SussexSeagull]

I could probably get behind a system that let the best people move here regardless of where they are from but as you say a lot of people just thought it would stop or heavily reduce immigration and a lot of politicians didn't correct them....