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What I've learnt during the lockdown in the UK is that there are many who have thrived in the environment of remote working. I have seen colleagues work on a more intense and productive level than within the walls of our office. However, for some, working remotely can be a very difficult and lonely experience. Personally, I have sat between these two camps. There have been days over the course of the last 3 months that I have been able to complete multiple tasks that would have otherwise taken weeks to get round to. Nevertheless, after the first couple of weeks of working from home, I did find myself staring at my kitchen walls or at the same email for 15 minutes at times. This style of working is not going to be short-term. As social distancing continues in the UK and across the world, remote working will be our safest way of containing the virus when ‘going to work’. Additionally, as workers have been given the opportunity to work from home more regularly, the demand for this will ultimately rise in employment requests. As a recruiter, I have already seen a huge rise in this demand even after the pandemic comes to a close. I spoke with industry leaders within the Machine Learning & AI space about what advice they would give to get the most out of working from home. So whether you love working from home or despise it here's what they said... Senior-level Data Scientist - UK based Medical Research Organization Create a daily working routine at home: start your day with planning the tasks and deliverables for the day and try to maintain your working day organised and structured (including lunch/coffee breaks). Remain in contact with colleagues via Zoom/Microsoft Teams, even outside of scheduled calls. It can help to reduce the feeling of being isolated. Exercise every day: sitting at home working all day long can be frustrating and stressful, even from the comfort of your home. Get your daily endorphin boost to avoid those negative side effects. Leading Computer Vision Scientist Try E-lunches (on video) with different colleagues including people you don't normally have lunch with. Enjoy short sessions of playing computer games with colleagues like skibbl.io. Try to reduce meeting durations by 25%. Reena Singh HR & Recruitment Manager - iProov Communication is key - tell your manager or HR that you are struggling with the transition. Together they can look at what exactly it is that you're struggling with and what support measures can be put in place. Book in a daily break in your diary for the same time every day and be sure to step away from your laptop/computer. Most importantly, remember, it's OK if you're not OK. We're all going through a very unusual time that none of us has experienced before. There will naturally be a lot of anxiety, struggles working from home, strains on the relationships at home - all these feelings are normal and it's OK to feel like this. This is a very small fraction of our life in comparison to the rest of it; things will get better. Founder of a leading start-up organization in London Exercise! Switch-off somehow with an activity. (I cook) After that activity, absolutely no more working. Use the flexibility to make your life easier than it was before (go do the groceries at 10 am if it makes your life easier). Charles Ball, COO at Chronomics Charles has been working remotely during the pandemic and is keen on keeping the team communication levels up. He organizes regular quizzes and coffee breaks in order to keep social interactions consistent. He also explained that there should be an emphasis on employers looking towards the future, rather than solely at the situation right now. He has been actively reviewing where his company is going to be in a year’s time and then discussing that with his current team. These conversations are helping to soothe anxieties about the pandemic, with an honest and open approach to staff. He has also been hosting regular Webinars about producing tests for employers to use on its staff to relieve the pressures of working back in an office, especially in areas such as central London where public transport is more frequently used. Here are a few links where employers can look at options produced by Chronomics for testing and risk assessments: https://www.chronomics.com/coronavirus https://covid.chronomics.com/risk-calculator His top his are as follows: Test your company to instil employee confidence. Provide regular communication to staff, no excuses. Exercise – do not work without leaving your desk, even if it’s a walk to grab a coffee. For more working from home tips check out these blogs:​ 7 Effective Ways to Work From Home During the Coronavirus Outbreak 6 tips to make anyone more successful at remote work, from a reporter who's been doing it for 20 years 5 Tips to Successfully Work at Home ​I would say, all in all, it is really important to separate your working life from your home life. So if you are not a seasoned professional in remote working, it can be a very new and tough challenge. However, what the professionals I interviewed all had in common are the following points: Exercise or just walking in breaks Communicating with colleagues Creating a structured routine that you stick to This ‘new normal’ will undoubtedly cause anxieties and feelings of uncertainty for many, however, it is important to reap the benefits of working from your home as well. For example, you might have a shorter commute or more flexible working hours. Or it could be simply saving a bit more cash than you typically would be able to. There is a light at the end of the tunnel with remote working and I hope these tips will help you cope in the meantime! You might also like: Your guide to remote onboarding Dump the Slump 5 ways to stress less at work Use the 80/20 rule to beat procrastination 5 tips for better work eating Any questions? Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn, email at aheneghan@understandingrecruitment.co.uk or phone 01727 809 403.

