State of the Market

[BobbinAlong]

And deboomed -potential client that I signed contract for has meeting with their client, who have put all roles on hold.

I'd have put off renewing insurances, not have had contract renewed if I'd known. Ah well.

Happened to me in one contract - signed up with agent and agent with client (marketing) but the client's client cancelled project.
However under contact terms I was entitled to a week's pay in lieu of notice. They made me work the week though and when I was later asked if I wanted to take another contract there I declined. Not my usual sector and wasn't keen on the company.

So check you contract terms if you've signed as you could still get something out of it.

[CheeseSlice]

And deboomed -potential client that I signed contract for has meeting with their client, who have put all roles on hold.

I'd have put off renewing insurances, not have had contract renewed if I'd known. Ah well.

This is why its important to keep applying and interviewing, especially now.
I had 2 gig offers during covid that evaporated when the client thought they had the money, but then couldn't get the PO signed off for some reason. They checked under the sofa and everything apparently.
Another one in the last year went up like a puff of smoke. Contract reviewed, amended, signed. Agent kept stringing me along until eventually they came clean and said the client didn't seem to have to the go ahead any more.

I'm 3 weeks into a new gig and I've been paid already, but I'm still applying and interviewing for other gigs.. just in case

[hungry_hog]

Most business insurance will let you cancel and refund you pro rata.

avoid Kingsbridge - they didn't let me

said they would only refund if I put the Ltd as dormant

They had the cheek to try and auto renew me as well after my 6 months of unused!

[Destiny2]

I usually work in 2nd line support as a contractor. The market in this line of work seems at the moment.

There are some remote wfh roles but they are all service desk ones. Do I really want to go down to 1st line and take calls one after another and log calls and reassign them for £100/day ?

Until the vaccine is made available, I do not feel comfortable getting on public transport in London. Trains are still packed!

Not sure where to go from here.

[uk contractor]

I usually work in 2nd line support as a contractor. The market in this line of work seems at the moment.

There are some remote wfh roles but they are all service desk ones. Do I really want to go down to 1st line and take calls one after another and log calls and reassign them for £100/day ?

Until the vaccine is made available, I do not feel comfortable getting on public transport in London. Trains are still packed!

Not sure where to go from here.

Move into something else you & 10,000 + other 2nd line contractors are on the scrapheap along with many other IT contractors as you need niche indemand IT skills to remain as a contractor right now!
The time to make a good living from IT contracting in the UK in support was over a number of years ago now.
So much of that work has been outsourced or near shored (others are imported from places like India & work for a fraction of what you might consider a daily rate but the company providing the resource keep a massive margin & still manage to be cheaper than the rate you would expect!).
UK government refuse to acknowledge there is no realistic IT skill shortage (for many years in UK now) so they allow this to happen displacing tens of thousands of UK IT workers who do not require a work permit!

You can either reskill into something niche & hope you can land a contract with your certs alone & no commercial experience (you will be competing against contractors with the commercial experience & relevant skillset so bear that in mind before spending too much money on certs!), start a new business or try something new in another business sector.

Waiting for things to improve is not going to change much with the pandemic wreaking global havoc for business plans & WFH models is here to stay so that alone eliminates many IT jobs both perm & contract unless they are essential niche requirements.

[GhostofTarbera]

Move into something else you & 10,000 + other 2nd line contractors are on the scrapheap along with many other IT contractors as you need niche indemand IT skills to remain as a contractor right now!
The time to make a good living from IT contracting in the UK in support was over a number of years ago now.
So much of that work has been outsourced or near shored (others are imported from places like India & work for a fraction of what you might consider a daily rate but the company providing the resource keep a massive margin & still manage to be cheaper than the rate you would expect!).
UK government refuse to acknowledge there is no realistic IT skill shortage (for many years in UK now) so they allow this to happen displacing tens of thousands of UK IT workers who do not require a work permit!

You can either reskill into something niche & hope you can land a contract with your certs alone & no commercial experience (you will be competing against contractors with the commercial experience & relevant skillset so bear that in mind before spending too much money on certs!), start a new business or try something new in another business sector.

Waiting for things to improve is not going to change much with the pandemic wreaking global havoc for business plans & WFH models is here to stay so that alone eliminates many IT jobs both perm & contract unless they are essential niche requirements.

Is everyone remembering from 1st Jan 2021 anyone can come over from any county in the world to work in IT if they earn over £25K and on zzzzzlist

As in all IT jobs

Immigration Rules Appendix K: shortage occupation list - Immigration Rules - Guidance - GOV.UK





Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[Paralytic]

Only $400K a year, but might interest someone here

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2...f-4e7b6eb0b9ab

It is in Glasgow though and is probably a "work for free" scam.

Our hiring platform will guide you through a series of online “screening” assessments to check for basic job fit, job-related skills, and finally a few real-world job-specific assignments

[Destiny2]

Move into .....

I have an interesting story about how I got into IT.
I was in college doing my A-levels. During summer vacations, I did volunteer work at a high street PC repair shop that year for 3 months. Yellow pages were offering a free listing and I took advantage and listed myself on there. I used to get a few calls every now and then from members of the public. I also started selling PC's on eBay. Profit margin was quite low - £30 per PC but it was enough in those days.
When I was in uni doing my CS degree, I saw an advert on Jobcentre and managed to get a Swap-out engineer role where they would call me once a week.

When I finished uni, I applied for roles and listed all these work experiences on my CV. I went straight into a 2nd line role for a big name and never looked back since then.

I now have 10 years in 2nd line, 2 years in Production support and 1 year as a 2nd line Team leader i.e. 13 years in total. I have been contracting for the last 7 years.

The reason I went into contracting was due to £££'s. When I was a permie, I got 27k a year before switching. During my contract years, I got 38k in my lowest paid role and 75k in my highest paid role.

[eek]

But you haven't used your time to move up in the world which leaves you with a problem now the world has changed.

[Destiny2]

But you haven't used your time to move up in the world which leaves you with a problem now the world has changed.

I have tried. I saw no way of moving from 2nd line to 3rd line if I stayed in the same place. Went to another place and saw the same. There was a guy I worked with in my first gig. He is doing 2nd line still in the same place and he is now about to retire.