Reply to: State of the Market

[CodeCobbler]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

Nothing wrong I think. I've been without for over a year. Theres still the little trolls on here who will say its because you don't have a LinkedIn or whatever. But its not about your CV. The reality is its the market that decides these matters for you. Tech as we knew it is Dead. Now its just about choosing what do in the future because dev isn't going to bounce back.

I would think SC would be the ticket. Thats the avenue I would pursue anyway.

[SussexSeagull]

And this is the general 'Developer' role chart from ITJobwatch.


Its actually doubly worse for developers, not only are IT jobs down in general, but developers roles are now just 10% to 15% of a much smaller pie when they used to be 30% of a much bigger pie.

A lot of development has gone off shore in the last decade. Not so much the other software development disciplines such as testing (and analysis gets protected to a point due to business knowledge).

I genuinely think the running down of the software development industry in this country will become a National Security issue if it is allowed to continue. We are outsourcing it to foreign countries and making it unsustainable in this country, which could come back to haunt us if geo-politics takes a turn against us.

[fatJock]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

Security cleared in an active role I presume because if you've been out of an SC role for 2 years your clearance should have lapsed .... typically after 12 months.

As others have said, I doubt it's anything wrong with you - just the wider market we are in. I've been fortunate to have had a planned year off (Sept 23 - Sept 24) and have been in work since with an extension until April 25. Current role is repeat business though and I've been appreciative of the network I've built and I'll be looking to keep my seat on this particular bus to ride things out as long as I can. I'm a technical / infra PM though with 30 years in Logistics and a network built up during that time.

Nothing going at any places you've been before?

[Fraidycat]

And this is the general 'Developer' role chart from ITJobwatch.


Its actually doubly worse for developers, not only are IT jobs down in general, but developers roles are now just 10% to 15% of a much smaller pie when they used to be 30% of a much bigger pie.

[SussexSeagull]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

Never met you but I doubt there is anything wrong with you it is just misfortune that like me and others you have encountered an appalling market.

That said, I am 51 this week with about that length of experience in testing as you have in development and I am not sure on balance it does me any good. Contracting used to be about the safe pair of hands that came in to get a project over the line then walk off into the sunset, and some clients still want that, but more and more I am getting interviewed by people younger than me who are more interested in the latest tools rather than the actual process of doing testing well. One bit of feedback I got was that my testing knowledge was 'old fashioned'.

I am no developer but I suspect a similar thing is happening there with the focus being on tick boxing the latest technology rather than actually having a track record of delivery.

This isn't new but get's masked in a better market.

[GJABS]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

There's nothing wrong with you. There are just not enough jobs out there for us.

[Fraidycat]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

Nothing wrong with you.

Development roles, contracts and even perm roles have dried up for both C sharp and Java.

This is the chart for c sharp, java is similar.

[Cookielove]

I suspect that the numbers are actually much higher other sources seem to suggest that they are ....so last year over £1million in net migration ....jeez that is the size of a very large city...surely the madness needs to end!

[SchumiStars]

WTF is wrong with me?

I am security cleared, Oxford Grad who has 25yrs of development experience in Java and .Net.

What have I got to do to get a contract, I have been looking for nearly 2yrs now. FFS.

[SchumiStars]

And why would you employee a British citizen when you can get two Indian developers for the same amount of money.

I was all for immigration, my dad came here in the 50s, to give us all a chance. But it's just madness to have inflicted so many visas in such difficult times.

Hoping I might be one of the guys that HR need to entice multicultural working practices.

Seriously one tulip, dead, ******* IT industry. London is supposed to be one the tech giants of the world.

I did find out that being a London street begger can net £150pd. Perhaps that's what the goverment wants us to do that?

[SussexSeagull]

It was sold on the basis that it would allow us to control immigration. The trouble is people misinterpreted that word to mean to reduce, rather like "pest control" means to reduce the number of pests. Whereas what it actually means is to give parliament the ability to choose who to bring in, to increase or reduce it as they see fit.

I could probably get behind a system that let the best people move here regardless of where they are from but as you say a lot of people just thought it would stop or heavily reduce immigration and a lot of politicians didn't correct them.

[dsc]

It was sold on the basis that it would allow us to control immigration. The trouble is people misinterpreted that word to mean to reduce, rather like "pest control" means to reduce the number of pests. Whereas what it actually means is to give parliament the ability to choose who to bring in, to increase or reduce it as they see fit.

This + the fact that you can do whatever you want with employment rights as the big bad EU can't force you to do XYZ.

[edison]

I heard it called the White Collar Recession.

I suppose high end consultants who don't need a team (or at least a very small one) around them might prosper in a period of uncertainty but I imagine very few people are switching jobs at the moment so the need for Interim CTO/ITD is quite low, plus anyone who needs to assemble a team is in the same boat as the rest of us.

A white collar recession indeed, primarily affecting IT, finance, managerial roles and consulting. Earlier this year, McKinsey infamously offered some of its senior UK staff nine months salary to stop doing their normal day job and start hunting for their next one.

A lot of high end consultants are associates of multiple consulting firms and demand for their services depends on the health of these consultancies. I know three of these challenger tech and transformation consultancies that are doing very well but at this level (£1000-£2000/day or more), networking is everything in order to be invited to become an associate.

[GJABS]

I was a Remainer, but a lot of people voted for Brexit to reduce immigration when in fact it has hit record highs since.

It was sold on the basis that it would allow us to control immigration. The trouble is people misinterpreted that word to mean to reduce, rather like "pest control" means to reduce the number of pests. Whereas what it actually means is to give parliament the ability to choose who to bring in, to increase or reduce it as they see fit.

[sadkingbilly]

Tories wanted cheap labour and to drive wages down....Labour won't fix it though...

Rishi wanted Infosys to make lotsadosh for his wife's retirement fund, you mean.
but hey, .