It’s that time of day again. It has arrived. Your eyes feel sandpapery as you struggle to keep them open. Your whole body feels lethargic, but your workday is far from over. It’s the dreaded 3 pm slump, and it hits hard several times a week, at the very least. Even though you only have a few hours of work left you’re not sure you’re going to make it without a quick desktop nap. Why does this keep happening and how can you avoid the 3 pm slump all together? Here are some ideas to help you out if taking a siesta isn’t an option! Why do I have an afternoon slump? The feeling of tiredness and fatigue is a natural response to circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are our body clocks and control our sleep cycles, making us sleepy between the hours of 2 - 4 am and 1 - 3 pm. Too little sleep, carby lunches, dehydration, and high-stress levels can also be contributors. Here are 5 ways to stress less at work. Get Up The benefits of movement cannot be overstated in this case. Stretching, getting up and moving around can be one of the best ways to wake yourself up. Taking five minutes to get up and walk to the water cooler or to a co-worker’s desk can have great benefits. Hitting the gym on your lunch break also boosts your productivity once you get back to your desk. If you can, sit in the sun for 10 minutes or better yet, go for a quick walk outside. Walking meetings are also something you can put in place. Sunlight helps reset your internal clock. It also reduces the amount of melatonin your body produces. Sunlight is also the best source of Vitamin D proven to have many health benefits. Interact Humans are social animals and interactions with others rev us up. If you’re working from home, having a quick video chat with a colleague can act as a great pick me up. If you’re back in the office, consider talking to a friend in the office to re-energise. Rather than sending that work-related email, go and talk to the recipient in person. Talking, smiling and laughing with others will make you feel less drowsy. Try to schedule collaborative meetings for the afternoon instead of in the morning. You can also give the Pomodoro technique a go. Work in 25-minute bursts with 5-minute breaks between. Then take a longer break after five 25-minute sets. There are several apps you can use for this but a normal timer will do the job. Don't forget to give your eyes a rest from staring at your screen every 20 minutes. Look at something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Snack Not all snacks are good for you. While you might be craving carbs, cutting them out can help prevent an afternoon slump in the first place. A chocolate bar has a quick energy surge, but an even quicker drop. Go for fruit, veggies, nuts or a small quantity of dark chocolate containing caffeine. Minty chewing gum is also known to be a stimulant and chewing helps the brain fight lethargy. Don’t forget water either. Most of us don’t drink as much water as we should. But staying hydrated can help you stay awake and alert throughout the day. A mid-afternoon cup of green tea (avoid coffee) is also a good idea. For more work eating tips click here. Plan Ahead Review at what times you’re most productive and schedule your most demanding tasks in at that time of day. Save easier tasks for when you’re not at the peak of your productivity curve. Most people’s concentration declines after an hour. So next time you feel your focus fading, switch to another task to change things up a bit. Listening to your favourite high-energy songs will also pick you up and make you feel pumped. Spotify has a great selection of playlists or you can create your own. Lasting throughout the day without hitting a slump starts with getting a good night’s sleep. You know your limits, and you know the consequences of pushing those. Save yourself a lot of effort and headache and stick to a bedtime that’s suitable for your body’s needs. Also, consider what you’re eating throughout the day. Experts say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day for a reason. Find what you like, but also consider the long-lasting health benefits of those foods. Yoghurt and whole-grain cereal are a couple of the many options at your disposal. Your body will thank you. Same goes for lunch. Getting the right nutrients at lunch is still important. Protein is a go for lunch, while you may want to cut back a bit on the carbs.

