Visitors can check out the Forum FAQ by clicking this link. You have to register before you can post: click the REGISTER link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. View our Forum Privacy Policy.
Want to receive the latest contracting news and advice straight to your inbox? Sign up to the ContractorUK newsletter here. Every sign up will also be entered into a draw to WIN £100 Amazon vouchers!
You are not logged in or you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
You are not logged in. If you are already registered, fill in the form below to log in, or follow the "Sign Up" link to register a new account.
You may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
Hello. I'm struggling finding a new contract. I'm just trying to gauge the state of the market here. Cheers.
Embedded SW market down here (central south coast) is absolute pants atm : total dearth of real prospects coupled with agents calling with nothing to say but "what's your rate, what's your rate, what's your rate,...", "jobs" offered at rates of £150 pd or £30 ph, junior "consultants" in their first week at work asking "why do you think you haven't got work in the last few months?" etc etc etc endlessly, nauseatingly on...
So as I say, the embedded market is total pants these days and god only knows when it will improve.
I am based in the west end of the M4 and specialise in real-time embedded C/C++, and market goes up and down, and rates with it - it's supply and demand, but there always seems to be local work when I want it.
I work with both RTOS and bare metal, tiny PICs and multi-core ARMs.
Hello. I'm struggling finding a new contract. I'm just trying to gauge the state of the market here. Cheers.
Well, "embedded" is a rather broad church...
Which bit of embedded are you in? ARM? PIC? FPGA? cPLDs? What languages? C? C++? VHDL/VERILOG? JAVA? Which OSs? RTOS? Linux? Bare metal? What application areas? Military? Commercial? Industrial? Yada, yada yada...
I mainly do embedded stuff these days for fun, tbh, as the contracts I see are few and far between and the rates are generally poor for the skills requested. The reason I ask your skillset is that you are probably best to exploit it across other areas outside of embedded - you can certainly do that with C++, JAVA and Linux, for example. Ditto any network and web programming skills.
The embedded market is pretty much dead, through agencies at least.
The good news is that there aren't any candidates left either, so if you apply for the odd role you still have a chance.
QUOTE=plawren1;2164422]Hello. I'm struggling finding a new contract. I'm just trying to gauge the state of the market here. Cheers.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks foobarz. That's my thinking too. Much appreciated as I can't "gossip" in non permy land. I'm staying put. Won't go back to permy unless I'm desperate :-)
The embedded market is pretty much dead, through agencies at least.
The good news is that there aren't any candidates left either, so if you apply for the odd role you still have a chance.
QUOTE=plawren1;2164422]Hello. I'm struggling finding a new contract. I'm just trying to gauge the state of the market here. Cheers.[/QUOTE]
These kind of questions are meaningless as:
1. Some people are limited to a particular area while others can work UK wide, Europe wide or world wide
2. There are different skill sets within every larger skill
In both cases these give you are a larger or smaller market.
Oh and I have got a couple of emails for embedded software in my inbox in the past 2 weeks, but as I'm not in that field and I'm in a contract, I deleted them without reading past the first line. I do read some emails more thoroughly if they sound laughable and pass them on......
Leave a comment: