As my employer is doing its yearly 20% cull, it looks like I might be needing a job fairly soon, unless I am one of the lucky winners who gets to keep their job this year.

So, anyone else been made redundant and looking for IT jobs in the South West? and if so whats the market like? I have looked on jobserve etc and it looks OK, however I know that recruitment people are generally pretty generous with the truth so I was wonder what real life experience people have had.

If you’re good, it’s good. If you’re not, it’s not. However that’s in the SE.

Depending how close you are to Southampton, could try Peer1.

Cheers

I am in Bristol, and I have 10 years+ Unix, SAN (Cisco mainly) and Storage experience, so it doesn’t look *that* bad (not great however).

I have a few weeks until they start the process, so I guess I will have to wait and see.

There will always be jobs for people with stand out skills or background.

As an IT manager (in Bristol too), I get several calls a day from the recruitment companies. I have absolutely no budget for anyone else and when I tell them that, they do seem to respond that that’s common and that most people are just maintaining whatever level they have an only replacing people with key skills if/when they leave rather than building their departments.

Ooh I’m a SAN guy too. Gotta love that buggy Cisco firmware. I work for a VERY big IT company & SAN skills are pretty thin on the ground internally. Of course, they’re still refusing to hire anyone though.

my mates a mad CISCO geek, he seems to still be raking it in and naming his price.

As everyone else is sayiong, if you’re good and have some niche skills then there is lots of work, if not then you may struggle.

cool, thanks for the heads up everyone. Now I just have to wait and see if I am ‘selected for participate in the WFR program’ 😉

hmm I think we might work for the same company, richc. 5% pay cut, sir?

yep, and 60% WFR for afters.

We seem to get our Corporate updates via the register as well 😉

lol yeah that’s my source for what the heck is going on in this beast of a company too. Head down…I’ve survived 10 years of these constant cuts, it’s becoming quite the sport in our area these days.

current rumor is the WFR package is going down in Nov. So the dilemma is do you want WFR and the cash, or another years work and the minimum they can get away with

agh really? Was just having that conversation this week…everything else has been cut…just the wfr package to go (well and maybe standby rates). 🙁

Accenture ?

Nope…although have some dealings with them. Not sure I want to reveal actually as I spend far too much time on here!!

Its just a rumor, but our employee rep has indicated its being *reviewed*.

as for where I work I am keeping quiet, just incase.

I’m an IT Recruitment guy…. its pretty crap I’m afraid.

There are a few companies recruiting, if you find the relevant company or recruiter who has the role(s) & your skills fit then its good.

There are more companies doing not much so much fewer real live roles around I’m afraid.

Sorry I have nowt around Bristol / SW

AlarmPoint are after a technical PreSales job. I would have grabbed it myself but just started something else

In response to the original question, the IT market at the moment is tough. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

There are jobs out there, but competition is high, and people will work for buttons. It’s quite depressing really. I have had another 3 months out this year, and am on the worst rates and hours in about 5 years. No ‘niche’ skills here, just the recommendation of ex-colleagues has kept the work coming in for the past few years, but since they are mostly out of work now, it’s getting tight. Lean times ahead.

A mate of mine is trying to persuade me back into the market, so there are definitely jobs out there. That’s an Scotland mind.

I’m thinking of going back to being a code monkey, what are the good languages to be looking at retraining in?

Plenty about in the BI market, not so much on the techie/infrastructure side from what I can tell.

In the BI world, Flex & Silverlight developers can pretty much name their price if they’re good. I’ve got someone in at £1k a day at the moment and thats direct – if we went to an agency then God knows how much he’d be

Contract market appears to be on its @rse at the moment though, although the FSA are recruiting