rocktronAMP Oh I like it - I’m saving that link for when I see the next poster feel a bit low.
And thanks to you all for your suggestions and links to help and advice. They may help others more than you realise.
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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 SchumiStars View PostMissed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.
How to deal with missed mortgage payments - Shelter England
Dealing with mortgage arrears - Citizens Advice
It might be worth looking at drastic options, e.g. putting a tent in your back garden while you rent the house out as an AirBnB.
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Originally posted by SchumiStars View PostMissed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.
If you are on benefits you might be able to claim mortgage interest payments:
https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortg...what-youll-get
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Originally posted by SchumiStars View PostMissed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.
You need to find some way to hang on for another six to twelve months.
Past slumps that were caused by rising interest rates (ie. early 90s and early 2000s) lasted approx 2.5 years, maybe 3 years tops.
And we are just 2 years into this one which started in the middle of 2022.Last edited by Fraidycat; 15 June 2024, 19:44.
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Originally posted by rocktronAMP View Post
ITS. A. NUMBERS. GAME.
Keep pushing every day. Rock Discipline. Get a discipline.[LIST=1]
I don't think I'd personally implement everything on your list: but the effort you've put in there, and the number of good ideas you list, means that surely anyone in this position can find something there that suits them (or inspires them to find their own variants).
The attitude you describe is - of course - what I (and probably most people) had and stuck to when I was first on the bench. But... after months... and months... and months... of this utter ColourfulDutchFlower, it's all too easy to fall off the self-directed, self-disciplining, self-organising, self-maintaining wagon.
Best points for me are:
a) 4. Don't watch the tulipy news! Or if you do, limit it to "have the aliens landed yet? No? Enough then".
b) Switch the F off. That's the hardest, but (if approached right) also quite easy. Because you haven't actually achieved anything all week, it's all too easy to never switch off - as if by some Jedi-power, exerted at 20:02 on Saturday evening, I could make an agent dream a little dream of me and then call me on Monday with a fat juicy contract. The "easy" way to avoid this is to actually do everything you can: to do that, you have to pull yourself out of the hole.
Just been for a long run, by a different, less "pleasant" route than my usual one. But it worked, because I'm bored tulipless of my usual, wooded running route. Then did some weights.
Another thing I found was a quote from an agent here: https://www.contractoruk.com/news/00..._may_2024.html - must be a better agent than any I've dealt with in the past year, given that he actually talks to candidates:
A technology recruitment agent who places BI, Data, Analytics and Azure contractors, Billy Hadfield, moved to reassure all types of techie:
“Couldn't tell you how many times I've been asked by candidates, ‘How's the market?’
“The one thing I am telling everyone [is] ‘IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT.’
“Of course, there's always more you can do -- re-write your CV; reach out to old managers, network with recruiters.”
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Missed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.
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Last couple of times out I thought I was never going to talk to anyone about a contract let alone get one up until the point I got another contract. The main change in my 16 or so years is you used to be able to play the numbers game on Jobserve and apply for enough that led you to talk to the agent, then talk to enough agents to get an interview and then do two or three interviews until you got a contract.
In the last two weeks I found one suitable role in Jobserve. Used to be about five a day.
Agents now just come to me. Most contracts aren't going near the job sites anymore.
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Originally posted by sspt27 View Post
Glad it's not just me. I've been on the bench for 6 months now, and I'm finding the effects absolutely horrible, as you describe. I've tried to think up an exit plan, but for some reason - perhaps the current state of the world, or the current state of me - nothing feasible comes to mind. Congrats on getting through this and finally finding a contract! I hope that will be me soon...
Keep pushing every day. Rock Discipline. Get a discipline.- Wake up and get just dress in sportsware / activewear
- go for a run / speed walk 30 minutes minimum
- Shower and cleanse your thoughts
- Breakfast (fruits and muesli / less sugar gunk)
- Don't watch BBC / SKY / GB news - all of it mostly tulip - fill it with alternatives happier shows (Frasier, Nature documentaries and even YouTube prankster stuff) - don't fill your head with nonsense that you can do little about.
- If you do watch news, restrict just 3 minutes of headlines - are they ready to drop the bomb? The likely answer will be NO, so Switch that TV off!
- pretend like you are going to work (circa 2019)
- If you have a favourite football, rugby or sport team, some of that will help with mood. Get the latest transfer news - avoid the severe tribal toxic stuff on X/Instagram - dont fall into a victim and become one of them: yet another hater.
