Consultant roles

[Quitelikeacatslife]

Absolutely bricking it. DH is senior programme manager consultant, 10 years plus experience at high level in financial services. Worked for the usual consulting firms. Has finished last project in summer and nothing has come up, it's really dire. Savings dwindling, he's not getting a sniff at all and he's telling me he will not get considered for permanent roles. It's so so worrying. People just not returning calls, nothing doing.He will try another field but does need to be at a decent level. I can't believe this is our reality. Any advice please?

Congratulations to your DH, @Quitelikeacatslife! I only just found this thread today, and read the whole thing. I was looking for somewhere to offload where others in the same boat understand.

My DH was made redundant in April 23 from a Tech Management role. He's sent out around 200 of job applications for all levels of jobs, been interviewed many times with very positive feedback, but has been pipped at the post by 'another candidate who has the exact tech stack we need' (for example) even though that particular role was people management & 100% hands-off🙄

The market is flooded with out of work techies - employers can pick and choose. As others have said, it's pretty scary, and SO hard to keep positive. How he keeps going through the soul-destroying multiple interview rounds and is still able appear positive and be 'an impressive candidate' is admirable. Why can't they just hire him though?

Before being unemployed, he'd been in continual employment for 20+ years, worked at all levels, can still code from scratch, passes all the technical tests with flying colours, has super references as a manager, gets great feedback about cultural fit... I could go on. It's so unfair and so depressing.

I'm sorry you are going through this. I honestly can't believe we are moving out of it now. I hopefully give you hope that it will happen, his turn will come. It takes away all your security, but you have to just get through each month as best you can and keep believing. Take care

Thank you, @Quitelikeacatslife - I know it's a matter of time, and it will be his turn to get the offer at some point - he's had two close calls.

One was "We're just preparing your offer, waiting for the final OK from some senior guy who's on annual leave." What happens? Guy returns from leave and decides the company needs to save money by outsourcing the role to a remote contractor abroad.

Second one was the "other candidate with the exact tech stack" one just recently. Again, they were promising to send out the offer next day.

At least we have some contingencies to stop the horrible debt mountain, like cashing in pensions, but we obviously can't do that until he's actually earning. I'm self-employed and earn enough to cover our small mortgage payment and nothing else.

However, it's good to hear success stories though - it does give us some hope.

Talking to a Tech recruitment consultant earlier this week and he thinks some companies are now waiting for the budget, others aren't planning to start new projects until January. On the one hand the tech consultant job market is the worst I've know it since 2008, every role not only requires specific technical skills but also recent industry specific experience and there is a lot more people competing for jobs now and a lot more jobs off-shored. On the other hand there is a lot of free advice on youtube and LinkedIn on how to make your CV standout, interview techniques etc, I feel fortunate to have been in a contract for most of this year.

Yes, we had also suspected companies were waiting for the Budget @Bing123, although I've also seen a lot more opportunities coming up the last couple of weeks, as you say, maybe getting ahead and recruiting in preparation for a New Year start?

This 18 months of unemployment has opened our eyes to a lot - especially how different it is out there now regarding job-seeking in tech and in general - knowing that your CV being read by human eye is the exception; wondering if there's any point in carefully crafting a cover letter; rarely hearing back from any company; the multi-level interviews. Then there's the joy of jumping through the Job Centre hoops to get UC...

Reading on LinkedIn and Reddit this morning the UK tech job market seems very difficult for all age groups. Lucy Gilmour on LinkedIn / youtube has some excellent free advice for job hunters - I have a contract role for the short term but I worry about the long term.

Thanks for the recommendation @Bing123 - I've had a look at a couple of Lucy Gilmour's videos now, and there's some good advice there.

Well @Minniemetro I hope your husband finds something soon, its worth keeping an eye out for Gov jobs as they have to be very strict on how they recruit so don't filter out older candidates for example.

I had been wondering if age was an issue - which shouldn't be if companies are genuinely pursuing diversity policies. Ha, it's pretty funny when companies claim 'diversity' and you see a photo of their team, and everyone is age 35 max 🙄He's looked at Civil Service jobs just recently!

This came up in my active threads but I was going to recommend looking up “destination nuclear”. Which is kind of like civil service but arms length organisations. Loads of project and programme roles that might be relevant.

Hello all. Coming back to this thread and wondering how everyone is getting on?

I joined the thread after being out of contract for a year. Finally got offered one last June which was for 8 months with possibly for a year - it went for 10 and a half months, which was great!

I’ve now been contract hunting again for 3 months with no success and am dreading the possibility that I might be out of work for a year again.

Last year there seemed to be a shortage of contracts. This year I see a lot advertised but I’m just not getting them, not even getting a response from most.

Hope you (and your DH’s for some) are all doing better than me!

Hello @NightPuffins - good to hear your contract went on for longer than expected, sorry to read that you're not having any luck just yet.

It's been difficult here - absolutely no success with applications, but we have had a little more money coming in, but nowhere near the amount to be able to start clearing Debt Mountain.

An old colleague of my DH gave him a few hours of basic work at sub-minimum wage on and off for a couple of months, and I've had a couple of additional projects as well, for which I could invoice a few hundred.

However, the biggest change is that DH is no longer applying for jobs, but concentrating on self-employment. He's invested money in equipment, we've made a website and distributed leaflets, and he's had a few jobs to to as a result. It's a manual job, so it can't be outsourced. The challenge is getting the leads to build the business.

The Job Centre is giving him a 12 month start up period where they don't apply the minimum income floor to the Universal Credit, so we might get some more money from there, as it's been a pretty pathetic offering so far, not sure how others survive (we are mostly living off the equity of our house just now).

DH just had enough of the constant application/no response/interview cycle/rejection. It's going to to be hard work generating leads, but he does a good job, and he's gradually building up a portfolio of skills which he can advertise. A long road ahead, but light at the end of the tunnel.