Reply to: The demise of Jobserve/Total Jobs etc for IT contracts

[Bluenose]

Have now been opening myself up to Inside roles but, the responses are pretty much the same.

Yeah, the market did crap the bed in June 2022 and its not really recovered since, Bojo wobble, Bojo exit, Truss exit, it really killed the market off and then just as the market started to bounce a bit, the Credit Suisse thing kicked off.

Go perm learn some new stuff and head to the Winchester seems to be the vibe for 2023.

[Fraidycat]

The last time I worked was June 2022. Since then, had until recently been looking exclusively for Outside work via JobServe.

June 2022 is unlucky timing, that is when others on here said the market turned bad. Personally i don't think it is lockdown or remote work that caused this current down turn, the timing would suggest it is related to the increase in interest rates.. Thats the point of them, to cause people and companies to cut back on spending and tighten budgets..

[simes]

The last time I worked was June 2022. Since then, had until recently been looking exclusively for Outside work via JobServe.

Prior to now, have enjoyed back to back contracts for over 20 years, this a mix of JobServe and past clients. Have tried LinkedIn but the filters seem hopeless. Ticking boxes for Contract work still delivers Inside and Perm roles.

Either way, responses from Jobserve, LinkedIn and past clients have been zero. I guess partly due to Lock down and remote working, everything advertised as a PM is now Azure, Cloud, Security, and for industries I have not had experience in.

Have now been opening myself up to Inside roles but, the responses are pretty much the same.

Roll on summer. Best of luck to all.

[oliverson]

The idea of flying to London for 1 day a week sounds like hell to me, and if you're only allowed to be abroad 120 days a year, that means that for another 80(ish) days of the year you need to be staying in the UK on top of your 1 day per week. So, you need a property in Spain, one in the UK (outside London?) and accommodation in London. And pay for all of that plus your flights out of £70k (which we all know is what £75-95k actually means)

...it's a "no" from me.

That was me at one point. Over the winters, my weekly routine was..

Mon: Work from non-London home then take train to London rental'

Tue: Work in Canary Wharf

Wed: Work in Canary Wharf then tube to Bank, then to Liverpool Street, Stansted Express to Stansted, Ryanair flight to Spain, train to local village, taxi to Spanish property

Thu: Work from Spanish home

Fri: Work from Spanish home

Sat: Get pissed and sunburnt

Sunday: Evening flight to UK then taxi to non-London home

Rinse and repeat

Obviously there were costs involved in all this but they weren't too bad. The flights were pretty cheap, as were the trains down to London. It worked pretty well but I doubt it would be so affordable these days, and I'm a little older now for that manic routine.

[rocktronAMP]

WTF does this actually mean? Non-Caucasian, non-European, non-binary, neurodiverse etc? I'm very happy to have anyone of any background as my work colleague, as long as they can actually do the job, but this seems a meaningless use of the adjective.

They think all software engineers are dunces. Is. All. Do. Not. Apply. Run. Away.

[ladymuck]

Not only is it 120 days a year from anywhere on Earth, but you still need to be in London 1 day per week.
So, yes, in theory you work Monday of week 1 in London, then fly out Monday evening to your place in Spain/Italy/Greece/Anywhere on Earth...that you can get to, but still be online by 9am on Tuesday.
You then stay at your foreign residence until the following Thursday, and when your UK working hours are done, catch a flight back to the UK for the Friday. Spend the weekend in London and rinse/repeat.

The idea of flying to London for 1 day a week sounds like hell to me, and if you're only allowed to be abroad 120 days a year, that means that for another 80(ish) days of the year you need to be staying in the UK on top of your 1 day per week. So, you need a property in Spain, one in the UK (outside London?) and accommodation in London. And pay for all of that plus your flights out of £70k (which we all know is what £75-95k actually means)

...it's a "no" from me.

lol, I suspect that's not how it would be managed in reality

[biergarten]

i've all my clients through jobserve and similars. Now I need to get a new one, market looks slow. hope things haven't moved to linkedin as part of their business model is to charge us for something that was free.

i will stick to the former for a few weeks

no luck at the moment with jobserve and similars, not even an interview. used to get gigs just by making public my CV in these sites and letting the agents contact me. now i am even applying for specific contracts, and the only thing i get is agents calling me with a perfect matching role, and asking for 2 references after a 10-minutes call (thought it was a thing from the past)

[Snooky]

- 26% of their engineering team are diverse

WTF does this actually mean? Non-Caucasian, non-European, non-binary, neurodiverse etc? I'm very happy to have anyone of any background as my work colleague, as long as they can actually do the job, but this seems a meaningless use of the adjective.

