Reply to: State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

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.

[rocktronAMP]

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...

ITS. A. NUMBERS. GAME.

Keep pushing every day. Rock Discipline. Get a discipline.

1. Wake up and get just dress in sportsware / activewear
2. go for a run / speed walk 30 minutes minimum
   1. Shower and cleanse your thoughts
3. Breakfast (fruits and muesli / less sugar gunk)
4. 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.
   1. 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!
      1. pretend like you are going to work (circa 2019)
   2. 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.
5. Search the job boards. Chase agents. Find leads. Take notes. Keep a diary.
6. Lunch (low carbs high protein)
7. Networking and research (look at your diary.
   1. Notice any trends in that book / journal
   2. Try a new strategy from your learnings
   3. 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
8. Evening (plenty of healthy options / just avoid process foods and beginnings of sloppy eating)
9. Switch the F off / Family time with kids / Dogs and cats time / Wife time (or Hubby time)
   1. See if there is a cheap weekly (oldies) football group
   2. See if there is AMDRAM group, something in the arts
   3. Maybe volunteering and helping others with expertise in your IT skills can improve your own mind.
   4. Above all find friends and events that are super positive (not negative for your mental health)
      1. 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

Switch F off at the weekends like normal folk. Think Bob Marley. "You see I don't worry about a thing, because Everything will be alright." Three Little Birds
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.

[oliverson]

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.

I'm proof of the pudding. SEVENTEEN MONTHS ON THE BENCH and then one day it just changed. Somebody dropped me a line on LinkedIn and that was that. 2.5 years into that contract and another extension about to drop. I'd had a dreadful spell on the bench back in the financial crash but nothing like seventeen months. But that taught me that things would eventually turn around again, and they did. Also taught me it wasn't me, just the market. My credit file had been repaired between the financial crash and covid/IR35/Brexit and so I just took on some debt, did my own thing and tried not to worry. If it happened again, and hopefully it won't, this should be my last contract, I'd do the same all over again. **** it.

[BigDataPro]

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.

[ladymuck]

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.

[Fraidycat]

I'm finding the effects absolutely horrible, as you describe

The mental strain can be immense.

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.

[SchumiStars]

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.

[sspt27]

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.

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...

[cojak]

https://forums.contractoruk.com/busi...al-forums.html Perhaps?

You are quite right.

Post removed.

[pjt]

Wee update from me..
I was on the bench for 5 months (first time its ever happened). Things were looking grim for the best part of that 5 months. Around a month ago things really started to pick up with calls coming in for multiple solid roles one day then a trickle coming in over the next 2 weeks till I landed a great gig. Been busy in the new role for a few weeks so not really been on here but ever since that day things have been coming in again for me. Got a gig now till later on this year so hoping things remain like this for me till then.

I went from starting to think I'd be benched forever to being back saying no to agents very quickly. So for anyone on the bench I hope the same happens for you all soon its not fun on that bench!

[BigDataPro]

Congrats, very happy for you.

If you don’t mind me asking, over the 6 month period that you were looking for a new contract, did you have particular requirements (eg: outside only, specific profile, etc.) re the contracts you would consider or were you fairly flexible?

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.

[sreed]

Finally got an outside role nearly after 6-7 months on the bench. Although LI & JS are dead, this one came through LI. I think this could be an indication that market is slowly recovering.

Congrats, very happy for you.

If you don’t mind me asking, over the 6 month period that you were looking for a new contract, did you have particular requirements (eg: outside only, specific profile, etc.) re the contracts you would consider or were you fairly flexible?

[SussexSeagull]

£150 FTC was approximately the lowest i saw one benched contractor taking in the slump of 2003. And that was thought to be very low at the time.

I bottomed out at £150 a day outside IR35 round about the time of the financial crash. Only contract I have ever served notice on as there was a very real threat of me asking the Test Manager to join me in the car park.

Oddly my rates as a Tester have been as good as ever over the last 12 months, although I have been out for a week now and it is very quiet.

[SussexSeagull]

2003 was a bad period for testers. I did a role for £192 per day. It was very low and people laughed at the time. But I had no warchest so did it for 9 months or so. It turned out to be a good decision as it kept me going through that bad spell. While I heard of several people having to sell their houses.

I was still permanent at the time but I think there was something of a backlash after the Millennium Bug proved to be something of a damp squib.

[oliverson]

Finally got an outside role nearly after 6-7 months on the bench. Although LI & JS are dead, this one came through LI. I think this could be an indication that market is slowly recovering.

Congratulations. I know only too well what lengthy spells on the bench can do to you!