Taking the bull by the horns...

[gingerjedi]

I can only agree with the general tone of this thread. If I think how much time I've wasted trawling job boards, rewriting and tweaking my C.V. and the tedious, pointless conversations with agencies over the last few months it makes me question this game completely.

Things have been bad before but not this bad. Unbelievably I still kid myself that any day now a contract will turn up with my name on it like it always has done in the past 15 years...

I recently interviewed for a role that paid 2.5% off my best ever rate, 2 weeks have passed and the agent has stopped trying to pretend I'm still in with a shout by being out of the office or in a meeting every time I call.

I thought the interview went well other than 1 or 2 soft questions that I could have done better on, I'm really beating myself up over this one as I came so close to great role on good money and close to home but as it stands I'm still on skid row with nothing at all in the pipeline.

If I knew this was going to continue for the foreseeable future then I'd take a bar job, run up more debts and retrain. On the other hand it could turn around any day on a new wave of optimism, anyone got a crystal ball?

[Platypus]

In hindsight I'd have paid the mortgage off in the good times instead of going on expensive holidays and buying cars, if only I could have those few years again...

I bet like me you'd like just a couple more years on a good rate to sort yourself out... I sound like a drug addict.

So true - I've pissed away a fortune. Regrets? Actually, yes

[lukemg]

All, I have been there, ridden the nice rates wave, bought the 911, then hit the skids, suddenly my ‘skills’ were pretty worthless, wished I had bought property, sorted a plan B etc etc so that I would not be relying on this dodgy profession. I went perm at a rate below my normal living expenses (60% pay cut), got a cheap car, burned through the warchest and panicked quite a lot. Any change of direction looks difficult without any experience, looks like you are back to rung one when all your tortoise peers in other professions are starting to overtake you and don’t seem to suffer the backward steps. BUT, you can make a change, pay for some training (ONLY do courses you know will help, you won’t get work straight away but they will help in the future and to re-package you), go perm (if you can) to stabilise things and give you breathing space, take a low paid contract/job/work away short term, if it means a change in the right direction e.g. project admin. Work hard on your CV to emphasise what you have done in that area e.g.assisted on a project even if you didn’t run it. If you aren’t already a coder, that is going to be a difficult mindset to get into if you are looking for the next gravy train (are you sure you are going to be good enough and that it won’t be off-shored – it will…)
The past and associated rates are gone, your current expenses need to reflect that, just be glad you had some time in the sun, lots never will ! 6 years on I am contract again in a different area and getting good rates when working. Stop flogging that dead horse, you need a plan if you want a change.

[peterc2609]

Things moved pretty quickly once I put my mind to it...

Had an interview today for a perm position... 50ish% less than I earned contracting. But a nice forward thinking, young company, 20 mins from home, in an amazing location (really picturesque), seems like they treat their staff well.

2nd interview next week, but they have already tried negotiating about £££... offering 5-7k less than I wanted originally, but throwing a LOT of training into the equation... and the rest of the package I havent discussed.

Should I let the agency do the discussions over pay!?!? I have never been in a position like this i.e. negotiating a perm job... usually its just about cold hard cash... now is callout, standby, training, holidays, shares, med insurance, mobile phones etc etc!

[FiveTimes]

I'd let the agency do the talking for the permie job, I've done once before and the agent managed to get me an extra 7k

[lukemg]

Your pay is likely to be going up 1% a year from now and any bonus will be a percentage of this, find out what the job should be paying, talk to the agent but don't keel over too quickly or you might resent it later.
I went perm in a crisis, at interview I was pressed on rates and indicated the lower end of the advertised range. After the offer I wanted the top end and we settled on just under that, they would have happily paid me much less, there were no hard feelings, it's business and they aren't paying it out of their own holiday fund.

[peterc2609]

I believe the 2nd interview is going to be a 20 min presentation... fingers crossed ha ha