Reply to: State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

Just seen another role in Knutsford £251 - £261 inside for Test Automation. Barclays really taking the p1ss it seems.

It might have become more widespread since open source tools began appearing so people could learn it at home but decent automated testers (which admittedly is not all of them) should be prized. By doing this they are offering no encouragement for people to stay doing it or start doing it.

Business and Industry is really doing their best to make sure the IT industry isn't sustainable in this country.

[SussexSeagull]

I totally agree. I have spent a lot of time upskilling to C#, .NET, Cloud... (which I have actively used in my previous contracts) and all approaches bar 1 have been for Embedded devices which was surprising to me.

Sounds like a rare niche that is worth being in at the moment. Congratulations!

[rocktronAMP]

Barclays have been taking the p1ss for over a decade. Everyone took the Barclays gigs to fill a hole and then left when they got something better. They changed the contract to no notice, i.e. could not give notice on the gig, to try stem the tide of people coming and going and did attempt to follow this as far as they could (for free) with contractors that did just give notice and leave even though they were in breach. Wonder if anything has changed on that front.

Is this the special Barclay digital centre next to Knutsford. Gowd naww! I thought it was sexy and modern in 2012/2013 when I had a very short 2 day visit. The black Dell developer laptop were evil horrid, impossible to code, poor Intel chips and just about enough RAM. Photoshop? forget it? I was contracting for Barclays Retail in the Docklands. I had to visit Knutsford for a projection initiation and relationship building. They paid for my expenses, hotel and food for 2 nights from London to Crewe and back on a first class train seat.
Like all of these new fangled digital agile station brain works, the new idea dies slowly and evitably with the lack of belief and retention of staff and poor culture.

Is Tesco Digital thing still going happening in Welyn Garden City? (Glad I rejected that one)
How is Sky in Osterley still going? ( I hear bad news; never had the pleasure)
What about RS Electronics in Corby? ( It was just ok in 2017, but I didn't renew and found somewhere else)

[eek]

Maybe, like for the solution architect role that eek posted above, its for two positions, they could be trying to get two from the budget of one, in both cases.

Its p1ss take but on the positive side it provides some income for two benched contractors rather than just one..

Nope it's someone in Barclay's HR department going we can abuse contractors by paying the least amount we can get away with.

They are one of the few companies I won't go near at all I'm careful when North West Finance jobs appear to not go nears Knutsford even if it does mean I turn down MBNA/M&S as I've accidentally done in the past.

[northernladuk]

Maybe, like for the solution architect role that eek posted above, its for two positions, they could be trying to get two from the budget of one, in both cases.

Its p1ss take but on the positive side it provides some income for two benched contractors rather than just one..

Barclays have been taking the p1ss for over a decade. Everyone took the Barclays gigs to fill a hole and then left when they got something better. They changed the contract to no notice, i.e. could not give notice on the gig, to try stem the tide of people coming and going and did attempt to follow this as far as they could (for free) with contractors that did just give notice and leave even though they were in breach. Wonder if anything has changed on that front.

[Fraidycat]

Just seen another role in Knutsford £251 - £261 inside for Test Automation. Barclays really taking the p1ss it seems.

Maybe, like for the solution architect role that eek posted above, its for two positions, they could be trying to get two from the budget of one, in both cases.

Its p1ss take but on the positive side it provides some income for two benched contractors rather than just one..

[dsc]

Just seen another role in Knutsford £251 - £261 inside for Test Automation. Barclays really taking the p1ss it seems.

That's close to 40k a year perm no?

[oliverson]

The .Net contract market from what I can see if all but dead outside of London and financial services.

I've got a year left on a FTC and I'm setting myself up for a remote £50k-£65k a year perm job when it ends as a worse case scenario.

Agent just dropped me a line regarding a .NET contract, hybrid, outside, £ 750. But yeah, London and FS.

[avonleigh]

Just seen another role in Knutsford £251 - £261 inside for Test Automation. Barclays really taking the p1ss it seems.

[SchumiStars]

Well this supposed summer bounce has not materialised. Looks like the entire year will be closing up soon enough (90 days left in 2024).
What a waste of a year! No ******* contract and no ******* money.

[avonleigh]

The issue there is the inside rate - unless you are very local (i.e. based in Manchester / Chester) the journey costs will destroy the rate.

Equally it's half what a competitor was paying me 2 years ago..

That's very true. Knutsford is not a cheap place to stay either.

[eek]

People with do it though when they haven't worked for 6 or 12 months. They will know that. Done it myself back in 2003. Took a shocking rate for 9 months in Milton Keynes. Awful. But glad I did as kept the mortgage being paid.

The issue there is the inside rate - unless you are very local (i.e. based in Manchester / Chester) the journey costs will destroy the rate.

Equally it's half what a competitor was paying me 2 years ago..

[avonleigh]

Just seen an advert for Barclays for 2 solution architects.

Pay was £382 inside with 2 days in Knutsford, good luck finding anyone willing to do that at that rate...

People with do it though when they haven't worked for 6 or 12 months. They will know that. Done it myself back in 2003. Took a shocking rate for 9 months in Milton Keynes. Awful. But glad I did as kept the mortgage being paid.

[eek]

Just seen an advert for Barclays for 2 solution architects.

Pay was £382 inside with 2 days in Knutsford, good luck finding anyone willing to do that at that rate...

[zonkkk]

What are you using for embedded out of curiosity? I always assumed it was C, but perhaps the scene is different these days. At some stage I wanted to move to Intel (even had an interview via a buddy that works there, but they went with an internal hire), but since they announced tulipe results, I think that ship has sailed...

Mostly Embedded C and C++ (same old, same old, on different OS-es SafeRTOS, FreeRTOS, OSEK, etc depending on industry and Linux).