Reply to: State of the Market

[hungry_hog]

Had email from Hays about a role, I used to work through them at one of the Banks in the City back in the day - 600pd via Ltd
This one 17ph

[SussexSeagull]

Where do you see signs of the market improving?

I don’t at the moment. I think a combination of outsourcing and now AI, or at least the perception of what it can do, has killed the industry in this country.

[ResistanceFighter]

AI can handle all those insane expectation now.

yep, agree, but can you stand your ground in an interview and explain everything in the full stack in detail without AI to help?

That's what I was getting at, apologies if I wasn't clear

[Fraidycat]

the expectation is the most insane I have ever seen it

AI can handle all those insane expectation now.

I have bee using Typescript, Rust and Git Hub CI, Gherkin BDD tests recently. But I had no experience of any those skills just 3 months ago.

Cluade is writing all the code in that stack. It's a cool 3D application written using Three.js, so it is not something trivial either.

My main role is sanity checking everything the AI produces, by making sure everything is modular and organised. So any bit of the stack can re written easily and the blast radius of the slop it sometimes generates is contained.

[TheDude]

Noticed an uptick in calls over the last week, Had a few interviews, the expectation is the most insane I have ever seen it. and it's made worse that the rates are nowhere near the level of what they are asking for - I guess that's the 2026 market in a nutshell

Will keep on truckin' though

My phone has never been so quiet.

[ResistanceFighter]

Noticed an uptick in calls over the last week, Had a few interviews, the expectation is the most insane I have ever seen it. and it's made worse that the rates are nowhere near the level of what they are asking for - I guess that's the 2026 market in a nutshell

Will keep on truckin' though

[Fraidycat]

It was always said that it would pick up once interest rates had started going down.

Not much hope of that anytime soon somfar as I can see.

Thats part of it, but tech sector lay offs just haven't stopped yet and returned to pre 2020 'normal' levels when they were almost no existant. Market is still flooded with desperate candidates and the low rates on offer reflect that.

Maybe layoffs only stop when interest rates go back to below 3%.

But maybe because of AI, we just get continued layoffs for many more years until the workforce is cut to the bone..

I thought in Q4 2024 we near the bottom of the layoff cycle, now I have just given up trying to guess when they will end.

[Croesus]

Where do you see signs of the market improving?

It was always said that it would pick up once interest rates had started going down.

Not much hope of that anytime soon somfar as I can see.

[Phil Low]

Just popped in here to see if it was worth having a look for a contract (or even permanent role) due to the market improving.

Will leave you to it!

Where do you see signs of the market improving?

[rocktronAMP]

BTW - Some of these reasonably well paid train AI to code jobs on LI are a scam. Apparently the way it works is they invite you to an interview, for which you must accept Ts&Cs, waiving the right to pursue them as part of any class action lawsuit being one of them - a waiver you can opt out of by physical letter. The interview is conducted purely by AI. No work ever offered. Seems like they are just capturing video/audio of technical interviews for whatever purpose they think training AI on such things might be useful.

Wow! Thanks willendure for your thoughts. I speculate mass Agentic Interviewing claiming to cut out the recruitment consultants and scale on today's macroeconomic realities, "Today, we built a new fangled AI platform called WILL-U-ROCK (see what I did there?) that interviews 1,000 senior devs in 24 hours for 3 positions and save you whatever from wherever. Deal?"

I just clicked again on one these LinkedIn again Hire Feed / Backend Software Engineer (Remote) - Payout USD 60-110 / hour - 23 hours ago, Remote (work from anywhere) then no longer accepting applications. Fast moves / Fast Life. Yeah, right. How can we filter out companies on LinkedIn AI Job Search?

Like I said, claiming leading AI companies with celebrity VCs like Peter Thiel drew my suspicions. The "gentleman's but", however, there is no right of reply on this forum. Go carefully in to the night / day.

[willendure]

I am still looking... I thought two weeks ago would have the berries, because I had few decent interviews and then nothing else. One rejection, but remaining two still are positive but there is no news and the poor recruiter are chasing whoever. That's my state of the market. Up and then down. Meanwhile I am working another project that will hopefully brings in income.

