Just accepted an offer from the dark side

[snaw]

CCIE and you can't get a contract?
That is worrysome.

Feckin tell me about it - I been looking since the turn of the year, and I had one interview for a contract role - went to another CCIE, who took less money (In retrospect, I would now have lowered my rate to match his).

My ex boss, at a bank was telling me how a year ago he couldn't get CCIE's on board permie. He advertised a role 6 months ago and got 80 applications, narrowed it down to 20 and they were almost all CCIE's ...

I dunno about other areas of IT, but infrastructure side right now in London is brutal - none of the banks are hiring, there are loads of people looking cause projects have frozen and head counts are reduced + no one in contracts is moving, then rates are off I'd say at least 25% since this time last year. Doomed.

I'll do this a year, I get some serious exposure to technologies I'm weak on (MPLS primarily) and I do some technical pre-sales stuff as well which can't hurt.

Still not particularily ecstatic, but I'm coming round to accepting it as a sort term fix out of this economic hole we're all in.

[HairyArsedBloke]

I thought that you had started a contract with the T-man then

[NickFitz]

Actually, the main reason I'm doing it. Gonna get a lot of exposure to stuff I don't have - problem with working in banks for so long is you leave yourself kind of exposed to the rest of the industries needs when the banks all come crashing down.

Good luck

[ASB]

PS I think you have to work two years to gain redunancy from a 'contract of employment of non-specific duration' and it is one week per year - so thats two weeks pay - then taxed.

It's not taxed. But it is capped at about £330 per week.

Non contractual redundancy payments upto £30,000 are not taxed. However contractual payments are taxed - save for the amount equivalent to statutory redundancy.

[Shimano105]

I endured 2 years of this.

And I didn't get any of the training or exposure to the stuff that was promised. Funnily enough, the training budget was the first thing to be axed when times got tough.

In the end I retrained myself in my spare time, practised and blagged a little - result was I was back out contracting with the new stuff.

So if you want anything you'll have to do it yourself as your employer cares as much about your future as the Government does about your health. Depsite what either may claim, it is not very much really!

[mrdonuts]

permie rights

the only permies with any protection whatsoever are women/gay/ethnic minority and all three if they want some real protection

[eliquant]

Nope, in my current place 2x permie women who were of ethnic minority origin got the chop as did a white middle class bloke who was in his 30s with a family.

Just goes to show, don't rely on IT permie (or contracting) for anything.

No matter 'how good' you think you are.

These people were not hopeless by any stretch of the imagination and were actually quite capable.

[Fred Bloggs]

I really hope to be able to avoid staff jobs. My contract runs to June. I hope the client co wins the next phase of the project that they're now bidding for. The next phase runs for around another year I believe. It's grim out there so this seems to be the only realistic show in town for me. If push came to shove then I'd do staff rather than the bench but the thought of £1800 a month take home and 5 weeks holiday with a couple of hundred quid pension contribution worries me. Presently I manage £4k a month take home, 8 weeks a year off and a £1k a month into the pension. Still, I wouldn't starve though. Look on the bright side.............

[Evil Hangover]

I'll give you a week before you capitulate and go back to the bench

[Clippy]

the only permies with any protection whatsoever are women/gay/ethnic minority and all three if they want some real protection

Nope, in my current place 2x permie women who were of ethnic minority origin got the chop as did a white middle class bloke who was in his 30s with a family.

Just goes to show, don't rely on IT permie (or contracting) for anything.

No matter 'how good' you think you are.

These people were not hopeless by any stretch of the imagination and were actually quite capable.

Darn, now you've blown a hole in the BNP trolls argument.