Reply to: State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

Think I should take bets on how far into 2025 before I find a new contract. Got a feeling, it won't be soon!

As ever with these things, you can be unsuccessful a hundred times but you only need to get it right once.

[oliverson]

Absolutely no signs of any recovery. Sorry to start the year off like this but looks like it maybe another 12mths without a contract.

What am I doing wrong!

Perhaps it's your skillset?

What do you do and what skills do you have?

[SussexSeagull]

Absolutely no signs of any recovery. Sorry to start the year off like this but looks like it maybe another 12mths without a contract.

What am I doing wrong!

Bit early to jump to any conclusions, considering most offices aren't properly back until Monday.

[avonleigh]

Absolutely no signs of any recovery. Sorry to start the year off like this but looks like it maybe another 12mths without a contract.

What am I doing wrong!

It's only first day back after the holidays. Not much is going to be happening until next week at the earliest. Not saying there is going to be a recovery but need to give it time.

[ladymuck]

Absolutely no signs of any recovery. Sorry to start the year off like this but looks like it maybe another 12mths without a contract.

What am I doing wrong!

When you spot a gig you like the look of, what do you do? Just fire off your CV and hope they call back? If that's all you're doing then consider being more pushy. Hunt down the agency, phone them up, ask to talk to the recruiter. Find them on LinkedIn and connect with them. Make sure they know who you are.

Even if you don't get the gig, use it as an opportunity to talk to agents and network with them. Offer to meet for a coffee, etc.

I'm rubbish at doing this, and is something I'm going to work on, but a friend of mine has been solidly doing this for the past few months and is getting more direct calls to check their interest in things coming up, which is still subject to client sign off but shows they are a step ahead of the competition when the role does materialise.

[SchumiStars]

Absolutely no signs of any recovery. Sorry to start the year off like this but looks like it maybe another 12mths without a contract.

What am I doing wrong!

[willendure]

Think I should take bets on how far into 2025 before I find a new contract. Got a feeling, it won't be soon!

[willendure]

Perhaps, the US are also encouraging immigration, seems to be a big money earner for the UK, so would expect the same in the US.

The US is a country built on immigration so its hardly a change in how they do things. If anything the anti-immigration attitude is the thing that is new there. Perhaps the Magas are just toning the racist vote winning anti-immigration message down as they get back the realities of running the place. They don't need to cast Mexicans as rapists now they need them to be working shifts.

A significant difference between Europe and the US, is that every generation in Europe has been smaller than the baby boomers. In the states, the boomers is a big generation, but their millenial generation is actualy just slightly larger. Declining productivity is not going to be a problem they face over the next few decades, in the same way that it will be one that we face.

The UK seems to have chosen immigration as a solution to staving off a shrinking workforce and maintaining productivty, without ever making the policy explicit, and at the same time as running anti-immigration propaganda around the (comparably irrelevant) small boats issue. The usual double speak. Labour say they will drastically cut legal immigration and I certainly support that.
The only wake up call Musk needs is a long look in the mirror

[SussexSeagull]

Similar seems to be happening in the TV industry, A boom post Covid following a lack of opportunities rings true.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crl3077699jo

[edison]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyv7gxp02yo

Seems quite a similar situation over here. Except $200k seems a bit better than the crap we get over here.

Saw a thread on Linkedin yesterday where someone posted screenshots from a site similar to Glassdoor where H1B visa holders can anonymously post their salaries and who they work for. Some large famous companies on there with plenty of salaries way below $200k, some under $100k.

[SchumiStars]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyv7gxp02yo

Seems quite a similar situation over here. Except $200k seems a bit better than the crap we get over here.

[SussexSeagull]

No idea what he was trying to achieve with that post, only reading what's been posted above TBF.

Perhaps, the US are also encouraging immigration, seems to be a big money earner for the UK, so would expect the same in the US.

Although I know little of how politics works. I just assumed that we were all effectively batteries quite similar the view portrayed by the The Matrix, whereby we are here to provide the government with as much cash as we can.

I.e. Even the application process would attract fees.

Read afterwards there Is something of a split between libertarians who want the best people brought into the country and nativists who want to pull up the drawbridge within the MAGA movement,

With a few exceptions, namely the stupidly rich moving here, the only people who tend to financially gain from immigration are the actual immigrant and their family, which is fair enough as that is probably why they did it, and the companies who until recently only had to pay them 80% of the going rate. As we are seeing in IT and other white collar professions, the government lose a fortune in tax take and paying out in benefits when there isn't enough jobs to go round in a downturn.

[SchumiStars]

He can't have the Penny and the Bun by backing America First then turning round and calling American workers lazy.

No idea what he was trying to achieve with that post, only reading what's been posted above TBF.

Perhaps, the US are also encouraging immigration, seems to be a big money earner for the UK, so would expect the same in the US.

Although I know little of how politics works. I just assumed that we were all effectively batteries quite similar the view portrayed by the The Matrix, whereby we are here to provide the government with as much cash as we can.

I.e. Even the application process would attract fees.

[SussexSeagull]

There was a big boxing day thread on X/Twitter.

Musk posted about a massive skills shortage in IT.

However he was using code words like shortage of 'Motivated workers', meaning he thinks US workers aren't as motivated as legal tech sector visa workers.

By this he really meant US workers don't want to work for long hours for low end pay.

But his MAGA fanbase turned on him for wanting to hire cheap Jeets (US terms for Bobs) while native US IT workers are struggling to find work.

Others pointed out that if there is such as large shortage of talent then why were tech firms doing layoffs.

Then Musk backtracked and said he was only talking about the shortage of top 0.1% of talent.

A wake up call for Musk.

He can't have the Penny and the Bun by backing America First then turning round and calling American workers lazy.

[Fraidycat]

There was a big boxing day thread on X/Twitter.

Musk posted about a massive skills shortage in IT.

However he was using code words like shortage of 'Motivated workers', meaning he thinks US workers aren't as motivated as legal tech sector visa workers.

By this he really meant US workers don't want to work for long hours for low end pay.

But his MAGA fanbase turned on him for wanting to hire cheap Jeets (US terms for Bobs) while native US IT workers are struggling to find work.

Others pointed out that if there is such as large shortage of talent then why were tech firms doing layoffs.

Then Musk backtracked and said he was only talking about the shortage of top 0.1% of talent.

A wake up call for Musk.