The annual Stack Overflow Developer Report has been going for almost a decade and holds the record for being the largest and most diverse survey of coders across the world. This year’s survey results bring together a whopping 65,000 developers’ preferences outlining how they learn and upskill, which tools they are using and what they want from their careers. 55% of this year's respondents identify as full-stack developers and about 20% consider themselves mobile developers. The most common combinations include back-end, front-end, and full-stack developers. It is important to remember that this survey was taken before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation and that the salary data does not reflect the economic impact the pandemic has had. For that reason, we haven’t gone into too much detail on the survey’s employment stats in this blog, but you can still view these in the full report here. Most loved tech For the fifth year in a row, Rust held the top spot for the most loved technology. In second place was TypeScript with Python falling into the third position on this year’s list, closely followed by Kotlin and Go. In terms of web frameworks, ASP.NET Core proved to be most popular followed by React.js and Vue.js in third place. When it comes to platforms, Linux, Docker, and Kubernetes make up the top three most loved by developers. On the other hand, WordPress continues to be the most dreaded platform joined by Slack Apps and integrations. Survey data also revealed that just under half of developers use Windows as their primary operating system with the rest split between macOS and Linux. A total of 825 respondents said they use GitHub as their main collaborative tool, followed by Slack and Jira. When asked about researching new tools, 60% of developers said they ask other developers about new tech or visit developer communities like Stack Overflow. Trying out new tools via free trials also proved popular. Unsurprisingly, around 57% of respondent felt they have a great deal of influence over the technology purchased by their organization. Gender Women developers account for almost 12% of developers in the US. In countries such as Germany, Brazil, and Poland, the participation rate is about half of that, which goes to show there is still much work to do to reach appropriate gender representation in the field. This is consistent with other research that women leave tech jobs at higher rates than men, highlighting that the industry has a way to go towards creating an environment where they feel included and can thrive. Approximately 1% of this year’s respondents that write code professionally are transgender. Salaries According to this year’s data, developers who use Perl, Scala and Go tend to have the highest salaries globally averaging at $75k. It is interesting to see that while Perl is among the most dreaded languages, developers willing to use this technology are compensated with a higher salary. In the US, Scala Developers topped the income chart with an average salary of $150k followed by Go with $140k. Approximately 75% of respondents worldwide completed at least the equivalent of a bachelor's degree or higher. Of the respondents that write code professionally and studied at the university level, over 62% have a degree in computer science, computer engineering, or software engineering and just under 10% have a degree in another engineering field. Learning new tech Around 75% of respondents said they like to learn new technology skills every few months to keep up with innovations highlighting how crucial it is for developers to keep their skills fresh in order to stay relevant in their field. Visiting the Stack Overflow developer community was the first thing developers (a huge 90% of respondents) did when they got stuck on a problem. 52.8 % also found that watching tutorial videos or calling a co-worker or a friend was helpful. 78% of respondents said they also code as a hobby. However, developers with children or other caretaking responsibilities were less likely to do so. Working overtime Over 75% of developers surveyed work overtime at least occasionally, defined as one or two days per quarter with 25.5% working overtime 1-2 days a week or more. Almost half of the respondents rated their company’s onboarding process as good while a fifth had no onboarding process at all. It would be interesting to see how the sharp increase in remote onboarding would impact these stats and if companies have invested more in their online onboarding experiences. Overall, developers seem to be satisfied with their jobs, with almost 65% reporting that they are either slightly or very satisfied with their job. When asked about which three characteristics would most influence their decision to choose one job offer over another, the languages and technologies they would be working on were the most important. The office environment, company culture and flexibility of schedule were also top priorities.

