Is now the time to Jump?

[Troll]

Cheers for the responses. So the best time to make the switch is after Christmas. What about the general Market? Is it on the up or down.
Should I give it 6 months a year? I ask because I'm at a certain Govn IT company in Telford that is cutting 600 jobs!! Go now or potentially get axed in 3 months?

And given I'm a Tester where's the best place to find out what trends there are?
Praise be for 16/11 'be nice to a newbie day'
Thanks Again

wait for the payoff in 3 months but use the time to sort yourself something out

the rest you will have to find out for yourself if you're going to stand on your own two feet

[Troll]

sorry forgot the HTH

[DiscoStu]

I ask because I'm at a certain Govn IT company in Telford that is cutting 600 jobs!! Go now or potentially get axed in 3 months?

Why on earth would you quit if you'll get a nice redundancy pay-off in a few months? It'll be a nice security blanket for that stressful time looking for your first contract.

[rn750]

I've only been there 18 months so I don't think I'll get any pay out! If I do it will be quite small!

Ta

[Zorba]

most contractor markets take a downturn just before and after xmas, mainly because most hirers are too busy chatting up the office secretary to take on staff and the company is too busy partying to worry about starting new projects (hence no need for new contractors).

mid jan after the xmas hangover has worn off and they realise that deadlines still need to be met the markets usually pick up all the way until the money runs out mid march.

After this its mid april/early may before new budgets approved, projects organised and contractors are needed, all the way up until summer

summer is a tricky one, some projects are still ongoing and so staff are needed (contractors are also away on hols and so sometimes rates are higher), other times there is a dead period while everyone makes babies in the fields while it's sunny (well in my perfect world they do anyway)..

finally autumn kicks in, contractors are hired aorund august to get them end of year deadlines guaranteed to be met (regardless of cost) and the year repeats with everyone looking towards xmas around now..

So, make sure your timing is right before you jump into the skipping ropes otherwise you may be tripped up (do you see what i did there, skipping ropes, tripped up ???)

Of course all of this could be utter tosh and your market might be booming all year round..

HTH

it's friday so i thought id be nice to the newbie

That is actually one of the best summaries of the contracting year I have read. I might actually bookmark it, for when people ask.

Hey, we could combine it with the Girls of CUK girly calendar idea...

[VectraMan]

Why on earth would you quit if you'll get a nice redundancy pay-off in a few months? It'll be a nice security blanket for that stressful time looking for your first contract.

I agree. Plus if you're being made redundant anyway, you have nothing to lose by trying to go contract,and nothing to lose if the contract doesn't last. You're out of work either way.

I made that point to a permie I worked with recently who was being made redundant, but he wouldn't listen and wanted the "security" of a permanent job.

[xoggoth]

Unless you happen to be Mr Brilliance with all the in skills or a total dud, there's an enormous amount of luck in contracting. Sometimes you look for ages without success, then when you have stopped bothering to look, things just keep turning up out of the blue.

If something good turns up, don't think, just jump.