- If you do watch news, restrict just 3 minutes of headlines - are they ready to drop the bomb? The likely answer will be NO, so Switch that TV off!
- Search the job boards. Chase agents. Find leads. Take notes. Keep a diary.
- Lunch (low carbs high protein)
- Networking and research (look at your diary.
- Notice any trends in that book / journal
- Try a new strategy from your learnings
- Get out to a local technology user group (React / Frontend / C++ / Java / Agile / Architecture / C# / Devops ) because it helps with the Face-2-Face interview practice and showing your face might lead to a gig
- Evening (plenty of healthy options / just avoid process foods and beginnings of sloppy eating)
- Switch the F off / Family time with kids / Dogs and cats time / Wife time (or Hubby time)
- See if there is a cheap weekly (oldies) football group
- See if there is AMDRAM group, something in the arts
- Maybe volunteering and helping others with expertise in your IT skills can improve your own mind.
- Above all find friends and events that are super positive (not negative for your mental health)
- Cut off negative people (I had to do that with certain people - talking trash, yakety yak - oh no - pretty severe, but it was worth doing it for me. YMMV even if it is family members
Treat yourself on Saturdays to a non-healthy option of food and drink. Enjoy Kebab and big lager.
Enjoy your weekends (try, really try).
The rest you probably know. Financial stuff - Cut expensive broadband, Disney+ and reduce your monthly phone plan if finances really get bad.
Get a Nectar Card for Sainsburys, ClubCard for Tescos. Save your dosh. Cut spending. Trade your privacy for discounts. Essential consumer expert advice (Martin Lewis or Vicky Pryce stuff)
I wish I knew this much in 2016!!!!
I would never loaded up on the credit cards and the rest of it. I'd have kept contracting and working from 2016 through out 2020, try not be benched and not be taken for a fool. I'd have bailed on those toxic clients and jumped onto the next outside IR35. I was too F loyal with clients. Digital transformation. Joke formation. I thought I earn £600/£700 per day in April 2020 on the commute on the Avanti to London (pre-COVID) and in a couple of contracts I'd be back to an even keel. YOLO.
Last edited by rocktronAMP; 14 June 2024, 16:37.
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Originally posted by BigDataPro View PostTo those who are on the bench - just hang in there. I know it is very hard, easier said than done. Think of it like a break you always wanted. Use the time to Learn something new that you have always wanted to do but were afraid of or couldn't find time. I invested my bench time to learn about stock market (which I was afraid of for a very long time) and up-skilled myself with couple of certifications.
Current trend will change soon. All we can to do is to be ready when it does.
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To those who are on the bench - just hang in there. I know it is very hard, easier said than done. Think of it like a break you always wanted. Use the time to Learn something new that you have always wanted to do but were afraid of or couldn't find time. I invested my bench time to learn about stock market (which I was afraid of for a very long time) and up-skilled myself with couple of certifications.
Current trend will change soon. All we can to do is to be ready when it does.
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Any organisation offering bargain basement rates must surely know that people will move on as soon as a better offer comes up? Those rates are being accepted purely because some cash is better than none.
Considering some programme/project managers practically take whole teams with them from one client to another, that is a serious risk to be taking if they actually want something delivered.
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Originally posted by sspt27 View PostI'm finding the effects absolutely horrible, as you describe
I was out for a year after September 2001, till October 2022. I had loaded up on my first mortgage a week before my contract got canned early. I used half my war chest for a nice deposit but still had a huge mortgage (for the time). I also lost a lot in the stock market which tanked 50% during 2002.
I went from being cash rich and having a high paying contract, to being loaded up with mortgage debt and cash poor (almost broke) and unemployed/zero income for a year.
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Congrats to all that have found new contracts. I'm still on the bench, still looking, still watching David Goggins and have a feeling that I am 40% through the tulip.
Flat broke. But this is my jigsaw, I need to work it out. No idea how but I know it will resolve.
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Originally posted by BigDataPro View Post
Not at all. Over the period of 6 months I was open to all sorts including perm roles, low salary, inside roles, part-time jobs etc. Primarily because I had a long gap in 2023 as well. I was surviving with my savings and I still can do for the next couple of years as well. However, this gap pushed me to a point where I was feeling low, desperate, useless, confidence dropped to negative and so on. Therefore, I was 100% flexible and had no demand whatsoever. In fact, I would have taken up shelf racking job had super markets offered it.
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