[WTFH]

Anyway, let's get back on topic, I think this sort of job advert http://www.jobserve.com/U5lAR is a joke.

How can you be allowed to work 120 days from anywhere on Earth? (I was reading some of the arguments back and forth from the Spanish Nomad Visa thread)
Even for contracting, this is problematic for employers and internation tax residencies. It makes me think this job ad is just a honey trap for CVs. Well the agency in question already have my CV, or should have it, and then I am emminently qualified, but I have not been called about this opportunity.

Not only is it 120 days a year from anywhere on Earth, but you still need to be in London 1 day per week.
So, yes, in theory you work Monday of week 1 in London, then fly out Monday evening to your place in Spain/Italy/Greece/Anywhere on Earth...that you can get to, but still be online by 9am on Tuesday.
You then stay at your foreign residence until the following Thursday, and when your UK working hours are done, catch a flight back to the UK for the Friday. Spend the weekend in London and rinse/repeat.

The idea of flying to London for 1 day a week sounds like hell to me, and if you're only allowed to be abroad 120 days a year, that means that for another 80(ish) days of the year you need to be staying in the UK on top of your 1 day per week. So, you need a property in Spain, one in the UK (outside London?) and accommodation in London. And pay for all of that plus your flights out of £70k (which we all know is what £75-95k actually means)

...it's a "no" from me.

[rocktronAMP]

Be prepared to have to put your preferred-pronoun-of-the-day on your signature and Teams/Zoom names.

That is a completely valid view to have. However, diversity is not a perk though.

For me (he/him), I worked with a fantastic DevOps/RubyonRails person called Billy (him) who one day after the Xmas / NYE holiday walked into the office and announced "From now on, I want to be called Billie (she/her)". She was wearing a skirt and plimsolls. This was about 10 years ago now when I was working a contract. It's was flipping hard, and I know it is not Business per se (more General forum), but it is a business and professional attitude to keep in mind. I found it really hard to try to not make the mistake of misgendering "let him run the admin script. Oh sorry. Let Billie spin up the database, she knows the Puppet scripts really well".

When I think about my personal experience, compared to today's society, we were not discussing who was allowed to use which sexual toilet bathrooms on site. Oh goodness what a pickle we have now(?!).

Anyway, let's get back on topic, I think this sort of job advert http://www.jobserve.com/U5lAR is a joke.

How can you be allowed to work 120 days from anywhere on Earth? (I was reading some of the arguments back and forth from the Spanish Nomad Visa thread)
Even for contracting, this is problematic for employers and internation tax residencies. It makes me think this job ad is just a honey trap for CVs. Well the agency in question already have my CV, or should have it, and then I am emminently qualified, but I have not been called about this opportunity.

[Paralytic]

Diversity is now a perk(!). Sheesh

Be prepared to have to put your preferred-pronoun-of-the-day on your signature and Teams/Zoom names.

[WTFH]

What sites are people using in their searches?

All of my recent contracts have come from agent approaches.

All my recent offers have come from me phoning past clients, or agents I know and getting in their face.

By the time a job is on any of the sites, it's generally too late. But LinkedIn would still be my go-to, again, use it to contact agents you know or fellow contractors in your field.

It's all about maintaining business relationships.

[TheDude]

What sites are people using in their searches?

All of my recent contracts have come from agent approaches.

[rocktronAMP]

i've all my clients through jobserve and similars. Now I need to get a new one, market looks slow. hope things haven't moved to linkedin as part of their business model is to charge us for something that was free.

i will stick to the former for a few weeks

The permie side of things is very sucky on jobserve. I have seen multiple Java/Kotlin openings all the time past, since mid-March, but I never get the calls:


Java/Kotlin Engineers - 95k
An award winning Fintech is looking for a number of Java/Kotlin Developers to join their team.
Salary - 75k-95k + excellent package + benefits on top
1 day a week in London, 4 days WFH
Few of the perks
- You can work 120 days remotely worldwide
- 26% of their engineering team are diverse
- Private Healthcare
- Discounted Gym membership
Technical Stack;
- Java
- Kotlin
- AWS
- Kafka
- APIs

Diversity is now a perk(!). Sheesh

[biergarten]

i've all my clients through jobserve and similars. Now I need to get a new one, market looks slow. hope things haven't moved to linkedin as part of their business model is to charge us for something that was free.

i will stick to the former for a few weeks