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Nick joined our specialist Machine Learning & AI recruitment team as a Researcher after graduating from Nottingham Trent University in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management & Marketing. As a Researcher, Nick finds the best candidates with the right technical skills for our client’s job vacancies, speaking to candidates on a daily basis, and mapping out markets. We caught up with him to see why UR was his first choice and to find out what it’s been like working within tech recruitment! What attracted you to Understanding Recruitment? Several things attracted me to Understanding Recruitment. After graduating from university, there were two things that I was looking for from an opportunity. Firstly, a great team environment. And secondly, clear progression. These were really emphasized throughout my time interviewing with Understanding Recruitment. The team environment is amazing! Everyone is very supportive and that's been evident even throughout the pandemic. I was made to feel a part of the team and they've been happy to support me in everything that I've been doing. I was also impressed by the progression routes and the company vision itself. There are clear career progression routes and structures in place to reach your goals. They are incredibly supportive and offer the right training to help you achieve above and beyond, which I find really beneficial and will continue to find beneficial in the future. "Starting a new role mid-pandemic after graduating from university was something that I was initially very apprehensive about. However, after speaking with the team, I was instantly put at ease." How well did you feel UR looked after you during the pandemic? Starting a new role mid-pandemic after graduating from university was something that I was initially very apprehensive about. However, after speaking with the team, I was instantly put at ease. When I joined in October 2020, I was able to work in the office and have since been working remotely - though we are adopting a hybrid model which means a mix of working from home and in the office. Since working remotely, the team has been really supportive. We've had continuous check-ins and training, which helped me to develop and learn as much as I can about the AI and Machine Learning market that I specialise in. From day one, it's been a really supportive environment - we have weekly team activities in the afternoon over Zoom, and this has really helped me integrate well and become part of the team. "The team environment is amazing! Everyone is very supportive and that's been evident even throughout the pandemic." What has been the best thing about starting your career in tech recruitment? For me, the best thing about starting a career in tech recruitment is the industry. It's an industry that's only been accelerated by the pandemic and is growing and is stronger than ever. To be able to be a part of that industry and have a real, significant impact within my specialism, AI and Machine Learning, is great! I have been able to learn from real experts within the field, and have been able to create an impact, which is something that I find really rewarding. ​We're on an ambitious growth journey and are hiring driven and tenacious graduates to join our team in St. Albans as Graduate Recruitment Consultants! Here's just some of what we offer you: Hybrid working: A mix of working from home & in the office We're a sociable bunch: Be it going to the pub on a Friday, team breakfasts, Director's Lunches or Holidays to exotic places, our culture is built on our values: 1. Together Stronger 2. Be The Best You 3. Reputation Is Everything 4. Exceed Expectations Always 5. Never Ever Give Up Fantastic career progression opportunities - we love to promote from within In-house training programme & mentoring scheme Want to know more about our Graduate Programme? DM Laura-Jayne Trimmer on LinkedIn, email us your CV or call 01727 809 008 to have chat about the ​opportunities we have for you.

Danielle joined our team after graduating from Nottingham Trent University in 2020 with a first-class honours degree in Business Management & Marketing. She joined our .NET recruitment team as a Researcher, finding the best .NET tech talent with the right technical skills for our client’s job vacancies. Danielle speaks to candidates on a daily basis and finds out what they want from their next career move and how we can help them get there. We caught up with her to see how she’s found the world of recruitment and what it was like starting her career during a pandemic! What attracted you to Understanding Recruitment? What initially attracted me to Understanding Recruitment, was the company culture and environment that they promote here. The people I work with are not just my colleagues, but also great friends. There's a great team relationship here, and I felt welcomed from day one. With a great commission structure and earning potential, I see the future of my career here and I can't wait to progress!   "There have been some amazing incentives such as our wellbeing challenge! This helped to keep us all active, engaged, connected, and helped us through some tough times." How well did you feel UR looked after you during the pandemic? I feel that Understanding Recruitment has been fantastic throughout the pandemic, by offering flexible working and remote training. There's always someone you can go to, to ask for help or guidance. There have been some amazing incentives too, such as our wellbeing challenge! This helped to keep us all active, engaged, connected, and helped us through some tough times. "There's a great team relationship here and I felt welcomed from day one." What has been the best thing about starting your career in tech recruitment? The best thing about starting my career in Tech Recruitment is the amazing training and scope that we have here. I'm continuously learning and developing my skillset, speaking to amazing people daily, whether that be clients or candidates, and I've learned so much about different industry sectors, too.     ​We're on an ambitious growth journey and are hiring driven and tenacious graduates to join our team in St. Albans as Graduate Recruitment Consultants! Here's just some of what we offer you: Hybrid working: A mix of working from home & in the office We're a sociable bunch: Be it going to the pub on a Friday, team breakfasts, Director's Lunches or Holidays to exotic places, our culture is built on our values: 1. Together Stronger 2. Be The Best You 3. Reputation Is Everything 4. Exceed Expectations Always 5. Never Ever Give Up Fantastic career progression opportunities - we love to promote from within In-house training programme & mentoring scheme Want to know more about our Graduate Programme? DM Laura-Jayne Trimmer on LinkedIn, email us your CV or call 01727 809 008 to have chat about the ​opportunities we have for you.

