Career at a crossroads

[adam42]

What do you mean by offers? Contract in front of you or 'we'll put you forward'?

Two actual offers, one 2nd interview went well & expecting to hear today (the perm option), one interview went alright & agreed to give me an answer on Tuesday (the low-paid banking contract).

[adam42]

2. My CV looks rubbish to a lot of recruiters who don't like to hear how or what I did for my own business and needs a good current position to improve it when I come to interview again

Rewrite your CV as if your business was a client/company you worked for.

I have rewritten my CV. I guess what I meant is that a lot of recruiters read the CV and then ask 'so what was that company?' and I say I was the co-founder of the company that a partner and I set up as a business venture, followed by a brief description of the business model.

And that's when they don't like it - I assume. The recruitment consultants are blatant about their distaste sometimes, as for interviewers I'm not definite.

[adam42]

I think your kids would rather see you around on weekday evenings, manage to get to their school plays etc rather than only have the weekend to see you. This would happen if you move away from a city/large town as it's more likely you would have to contract in London/SE for periods of time.

Very good point. Definitely a factor. Hadn't registered that. Thanks.

[GillsMan]

Good advice from SueEllen, put those 4 years down as a client and you were doing contract work for them. Massage the skills in those 4 years to the role you're looking for now.

I'm in my 30s but have worked with quite a lot of guys contracting in their mid 50s the last few years. They're kept around and known as the go-to work their ass off guy. More so than a lot of the youngens.

Pretty much what Mehmeh (great username) said. I see a lot of contractors in their 50s - they are often a lot more competent than us youngsters in our thirties - well, they certainly have a lot more experience. I don't see your age being a barrier tbh.

[Unix]

Nothing a bit of hair dye/wig and botox won't solve.

[Batcher]

Pretty much what Mehmeh (great username) said. I see a lot of contractors in their 50s - they are often a lot more competent than us youngsters in our thirties - well, they certainly have a lot more experience. I don't see your age being a barrier tbh.

That's my experience too. I'm in my fifties and a lot of guys I meet on the circuit are the same. We don't care if the person managing our project is male or female, young or old, we just get on with what we were brought in to do. Experience counts for a lot in projects.

A few years ago I was working with another contractor who was 66 at the time. I can see myself doing that when I get to that age, just taking the odd contract when it suits just to top up my income.

[TheFaQQer]

4. if I earned enough, I could salvage some of what I did for my business and bring on board a student programmer to take my ideas further (the business only failed to work out since I ran out of money to pay the rent).

5. I need to establish a more stable way of life for sake of my relationship with my partner and my children! i.e. to stop earning again in order to work on my business is not a popular option

If the business failed because you ran out of money, and you need a more stable way of life, then contracting isn't the right move.

[adam42]

BTW there is no retirement age any more so if you haven't got any form of pension expect to be working at the likes of B&Q or as a handyman etc until you are too ill to work any more.

Getting to 65 and only having a basic state pension is something I studiously want to avoid, but I don't want to make a knee-jerk decision and take the permanent decision just for fear of it - I'd rather have a better understanding of the risks of operating as an over-50 contractor. But I've now just read at least 4 people on this thread telling me that such fears are unfounded. I really didn't know. I asked the recruitment consultant who offered me one of the roles, and she said she couldn't answer due to legal restrictions.

As a backs-to-the-wall concession to my future self, I have made sure that I will actually get the full state pension, whatever good that might end up being. I do need to work out what pension contributions cost and are then actually worth, permanent vs contractor type, come retirement.

[adam42]

Cant comment on the rest but as to the age thing, I went contracting for the first time at 57. Agents told me I had no chance, but when I went for it Ive never been out of work and am always offered extensions.

+1. I'm over 50 and I'm managing to get gigs without any trouble. Don't write yourself off just because you think other people will - clients want somebody who can do the job, and don't really give a damn about age in my experience.

I reckon age prejudice is something shown in recruitment of permies; when it comes to contractors, age confers a certain gravitas. More to the point, your decrepitude won't affect their private health scheme premiums, so they really don't care how old you are if you can do the job at the right rate

Yep, I agree with the Chimp

Good advice from SueEllen, put those 4 years down as a client and you were doing contract work for them. Massage the skills in those 4 years to the role you're looking for now.

I'm in my 30s but have worked with quite a lot of guys contracting in their mid 50s the last few years. They're kept around and known as the go-to work their ass off guy. More so than a lot of the youngens.

Pretty much what Mehmeh (great username) said. I see a lot of contractors in their 50s - they are often a lot more competent than us youngsters in our thirties - well, they certainly have a lot more experience. I don't see your age being a barrier tbh.

That's my experience too. I'm in my fifties and a lot of guys I meet on the circuit are the same. We don't care if the person managing our project is male or female, young or old, we just get on with what we were brought in to do. Experience counts for a lot in projects.

A few years ago I was working with another contractor who was 66 at the time. I can see myself doing that when I get to that age, just taking the odd contract when it suits just to top up my income.

6 for and 0 against - that's conclusive enough for me that age shouldn't be a considerable factor in landing new contracts. It just comes up so often from the non-contracting people I speak to. A sort of drip, drip effect. It is massively encouraging and puts paid to the permanent option for me now. Thanks very much all of you.

The Swiss option is not going to happen now unless they opt for a one-stage telephone interview on Tuesday which is getting increasingly unlikely by the minute today.

So that boils the options down to two questions: what to do with the kids? Childhood in London, or in the suburbs of some satellite town, or in the Northumberland coast. I figured if I lived mid-way between Edinburgh and Newcastle, I could target both job markets on my next contract.

The 2nd question arises if I opt to stay working in London or nearby: what's the best route to maximise my income? To aim into the banking sector is the obvious answer. By taking option (e) the low paid contract, I can get a big investment bank on my CV. But (d) the M25 town is a decent rate - £400 compared to under £300. Then I will probably have similar difficulties landing a contract in town and in finance afterwards as I am having now. I do have a bit of finance on my CV and it will look even more dilute after (d).

[TheFaQQer]

So that boils the options down to two questions: what to do with the kids? Childhood in London, or in the suburbs of some satellite town, or in the Northumberland coast. I figured if I lived mid-way between Edinburgh and Newcastle, I could target both job markets on my next contract.

Are both job markets suitable for your skill set and target rate? If they aren't, then you may get the worst of all worlds - living in the north but having to commute weekly to London.