C# Developer Jobs in Finance - current market still shows consistent demand
This article will be useful for C# Developers, who particularly operate within the London Finance Sector, as it discusses how the C# Developer jobs market has evolved over the last twelve months, plus highlights potential changes throughout 2009.
Jane Stevens, a Jenrick CPI consultant for over 10 years and a specialist within Financial I.T. recruitment, provided this article on the subject:
“Anyone working within the IT sector over the last past two decades or so, has, by or large, been able to enjoy an ‘above-average’ living through it.
However, we can all now feel the cold wind of change blowing through our lives. One only has to watch the news on tv, open a newspaper or even talk to someone down at the pub to know that the world economies are in dire trouble for the foreseeable future and that, as a consequence, we are all either indirectly or directly affected by these changes.
There is no point in panicking, now is the time for action. Candidates currently looking for work in this current market need to be aware of the following:
According to the most recent Quarterly Survey of Appointments, Data and Trends compiled by Salary Services Ltd, the ten most advertised for skills within the IT contracting markets are: C#; SQL; Oracle; .Net; SQL Server; Java; Unix; SAP; Prince2 and ASP.Net. As far as permanent work is concerned, the following most sought after skills are: C#; SQL; .Net; SQL Server; Windows; Microsoft; Java; Oracle; Unix and ASP.Net.
We found that in the month of August we looked mainly for Developers (mainly C#, .Net and Java), PMO, Business Change, Oracle and Toolset on the permanent side and on the contract side we looked for and continue to look for Testers, Project Managers, Developers (mainly C#, .Net and Java skills) and Implementation Managers.
As far as my clients in the finance sector are concerned, anyone who has at least three years solid C# development experience gained within an investment banking / trading market are still sought after in the City / Canary Wharf arena. I have placed numerous people with these skills over the last two years both in permanent and contract positions.
If your skillset is listed above, then you are best placed to look to the future with a positive attitude. If not, do your research and if your skills have indeed become out-of-date and no longer really relevant today’s IT markets, consider re-training to something more relevant now. We are more than happy to take calls in order to give advice on re-training to make yourself more saleable in what is a competitive market.
Kevin Green, Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation has been quoted recently as saying “even in these uncertain times, recruitment consultancies are still seeing continued demand for flexible staffing to meet businesses fluctuating people requirements”.
At a regional level, London employers are normally more optimistic and have more hiring confidence. Currently only a few percent are planning cut backs in London and 9% plan to add to their headcount in the next year. How will they do this? There should be no problem back filling roles with the right justification – there will always be the need for operations and support. However there will also be projects started this year that need to be completed so developers and testers will still be in demand. As far as the need for new positions are concerned, if there is a permanent head freeze, these would most likely be funded as contracts with the costs hidden within project budgets. If contract head count is frozen, then in order to attract the best candidates, companies will have to offer good permanent salaries to counter-balance the amount of money contractors have been earning in order to entice them away from contracting.
We all know that after the Y2K boom and the .com crash, IT Directors have been far more constrained in adding to their headcount and therefore do not have a surplus of staff they can shed in order to maintain the quality of service they offer to their customers. Many of them are concerned about attracting the right level of candidates and retaining their key staff.
I would welcome being contacted by any C# Developers (especially those with experience of working within the financial markets) currently looking for work but more than that, if anyone working within the IT markets need advice, I will certainly do my best to help – please contact me.”
Tags: c# developer jobs finance, c# developer jobs london, c# developers london
