Must admit I'm very nervous now. Been virtually end to end for last 10 years. Long'ish story but...
Was 5 weeks out of gig last year and got a big messy business re-org gig. Ended but they gave me a 6 weeks notice. Took all 6 weeks to find something, another big re-org. In both those stints it was very dry. I just got an alert from jobserve which I'd forgotten to turn off but its the first one I've had in three weeks. Granted I have a rather tight criteria on the alert but still, three weeks of nothing. Even the one that pinged wasn't suitable. I do ignore all inside gigs with north to south commute for obvious reasons so looking back I've been very very lucky with these two gigs. I can't rely on big re-orgs for end to end work.
Going to put all my alerts back on just to keep an eye on the market but I say I've been lucky to get these two and if I hadn't I'd have struggled badly. Counting every day billing as a blessing at the moment and dreading the end of this one. Strange times.
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Reply to: State of the Market
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Previously on "State of the Market"
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Originally posted by dsc View Post
If you're a single / one of a few "contractors" at a client doing long stints I very much doubt hmrc will ever see this / care. They seem to go after large clients were loads of people do "contracting" when in fact they are all permies, the chance of winning something there are larger as there's simply more people affected (especially as you can threat the client with massive costs and they will bail).
I know a few people who went perm to "outside" at the same client, worked like this for years, then closes their ltds and had zero problems. You'd think they would get spotted straight away, especially when closing their ltd as that's the moment to do an overview, but perhaps that's also automated and not one person gives a tulip?
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Originally posted by hungry_hog View PostHad a chat to someone today who has done 14 years at same client! Half in and half out.
May as well carve your GPS coordinates on the Revenue head office windows!
Lots of people returning to old clients (direct, not using agents) having tasted the waters outside and found them to be cold, murky and full of sharks!
I know a few people who went perm to "outside" at the same client, worked like this for years, then closes their ltds and had zero problems. You'd think they would get spotted straight away, especially when closing their ltd as that's the moment to do an overview, but perhaps that's also automated and not one person gives a tulip?
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Had a chat to someone today who has done 14 years at same client! Half in and half out.
May as well carve your GPS coordinates on the Revenue head office windows!
Lots of people returning to old clients (direct, not using agents) having tasted the waters outside and found them to be cold, murky and full of sharks!Last edited by hungry_hog; Yesterday, 17:51.
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Originally posted by quackhandle View PostOnce companies work out how much they are being ripped off for Cloud hosting/compared to the performance they are getting they'll be all going back to on premise in next 1/2 years so lots of work there.
qh
ETA
Of course a lot of enterprise systems like Workday aren't available as on-premise apps.
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Originally posted by Hairlocks View Post
You clearly haven't experienced how much money companies can waste with on-premise kit to change their mind a year later.
Although I do agree on paper on-premise should be cheaper than cloud. Like a permanent employee should be cheaper than a contractor.
qh
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My post was 11% sarcasm, 80% tongue-in-cheek and 9% butterscotch ripple.
qh
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Originally posted by quackhandle View PostOnce companies work out how much they are being ripped off for Cloud hosting/compared to the performance they are getting they'll be all going back to on premise in next 1/2 years so lots of work there.
qh
Although I do agree on paper on-premise should be cheaper than cloud. Like a permanent employee should be cheaper than a contractor.
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Originally posted by quackhandle View PostOnce companies work out how much they are being ripped off for Cloud hosting/compared to the performance they are getting they'll be all going back to on premise in next 1/2 years so lots of work there.
qh
A lot of people also said the same about the quality of offshoring companies and it would all come back onshore... which it hasn't.
Fingers crossed on both... BIDI
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Once companies work out how much they are being ripped off for Cloud hosting/compared to the performance they are getting they'll be all going back to on premise in next 1/2 years so lots of work there.
qh
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Originally posted by tsmith View Post
Im seeing 90% of roles with 'state salary requirements' - 10 years ago it was maybe 10%. Times have changed. How long before its 35k for a senior XYZ role in London?
I try and put 'market rates' if theres no integer only check
Woman actually called me about a role I applied for with this approach - 'you put market rates - the role is paying £55k 6 months FTC'
I said can you do £60k? - She said no
I also had a initial job interview and I asked about salary range, got asked the same tulipe "well how much are you thinking" and it turned out I was only 5k off, but even that sounded like "well maybe it's doable, but I'm not sure". If 5k leeway is too much to swallow I bloody give up.
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Originally posted by SussexSeagull View Post
Oddly my rate has been quite good over the last year and I would have had a quick turnaround between two contracts had sign off and Christmas not got in the way. In both instances the agent came to me though.
I will probably be out for six months next time out but maybe we are beginning to see the contractor field thin out in some sectors?
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This years April bounce doest seem to have been as strong or long as last years.
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Originally posted by sreed View Post
Care to share the listing? That has to be a mistake, I can’t recall ever having seen any inside contract that pays £120 a day!
Working backwards from net pay, that translates into a PAYE salary of around 21k or so which (even for a 35 hour week) is just above min wage!
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