Seasonal IT Contracts Availbility

**doconline** · 2 February 2019, 15:48

Originally posted by siphr View Post

Hello,

I am fairly new to contracting <1 year. I finished up my last gig in Nov. last year and I suspected it wasn't a good time to be on the bench. I have since been looking for the market to pick up a bit in terms of development jobs but the market looks fairly docile. So I was wondering if things are usually quite round about the start of the year primarily because companies are coming close to their accounting dates or for some other factor e.g brexit?

Thanks.

Traditionally it is quiet around Christmas. A lot of companies, particularly finance related, have a contractor furlough around Christmas. Tends to pick up after the new year and then I would expect it to be back to normal by now. There may also be a bit of Brexit factoring in too, but work does still go on and projects still need completing.

I'm in the same boat as you (by design). I ended a contract just before Christmas, as I wanted to take a few weeks off. Found it really quiet to start off with but have just secured a contract this week, going through onboarding now to start on 11/2.

Hope you get something soon. May also depend on skillset of the roles you are going for. I'm a front end developer, so demand is usually pretty good anyway.

**OhJoy** · 3 February 2019, 17:22

It's picking up

I took a break from November last year as well.

Came back onto market 2-3 weeks ago, I found it pretty quiet where most roles had crazy wish lists and/or low rates and thought god I need to crack on and skill up faster.

In the last week and a bit, normal roles at decent rates have been coming through and have had a lot of calls in the last week from recruiters and interviews lined up.

Recruiters have also said things pick up at end of Jan/Feb onwards.

Hope you get something soon

**oilboil** · 4 February 2019, 08:39

It's generally always quiet from end of November to mid-February as school Christmas holidays and adults ski trips make their way through the diary.

Its also deathly quiet between early July and Mid September

These are times you want to be in contract unless you have a decent warchest or you yourself also want to be on holiday

**siphr** · 4 February 2019, 10:35

Thanks a lot for replying to all who replied. I guess it confirms what I have observed myself. I understand there are a lot of other factors involved like the area you are based at and the skill set. Lets see...

**LondonManc** · 4 February 2019, 13:57

Originally posted by siphr View Post

Thanks a lot for replying to all who replied. I guess it confirms what I have observed myself. I understand there are a lot of other factors involved like the area you are based at and the skill set. Lets see...

For you there will be the additional issue of experience as a contractor. The old saying "the second contract is a lot harder to find" stands here.

**siphr** · 4 February 2019, 19:26

Originally posted by LondonManc View Post

For you there will be the additional issue of experience as a contractor. The old saying "the second contract is a lot harder to find" stands here.

Haha! I bet. To be honest, this is exactly what I wanted to expedite. I can't really say I am contracting unless I have experienced and gotten used to switching contracts. I know people who stay with a single client and are "contracting" but I believe this practice to be unsustainable and also in view of the impending private-sector IR35 regulations, wrong! I'm not saying that people who are doing it this way are wrong, just that personally I would have fairly low confidence about running my business if I was doing it that way.

**simes** · 4 February 2019, 22:17

Originally posted by siphr View Post

I know people who stay with a single client and are "contracting" but I believe this practice to be unsustainable and ………...

Unsustainable how exactly, if you don't mind my asking?

If they are happy doing this, and their hirers are happy, and they stay under the HMRC radar until such time as, presumably the continual income would in fact prove to Sustain.

Come the time they were let go, and they had to go out into the wide world for the Next Big Thing, they would have to slice up their CV to manifest the appearance of contracting. But, as they say, there are many ways to peel a cat.

Not that this is how I operate. I am 1-2 years in each gig, and I like it like this. And, the one person I know who Does operate as above, I do maliciously remind him of his permatractor methods.

But, sustainability?

**LondonManc** · 5 February 2019, 09:19

Originally posted by siphr View Post

Haha! I bet. To be honest, this is exactly what I wanted to expedite. I can't really say I am contracting unless I have experienced and gotten used to switching contracts. I know people who stay with a single client and are "contracting" but I believe this practice to be unsustainable and also in view of the impending private-sector IR35 regulations, wrong! I'm not saying that people who are doing it this way are wrong, just that personally I would have fairly low confidence about running my business if I was doing it that way.

Being inside IR35 isn't bad itself if you've got low expenses and it's a good rate. It's if you're behaving like you're not inside IR35 when you are that you'll potentially have problems.

I'd rather be on £1,000 a day inside IR35 than £500 a day outside.

Seasonal IT Contracts Availbility