How's the IT job market at the moment?

PaulStat

PaulStat

PaulStat

Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2003
Posts
5,508
Location
Cotham, Bristol
I'm a developer, these days I mostly develop in Python, but I have been known to dabble in Java (I took the SCJP exam about 18 months ago) but I'm very rusty as I haven't used it in ages.

I'm at the point now where I'm fed up of my job, we haven't had a pay rise in three years and we had a 5% pay cut last year, which I was hoping would be reversed at the start of the coming year if we had done well in license sales (we haven't) but that looks unlikely now.

So I think come the new year I'm going to tart up my CV and start looking. So what's the job market like for someone with 6 years under their belt, I have experience in application support (finding bugs in software customers have developed with our software), giving training to customers, presenting applications I've developed to customers so they can develop them further, developing high priority POC's, helping out the technical pre-sales team, dealing with large companies including several telecomms companies/banks.

Must admit I'm quite anxious about it.
 
The North East seems to be doing alright. Seems to be loads of contracts currently as opposed to day jobs.

If you get the chance I would recommend looking for local contracts in your area, plus full time jobs too. Not too sure what is available in Bristol. If you do get some contracts I recommend you register yourself as self employed as soon as you can (even if your working full time PAYE and have a contact on the side of that).
 
I stay in work via jobserve, jobsite, ITJobsboard and CWJobs, they seem to be the best that I find :)

My contract is up in mid-Jan...so will start hunting after xmas and new years.
 
Phate said:
I stay in work via jobserve, jobsite, ITJobsboard and CWJobs, they seem to be the best that I find :)

My contract is up in mid-Jan...so will start hunting after xmas and new years.
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Same time as everyone else will be looking. Get hunting now tbh.
 
Morba said:
Same time as everyone else will be looking. Get hunting now tbh.
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Problem is most places want you 'now' so no point me looking right now, I have no problems leaving one or two weeks before my contracts up as thats what everyone else will be doing so I'll just hunt like mad.

Got a friend who works and is a manager for an agency in London and she concentrates on contracts in Essex as well so shes going to be hunting for me in Jan to, so I should be ok :)
 
Paul I know a guy whos looking for python developers in Portsmouth if its of any interest?
 
Contracting, interesting idea. Ideally I'd like to get experience working for a large company, working for a small company has it's benefits but with very little margin to move around internally.
 
I was a full time .net web developer this time 3 months ago. I have 3 years experience in c#, SQL, html etc and was on a 'rubbish' wage of 25k. I handed in my notice, set up my own limited company and moved to London where I am now contracting doing front end dev - html, CSS, JavaScript (jQuery).

Best part of a 200% pay rise, plus I'm now tax efficient. I'm doing so well I need to be vat registered. All I can say is 'do it'. You only live once and I have zero regrets other than wishing I'd done it sooner.

If you want to know more about getting into contracting then fire away.
 
What do you need to do become tax efficient, as you put it?
One of my biggest worries with going contracting is making a massive balls-up of tax :)
 
Life in the private Sector is great for me. Even though there is a high turnover in staff in some divisions of our company. We are growing and expanding all the time. I have never been so busy. I have had a 5% pay rise this year and I am looking at a out of scope pay rise for around 10%, due to the amount of business our team has secured. ;)
 
Pay an accountant £80 a month to do it all for you. This will also give you access to free agent which is a god send imo.

tax efficient - (very) basics

Setup your own limited company - costs roughly £30
This will allow you to charge expenses to your company. Things like travel, lunch, 'work' laptop etc
Pay yourself a minimal salary - £600 a month. This provides minimal top up for National insurance.

Pay your self the rest as dividends quarterly. This are taxed at 21% up to £300k, but have a 10% allowance due to having already paid corporation tax on company income.

That's very basic overview. Lots of good websites outlining the rules, but also speak to an accountant and get professional advice. Its all legal, and you can end up taking home best part of 80% of what you earn.

Sorry for formatting - sent from my phone
 
nicks3607 said:
What sites do you use, Jake? I may have to be looking for stuff in the North East soon (SAN storage).
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I pretty much exclusively use word of mouth, theres always work in tech support. Been looking for a new contract recently. :D On rare occasions I use sites like freelancer and vworker.

Sure it doesn't pay as good as other careers but I love customer service and tech support. What can I say I love using the phone ;)
 
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