Is .NET / MVC / SQL Market poor

**Bpcy** · 31 July 2013, 14:35

Not just .net community but market in general

Originally posted by MisterLysenkiy View Post

Hi everyone,

That's my first post here despite reading you guys for almost a year term.

Being benched for several months already, I hardly struggle to find a new gig.
Apart from mainline of .NET tech stack I gain certain specific highly demanded competencies like single page JS frameworks and excellent SQL skills. Couple times re-formatted and enhanced my CV, now it looks very impressive and most of agencies tell me that.

However, this does not help me much indeed. I get significant number of calls from agents, they all praise my CV, asking to send it to client and eventually disappear afterwards... weird..

Are there jobs in .NET market at all?

I had circa 6-7 interviews so far, and seems like some companies became insanely capricious and can disqualify you for absolutely minor issues. For instance one Reigate-based company did not take me after successfully passing 4 stages of interviews - phone interview and 3 technical interviews onsite. I did not fail any single technical test and in general left very competent impression to everyone. So what was my surprise to hear from agent that company don't want me just because I was not in a suite on the interview (I was nicely smart-casual dressed, very adequately, and because it was +30 outside)!

Other just disappear and got frozen.
Two more interviews postponed after successful interview, and pushing an agent doesn't helps bringing uncertain answers about the clients. I also called clients directly and they said we are expecting the contract ourselves and can't even estimate when it happens.

Another company local to me had very intensive phone interview which I passed with 100% answers, the invited me to face to face interview which I highly anticipated.
And what happened there was - company specialises on checks and all the interested is to pull out as much info from me as possible, in order to check me for last 5 years. They did not interest about my skills at all and when I asked when is this role about to start the responded "Ah-h, maybe in 3 weeks or one month - when we finish with our check against you". So that's not an answer for someone who seeks for high skilled developer to join them soon, same was my impression about the meeting.

There were couple interviews from Bobs, but who on earth ever takes them seriously=)

So I am wondering - what's going on the market? Are there so many candidates and so little gigs?
As recent as a year ago I found it quite easy to find a new gig, while today you have to tick all the boxes, pass all phone interviews and tests with best result and this still does not guarantee you'll get it?

Anyone who's in the same boat - what's your experience?

Hi MisterLysenkie,

It's not just the .Net community it is happening across the market. I'm a Solutions Architect, certified with Oracle, J2EE, IBM and some Microsoft (Biznet, .net, Azure) with over 24 years experience in Many domains ( military, finance, health, insurance, retailetc) with Supply Chain, retail etc experience and I have been out of work since End of April.

I must have sent 100's cv applying to Jobserve, job site, cwjobs, monster etc. I have had lots of interviews, telephone and face-to-face, got down to last 3 to be selected then for some reason the job has been pulled, or client has lowered the money. Only in 2 cases was I pipped at the post, this was my fault as I was already booked to go on a holiday when the clients wanted to start. ( Note: My only holiday which was booked last year which I told the agent about before sending my cv to the clients!)

I think what is happening is
1) the market has been saturated my offshorers
2) the end clients are only thinking short term. About the costs for a specific project rather than thinking strategically
3) get someone in cheap to code. Do it quickly, get them out

What gets me now is that the process is over complicated now. For example, I have been asked in interviews: what is the specifics for coding an SCA component with REST and SOAP procedures, patterns required using toolset like Jdeveloper or Eclipse or .Net and WCF (e.g. Very technical details) THEN in the same interview: Give an example where you made a proposal to the Business board that affected the strategic direction of the company in terms of Target Operating Model benefits and where you provided Risk &Cost based analysis and THEN give examples of USE CASES and Business Process Models using BPEL and BPMNM

Note: this Technical and Business process examples were in the SAME interview. Talk about a broad spectrum of requirements.

Anyway, my point is the market is slow and we just have to keep plugging away. It will soon dawn on Employers that cheap does not necessarily mean quality. I know of 1 project that has over 40 offshorers for work done previously by 8 permies and the work is 4 years late after the Business made the premise redundant!