Whether you're working from home or are back in the office, stress can creep up on you sometimes. While some low-level stress can be helpful to get motivated, research shows that higher, chronic levels of stress can be detrimental to your mood, body and relationships. Here are some helpful steps to keep your sanity and stress levels in check. 1. Surround yourself with positive people. The people you surround yourself with at work can make a huge impact on your level of peace, satisfaction, and positive outlook. Hanging out with negative colleagues can contribute to your stress, especially if the crowd you’re with likes to complain. Choose who you associate with wisely. Find supportive and relaxed individuals who are fun to be around and nurture rather than hinder your mindset. 2. Take care of yourself. Reducing stress at work is often dependant on what you do outside the workplace. Pay attention to your physical and emotional needs. When these needs are met, you are stronger and more resilient to stressful situations. Regular exercise provides stress relief and improves mood. Being active can also help you burn off nervous energy and see things more clearly. Healthy food choices and plenty of rest also make you more resilient. Remember to put yourself first and meet your basic needs. 3. Work smarter, not harder. Regain control over stressful situations at work by prioritising and organising your work by the level of importance. Splitting up bigger tasks makes them less overwhelming and don't forget to give yourself credit for completing them. Try making a list of to-dos daily then, tackle the tasks by priority level and do the difficult ones first. Be willing to compromise if you are unable to complete everything you wanted to in a day. Developing an end-of-day ritual when you finish work like tidying your desk and making a to-do list for the next day can also help you switch off. Find more tips to help you maximise your productivity and overcome procrastination here. 4. Focus on what you can control. Uncertainty is a source of stress for a lot of us. Try to focus on what you can control instead of getting upset by outcomes you can't. Spend some time identifying your stressors. What triggers your stress? What isn't working for you? What works well? Knowing this makes it easier to communicate with your manager and colleagues who may be able to make some changes to help you. Whether it’s scheduling things back-to-back, double-booking appointments, or trying to fit too much into a single day, over-commitment can also leave you stressed out. Many times, we underestimate how long a project might take us. We set personal goals that go unmet simply because we underestimate time. Unachieved goals may result in added stress. Focus your attention on the should and musts and drop tasks that are unnecessary. Avoid multitasking and give each task your full attention. It often takes longer if you're trying to do too much at the same time. 5. Harvest the good. ​It’s easy to get wrapped up in complaints and what is wrong with the workplace so take some time to think about the good things in your life and at work. Did something good happen today? Is there something you are grateful for? Consider writing it down. You might be surprised by how long the list is at the end of the day. Reviewing the day's highpoints with your colleagues is also a great way to instil more positivity into your team. A healthier focus allows you to reconnect with what you like about your job, rather than what you dislike. Maybe your job highlights a skill you enjoy, such as managing projects or programming. Rather than focusing on the deadline of the project, live in the moment. Focus your attention on the happiness the job brings and what you are contributing by doing it. When you focus on what you love about your job you are happier and more content while doing it.

With the end of lockdown insight for the UK, the recent focus has shifted from survival to how the economy can begin to get back to work. It is estimated that 935,000 businesses signed up for the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Despite its cost of over £10bn, it remains of significant importance to our economic recovery. Employees will continue to receive 80% of their monthly salary up to £2,500 paid for by the government in June and July. From the 1st of July, the government is giving employers the flexibility to bring furloughed employees back on a part-time basis. It will be up to individual businesses to decide the hours and shift patterns their employees work when they return. Claims from July will be restricted to employers currently using the scheme and previously furloughed employees. The scheme will close to new entrants on 30th of June 2020 with the last three-week furloughs before that point commencing on the 10th of June 2020. On the 29th of May, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that employers will have to start sharing the cost of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. From August employers will have to pay Employer National Insurance and pension contributions for their furloughed employees. In September employers will be expected to also pay 10% of furloughed workers' salaries, increasing to 20% in October 2020. This means that people on furlough will continue to receive 80% of their salary up to a cap of £2,500. What will employers be expected to pay for furloughed employees? June & July: - Employers are not required to pay anything. The government will pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 as well as Employer National Insurance and pension contributions. August: - Employer National Insurance - Pension contributions The government will continue paying 80% of wages capped at £2,500. Employers who have not made a claim for Employer National Insurance costs or employer pension contributions will be unaffected by the change in August as long as their employee's patterns don't change. September: - Employer National Insurance - Pension contributions - 10% of wages to make up the 80% total to a cap of £2,500 The government will pay 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50. October: - Employer National Insurance - Pension contributions for furloughed employees - 20% of wages to make up the 80% total to a cap of £2,500 The government will pay 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875. ​ There is no doubt that this tapering system will provide some form of relief for the estimated 7.5 million people covered by the scheme and their employers. Guidance for Self Employed The Chancellor also extended the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme with those eligible able to claim a second and final grant in August that will be capped at £6,570. The second grant will be worth 70% of their average monthly trading profits and is paid in a single instalment. Individuals can still apply for the first grant (a taxable grant worth 80% of their average monthly trading profits, capped at £7,500) until 13th July. So far this scheme has seen 2.3 million claims worth £6.8 billion. Find out more about both schemes here.

