Reply to: State of the Market

[ladymuck]

Just as I am in the throws of shutting down my Limited company out of the blue I've had a call about a potential outside role, paying £375 - £400 per day with a minimum of 3 days in the office....it's about an hour from me. Not getting hopes up as no doubt someone will offer to do it for tuppence.....

I've been fully remote for 5 years so 3 days minimum per week in an office isn't massively appealing....plus rate is not all that....any thoughts/comments...

I'd do it. I actually quite like being in the office though. Not full time, of course, but 3 days is actually a nice balance.

[SchumiStars]

Just as I am in the throws of shutting down my Limited company out of the blue I've had a call about a potential outside role, paying £375 - £400 per day with a minimum of 3 days in the office....it's about an hour from me. Not getting hopes up as no doubt someone will offer to do it for tuppence.....

I've been fully remote for 5 years so 3 days minimum per week in an office isn't massively appealing....plus rate is not all that....any thoughts/comments...

That sounds excellent. I would work for free in a office ATM!

[Cookielove]

Just as I am in the throws of shutting down my Limited company out of the blue I've had a call about a potential outside role, paying £375 - £400 per day with a minimum of 3 days in the office....it's about an hour from me. Not getting hopes up as no doubt someone will offer to do it for tuppence.....

I've been fully remote for 5 years so 3 days minimum per week in an office isn't massively appealing....plus rate is not all that....any thoughts/comments...

[m0n1k3r]

There are now so many candidates we are well and truly sunk....another IT role on LI 480 applicants ...the visa system has well and truly scuppered the UK workforce what a sad state of affairs

I posted an IT role on LI before the summer. About 95% of the many, many applicants weren't qualified for the role. They either hadn't even read the job spec, or were applying from countries such as Turkey, Iran or Pakistan with no right to work in the country.

[m0n1k3r]

Many of the best people I know are Indian contractors - as you say its the consultancies (especially the offshore workers) who are by far the worst / least capable.

An Indian contractor mate of mine told me developers are not paid well in those consultancies. Their profit margins are apparently huge. The only way to make a decent living is to quickly become a manager (and stop developing). He wanted to become one of the best Java developers in the world (his own words), so he left and became a contractor.

[SussexSeagull]

The job boards and to a lesser extent LinkedIn jobs haven't been a great way to get contracts for a few years now. It has all been about the network for me for several years.

Problem is they are probably all in the same boat.

[Snooky]

Ricki has done us over. Called over his home boys

What, all the way from Southampton?

[Cookielove]

Yep I know that..... but the numbers are still eye wateringly high!

[fatJock]

There are now so many candidates we are well and truly sunk....another IT role on LI 480 applicants ...the visa system has well and truly scuppered the UK workforce what a sad state of affairs

It's been demonstrated time and time again that folks shouldn't be put off by the number of applications to roles on LI as there is very little quality control. An agent I know had similar, 500+ applications and less than a dozen vaguely worth considering. 80%+ were overseas folks without the skills or needing visa support.

[coolhandluke]

Whilst I think both Labour and the Conservatives over the last two decades must take some of the blame, for me most of the blame lies with the corporations seeking cheaper and cheaper resource without considering quality or the total cost of ownership.

I've been on countless projects in which consultancies and contractors have been replaced by InfoSys, TCS etc. This decision was never down to government policy but due to the project falling for the same MO that all Indian consultancies follow.

Low ball the bid / offer time and materials / people for free. This gets the Programme excited, all existing contractors and consultancies are replaced. Then 6 months down the line, come back with ah we didn't mean free...

[willendure]

It's crazy that businesses would think that current interest rates are 'high' when really they're pretty much average - businesses and consumers simply got used to cheap money but it was inevitable that rates would go up.

It is a bit crazy but...

When money was too cheap with interest rates near zero, a lot of money was borrowed. Much of that debt still exists. If interest rates had not gone to zero, the debt load would be much lower. So a 5% rate now is quite a different proposition to a typical 5% rate in the early 2000s.

There is an expectation that rates will go down again back to the super low levels. I think this might happen as an emergency measure when it really becomes clear that 5% was too much. But that lets the inflation genie back out of the bottle. I still think 5% was overkill, the inflation must have been caused by covid bounceback and supply shock, not money supply. But you can see, we have this tight rope balancing act now - can't have low rates because inflation, can't have high rates because economy dead on its feet. Long term it would be better to let the misallocated capital die and start again rather than turn on the stimulus taps again, but can you imagine the carnage?

No wonder Gold is doing so well.

Unfortunately Labour seem to think that taxation is the way to create money. “Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence." - nice Ayn Rand quote for you.

I watched an interview with Kwasi Kwarteng recently, someone we love to hate and dismiss as part of the Liz Truss debacle. Actually comes accross really well. He recognized the above scenario and said his plan was to reduce taxes to stimulate the economy and start to rebuild it. This is how wealth is created. He claims his main mistake was moving too fast without adequetly preparing everyone in advance - his autum budget was even brought forward to Sept because he was so keen to get on with it.

[SchumiStars]

Todays hot role.

Manchester, 400pd inside requiring SC.

I worked for the same client in 2021 for £500 outside without SC

[dsc]

Blimey, that's scary. I keep thinking about re-retiring but that might be a one-way street even though I only work directly with a couple of clients rather than in the 'open' market.

It's crazy that businesses would think that current interest rates are 'high' when really they're pretty much average - businesses and consumers simply got used to cheap money but it was inevitable that rates would go up.

If you know clients directly, then I think you'd be fine, it's the "open" market that seems screwed completely.

As for interest rates, I agree, but we had it so good for so long and so many companies have tulip ton of debt, that now that is starting to bite them on the ass. I think sooner or later they will have to realise that they can only play this "no investment, no extra costs" game for so long, you can only fake profits for a limited time and then reality kicks in. It will however allow them to trim their teams to the very bone in the mean time.

[Cookielove]

There are now so many candidates we are well and truly sunk....another IT role on LI 480 applicants ...the visa system has well and truly scuppered the UK workforce what a sad state of affairs

[Protagoras]

It's also not just the UK, look at the US and how many people can't find work over there, especially PMs it seems, it's a bloody blood bath.

High interest rates mean everything is on hold, everyone is cutting costs, yet everyone also wants higher profits, market isn't going to go up on it's own and how do you "grow" if you can't invest? cut costs everywhere, trim it down to the bare bones and see how long it takes for rates to drop and whether you can wait out the tulip conditions.

Blimey, that's scary. I keep thinking about re-retiring but that might be a one-way street even though I only work directly with a couple of clients rather than in the 'open' market.

It's crazy that businesses would think that current interest rates are 'high' when really they're pretty much average - businesses and consumers simply got used to cheap money but it was inevitable that rates would go up.