After graduating from the University of Birmingham in 2019 with a BA in Politics and Philosophy, Henry joined Understanding Recruitment as a Researcher in our Machine Learning & AI recruitment team. Finding the best candidates with the right technical skills for our client’s job vacancies, speaking to candidates, and mapping out markets are all part of his role. We caught up with Henry to find out why he chose to join the U’s and what the experience was like starting his career in recruitment during a global pandemic! What attracted you to Understanding Recruitment? I was initially drawn to Understanding Recruitment when speaking to people throughout the interview process. Everyone seemed to speak so passionately about the company and seemed so welcoming! They also offer a great training program at the start, which enabled me to learn as much as possible about tech recruitment. This gave me the confidence I needed when first speaking with professionals looking for jobs and our clients! "We have a Wellbeing Committee that come up with some great wellbeing incentives, check up on you, and make sure everyone's coping well mentally, especially whilst working from home." How well did you feel UR looked after you during the pandemic? Understanding Recruitment has been really supportive throughout the pandemic. When I first started, I was working in the office, but I've since been working remotely and will slowly be returning to the office as restrictions are lifted. We're continuously having meetings with our managers and within our teams, to make sure everyone's coping well mentally. Here at Understanding Recruitment, we have a Wellbeing Committee that come up with some great wellbeing incentives, check up on you, and make sure everyone's coping well mentally, especially whilst working from home. "We're continuously having meetings with our managers and within our teams, to make sure everyone's coping well mentally." What has been the best thing about starting your career in tech recruitment? The best thing about starting a career in tech recruitment is definitely the opportunity to learn about the tech industry! I work in the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning department of Understanding Recruitment, and it's great to be able to speak to people daily who are so passionate about the work they're doing. It's also given me an amazing opportunity to learn about AI and how it's used in the world today. ​We're on an ambitious growth journey and are hiring driven and tenacious graduates to join our team in St. Albans as Graduate Recruitment Consultants! Here's just some of what we offer you: Hybrid working: A mix of working from home & in the office We're a sociable bunch: Be it going to the pub on a Friday, team breakfasts, Director's Lunches or Holidays to exotic places, our culture is built on our values: 1. Together Stronger 2. Be The Best You 3. Reputation Is Everything 4. Exceed Expectations Always 5. Never Ever Give Up Fantastic career progression opportunities - we love to promote from within In-house training programme & mentoring scheme Want to know more about our Graduate Programme? DM Emily Kitamura on LinkedIn, email us your CV or call 01727 228 255 to have chat about the ​opportunities we have for you.