Do your healthy eating goals go out of the window every time you’re at work? It's no secret that working environments can have a huge impact on our health and wellbeing both mental and physical. Long periods of sitting at a desk paired with sugary snacks and drinks and lots of caffeine to ‘power’ you through the day are a great recipe for weight gain. But it's not all doom and gloom. If you're working from home at the moment, now is a great time to form healthy habits that will set you up for success when you return to the office environment. Here are our top 5 tips for healthy eating at work to help get you started... 1. Start your day off right Never skip breakfast. According to nutritionists not having breakfast can make you more stressed at work because your cortisol levels are high after losing energy while you were sleeping. If you don’t refuel, your body will start to break down muscle to replenish its energy reserves instead. Starting your day with a healthy breakfast will set the tone for the day and make it easier to snack less. Avoid the tempting bacon sandwiches, pastries and the like and rather opt for unsweetened yoghurt, fruit, porridge, smoothies, or whole-grain cereals with low sugar content. 2. Swap your snacks & make a meal plan High sugar snacks are often the culprits driving up your calorie intake. But that doesn’t mean you should cut out snacks completely. Swap them for healthier choices such as nuts, rice cakes, carrot sticks and hummus or protein bars. Planning all your meals out a week in advance may seem like a lot of work but it’s quite easy really and can even be fun! Plan out what you’re going to have every meal and then try to stick to it. A healthy diet is about variety so make sure you are incorporating plenty of fruit and veg and avoid eating the same things every day. Batch cooking your lunches and freezing them on the weekend for the week ahead means they’re ready to grab when you’re in a rush. If you’ve ever calculated how much you spend on lunches a year, you’ll know that bringing your lunch to work makes sense financially too! 3. Stay hydrated Your body finds it hard to distinguish between thirst and hunger. Not drinking enough water throughout the day can make you tired, easily distracted and irritable. Keeping a bottle of water on your desk and making a habit of carrying a water bottle with you when you’re out and about will remind you to hydrate. If you don’t like the taste of plain water try adding some mint, lemon, cucumber, or fruit to give it some flavour. 4. Respect Lunchtime It’s common knowledge that taking some time out at lunchtime makes you more productive and can boost your concentration for the afternoon. “I didn’t have time to eat” shouldn’t be a badge of honour. Always try to eat away from your desk because chances are you’re not fully enjoying your meal or chewing it properly, and you’re also not fully processing the emails or work tasks you’re trying to complete at the same time. Eating your lunch outside (weather permitting!) is also a great mood booster. Your body and brain need a robust and regular dose of nutrients to keep your decision-making abilities, alertness, and focus sharp. If possible, block out 30 minutes on your schedule every day for lunch, and your colleagues won’t unknowingly schedule meetings during that time. 5. Involve your team In an office environment, it’s easy to build unhealthy rituals as a team. That Friday chocolate run, Sue bringing in biscuits or the endless cycle of office birthdays and the cakes that come with them are just some examples. Deciding as a team to address these unhealthy habits will make it easier to hold each other accountable. When you return to the office environment why not pick one day a week that you go out for lunch with a colleague or your team? This will be great for team building and you’ll get to try somewhere new. It’s also a great networking opportunity with colleagues you may not know well or who work in other departments. You’ll learn more about them and might even make a new friend!