BPCY

**KentPhilip** · 31 July 2013, 15:47

Originally posted by MisterLysenkiy View Post

Hi everyone,

That's my first post here despite reading you guys for almost a year.

Being benched for several months already, I am struggling to find a new gig.
Apart from the mainline .NET tech stack I have gained certain specific highly in-demand competencies like single page JS frameworks and excellent SQL skills.
A couple of times I've re-formatted and enhanced my CV, and it now looks very impressive - most agencies tell me this.

However, this is not helping me very much.
I am getting a significant number of calls from agents; they all praise my CV, asking whether they can send it to the client, but eventually disappear afterwards... weird..

Are there jobs in .NET market at all?

I had circa 6-7 interviews so far, and seems like some companies have become insanely capricious and disqualify you for minor issues. For instance one Reigate-based company failed to take me after successfully passing 4 stages of interviews - a phone interview and 3 technical interviews onsite. I did not fail any single technical test and in general left a very competent impression to everyone. So I was surprised to hear from the agent that company didn't want me just because I was not in a suit at the interview (I was nicely smart-casually-dressed because it was +30 degrees Centigrade outside)!

Others just disappear and got frozen.
Two more subsequent interviews were postponed after a successful first interview, and pushing an agent doesn't helps bringing answers from the clients. I also called clients directly and they said we are expecting the contract and are unable to say when this will happen.

Another company local to me had a very intensive phone interview which I passed with 100% correct answers, so they invited me to a face to face interview which I looked forward to. But what happened there was that the company specialised on checks, and all they were interested in was to pull out as much info from me as possible, in order to check me for last 5 years. They had not interest in my skills at all, and when I asked when is this role about to start the responded "Ah-h, maybe in 3 weeks or one month - when we finish our checks against you". Thats not an answer for someone who is looking for a highly skilled developer to join them as soon as possible, and my impression about the meeting was the same.

There were couple interviews from Bobs, but who on earth ever takes them seriously=)

So I am wondering - what's going on the market? Are there too many candidates and too few gigs?
As recently as a year ago I found it quite easy to find a new gig, but today you have to tick all the boxes, pass all phone interviews and tests with the best result, but this still does not guarantee you'll get it?

Anyone who's in the same boat - what's your experience?

You need to improve your written English a little - I've edited your question above to improve it.

Are you able to prove easily to clients that you are legally allowed to work in the UK?

**MisterLysenkiy** · 31 July 2013, 16:05

Originally posted by KentPhilip View Post

Are you able to prove easily to clients that you are legally allowed to work in the UK?

I have all the documents required, for sure, I am also applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain next week (permanent residenship)
But a far as I experienced, clients are not interested at all in contractor's visa status and nationality - that's an agency's job to bother about.

And agencies usually ask you visa status at the end, after a client confirmed he's happy with exact contractors.
(And of course, they keep several other candidates as the backup in case primary one may disappear).

**MisterLysenkiy** · 31 July 2013, 16:29

Originally posted by Bpcy View Post

What gets me now is that the process is over complicated now.

Agree, I noticed they hire contractors for just 1 -2 month more meticulously then they choose wifes to marry. And may disqualify you for any minor, like being benched for more then 1-2 months, or any stupid assumptions they may meet.
Assumptions are all over the market making it even more complicated and should you just fall out of standard ideal picture of a contractor - you'll hardly find a new gig.

Just to support that - one company rejected me after a phone interview, face-to-face technical and final 'boss' interview just because one of interviewers got a though that I might not be too excited to work with ASP.NET webforms (they have minor amount of them in addition to main objectives) only because I am a keen MVC follower. They did not even ask me, just decided for myself and I heard that later from an agent! I did not say anything like that and was highly willing to take this gig in general. I am professional doing his job well, rather than moaning about retired technologies (if being paid well as agreed before) so that would never be an issue, but they decided for myself!

Similar situations occurred frequently in the past half a year. I do not know which strategy should I take in order to get a job. My money has almost run out, and I am willing to pick any job, whatever comes first as in next month there will no means left to pay tenancy and support family.
Should I significantly drop the rate? If it is all about cutting clients' expenses - it may work? Any other ways to promote myself?

Is .NET / MVC / SQL Market poor