Reply to: State of the Market

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Agent has contacted me via linkedin about a role she claims is outside - hope something comes of this.

[SchumiStars]

Shumi - get fingers out yer bike bum. https://www.fruitiongroup.com/job/fu...engineer-1357/ Full stack engineer London or Remote (UK based). You want to travel into the big smoke, as your preference, then they have you: 6 month contract. No excuses. Just perform well at the interview stage(s), get a soft skill coach to help you out.

Or similar one for React https://www.fruitiongroup.com/job/se...engineer-1356/

Happier New Year 2026 for all!

Thank you for this. And the positivity!

With kind regards, SS.

[rocktronAMP]

Shumi - get yer fingers out yer bike bum. https://www.fruitiongroup.com/job/fu...engineer-1357/ Full stack engineer London or Remote (UK based). You want to travel into the big smoke, as your preference, then they have you: 6 month contract. No excuses. Just perform well at the interview stage(s), get a soft skill coach to help you out.

Or similar one for React https://www.fruitiongroup.com/job/se...engineer-1356/

Happier New Year 2026 for all!

[SussexSeagull]

Just in case doing more than one contract at a time seems like a good idea:

https://harrowonline.org/2025/12/17/...n-authorities/

I had a brief stint contracting at one of the London local authorities and with the amount of staff movements between them it is no surprise she got found out.

That said, if she carried it on for any period of time one has to ask questions of management.

[ensignia]

Just in case doing more than one contract at a time seems like a good idea:

https://harrowonline.org/2025/12/17/...n-authorities/

I'm beginning to see why you haven't been able to land a contract for years now...

[ladymuck]

Just in case doing more than one contract at a time seems like a good idea:

https://harrowonline.org/2025/12/17/...n-authorities/

As qh says, that's a full time employee, not a freelancer. They had distinct clauses in their employment contract about second jobs, and they were failing to deliver either job well or else performance issues would not have been raised.

It's perfectly normal for a contractor/freelancer to have more than one client at a time. I have had two on the go for most of 2025 and it's looking like I'll have three in 2026. All are part time and the main requirement is that I deliver on time and attend on site or remote meetings where necessary.

[avonleigh]

She was a Full time public sector worker. Freelance working with a Ltd company is something entirely different, you are allowed to have multiple clients and I would have thought you are less likely to be taken to court.

(See the word *less*, I did not say it wouldn't happen, before NLUK comes along with his Alan's in a twist. )

qh

Yep and if she was fully employed by two private companies, all that would happen is she would be fired for breach of contract and possibly sued. Civil servants are seen differently, hence the criminal prosecution.

[quackhandle]

She was a Full time public sector worker. Freelance working with a Ltd company is something entirely different, you are allowed to have multiple clients and I would have thought you are less likely to be taken to court.

(See the word *less*, I did not say it wouldn't happen, before NLUK comes along with his Alan's in a twist. )

qh

[SchumiStars]

Just in case doing more than one contract at a time seems like a good idea:

https://harrowonline.org/2025/12/17/...n-authorities/

[ladymuck]

So the report says there was an increase in demand, an increase in outside roles and steady (not declining) rates and you're complaining? Did you expect to see some kind of exponential growth spurt?

I have two gigs lined up for next year, and potentially a third, all part time, all outside, all remote. Three very different sectors. I would say my experience is exactly mirroring that report.

Two of the three could have been full time if I wanted but I knew I would struggle to do them properly and the workload doesn't really justify full time. The third was always going to be very minor effort if it does come off.

[SchumiStars]

Your Quarterly Market update:






Merry f**king Christmas.

qh

...and this tulip mess will continue for another 12mths. FFS. What a mess.

[quackhandle]

Your Quarterly Market update:






Merry f**king Christmas.

qh

[eek]

Depends how many hours a day they expect - 5 would put it above min wage

Nope, employment costs will need to be deducted - it's not £12.21 its £12.21 + 10.76% holiday pay + 15.5% employer NI / Apprenticeship levy.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Is this allowed? That’s below minimum wage!
]

Depends how many hours a day they expect - 5 would put it above min wage

[Fraidycat]

A role for recent graduates described as 'Volunteer/Intern' so they can pay £2.50 an hour instead of minimum wage.

Software Engineering Volunteer
We’re Aspect, London’s largest and most dynamic property maintenance company.. After 15+ years of operational excellence, we’re investing heavily in technology….
We’re now looking for an Intern Software Engineer who is early in their career, including fresh graduates…

The Role
You will be embedded directly within our Product and Engineering team.
…
What You’ll Be Doing

• Building and improving React components using modern patterns and hooks
• Working with REST and or GraphQL APIs to fetch, display, and validate real data
• Fixing bugs, improving UI flows, and refactoring small parts of the codebase
• Collaborating with designers and engineers to ship clean, intuitive, mobile-first interfaces
• Writing and maintaining frontend tests to ensure features work as expected
• Manually testing UI changes to catch edge cases, regressions, and usability issues
• Learning how authentication, permissions, error handling, and loading states work in practice
• Writing readable, maintainable code and receiving structured feedback through PR reviews
• Picking up best practices around testing, Git workflows, CI/CD, and deployment pipelines...

..
Job Type: Volunteer
Pay: Up to £400.00 per month
Work Location: In person