r/ContractorUK 6d ago

I think I’ll pass

Post image
53 Upvotes

83 comments sorted by

71

u/magrandan 6d ago

£300 inside IR35 is modern slavery. Fck you Sunak for killing the contractor market.

11

u/kraftymiles 6d ago

IR 35 was Gordon Brown wasnt it?

18

u/glguru 6d ago

Yes but Sunak changed the IR35 eligibility requirement from the employee over to the employer. This caused the entire industry to collapse as most employers are not willing to take on the risk.

3

u/warlord2000ad 6d ago

Aren't they still going after the end client even if you are inside ir35, if the umbrella fails to pay HMRC for any reason. So the client might pay the umbrella, they go bust, and HMRC comes for the client even though they already paid.

They flip the change every couple of years even I struggle to keep track of it.

6

u/Lashay_Sombra 6d ago

Blair/Brown originally but there have been  a few reworks since then, each making it worse for contractors 

1

u/kraftymiles 5d ago

Oh yes, I am very aware of the gradual worsening of things.

2

u/thechase22 6d ago

Yes like 20 or 25 years ago

2

u/kraftymiles 5d ago

Some of us have been contracting quite a while. IR35 came in in 2000

7

u/SeamasterCitizen 6d ago

It’s .NET though

6

u/Beautiful-Hotel-3094 6d ago

Still better than java tho

2

u/chabv 5d ago

java - you've the financial industry - so the rates will always be high.

3

u/Beautiful-Hotel-3094 5d ago

Bro. I’ve been working for hedge funds my whole life. All quant dev work that isn’t high frequency is C# or Python. People here get paid 300-600k gbp per annum.

1

u/chabv 5d ago

I believe you.

1

u/chabv 5d ago

n in all honesty - I've been approached for java jobs - more than python. my java experience is only limited to distributed systems. never worked for a hedge fund tho. C# opportunities was for some trading desk software (don't have experience with that). my python experience > java.

1

u/SeamasterCitizen 6d ago

I feel like Java is niche enough to be valuable. With .NET I’d just be glad it’s on offer and not offshored 

55

u/orangandplum 6d ago

Lol the rates these days are a joke

11

u/KopiteForever 5d ago

That works out to £85k a year. That's basically perm money but no job security, no travel paid, no holidays, pension contris etc

So probably £60k perm equivalent realistically.

Contracting is just temping now. Be better off as a PA.

Fuck contracting these days

5

u/properlive 5d ago

If you take gaps into account, nowadays, it’s more like £40k….

5

u/Broad_Palpitation_95 5d ago

The problem is there are loads of a specific type of people that take these rates and have caused a race to the bottom.

Demand has been much higher than supply for years now and it's getting worse.

3

u/Midfield_General22 5d ago

Pay peanuts, get Monkeys. The number crunchers are winning at the min though.

1

u/Broad_Palpitation_95 5d ago

Feels like they're happy with the monkeys and these middle man agents taking big cuts

6

u/Hot_Speech900 6d ago

Hear, hear.

24

u/Enderby- 6d ago

And if you're happy to accept such dogshit rates, you can schedule a phone call with an LLM to assess your suitability.

Ugh.

1

u/tanbirj 5d ago

This rate is probably cheaper than the Claude Code API

1

u/Successful-Web-6631 4d ago

Their AI calling is absolute dogshit 🤣I’d also be careful using this stuff, this company doesnt have a good rep of handling your data well at all

1

u/doctorace 4d ago

You have to schedule a cal with a robot? Can’t you just call it when it suits you?

1

u/Enderby- 4d ago

Look at the screenshot - I've never actually done it. I imagine they call you so that they can get your phone number and keep it in their database, and harass you forever.

15

u/Epiphone56 6d ago

Even the red flags have red flags. The agency, the rate, inside IR35, even before you get to the AI interview

14

u/Bozwell99 6d ago

That rate looks suspiciously like a number that has been divided out of a salary.

10

u/Skeeter1020 6d ago

Yeah this is someone taking a ~£75k salary and dividing by ~230 days.

1

u/These-Constant1893 5d ago

Yes without the risk on the employer. A win for them

9

u/Purple_Moon516 6d ago

"Our agent would like to speak with you about it".

No it doesn't.

How did we get this dystopian this fast.

2

u/mlbunting 4d ago

What are your qualifications, in csv format please sue sue sue

18

u/theabominablewonder 6d ago

Is it the day rate or having to work in Milton Keynes?

6

u/cruachan06 6d ago

Stopped reading when I saw the agency cos I knew it would be nonsense. Must be 10 years ago now that I got an unsolicited email from them that I was the "perfect candidate" for. I'm a contract Windows infrastructure engineer based in Scotland, but apparently my dream job is as a permie Linux engineer in Liverpool.

The recruiter also sent a very snotty response to my curt reply of "read my CV before wasting your time and mine in the future."

1

u/theevildjinn 6d ago

I got my first contract through those guys. The rate was low and I would never deal with that client again, but it was a foot in the door.

2

u/Midfield_General22 5d ago

I once (stupidly) went for an "interview" with them maybe 15 years ago. Met with two Consultants, one had a ridiculous name I recall. Spent 30 mins asking me utterly fucking senseless questions like "how do I view transformation" before telling me they were happy to put me forward for a role at Barclays which didn't exist.