Procrastination creeps into our days in many different forms. Sometimes it’s spending endless time browsing Instagram or watching videos on TikTok, checking your emails obsessively throughout the day, or even spending a chunk of your time on low priority busy work instead of focusing on those more important projects. Have you been feeling guilty about putting projects off that you know would make a real difference to yourself and the company as a whole? Or maybe you just feel overwhelmed at the thought of getting started. Either way, if you want to improve your success, become more productive and overcome procrastination for good, then it’s time to apply the 80/20 rule in your life. What is the 80/20 Rule? The 80/20 rule is the concept that 80% of your revenue or success comes from only 20% of your efforts or customers. If you look at the activities you completed during the day, you will find that the top 20% of your daily activities will result in 80% of the results that you achieve. It’s easy for menial tasks to slip in and keep us distracted from the things that can move us forward and bring success and many people slip back into old habits of procrastination instead of focusing on the 20% that will propel you forward. Ask yourself, what tasks and projects would really propel you forward and then make them happen! How to apply the 80/20 Rule Here are some of our tips to help you maximise your productivity and overcome procrastination: Change the flow of your work. Most people have a habit of looking at their to-do list, and then checking their emails or social media feeds with the idea that they will start on their list after a few mundane and often quick tasks. Instead of letting yourself slip out of productivity like this, jump into your priority to-do items to get them done first, and then you can spend the rest of the day tackling other tasks on your list. Nobody’s perfect. We all have habits that slow down our progress, and many times these habits are rooted in an attempt to achieve perfection. Re-reading and editing a short internal email for 15 minutes before hitting the send button only makes a small, incremental difference in the big picture. Move fast, complete the task as quickly and accurately as possible, and then move onto the next without getting bogged down by trying to achieve perfection. Why not try Grammarly? It’s a free add-on that you can download for your Outlook emails, Word documents and Chrome Browser that helps you improve your grammar instantly, a real time saver. All good things come in 3’s. If someone asks you ‘How was your day at work?’ how many of us can honestly measure how successful we were compared to yesterday? A great way of focusing your endless to-do list is to narrow it down to your top 3 priorities. Every day ask yourself: What are the 3 things I want to have achieved by the end of the day? Make sure these are items that add value, propel you forward and should not be put off. Then make as much headway into your 3 priorities as possible and you’ll be amazed at how much more you can accomplish! Doing this also gives you a much better indication of how effective you are on a day to day basis. Schedule breaks into your calendar. Trying to power through your to-do list without taking any breaks can have negative consequences and will eventually make you burn out. Make sure to schedule some downtime into your calendar: relax, have lunch, read a book, get some fresh air, or play with your kids. These breaks will help to refuel your creativity and make you more effective when you’re focusing on the tasks that really matter. Also, consider taking a day off now and then as a digital detox, where you completely step away from the computer to allow yourself to refresh. Reward yourself. We all have an inner chimp that needs to be kept happy. Set out to accomplish your most important tasks and agree to reward yourself once you’ve made a certain level of progress and once you have accomplished them. Fancy a cuppa? Make a compromise with yourself to accomplish a certain milestone first and then enjoy your cup of tea that much more. Setting yourself small rewards will also give you more of an incentive to tackle meaningful projects instead of the easy busywork. As you see, incorporating the 80/20 rule into your work isn’t rocket science. It only takes a little bit of practice, but once you learn to identify the tasks that are propelling your success, then you can optimise the way you work and decrease procrastination. Seeing how effective you can be by applying the 80/20 rule in your own life and reaping the benefits of maximising your productivity is simply a fantastic feeling. So, what are you waiting for?

The tech market continues to boom in 2020 even though COVID-19 has had a significant impact on many organisations' hiring plans. One thing that has not changed is how tricky it can be to find and retain really good developers with .NET skills. The information in our 2020 .NET Developer Report is based on data from our placements, an extensive questionnaire filled out by a highly relevant pool of candidates and from 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 30,000 professionals in the Software Developer talent pool with .NET & C# experience in the UK on LinkedIn. 88% of these are male highlighting the gender gap that is evident across the tech industry, although companies are trying to encourage more gender diversity. Companies are willing to pay above market rate to secure the best talent in the .NET space. With demand this high, many candidates will receive multiple offers, making the hiring process very competitive. On average, .NET Developers decide to move companies to pursue a new job after 1.3 years, highlighting the importance of retaining good talent. We have seen higher salaries being offered to candidates with knowledge and experience of Cloud and DevOps tools. Alongside .NET there is also an increase in demand for TDD / BDD methodologies, CI / CD as well as experience with front-end technologies such as JavaScript, React and Angular. Although an increasing number of companies are taking on .NET Developers without formal degrees, 61% of UK based .NET Developers hold a Bachelor’s degree. To find out more about which universities are producing this talent click here. What does this talent earn? Based on placements we have made in 2019/2020 in London and the surrounding home counties, Senior Developers with 5-10 years’ experience, can expect an annual salary in the range of £60,000 - £100,000 with some earning more than £100,000. A total of 63% of our respondents received an annual bonus with the highest being up to 25% of their base salary. For more salary insights check out the full report.