Anyhow, I am concerned about platform-appearing-on-platform effects. I am on LinkedIn a lot and using the AI job search. Maybe this should be separate forum thread btw. Recently, I see three new companies: Hire Feed, Crossing Hurdles and Mercor offering contracts with an hourly rate at USD 25.0 USD 120.0 for a remote Java Developer (work from anywhere / usually to 20 hours a week)



There is only a couple of global leaders in the AI industry: OpenAI and Anthropic. As a technical lead software engineer guy, is this not feeding the machine that will put us out of business? Is this a sort of scam? I don't know these companies and my hackles are up, regarding security, risking personal identifiable information (PII) by submitting your or mine CV. I am genuinely interested on other contract developer opinions.

Here is the more blurb about Mercor:



Adage: if the sale/offer sounds too good to be true, then it probably is

BTW - Some of these reasonably well paid train AI to code jobs on LI are a scam. Apparently the way it works is they invite you to an interview, for which you must accept Ts&Cs, waiving the right to pursue them as part of any class action lawsuit being one of them - a waiver you can opt out of by physical letter. The interview is conducted purely by AI. No work ever offered. Seems like they are just capturing video/audio of technical interviews for whatever purpose they think training AI on such things might be useful.

[SchumiStars]

I am still looking... I thought two weeks ago would have the berries, because I had few decent interviews and then nothing else. One rejection, but remaining two still are positive but there is no news and the poor recruiter are chasing whoever. That's my state of the market. Up and then down. Meanwhile I am working another project that will hopefully brings in income.

Anyhow, I am concerned about platform-appearing-on-platform effects. I am on LinkedIn a lot and using the AI job search. Maybe this should be separate forum thread btw. Recently, I see three new companies: Hire Feed, Crossing Hurdles and Mercor offering contracts with an hourly rate at USD 25.0 USD 120.0 for a remote Java Developer (work from anywhere / usually to 20 hours a week)



There is only a couple of global leaders in the AI industry: OpenAI and Anthropic. As a technical lead software engineer guy, is this not feeding the machine that will put us out of business? Is this a sort of scam? I don't know these companies and my hackles are up, regarding security, risking personal identifiable information (PII) by submitting your or mine CV. I am genuinely interested on other contract developer opinions.

Here is the more blurb about Mercor:



Adage: if the sale/offer sounds too good to be true, then it probably is

Could be good or not. Not sure why a US company needs to look outside it's borders, if I have read that corrext irs based in USA.

[rocktronAMP]

I am still looking... I thought two weeks ago would have the berries, because I had few decent interviews and then nothing else. One rejection, but remaining two still are positive but there is no news and the poor recruiter are chasing whoever. That's my state of the market. Up and then down. Meanwhile I am working another project that will hopefully brings in income.

Anyhow, I am concerned about platform-appearing-on-platform effects. I am on LinkedIn a lot and using the AI job search. Maybe this should be separate forum thread btw. Recently, I see three new companies: Hire Feed, Crossing Hurdles and Mercor offering contracts with an hourly rate at USD 25.0 USD 120.0 for a remote Java Developer (work from anywhere / usually to 20 hours a week)

We are hiring for one of our clients, seeking a Java Developer to work on a contractor basis. This individual will apply their expertise to help train next-generation AI systems, shaping how models learn, reason, and perform through high-quality, real-world input. With no prior experience in AI required, what matters is domain knowledge, and the ability to contribute directly to AI system development. This role is a unique opportunity to work with a global leader in the AI industry, leveraging expertise in Java to drive innovation.

There is only a couple of global leaders in the AI industry: OpenAI and Anthropic. As a technical lead software engineer guy, is this not feeding the machine that will put us out of business? Is this a sort of scam? I don't know these companies and my hackles are up, regarding security, risking personal identifiable information (PII) by submitting your or mine CV. I am genuinely interested on other contract developer opinions.

Here is the more blurb about Mercor:

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, and Jack Dorsey.

Adage: if the sale/offer sounds too good to be true, then it probably is

[fatJock]

The permie world is not much stabler than contracting nowadays. There are lay offs all the time. Particularly if you are working for a consultancy.

This ... totally. Where I am at the moment perms were always telling me that they far preferred the stability and that contracting was risky.

Singing a different tune now that lots are being laid off post acquisition. The quicker people realise that they're just a number ... quick to be dropped when it doesn't serve the employer the better.

In my industry [Logistics] people are as disposable as the customer contracts they are working on with customers doing an endless 3PL merry go-round every couple of years.

[SussexSeagull]

Just popped in here to see if it was worth having a look for a contract (or even permanent role) due to the market improving.

Will leave you to it!