I want to escape banking...

[rashm2k]

Your problem is you want to get out of banking and my issue is I want to get into contract banking!

I have been working for a hedge fund for about 2.5 years! But can't seem to get to the interview stage. Since you are a PM - pm me if you need a Java/open source/data warehouse/SQL Server/Tableau (Visual Analytics)/Collateral/Liquidity/Risk techie!

[NickNick]

Problem is that the recruitment agencies won't put you forward for roles outside banking, even if your skills are perfectly well usable for other industries.

I've not found this to be the case, having worked in banking, telecoms, defence, Public Sector and for a charity over the last ten years. It does come down to how well you can sell yourself.

[adam42]

One of my biggest bugbears is that I really am not managing anything - it's the usual story of some horrid governance, doing a load of analysis and just jumping from one panic-stricken reactionary enviroment to another. I don't expect other channels of work to be all that different but a change of scenary and the change to apply some skills that I actually trained for would be nice.

What skills did you train for that you don't use as a project manager?

I guess the title "project manager" can encompass quite a lot of different things, but as a developer the way I see a PM is as someone who organises the whole project and makes decisions about resources in the scope - manpower - deadline area.

In that light, what is your experience of working on greenfield projects using the Agile methodology? Surely that would drastically improve the environment you're going into.

A greenfield project is likely to be better resourced, and as a developer, I wish I had more Agile skills because it is in demand at least on Jobserve.

Sorry that doesn't offer much help in aiming for non-banking sectors, but I'm sure there are many greenfield, agile projects starting all the time outside banking just as much as within.

[blueislander]

Thanks for all the relies guys, much appreciated. Am going to take stock of things and see what I want to do.

I used to live north of the border and the quality of life was exceptional.. circumstances change and with my family etc we are down South although we are looking to get as far out into some rolling fields as possible. London will always be the centre for well paid contracts, I appreciate that, and it's my default for when the pot is empty, but I am going to really try and tailor my cv and skills to other roles.

In the meantime just going to ride out my last few weeks here and then probably end up in another Bank lol. I would just love a change of environment - I will always be tied to a desk and a phone but it would be nice to do it for something other than a financial institute at some point -seems I am not the only one!

[blueislander]

I can relate to this, I really can.

Anyhow, if I was you I'd consider getting away from the South East/London altogether. Overpriced and no quality of life.

My advice to you would be to move into something like retail banking (I did the opposite - Retail -> Investment). Your skills would be relevant but it's a very different environment, much more relaxed. I know that there are loads of PM and BA roles at Lloyds Banking Group in West Yorkshire - the Copley Data Centre - beautiful part of the world, house prices half down the SE, and those roles are paying £ 500 and above.

I'm a developer and would love to get back there but it seems most of the dev work of offshored. I live in eternal hope that something crops upthough as it's only 20 mins from home. Instead I'm stuck down London midweek every week, looking for a way out like you are.

Good luck.

Thanks mate

[edison]

If you spread your net a bit, you will find some big non-financial companies in and outside of London that can afford to pay good rates. Some will be near similar rates for banking. Some good paying sectors include pharma, oil and gas and FMCG. I've seen PMs on around £450-£550/day at these types of companies.

I worked at a FTSE100 company last year and a lot of the contractors on the delivery side came from telco and retail which are both very different to the industry the company operated in. There were plenty of other contractors and permies who had worked in lots of different sectors. As a PM you should have very transferable skills.

[BlasterBates]

If you were technical it would be no problem. As a PM it's a lot harder as domain knowledge is important. You need to look at related industries such as retail banking or insurance.

I suspect though you'll need to go permie for a while to get experience in another sector.