​ Where is this talent located? In the UK, the likes of Lloyds Banking Group, Capgemini and the BBC currently have the largest number of .NET Developers in their workforce. Meanwhile, companies such as Nationwide Building Society, OVO and ClearBank have seen an increase in hiring this type of talent in the last year. Naturally, London has the highest number of .NET professionals with over 7,000 .NET developers choosing to work in the capital. Manchester, Europe’s fastest-growing tech city and Leeds are other top locations for .NET specialists. Flexibility is key in retaining .NET talent 76% said that their company offers flexitime while 73% said that their company offers remote working although only 7% could work from home unlimited. From our research, remote working was clearly a sought-after benefit for .NET Developers with a staggering 45% saying they would not accept a new job offer if it did not offer flexitime or the option of working from home. The average allowance for working from home was 1-2 days a week and only 16% were allowed to fully work from home should they wish, although we see this changing in the future due to most businesses having adopted remote working policies during the COVID-19 epidemic. We have also found that lots of businesses who were sceptical with remote working are now happy to offer it moving forward. They have learnt a lot about their staff and believe they can trust them to work from home. What else is important to .NET Developers? The top 5 employer value propositions most important for this talent are: A good work-life balance Excellent compensation and benefits Colleagues and culture that inspires employees to do their best Employees have influence over tasks and priorities Convenient commute to work Other popular benefits include: Training budgets, training time, dedicated time to work on personal projects Automatic annual pay rise based on inflation & paid overtime Relocation packages & technology discounts To view more benefits, click here. 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 agillard@understandingrecruitment.co.uk +44 (0)1727 809079 or +44 (0)7791 141 227 Connect with me on LinkedIn Schedule a call with me

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 690m users. It is also used by an estimated 95% of recruiters to find talent. But are you really making the most of what this platform has to offer? With a hire made every 10 seconds how can you leverage LinkedIn to stand out and help you land your dream job? We know that starting a job search can be incredibly daunting and selling yourself is cringeworthy (at the best of times!), so we’ve compiled everything you need to know wrapped up in 13 handy tips to make your LinkedIn profile shine and get yourself noticed! 1. Complete your profile Your LinkedIn profile is one of the most important aspects of your job search and is much more than just an online version of your CV. Complete profiles rank higher in LinkedIn searches and make it easier for recruiters to find you, so make sure you spend time making your profile awesome and gain ‘all-star’ status. LinkedIn helps you out here by measuring the completeness of your profile and gives you recommendations on how to make it even better. Before making any changes to your profile, make sure you turn off the notifications LinkedIn sends your network in the ‘how others see your LinkedIn activity’ section in your Settings to keep your changes private. 2. Put a face to the name Add a clear headshot without a busy background (avoid selfies and photos with your mates down the pub). First impressions count and your profile photo is the first thing connections, recruiters and potential employers will see. Your photo will also build trust. Are you looking for a new challenge? Check out our latest opportunities here. 3. Choose a cover photo Express your professional identity and set yourself apart by adding a cover photo to your profile. LinkedIn recommends using an image size 1584 x 396 px. 4. Customise your URL​ Customise your profile link (ideally it should be linkedin.com/yourname) so it is easy to read and share, then make sure to add it to your CV to make it easy for recruiters to find your profile. Customise your URL by clicking on ‘Edit public profile & URL’ in the top right corner of your profile. 5. Sell yourself with a compelling headline Your headline is your chance to brand yourself in 120 characters and should be eye-catching to stand out. Sell the benefits of what you do not just your job title. 6. Get found easily Include your contact details. It may sound obvious, but many people actually forget to do this. Next, add your location. If you’d like to be found for opportunities closer to home set your location to be where you live instead of where you work The ‘Show recruiters, you’re open to job opportunities’ feature is great if you’re actively looking for a job. Enabling this feature will mean recruiters can find you more easily and you can specify what type of opportunities and location you are looking for. Don’t worry about your current boss finding out, you can choose whether everyone on LinkedIn or just recruiters can see your status. LinkedIn Recruiter users who work at your current company and related companies will not be able to see your career interests and you can easily disable this feature at any point. 