What a year 2020 was! Although the pandemic halted some companies' hiring plans, we still helped lots of organisations scale their teams and developers find new roles. The information in this 2021 .NET Developer Report is based on data collected through our .NET survey completed by highly relevant developers on our database, the latest LinkedIn Insights data, data from our 2020 placements, and salary ranges provided by our current partners that include some of the best technology-driven businesses across the UK.  What’s the current state of the .NET talent pool in the UK? There are 31.3k professionals in the Software Developer talent pool with .NET & C# experience in the UK on LinkedIn.  88% of these identify as men and 12% identify as women. It definitely seems like UK developers are becoming more full-stack even if their job title doesn’t state it with many organisations requiring .NET developers to have front end skills.  We also saw a 48% 1y growth in .NET Core, a 44% increase in React, and a 38% increase in Microservices. On average, .NET Developers decide to move companies to pursue a new job after 1.5 years, highlighting the importance of retaining good talent. Overall 89% of developers were happy with the tech they use. 80% of respondents also said that their companies had moved into the cloud. Azure was the top choice in cloud platforms, closely followed by AWS. 9.8% of respondents used private cloud platforms while none used GCP. To find out more about which universities are producing this talent click here. What does this talent earn? The demand for talent within .NET remained high throughout 2020 despite the pandemic. Similar to last year, we saw higher salaries being offered to candidates with knowledge and experience of cloud and DevOps tools. We have also noticed that more organisations are looking for .NET Developers with some experience with front end technologies and are paying them more. Thankfully, we have found that organisations aren’t trying to pay their developers less as they are no longer commuting.  For more salary insights check out the full report.   What are the factors causing Developers to look for a new job?​ Where is this talent located? As expected, London is where the majority of developers reside. We are seeing an increase of developers based in cities such as Hove, Lincoln, and Leicester. Hiring demand across London, Manchester, Bristol and Leeds remains very high. The increase in more fully remote roles has meant that individuals can be based across the UK. The organisations that are open to more remote or fully remote are the ones who are securing more talent.   Remote Working is key in retaining .NET talent Remote working is definitely here to stay, with an overwhelming 68.2% of developers saying they wouldn't accept a new job that didn't offer flexi-time and/or remote working. This is up from 45% in last year's survey. Pre-Covid, we saw the majority of companies allowing developers to work remotely 1- 3 days a week. 67.3% said their employers will continue to offer remote working while 29.1% of respondents said they didn't know if their employers would allow them to carry on working remotely. We find this worrying considering it has become such a deciding factor for developers. To view more benefits, click here.   What do Developers look for in new employers? Openness to innovation Focus on quality Challenging the team Prioritising people   Let’s chat For any further information about the statistics in this report or other information about the .NET market, including competitors, tech on the rise and hiring processes, feel free to contact me for a chat. Arjun Gillard Head of .NET Recruitment Email me +44 (0)1727 809079 or +44 (0)7791 141 227 Connect with me on LinkedIn Schedule a call with me 

Daniel Nightingale joined the Understanding Recruitment team in early 2016 as a Trainee Recruitment Consultant. Since then, he has gone on to achieve promotion after promotion and now heads up the Digital specialist team within our Not-For-Profit Division. Having started a family a couple of years ago, Dan made the move to working from home long before the global pandemic made it a necessity.  We caught up with him about how he's found the last five years in recruitment and how UR helped him balance work and home life! What was your career journey before joining UR? I came into recruitment quite late. After getting my degree in Sports Therapy, I went out into the world ready to cure the world of hamstring strains and tight calves! However, I found it was too much of a slow burner and became more of a side hobby. I still have clients I work with now and I work with a Semi-Professional Football club. I moved into the crazy world of eco-friendly app-based taxi services and worked my way up to Assistant Manager. Soon enough, I got a call from Understanding Recruitment and have never looked back! Why did you choose a career in Recruitment? I feel like recruitment utilises the best parts of my personality and skillset. I love talking with people and taking an interest in their lives, but I can also identify an opportunity when it presents itself. There is nothing better than the satisfaction you get when you find a candidate their perfect role. What do you like best about working for Understanding Recruitment? It sounds cliché, I have learnt from friends and co-workers that have worked in other recruitment companies, that UR is not your average agency. While we have KPI’s and targets like other agencies, the most important thing is us as the consultants. You have the ability to plan your career and almost build your own business within the business… this really drew me in. How would you describe the culture at Understanding Recruitment? In a word, excellent. They are constantly looking for ways to improve, either from a social perspective or from a work satisfaction point of view. For example, consultants mooted the potential of having more holiday and after some research and planning from the directors, we now enjoy unlimited holidays! What would your advice be to