State of the Market

[_V_]

The only time it has been an issue for me is with agents. Where was you working between date X and Y? You weren't working, okay client won't like that so will not forward your CV.

I'm sure client would be fine with it, but with agents it seems their no.1 reason for rejection.

Have to say, I've not had that experience.

Happened to me at least twice. Agent is scared client will say "your candidate quality is lacking, we don't want people that either take a lot of time off, or are not highly 'employable' enough to work every day of the year"

That's what I took from it anyway.

[ladymuck]

Happened to me at least twice. Agent is scared client will say "your candidate quality is lacking, we don't want people that either take a lot of time off, or are not highly 'employable' enough to work every day of the year"

That's what I took from it anyway.

That's really quite unfortunate. It's interesting to see the different experiences people have had with gaps. There's loads of valid reasons for a gap, none of which mean a candidate is not employable or has a poor work ethic.

[_V_]

That's really quite unfortunate. It's interesting to see the different experiences people have had with gaps. There's loads of valid reasons for a gap, none of which mean a candidate is not employable or has a poor work ethic.

True. I think a lot of agents are terrified of losing preferred supplier of bums on seats status. So they remove all risk in their minds. Either that or most agents are evil morons.

[eek]

True. I think a lot of agents are terrified of losing preferred supplier of bums on seats status. So they remove all risk in their minds. Either that or most agents are evil morons.

Both options are not mutually exclusive - so I suspect most agents are both.

[NowPermOutsideUK]

Some good news - Seeing quite a few of these over the past few days - In the good days the answer would have been no thanks but happy to help for 750 a day

In the really good days I hear people asking for insane day rates PLUS bonus either after six months or equity grants ...

Who knows if they are genuine

I hope all is well.

I wondered if you could recommend any great Development Leads you have worked with? We are currently working with a leading provider in trade processing services who are looking to hire such a role. Based in London, it is a permanent position offering between £100,000 and £120,000.

Working in their OTC Derivatives area, this person will lead and manage a small team working on a Risk and Analytics solution. In line with this, our client is looking for someone who has managed small team, has a good understanding of Java, Risk/Pricing and team management.

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[sira]

My observations in the last 1-2 weeks - vacancies and salaries have plunged quite sharply. This downward trajectory has gone on long enough now that I would describe it as being a medium-term trend and to some extent, a degree of permanent economic scarring.

When things to eventually perk up a bit, the government will be raving on about how they've created lots of jobs. But in reality the jobs at present are of "low quality" and it will take several years for "high quality" jobs to return in their droves.

I would define low quality as: lower salaries, more part-time jobs, shorter contracts, more FTC's & people taking 1-2 steps down the corporate ladder at the moment.

Starting my undesirable permie job next week...gah

[rootsnall]

My observations in the last 1-2 weeks - vacancies and salaries have plunged quite sharply.

First ad for £270 a day in my skillset today. It's been there a few times in the past, it has always recovered quickly when things pick up, whenever that may be.

[rocktronAMP]

First ad for £270 a day in my skillset today. It's been there a few times in the past, it has always recovered quickly when things pick up, whenever that may be.

Well at least some of the agents are sending inbox mail with a bit of honesty:

Currently I am looking for a AWS DevOps Engineer on a 6 month contract for a client of mine based in XYZ / Surrey (remote initially), paying up to £350 a day for the right candidate, which I appreciate is low, but at least is a contract to turn you over until better times.

The skillset the client are looking for is as follows;

* Excellent AWS experience (5+ years)
* Certified AWS Solutions Architect - Associate
* AWS Services: R53, ECS, IAM, EC2, EFS, ECR, RDS, ElastiCache, LB, VPC (Advanced), WAF, DynamoDB, API Gateway
* and much more ...

Typically, a AWS DevOps goes from £450 to £650 per day in London / 2019 day rates

*I currently am working a FTC, but if there is someone who really wants to apply for this. Please PM me today.

[edison]

Are you then predicting a London "Los Grande Exitos" ?

The trouble with megacities though, is as soon as somebody leaves the big smoke, then immediately another dreamer and aspiring tech person will fill up the vacated space. My question is where do the smart "leavers" go? Which town and/or village do they head off to?

I don't know about being 'smart' but when I've not had London gigs, I've found decent paying gigs in Cambridge and Milton Keynes. There's a corridor that runs roughly Swindon - Reading/Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge that has historically been a huge driver of economic growth, at least in Southern England. I don't know what those areas are like now though as I've been back in London the last two years.

[CheeseSlice]

My observations in the last 1-2 weeks - vacancies and salaries have plunged quite sharply. This downward trajectory has gone on long enough now that I would describe it as being a medium-term trend and to some extent, a degree of permanent economic scarring.

When things to eventually perk up a bit, the government will be raving on about how they've created lots of jobs. But in reality the jobs at present are of "low quality" and it will take several years for "high quality" jobs to return in their droves.

I would define low quality as: lower salaries, more part-time jobs, shorter contracts, more FTC's & people taking 1-2 steps down the corporate ladder at the moment.

Starting my undesirable permie job next week...gah

I'm seeing a rotation away from contract calls to permie recruiters again.

Had a call about a perm job today directly from a company that laid off about 300 people as soon as lockdown struck.
HR lady said this about salary: "things are picking up again for our business, but salaries are still a bit lower for now"
Thats some refreshing honesty!
Its crappy but you get the idea.. fire 'em and hire back cheaper.