Has the British contract market dried up, or am I just unhireable?

I'm in the same situation as you (or was, until about a week ago). I'd been looking for a new contract for a couple of months and also had lots of enthusiastic calls with recruiters, only to be ghosted or hear nothing more. A couple of my contractor friends have also had the same experience. Compare to late last year, when I was batting contracts away whilst I was taking a couple of months off. Picked up a new contract when I was ready within a few days in November.

Whilst I'm a full stack dev, I found narrowing my CV, or creating multiple versions (one FE, one BE, one devops) helped sustain more interest/got me through more doors. Being a full stack dev puts you behind anyone that pitches themselves as a BE dev for BE roles, FE dev for FE roles, and so on. It's assumed that since they're 'specialised', they're better suited for the role.

Same goes for tech. Whilst everyone _here_ will appreciate the fact knowing/working/having experience in multiple languages will generally mean your the better programmer, it's not something HR seems to grok.

In short: If there's a Go contract, send a version of your CV that pitches you as a BE Go Dev and that only. Once you're through the door and speaking to the people that matter, you can open up about your other experience.

As for timing, generally now is a good time. Some companies will have budget to use before the end of the tax year. Some companies will have new budgets at the start of the next tax year.

There have been a lot of layoffs, so the market isn't quite as much in the favour of developers at the moment.

---

Anyhow, that said, I've just taken a perm role again, just for another year or so whilst I learn some new tech and hopefully the contract market sorts itself out. It's only about £1k/month less. Worth it for the security, for now.

Looking at your resume, in a market that is slightly tightening. I see the following items:

1) your technical skills look great, and imply you want a technical job

2) I would separate your freelance work from you employment at Punters, to show you have experience as a contractor, not someone who just got laid off (made redundant), cannot find a job and now is trying to go contracting.

3) Punters Lounge - job title - oh so you are management type? Are you looking for a management contract job?

4) add a job title to GreatSway

5) So you are starting your own company, 'Combo Tech'. Good for you. So when you are working for me, and I am paying you, you will spend half your time on your pet project.

6) So you are starting your own company, 'Combo Tech'. Good for you. So when you strike it rich you will leave us.

7) Job titles are all great, but to not be tied to the title they gave you. Use a descriptive title.

What I'd suggest (having quite a bit of history with UK recruiters):

For each section in your work history, create a subtitle and just list the technologies used.

Eg:

2020 - 2021 Company A

Technologies used: Python, Django, MySQL

2021 - 2022 Company B

Technologies used: Kubernetes, MongoDB, C++, pandas

This will just help recruiters who'll be skimming through your CV to put you in the right category.

I suggest using your professional network and making new contacts. Word of mouth and referrals works better than going through recruiters. And expand to the larger US market.

I have freelanced for about 15 years, US companies only (they pay better). I have some free (no ads or subscriptions) articles on my site typicalprogrammer.com you may find helpful.

I used to have only 1 CV (like you, I assume). Not anymore. Now I have some sort of a template with fixed parts (e.g., education, past experience)... but whenever I apply for a company I put on my CV 90% or so of the keywords they are looking for. I usually know very well around 60% of what they are looking for, and have a bit of knowledge of everything else. So, for instance if they say that knowing Nginx is a plus, well, I put I used Nginx in some of my old jobs. I certainly know a bit of Nginx but I'm no expert. The point is that when they open my CV, they get to see their keywords.

Obviously this technique is only useful to pass the recruiters/screeners. When I get to talk to engineers and managers, I take it more seriously.

The government attacked contracting via IR35 to fix imaginary problems they invented to ensure large consulting companies get all the work instead

A lot of the comments seem to be about the CV. Is that really the reason someone with my experience is getting ignored? Because of minor stylistic issues?

This is all excellent advice, but I doubt that's the only reason.

IR35 killed contracting a few years ago (it did for me and many of my friends, anyway)

The phenomenon that presently affects your job prospects is the tens of thousands of good developers being laid off from FAANG companies and suddenly competing with you for any open roles.

Recruiters within my employer (a mid size tech firm) are keenly hoovering up ex-FAANG engineers. In fact roles are being filled by ex-FAANGers referring FAANGers.

You may find this site, and this thread in particular, useful https://forums.contractoruk.com/business-contracts/114560-st...

Pretty big and active forum for UK contractors

I have some British clients in my network and with similar experience I am doing well at 300 pounds per day. I know that it’s very low. But I’m fully remote working from Asia.

Perhaps add a line saying what kind of role you are looking for? Doesn't have to be the same every time you submit the cv - tailor it to that role.

Surely make the job titles bigger than the company names. The companies are largely irrelevant.

I'm curious if you think the IR35 changes are having an effect?