your younger self? For me personally, it would be “don’t worry about getting it right the first time”. This is true for me as a daily reminder, but also in relation to my career. Although I moved into recruitment ‘late’, it is genuinely the perfect role for me. So, although I didn’t get my career right the first time – I’m loving life now! What have you been able to do by working from home that you couldn’t have working in the office? In 2019, we welcomed a little baby boy into the world! Working from home has enabled me to be part of such important parts of his life that I would have missed had I been in the office. Crawling, first words, first steps – I was there for them all. It has also ignited a passion for getting out and exercising. It is so important to get away from your desk and it’s something I didn’t appreciate enough before. Do you feel like Understanding Recruitment enables you to balance work with home life? Absolutely. I was working from home for a long time before it was cool! My circumstances changed considerably in 2018 when I moved about 90 minutes away from the office. The directors were amazing and asked me what I would need to be able to continue working with UR and accommodated me effortlessly. What advice would you give to people looking to move into recruitment? Do your homework into the organisation – there are some real horror stories out there and agencies will try and tempt you with £100000000’s. That sort of money is certainly achievable and I have experienced first-hand how getting recruitment right can change your life financially, but I have only been able to do this because of the nurturing I’ve received from Understanding Recruitment (I promise they didn’t pay me to say that!). Curious about #LifeAtUR?  We'd love to hear from you! DM Laura-Jayne Trimmer on LinkedIn, email us your CV or call 01727 809 008 to have chat about the ​ opportunities we have for you.

As Michelle Obama said: "There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish." At Understanding Recruitment we're proud to be an equal opportunities employer and fully support APSCo's Women in Recruitment initiative.  Just in time for International Women's Day, we asked our ambitious, driven and wonderfully talented women here at Understanding Recruitment, who #ChooseToChallenge every day, what advice they would give their younger selves.    Nicola Parker, Delivery Manager "Know that there will always be unforeseen hurdles in life, but worrying about what hasn’t happened yet, or might happen in the future is a waste of energy and can stop you from enjoying the now – you cannot control what happens in your future but you can control how you live in the present.  Trust that you are always where you are meant to be, whether it feels that way or not at the time – things always work themselves out in the end."    Alex Martuccio, Contract Account Manager "If you have a passion or a dream, follow it and make a reality. It will be hard and you will get lots of setbacks and people telling you it’s not possible, but if you really want it, you will do anything to make it happen."    Danielle Blake, .NET Researcher "Failure is the first step in success and is just as important as success."    Jana Timm, Head of Marketing  "You will get to where you want to be but it will take time. Learn as much as you can from the people around you and don’t be afraid to ask questions. You don’t know what you don’t know."    Charlotte Young, Java Recruitment Executive "Consistency and determination to achieve will get you far."    Cassie Holdsworth, Management Accountant "Don’t focus too much on the destination but enjoy the journey too. I’ve always been one to focus too much on achieving the bigger things, such as; the job, the wedding, the car, the house etc., and you can easily get distracted from enjoying the small things too."    Molly Boca, Hardware Acceleration & ML Recruitment Consultant "Worry less about what others think about you and learn to love yourself through your own eyes not someone else’s. The easiest way to be the best version of yourself is to be free from the judgement of others' perspectives."    Emma Matthiesen, Training & Development Manager  "Work hard - the better you do, the more options you’ll have."    Suzy Bolton, Finance Director "Believe in yourself more and it’s true that the harder you work, the better you do!"    Monique Hunt, Accounts Assistants "Have confidence in your ability/self and don’t always assume the worst."    Laura Trimmer, Talent Acquisition Consultant "Trust your instincts, everything really does happen for a reason."    Rhiannon Mehta, Senior Recruitment Consultant - High Value Fundraising "Trust yourself and don’t listen to other people’s judgement on what you can achieve!"    Maggie Mulshine, Hardware Acceleration, Photonics & ML Researcher "Don't focus so hard on what people will think, and instead focus on what you really want to do and what makes you happy."    Emily Kitamura, Head of Global Talent Acquisition "You're doing great! Everything will work itself out, just believe in yourself and keep doing you!"    Anna Heneghan, Head of Machine Learning & AI UK "Worry less about what other people think about you and think about what you are doing instead. Focus more on yourself. Think about how you can develop and increase your happiness."     Emma Wilson, Delivery Consultant "Don't be afraid to try new things! Push yourself out of your comfort zone more often... what's the worst that could happen?!"    Lisa Booth, HR Manager "Don’t let the expectations and opinions of others limit your ambitions. Only you know what you can achieve."    Mollie Redmond, Marketing Executive "You don't have to have everything figured out and it’s okay if things aren’t quite going to plan. Learn as much as you can and remain positive – things will work out in the end."    Curious about #LifeAtUR?  We'd love to hear from you! DM Emily Kitamura on LinkedIn, email your CV to emily@understandingrecruitment.co.uk   or call 01727 228 255 to have chat about the ​ opportunities we have for you.

