How are people finding the market at the moment

[craig1]

I got a call yesterday from a client I've worked for before. He asked if I could come in immediately to start a new project for them, I told him I'm committed to deliver a bit of work for my current client and my ethics wouldn't let me drop them in it at this stage even though I've got a trivial notice period in my contract. He offered me a £100 daily rate uplift to jump now but I declined.

He went away, had a think, came back and asked me to sign a "retainer" to commit me to start as soon as this contract finished. Current contract finishes 9 December, new contract starts 12 December and a £5k retainer being paid on receipt of my invoice (already gone) to keep me off the market.

So... in my very narrow, wholly subjective opinion based on the last 24 hours, the market is fantastic

[radish2008]

I'm a highly experienced .NET developer but not getting any responses from my applications.

I had a big fall out with my last recruitment consultant who tried to withhold my pay for a month - resulting in him getting dragged down to the office and getting a total bollocking from the CEO who threatened him with dissolution of their professional relationship.

I'm kinda worried he blacklisted me or something out of spite. I've heard there's an underground illegal blacklist that all recruitment consultants share.

Or am I just being paranoid - is the market slow right now? I'm really worried to be honest with you.

I'm in the same boat - just finished at 13 month gig in London and am sat nervously on the bench. I still have my fingers in a few pies though although this has been the first time in 3 years I've had nothing on the go. In my experience agencies are weird creatures. My first contract came about as I applied for a permie job, the permy process was long (3 interviews) and they offered me more money than I had asked for. At the time I had started a 4 week contract to help with the cash flow and found I truly loved it so I turned the permie job down - the director of the agency phoned me and screamed down the phone - telling me I would never work again and that he would make sure of it. 2 months later the guy that put me forward for the job phoned me to ask if the company I was at had any vacancies !

So I wouldn't worry. If you're like me you'll be busily trying to restore your confidence and a quiet market doesn't help. Things tend to get out of proportion due the the stress of looking for new work. For example, I've noticed that a lot of the contracts that I'd go for seem to be asking for a tighter set of skills and whilst I have some I don't have them all. At every company I've worked as a contractor I've ALWAYS ended up extending and have proven to myself that I have no problems dealing with skills that are new, yet at the minute it seems like I'm scared of applying as I don't have X years in every technology listed, this is compounded by agents that simply won't put you forward unless you tick every box.

So, apologies for the long post, relax and enjoy your time off.

Steve

[pmeswani]

If there is a blacklist of any type, I wouldn't worry about it. Only you can sell yourself, nobody else. August has been an interesting month, plenty of interest and September is now proving to be more productive compared to last year. Just remember, it's a difficult period, and don't mention the Recession, it frightens the market movers.

[Darren_Test]

I'm kinda worried he blacklisted me or something out of spite. I've heard there's an underground illegal blacklist that all recruitment consultants share.

Or am I just being paranoid - is the market slow right now? I'm really worried to be honest with you.

Well..I asked same question 2 years back when I was in a bit of trouble to find a gig after bloody fallout with an agency. I thought I was in the TOP of that 'blacklist'...!! I got many calls from the same agency in later, though the agent never called me after that...Not sure he left recruitment field or not though...

[PropertyCrashUK]

Market very quiet for TA work in the UK. US, Europe and Oz seems surprisingly buoyant and am seriously beginning about making the move.

Can't see the UK picking up any time as corporate are not making money so they ain't spending and public sector is supposedly stopping spending on IT - saying that, seems to be lots of public sector PM roles.

Banks are laying off loads of people - thousands - so imagine there is some knock on for banking IT.

[BolshieBastard]

Market is patchy except in and around the smoke, imo.

TBH, you need to be in regular contact with agents. The 3 interviews I secured (2 of which I got job offers and have decided on one) were as a result of direct agent contact. Apps through jobswerve where just that, applications with no end result.

[rd409]

Well, I had a fall out with one of the agent. At that time, it seems that I will be getting no more work from that channel. Fortunately, 6 months down the line, the same guy called me with a potential gig.

Moral of the story : There are no permanent enemies in this field, as long as they can make some commission out of you, and you can get some lucrative gigs out of them.

[The Agents View]

First rule abound underground illegal blacklist is you don't talk about the underground illegal blacklist!

On a serious note if a pimp reckons they can make money from you they will, try rewording your CV, opening up your location a bit further

For the record:

There is no illegal blacklist.
There is no "above board" blacklist
Sharing information with the competition is a BIIIIG no no.

All of this is in my personal experience, and to my personal knowledge, and you can bend me over at a paintballing event, and shoot my ring point blank, if you can prove otherwise.

If you find a list like that, let me know, as I'm clearly missing out!

[craig1]

The August - early September window is always quiet in my experience. Nowt new in it, just the contracting market.

[nomadd]

I've heard there's an underground illegal blacklist that all recruitment consultants share.

And seriously,



EDIT: The market has gone a bit quieter, I've found. Still a reasonable number of roles around, though.

[SimonMac]

I'm a highly experienced .NET developer but not getting any responses from my applications.

I had a big fall out with my last recruitment consultant who tried to withhold my pay for a month - resulting in him getting dragged down to the office and getting a total bollocking from the CEO who threatened him with dissolution of their professional relationship.

I'm kinda worried he blacklisted me or something out of spite. I've heard there's an underground illegal blacklist that all recruitment consultants share.

Or am I just being paranoid - is the market slow right now? I'm really worried to be honest with you.

First rule abound underground illegal blacklist is you don't talk about the underground illegal blacklist!

On a serious note if a pimp reckons they can make money from you they will, try rewording your CV, opening up your location a bit further

[kaiser78]

I'm a highly experienced .NET developer but not getting any responses from my applications.

I had a big fall out with my last recruitment consultant who tried to withhold my pay for a month - resulting in him getting dragged down to the office and getting a total bollocking from the CEO who threatened him with dissolution of their professional relationship.

I'm kinda worried he blacklisted me or something out of spite. I've heard there's an underground illegal blacklist that all recruitment consultants share.Or am I just being paranoid - is the market slow right now? I'm really worried to be honest with you.

Where have you heard that from ???

[contractoralan]

am I just being paranoid

Yes

[reach4thelasers]

I'm a highly experienced .NET developer but not getting any responses from my applications.

I had a big fall out with my last recruitment consultant who tried to withhold my pay for a month - resulting in him getting dragged down to the office and getting a total bollocking from the CEO who threatened him with dissolution of their professional relationship.

I'm kinda worried he blacklisted me or something out of spite. I've heard there's an underground illegal blacklist that all recruitment consultants share.

Or am I just being paranoid - is the market slow right now? I'm really worried to be honest with you.