7. Bring your career story to life Give your About section some love and outline the most relevant skills for the jobs you want but avoid these common buzzwords. Ideally, this section will be 3-5 short paragraphs long and can include bullet points. What are you passionate about? What key skills do you have and which industries have you worked in? What makes you different from others? Show your personality here and let people get to know you. With rich media you can turn your profile into a portfolio and show potential employers your projects rather than just write about them. Take advantage of the 'featured content' section at the top of your profile where you can feature status updates, articles you’ve published on LinkedIn, documents, photos, presentations or links to web content such as blogs and videos. Add your positions and highlight your achievements and wins for each role. LinkedIn will now automatically visually group different positions you have held within the same company, showing your progression. What did you do, what was the result and who did it impact? Include stats where you can as well as keywords that are relevant to your skills. A good rule of thumb is to have two paragraphs for each role, outlining your role and responsibilities in the first and briefly outlining the organisation in the second. You can also add media and links for each position or simply add a link to the company’s website. Always include a current position even if you’re currently unemployed, so you aren’t left out of recruiter’s searches that usually only cover current roles to get the most recent and relevant candidates. Create a ‘dummy’ job position with the title you are looking for making it clear that you are ‘Looking for New Opportunities’ in the company name box. Do you speak different languages? Make sure to add them to your profile in the languages section. Add skills and ask people you have worked with to endorse you for them. Alternatively, you can choose to add your skills but opt out of being endorsed for them or even better, use the new LinkedIn skills assessment. This feature tests your knowledge of a particular skill with 15-20 multiple-choice questions. You can find this in the skills section of your profile, and it is currently available for tech, business and design skills. If you pass the test, you get a certificate you can display on your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t pass, your results will remain private. According to LinkedIn data, candidates who completed these skill tests successfully were 30% more likely to get hired than those who didn’t. Ask previous employers or colleagues for recommendations. These testimonials are more valuable than skills endorsements and help paint a picture of you and your work. Don’t be afraid to ask them to mention certain skills or a project you worked on with them. Another great way of getting recommendations is asking for them right after someone has praised you for doing a great job on work you completed recently. You can ask for recommendations from your profile in the recommendations area. Add any volunteering roles, accolades, awards and degrees. 8. Search for that dream job LinkedIn’s job search feature is a great place to start to search for relevant jobs and set up email job alerts for your searches. You can do this using the jobs function or if it is a specific company you want to keep up to date with, navigate to their company page, click to see all jobs and then enable the alert. Doing this will also inform their recruiters that you are interested in working at their company. LinkedIn also helps keep track of your saved and applied-to jobs so you can keep on-top of them more easily. Browse our latest jobs and set up custom email alerts from Understanding Recruitment here. 9. Do your research Follow companies you are interested in to stay up to date with their plans and see when they are hiring. Have an interview or an important meeting coming up? Company pages are also a great information source that’ll help you prepare for your interview. Make sure you know who you’re meeting and check them out on LinkedIn (if you don’t want them to see you’ve looked at their profile you can set yourself to anonymous in the settings, just remember to switch this back or you won’t be able to see who’s looked at your profile anymore). 10. Want advice from the experts? Join LinkedIn’s Career Advice feature to get career advice by conversing with other LinkedIn users who are leaders in their field. This feature can be accessed from your LinkedIn profile. 11. Are you asking for the right salary? LinkedIn also has a Salary Insights feature that enables you to see how your salary compares to others in the community by job title and location based on information provided by employers. This feature can also be accessed from your profile and is free of charge. ​ 12. Keep learning LinkedIn Learning is free for the 1st month and offers an array of learning resources to help you brush up on your skills. 13. Embrace interaction LinkedIn is an interactive platform so use it as such and regularly update your status at least once a week. Share interesting articles from 3rd parties or ones you’ve written yourself and like, comment on or share other people’s stuff too. If you really want to get serious about posting content regularly then you may want to use a scheduling tool for your updates such as the free version of Hootsuite. Writing an article on LinkedIn can be a great way to share your knowledge, build your personal brand and position yourself as a thought leader. Mention others in your post and tag them (when relevant otherwise it’s just weird) to build engagement and reach a wider audience. You can also follow hashtags so you see content relevant to you or to explore new industries you might want to move into. To set these up, type in # followed by what you’re looking for into the search bar at the top, then click on follow to see updates in your feed.