Contracting in North West

[BrilloPad]

I have now been IB based in London for 26.5 years and I have had enough for a variety of reasons. My wife is incredibly keen on this and the plan is to move to North Wales near the A55. She will run some sort of b&b/holiday let/tea room business. Location has to be North Wales for a variety of reasons.

I am quite prepared to do any sort of work - in fact I intend to get an HGV licence to give myself extra opportunities.

I am good at SQL/c++/c/c#/java - though alot of my skills are to do with IB business knowledge.

I am aware that rates are much lower in the North-West - but can anyone suggest good ways of finding jobs in the NW? Any good agencies? Should I consider re-training for other skills(cisco?).

Any pointers or tips much appreciated. Remember this is posted in b/c - not general.

[CoolCat]

I spent a while living in Chester and driving across the border everyday to Deeside for work. Mostly the commuters are doing just that. Was not much traffic in the opposite direction. So if you choose to drive in the opposite direction you will probably have a better run.

Quite a lot of big business was given big state subsidies to open up in Deeside, to bring jobs to Wales, despite the fact in practise most of the employees were English and commuting across the border!

You can be either side of the border in a similar house with dramatically different council tax, entitlement to free prescriptions, and forcing your kids to learn Welsh at school, etc.

The obvious big employers are there for all to see. Iceland HQ is up there. Moneysupermarket HQ is up there. And so on.

Good luck

[Basil Fawlty]

There's a number banking opportunities around Chester - MBNA/Bank of America, M&S Money and Lloyds are all in the vicinity.

[stek]

There's a number banking opportunities around Chester - MBNA/Bank of America, M&S Money and Lloyds are all in the vicinity.

And Unilever and Dublin on the boat.

[northernladuk]

Aren't they the same skills as NWP2C? Should be plenty of opportunities come up on a regular basis if you don't mind finishing off the contracts he started

[Mephisto]

Had a short gig at St David's Park Ewloe for Unilever last year.

Seems to be a site that is top heavy with contractors v permies as they are making some ambitious changes to their infrastructure, not least the SAP migration I was working on!

Rates are embarrassing but there's free ice cream

[Fred Bloggs]

I live in the NW and I am working in Surrey. Bear in mind there is a very real risk of not finding work locally. Though I tend to be thinking that after more than 26 years in London you may not need the continuity of work given your likely finances (I would imagine).

[eek]

I take it the plan is to shift all equity towards the misses.

I don't think the market is that great around that area. You could always try Bet365 and stoke. They would probably appreciate your skills more than elsewhere. MBNA and M&S make back offices look interesting.

[nomadd]

I live in the NW and I am working in Surrey. Bear in mind there is a very real risk of not finding work locally. Though I tend to be thinking that after more than 26 years in London you may not need the continuity of work given your likely finances (I would imagine).

This^

I've been contracting 25 years, mainly in London and in Banking; I plan on moving back to the NW in a couple of years. Even where I plan to live - South Manchester - I don't think the market is that great. I certainly don't expect to be contracting more than 6 months a year on average, whether I want to or not.

[BrilloPad]

Very very interesting replies! Many many thanks.