Returning to perm is almost impossible

[AngelOfTheNorth]

In Redcar, 80k would put you a LONG way out of every market!

Are you implying Redcar is a dump?

[The Wikir Man]

Are you implying Redcar is a dump?

There was no implication. I believe that it is a well-regarded fact

[facboy]

i've actually just taken a permie job over a couple of good contract offers, one to go back to old clientco (4 month break) for 20% more, and one to a new client for 30% more. kind of bizarre, permieco have been aware all along that i'm a contractor, even told them in interview, 'i'd rather be a contractor, blah blah'. must have fooled them somehow, as eventually they made me an offer which i guess they thought i couldn't refuse. i almost did, but when 3 other agents offering other jobs started telling me i should take it, i thought perhaps i should. hopefully it works out, else i guess i'll be back on the market at some point.

the market for developer types in the FS world is quite hot atm (all the big banks are on massive recruiting drives), so maybe that's a sign of a wider recovery on the way?

[lukemg]

This has been my experience also, I want to stay contracting but wouldn’t rule out the right perm opportunity. My CV looks very contract based now and I have not been considered for a number of perm roles based on this.
This is fair enough but it does amuse me that some of the posters on here think they always have the safety net available, ‘I will just go and get a perm job’. Of course there is some movement in this direction but when the squeeze is on, you can be sure the competition for perm roles is every bit as fierce due to – companies virtually stopping new roles, other perms trying to get them, out-of-work perms trading down to get back in, contractors looking for a safe port + past experience of contractors bailing at the first sign of a contract.

[expat]

My OH desperately wants me to get a real job rather than do contracts in other countries and never know where I will be in 3 months time.

Trouble is, she can't absorb the fact that any job I got would be just as likely to be in another country, and would involve travel to yet other sites, just like the contracting. This isn't her experience of jobs so she doesn't see that that's what I'd get.

And in her experience, if you work hard and are good at what you do, then your job will be permanent. If it's not permanent then it must be your fault. Our trade, as we know, is not like that.

[Fred Bloggs]

Mrs Bloggs works in the public sector and after all these years she still cannot understand the concept of contracting. She can understand the increased income (which is presently about 3.5x what I'd get as a staff bloke in the same role) though.

[Fred Bloggs]

Are you implying Redcar is a dump?

No need to imply, it is a dump. Isn't that exactly why they filmed scenes in Redcar that were supposed to be in Dunkirk during the war? I don't think there's a lot of immediately visible difference in the state of the two towns. Redcar today and Dunkirk back in WW2 probably look very similar.

[SueEllen]

And in her experience, if you work hard and are good at what you do, then your job will be permanent. If it's not permanent then it must be your fault. Our trade, as we know, is not like that.

What industry is she in?

Even quite a lot my relations, friends and acquaintances who work in the public sector or for government agencies don't have secure jobs - and then includes people like teachers and probation officers.

Then there are the ones who do have secure jobs like social workers who are advised to move on every 2 years for their own sanity.

[expat]

What industry is she in?

Even quite a lot my relations, friends and acquaintances who work in the public sector or for government agencies don't have secure jobs - and then includes people like teachers and probation officers.

Then there are the ones who do have secure jobs like social workers who are advised to move on every 2 years for their own sanity.

In more recent years, after a long maternity break, she worked as office manager/payroll/billing/credit control/etc for a carpeting company and then an electrical construction company. Truth to tell it's way below her capacities: she has not only been really good at these jobs, she allowed herself to be grossly underpaid and neither asked for more nor looked elsewhere, so of course she was not about to be replaced (the carpeting company went bust in an earlier recession).

I suppose I could try that: get a low level tech job on 30k-something or even 20k-something a year and make sure I keep it by being well worth it. But I don't think even that is reliable: they decide to outsource it, or change the development language or keywords or whatever, and you're scrap.

And whenever I suggest that I could look for a job locally but if I got one then we couldn't afford to live here any more, she thinks I'm taking the piss.

[AngelOfTheNorth]

I suppose I could try that: get a low level tech job on 30k-something or even 20k-something a year and make sure I keep it by being well worth it. But I don't think even that is reliable: they decide to outsource it, or change the development language or keywords or whatever, and you're scrap.

But why would you do that? I'd rather earn as much as I could, that way if it all goes t ..ts up you've got something saved to fall back on. Getting a 20 grand a year job and just getting by means that should the unthinkable happen youve got nothing saved to fall back on.

Make hay while the sun shines!