In today’s budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak made a range of announcements to aid the recovery from COVID-19 debt. Here are the highlights from his speech: 1. Economic Recovery The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the UK economy will return to pre-COVID levels by the middle of next year, sixth months earlier than previously thought. Meanwhile, unemployment is expected to peak at 6.5%. 2. Furlough Scheme Extended till September Millions of workers will continue to have 80% of their wages paid as the furlough scheme is extended until the end of September 2021. There will be no change for employees who will continue to have 80% of their wages paid for hours not worked. Employers however will be expected to contribute as they reopen. Nothing will change until July, when employers will be asked to contribute 10%, increasing to 20% in August and September. 3. More Support for Self-Employed The self-employment support scheme will be extended until the end of September with 600,000 more people being eligible. When the scheme originally launched, newly self-employed couldn’t qualify because they hadn’t all filed a 2019 – 20 tax return. Providing they filed their tax return by midnight last night, self-employed will now be able to claim the fourth and fifth grants. The fourth grant will provide a taxable grant calculated at 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits and will be paid out in a single instalment capped at £7,500 in total. The fifth and final grant covering May to September will be worth: 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits, capped at £7,500, for those with a turnover reduction of 30% or more 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits, capped at £2,850, for those with a turnover reduction of less than 30% 4. New Visa Reforms for Science, Research & Tech Visa reforms are being introduced to make it easier to attract the best and most promising international talent in science, research, and tech. We will have more on this soon. 5. Business Support The 100% business rate relief will continue until June and then be reduced to two-thirds until the rest of the year. Bounce-back loans will be replaced by a new recovery loan scheme. Emergency loans of between £25,000 and £10m will be available as well as re-start grants of up to £6,000 for non-essential retailers, and up to £18,000 for hospitality and personal service businesses. Companies will also be able to offset losses against their tax bills going back up to three years, allowing them to claim additional refunds of up to £760,000. Corporation tax is set to increase to 25% in April 2023, however companies with profits of £50,000 or less will still only be liable for the current 19% rate. Only those with profits of £250,000 or more will pay the full 25%. Businesses will also be given incentive payments of £3,000 for all new apprentice hires of any ages while £126m will be invested to triple the number of new traineeships. Businesses are also incentivised to invest and can reduce their taxable income by 130% of the amount they invest. A new ‘help to grow scheme’ will offer smaller businesses management and digital training. You can register your interest here. 6. Personal Tax Personal tax thresholds will be frozen with the income tax threshold increasing to £12,570 next year and kept at this level till 2026. The higher rate threshold will rise to £50,270 next year and will also stay there until 2026. Thresholds for inheritance tax, pension lifetime allowance and capital gains tax thresholds are also being frozen. 7. New Freeports Eight freeports have been announced. These are special economic zones with different rules to make it cheaper and easier to do business. They are: East Midlands Airport Felixstowe and Harwich Humber Liverpool City region Plymouth Solent Thames Teeside

According to a recent Gartner survey, 64% of managers believe that office workers are higher performers than remote workers, and in turn are likely to give in-office workers a higher raise than those who work from home. Yet data from a poll we ran on LinkedIn recently, showed that a whopping 49% of tech professionals feel more productive when working from home. And they are not alone. The Harvard Business Review collected data from both 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2020 (during the pandemic) that clearly showed: Full-time remote workers are 5% more likely to be high performers than those who work full-time from the office. So why do managers maintain this bias in favour of in-office workers? The answer lies deeply rooted in a lot of corporate cultures but also in how we subconsciously perceive people based on physical face time with them. Shifting to a full-time remote working model was a change businesses and organisations across the world had to adapt to. For some of them, this change came a lot quicker than planned, and with it the loss of perceived control over their employees' productivity. With a lot of businesses adopting or planning to adopt a hybrid workforce even after the pandemic ends, remote working isn’t going away any time soon. In December 2020, PwC found that 83% of employers felt the shift to remote working was a success, compared to 73% in June. What’s more, 52% of executives now report that employees are more productive than they were before the pandemic, up