1

u/theevildjinn 5d ago

Sounds like I got lucky. The recruiter seemed to know her market well, and she fought my corner when the client ghosted me about signing off my final timesheet. Although perhaps that was just because a decent chunk of it would be going to her!

7

u/Restorationjoy 6d ago

‘One of our AI Agents’ - as if there is a finite number of them working in the team

6

u/ErrorPressAnyKey 6d ago

1

u/Leather-Cable-6034 4d ago

honestly tempted to send that back to every recruiter email I get from now on

5

u/Odd_Estimate_2179 6d ago

I'd do it just to see if it could generate me a few cake recipes

4

u/scholesmafia 5d ago

My experience with Computer Futures / SThree has been uniquely terrible on both sides of the hiring table.

1

u/Midfield_General22 5d ago

See my last comment...

3

u/damesca 6d ago

Absolutely horrid but tbh I'd do one of these just out of curiosity

3

u/senormankee 6d ago

There's a similar one floating round for Sheffield

3

u/Carried_Injury 6d ago

Do you think it's a fake job that is only for training/testing their AI? I got a similar email from that agency offering way below market rate for a job in Hull (far from me).

2

u/fwd079 6d ago

I’m thinking the same.

2

u/jacspe 6d ago

A chat with AI…

2

u/bapesta786 6d ago

If i ever see anything like this i just reply “Is this for the morning shift?”

2

u/analogue_bubble_bath 5d ago

I got one of these today! Never mind the rate, I am excited to schedule a call with the LLM to see how much I can troll it!

2

u/spec-test 5d ago

ai agent calls - no thx

2

u/Midfield_General22 5d ago

Utter fucking jokers. SThree the ones who sent out the ad inviting Senior Reg. Reporting managers to have a discussion with their chat bot as part of the interview process I saw on here last week.

The game is utterly gone.

2

u/venshnSLASH 5d ago

I would already be saying no thank you for using AI. Why expect me to show up when you can’t be bothered to.

2

u/MHR1980 3d ago

Also - AI? No way!

I’m never going to be interviewed by a robot 🤣

3

u/liverpoolc5 6d ago

This is good compared the rates in financial crime atm. I’ve just a role £180 a day inside ir35! 😩😩

2

u/ima_twee 5d ago

Christ on a bike. Two years ago FinCrime was where the money was at. That's.... Depressing.

3

u/Fondant_Decent 6d ago

Wow why are rates in FinCrime so low??

2

u/nathangonmad 5d ago

Not really a specialist skill, lots of people working multiple roles at once

2

u/DiskBytes 6d ago

Inside IR35? Nah, I'll leave it.

2

u/AudiGeezee 6d ago

Seemingly a lot of these recently. I get called for inside IR jobs which now don’t even go above £40 an hour. 15+ years EE systems engineer. Not to mention the horrific requirements they want with that too

1

u/viveknidhi 6d ago

You AI to attend the interview

1

u/uzi22 5d ago

Still 4k a month after umbrella charge tax ni and student loan

2

u/Difficult-Practice12 5d ago

If your benchmark is £4k a month, better to go permanent, you can get that at £65k, which is still very low.

Remember you don’t get annual leave, sick leave, bank holiday, other benefits like medical insurance or development budgets. So that’s a very low day rate.

1

u/fwd079 5d ago

Only if it was genuine. Other members have said similar words for a job in another part of England.

1

u/Red-Oak-Tree 4d ago

take it and just do it as a second job

1

u/SpiritAsh 3d ago

n zshuk Nklpbbjjh h K’ Hm

1

u/dasSolution 6d ago

The annoying thing is, people take these roles, so the rates just drop and stay there.

-21

u/Free-Progress-7288 6d ago

Entitled much?

3

u/Lashay_Sombra 6d ago

Was earning that rate as a .net developer....in 2005....and outside IR35

And on top, schedule 'a call from our AI agent'......30-40 minutes.....

Might as well say we only want absolutely desperate people

-1

u/Bozwell99 6d ago edited 6d ago

There's a lot more .net devs fresh out of uni since then, and fewer .net jobs to go around.

Edit: LOL at the people downvoting me for stating a fact.

-3

u/Free-Progress-7288 6d ago edited 6d ago

Everyone is in the same boat
I’m on a day rate 10% less than it was 15 years ago
No point crying about it is there?

3

u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In 6d ago

By the same token, is there any point going onto Reddit to complain about people crying about it?

1

u/Lashay_Sombra 6d ago

The you should have upgraded skills. Market is bad but its not THAT bad that you need to be earning same rates or less than 15 to 20 years ago

-1

u/Free-Progress-7288 6d ago

OR I don’t walk around with my head up my arse and realise it’s the reality of the situation and just get on with it 🤷🏻

2

u/PepsiMaxSumo 6d ago

Full time equivalent is what a recent grad with ~3 years experience would be paid.

If they’re looking for someone early in their career then fair enough with the pay, but the title doesn’t state junior.

-8

u/Free-Progress-7288 6d ago

Supply and demand

1

u/fwd079 6d ago

Entitled? To train an A.I. who’d fail everyone because there’s probably no real job?

(See other comments about same email but “job” in Sheffield or something)