Is the situation really this bad?

Selekt0r said:
Seems like the New Year has got things picking up. I've been pinged by recruiters several times already since the start of the year about Sales Engineering positions at pre-IPO tech companies in my space (cloud data platfom / engineering).
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I don't know about that. A couple of recruiters called me to "check how the job search is going" and when I told them I just landed a role, they basically started begging me for passing the leads of other roles I may have been interviewing with at the time. These guys are still desperate and they are like vultures - won't leave a bone unpicked.
 
I've noticed a slight increase in recruiter spam lately. Could be just fluctuations, the mood on reddit is still doom and gloom. Mass layoffs may have slowed down, but I don't see any solid reason for the market to be recovering just yet.
 
I've seen an slight uptick from recruiters on LinkedIn, but thats more probably because I now have 1 year exp as a SWE. Starting to look for my next role which should hopefully be way easier than the first time around...took me a ton of applications and relocating to get my foot in the door, ideally want to return to Bristol.
 
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Well I am now doing the free government skills bootcamp training. Also doing an AI/ML course. Starting from scratch in a new direction. Usual murmors from recruiters, never thought I would be unemployable, but here we are.
 
I was made redundant at the end of January when my employer finally went into voluntary administration after over a year of uncertainty. I'd been the IT Manager for several years (in reality the 'IT guy' as it was just me and an external consultant doing IT) and I was fairly confident of finding something to do, but I've not had a sniff of interest locally, probably as I'm now 60 and regarded as over the hill. I've now started getting a modest pension from an earlier job at BT, but I'm starting to feel that this is it and I won't work again..
 
wozzizname said:
I was made redundant at the end of January when my employer finally went into voluntary administration after over a year of uncertainty. I'd been the IT Manager for several years (in reality the 'IT guy' as it was just me and an external consultant doing IT) and I was fairly confident of finding something to do, but I've not had a sniff of interest locally, probably as I'm now 60 and regarded as over the hill. I've now started getting a modest pension from an earlier job at BT, but I'm starting to feel that this is it and I won't work again..
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Isn't this the reason why you shouldn't put your date of birth on your application? I removed mine.
 
My Wife is an IT recruiter of 20+ years, currently independent but has previously been in-house for the biggies, MS, etc. She says the UK IT industry has never been so bad in her 20 years, and is not going to get any better in the foreseeable.

She has pivoted and is working for a German customer, where she says the market is stronger.
 
martin363 said:
My Wife is an IT recruiter of 20+ years, currently independent but has previously been in-house for the biggies, MS, etc. She says the UK IT industry has never been so bad in her 20 years, and is not going to get any better in the foreseeable.

She has pivoted and is working for a German customer, where she says the market is stronger.
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The German market is not any better than the UK. I know recruiters and people in the industry saying it's bad over there
 
jonneymendoza said:
The German market is not any better than the UK. I know recruiters and people in the industry saying it's bad over there
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Yeah, it's also crap here in Switzerland too. Been in my current role for 4 months but I'm in a good position now to look at self employment. Not just yet with the current situation.

Over hiring during covid and all the AI talk is messing the market up.
 
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Java contractor market is dead at the moment.

I've been contracting for 20 years and not had much downtime but I have been off the market for nearly a year.

I have put my website live in that time so not all is lost.

It began as a side project way back in 2012/2013 and I just kept working on it. Then decided to put some serious work into it recently.

Early days.

I could do with a contract now though.
 
shaf said:
Java contractor market is dead at the moment.

I've been contracting for 20 years and not had much downtime but I have been off the market for nearly a year.

I have put my website live in that time so not all is lost.

It began as a side project way back in 2012/2013 and I just kept working on it. Then decided to put some serious work into it recently.

Early days.

I could do with a contract now though.
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Yea it's pretty dead. I think software development is all but dead. Nevermind contracting work. Time to take up another trade
 
jonneymendoza said:
Yea it's pretty dead. I think software development is all but dead. Nevermind contracting work. Time to take up another trade
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Software development is not dead. The world runs on software, there's no going back. I've been in this industry for over 15 years. I've worked with legacy, greenfield and by now some of my early greenfield is legacy and has to be rewritten. The truth about each generation of software is that it's just a matter of time it has to be rewritten only to eventually become legacy and the cycle goes on. This is where we, the software engineers come in. We're the new electricians and plumbers. The market is dead now, but it was dead worse during the dotcom crash and the 2008 financial meltdown. It will recover, it has to. Also all this raving about AI replacing us is absurd. I use ChatGPT Teams for some mundane stuff at work and I can assure you, it will never replace us for countless reasons.
 
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