from 44% in the earlier survey. Gartner’s 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey revealed that only 36% of employees were high performers at organizations with a standard 40-hour workweek. Organizations that offer employees flexibility over when, where and how much they work, see 55% of their workforce as high performers. Beyond 2021, we can expect to see a shift in employees being measured by their output, as opposed to an agreed set of hours. During the pandemic 1 in 4 companies purchased technology to track and monitor their employees. According to Gartner research, less than 50% of employees trust their employer with their data with 44% not receiving any information on how their data is being used by their employer. In the near future, we expect to see new regulations that will limit what employers can track and how they can do it. What does this bias mean for the gender pay gap? Surveys show that men are more likely to return to the workplace while women are more likely to continue working from home which could be a contributing factor to the gender pay gap widening at a time the pandemic has already disproportionately impacted women. How can companies get the best out of remote teams? According to Gartner’s 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey, employers that support employees with their life experience see a 23% increase in the number of employees reporting better mental health and a 17% increase in the number of employees reporting better physical health. ​There is also a real benefit to employers, who see a 21% increase in the number of high performers compared to organizations that don’t provide the same degree of support to their employees. Remote work options can help break down barriers enabling talent acquisition to cast a wider net to reach underrepresented talent. It can also be a powerful way to support diversity and inclusion efforts and helps to attract, support, and retain great talent from all backgrounds.  You might also like: Not Today Covid: Time for Optimism in the Tech Industry Use the 80/20 Rule to Beat Procrastination Insights from our 2021 Machine Learning & AI Talent Report 

Unbelievably for me, it's been almost a year since our worlds were turned upside down both in and out of work and we’ve all had our fair share of challenges. Thankfully, almost a year on and despite the obvious restrictions we’re all still facing in the UK, there’s finally some well-needed light at the end of the tunnel and in my opinion good reason to be optimistic for the future especially within the world of IT & technology. So what does the future of work look like and what are our customers saying about it? Unsurprisingly, talent is still very much top of the boardroom agenda; both in being able to attract talent as well as maintaining it.  In a world where the vast majority of businesses have been forced into adopting a ‘virtual workforce’ the challenges of maintaining (as well as enhancing) company culture has never been more important but also extremely difficult. The winners are those who’ve been creative, adapted and found new ways to make this work and in many examples, it's been those companies who understand their teams best who’ve nailed it. Coupled with the fact that geographic barriers are in many cases no longer a factor in attracting talent who can in many instances work from anywhere in the world, the war for talent has never been greater and this trend is only set to continue. Remote working much like the demise of the high-street has inevitably been accelerated significantly by COVID.  And as Darwin famously said: “It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” So what signs of recovery am I seeing in the tech market? Despite the obvious challenges that still exist within some sectors, there are also a significant number of businesses who have long moved from ‘survival’ mode and firmly into ‘building for the future’ mode, looking to use their creativity to challenge the status quo, discover new opportunities and through technology make all of our lives a bit easier. This has in turn seen a clear trend across all our data with companies looking to hire more technology professionals to drive their businesses forward. Confidence is creeping back and in many ways, this is because people have learned (or maybe just accepted) how to live in a COVID world. And with the acceleration of the national vaccination programme and the growing hope that ‘normality’ will soon be returning to all of us, companies are able to be more confident in what the future will look like and the roles they want to play. One word of caution however to all of those companies who are waiting for things to go back to the way things were. As an industry, this has been an opportunity to hit the ‘reset’ button, to pause and think about the way companies and teams operate.  Those companies in my opinion who go back to the way things were, will have missed the bigger picture. Technology has always been about innovation, challenging the norm and doing things better than before.  And it’ll be the companies who grab this opportunity with both hands who thrive when we finally come through the other side. Let's Connect If you'd like to have a chat about this article, find out more about the state of the tech industry or discuss your hiring plans please reach out to me on LinkedIn.