Reply to: job market

[SussexSeagull]

I had my best ever year 24/25 (the corp tax hit was sobering...) and am still in an Outside contract on a good rate until March.

I am not so optimistic about future prospects, but I've managed to navigate the past couple of years worth of tulipshows, so here's hoping that 2026 isn't an absolute car crash.

I finished on a really high note. I had my joint second best paid contrast and found my best paid within a fortnight (although it ended up taking longer to actually start).

Again, you very well might be different, certainly not having a gap after your last contract seems to count for something, but it is a different world to when you last had to look for something.

[courtg9000]

I've been playing around with the new MiniMax LLM coding tool and being frank i've been scarily surprised at how good it is..

It really is a good junior dev on speed and it's allowed me to do a 1 month hobby project in about 2 days.

I will add that my opinion here does depend on what you are trying to do, LLMs are appalling at giving accurate information about Dynamics 365...

just having a little play with this myself, you are not wrong, it is a good junior dev on speed, thanks for tip off! Happy New Year to You too!

[ensignia]

I had my best ever year 24/25 (the corp tax hit was sobering...) and am still in an Outside contract on a good rate until March.

I am not so optimistic about future prospects, but I've managed to navigate the past couple of years worth of tulipshows, so here's hoping that 2026 isn't an absolute car crash.

[SussexSeagull]

Finished my last (and, weirdly, best paid ever) contract in March 2024 and couldn’t find anything until I saw the writing on the wall and moved out of IT to do something else in June this year.

There are some contractors who have kept working, of which there are a couple of examples here, but I think IT contracting, especially outside IR35, as a mass industry is over.

[sadkingbilly]

I've been playing around with the new MiniMax LLM coding tool and being frank i've been scarily surprised at how good it is..

It really is a good junior dev on speed and it's allowed me to do a 1 month hobby project in about 2 days.

I will add that my opinion here does depend on what you are trying to do, LLMs are appalling at giving accurate information about Dynamics 365...

even worse at anything mainframe

[Fraidycat]

Its not just the contracting or IT markets, lots of permies in "more traditional stuff" finding it hard to get new roles/move on or are have been laid off.

And its not just the UK, workers in the US are having a hard time as well.

There do seem to be countries that are not having it as bad, but this UK slow down seems to highly correlated to the US.

US GDP growth was 4% on the back of massive spending on AI data centre buildouts. But this has helped construction workers and electricians and not as many IT workers, at least not yet.

[Fraidycat]

So what I am trying to say is people who stay in work during downtimes are one of these three a) have specialist skills (which probably 90% of us don't) b) are just lucky enough to have a long contract c) aren't too proud to take a rubbish rate or work away from home.

d) Have some one in your network that can get you in or an interview on recommendation.

Thats I how got a role during past down turns.

[eek]

I've been playing around with the new MiniMax LLM coding tool and being frank i've been scarily surprised at how good it is..

It really is a good junior dev on speed and it's allowed me to do a 1 month hobby project in about 2 days.

I will add that my opinion here does depend on what you are trying to do, LLMs are appalling at giving accurate information about Dynamics 365...

[courtg9000]

Its not just the contracting or IT markets, lots of permies in "more traditional stuff" finding it hard to get new roles/move on or are have been laid off.

[sadkingbilly]

how many whiny jobs threads are we going to have, then?
asking for a friend.

[avonleigh]

Me as well.

I'm a senior guy, but have no problem adjusting my rate to what the market will bear at the time.
I don't understand contractors who believe "I am worth X!", as if they can move the market with the sheer force of their will.

We are all trying to figure out why some contractors are out of work for years and some are not.

I haven't been out of work for very long when I've been looking either.
I don't attribute it to my amazing awesomeness. Nor the fabled "niche skills" concept.

The nearest I can get is the "ants in a microwave" dynamic I riffed on earlier.
Geography is a factor, I gravitated towards London.
As I got more experienced, I moved away from being a pure coder. More design, strategy, architecture and technical team leading these days.
As b0redom mentions, continuous training. Being a Pascal programmer was fun for a while, but come on..
Don't get locked into a single business domain. Banking isn't what it used to be.
And don't be a dick.

I hasten to add, none of this was planned. And might still go to worms now I've jinxed it.

Never been out of work, other than 5 months during Covid and been contracting since 1998. 2003 was quite bad I remember, took a rate of £192 a day and had to stay away 4 nights a week. Stayed in the cheapest digs I could find. Other people turned their nose up at that rate but it kept my bills paid for 9 months until the market improved. 2007 during the financial crisis I didn't even notice their was a downturn as managed to stay in the same contract for 4 years.
So what I am trying to say is people who stay in work during downtimes are one of these three a) have specialist skills (which probably 90% of us don't) b) are just lucky enough to have a long contract c) aren't too proud to take a rubbish rate or work away from home.

[Dorkeaux]

Maybe I've just been lucky, but 40 months.

I've never really been out of work when I've wanted it, but I've been flexible on rates when the market has tanked, and continuously trained myself. What are all you folks who've been out for 6 months+ specialising in?

Me as well.

I'm a senior guy, but have no problem adjusting my rate to what the market will bear at the time.
I don't understand contractors who believe "I am worth X!", as if they can move the market with the sheer force of their will.

We are all trying to figure out why some contractors are out of work for years and some are not.

I haven't been out of work for very long when I've been looking either.
I don't attribute it to my amazing awesomeness. Nor the fabled "niche skills" concept.

The nearest I can get is the "ants in a microwave" dynamic I riffed on earlier.
Geography is a factor, I gravitated towards London.
As I got more experienced, I moved away from being a pure coder. More design, strategy, architecture and technical team leading these days.
As b0redom mentions, continuous training. Being a Pascal programmer was fun for a while, but come on..
Don't get locked into a single business domain. Banking isn't what it used to be.
And don't be a dick.

I hasten to add, none of this was planned. And might still go to worms now I've jinxed it.

[TheDude]

I am 53. I am in an outside contract on my lowest rate ever and am now only considering perm positions.

[b0redom]

Maybe I've just been lucky, but 40 months.

I've never really been out of work when I've wanted it, but I've been flexible on rates when the market has tanked, and continuously trained myself. What are all you folks who've been out for 6 months+ specialising in?

[ShandyDrinker]

As others have said, the market has been bad for years.

I feel lucky that I was offered a contract with a previous client in early 2022 and was there until July 2025. I found what many others did, the market was terrible. Not only that, the game really has changed, particularly if you're in software development. Multi-stage interviews, take home tests, pair programming exercises, etc. It's certainly not like it used to be.

I ended up taking a perm job in early October as I saw absolutely no point in flogging the dead horse that is the contracting market. The best part of 20 years contracting ended but hey, if nothing else, as a contractor you should be adaptable. What's sad is that I found the market worse than both the GFC and covid. It's not even been close.

I know of another 3 contractors who finished contracts at around the same time as I did, who haven't found work yet. Not far short of 6 months out of work and nothing on the horizon. It's bleak out there. I really do hope 2026 will pick up for those struggling, but sadly I just don't see the conditions in place for that to happen.