Bankruptcy

[SueEllen]

Spare time is for the rich, teenagers and the retired.

Actually even the rich I know tend to not have spare time. But that's probably why they are rich in the first place.............

[doodab]

You're a wimp. I'm in the office at 6:30 I leave at 18:30 and go to the gym for a couple of hours then I sort my own dinner out, today I was in the office at 7:00 and won't get home tonight until 21:00, wtf are you doing with your time apart from whinging?

It's only a matter of time before the stress of your home life f*cks up your contract. Fly home today and sort your life out this weekend.

Maybe you should try and find something more within your capabilites, then you won't have to work an extra 20 hrs a week to get the job done?

But seriously, if I try and work 12 hrs a day the client will complain, when I was averaging 9 they put a limit on how much I could bill in total in my contract, so now I keep it to an extra 2-3 a week on average. That works out OK as I can get an earlier flight on the weeks I'm flying home and get home before midnight.

And sometimes I am knackered, because I've landed at 1am on Monday morning on a delayed flight after a weekend of little sleep because a 4 year old kept waking us up. 6 hrs kip and up for work, but I'm not going to be putting in 10 hours.

Harsh but fair

Plenty of us are working full time contracts, commuting every week, keeping the Mrs happy, doing the "Man stuff" round the house at the weekend, paying for the house and week day accommodation and still managing to squeeze in training to make sure we can keep doing it in the future.

Spare time is for the rich, teenagers and the retired.

That's exactly what I am doing! The only difference is that I commute monthly because we simply can't afford 4 flights a month and all the man stuff around the house gets compressed into a single weekend a month.

I bet neither of you hard men have taken a holiday in the last 3 years either. Or been to the pub with your mates. You probably don't have time for friends what with all that working

[Spacecadet]

I bet neither of you hard men have taken a holiday in the last 3 years either. Or been to the pub with your mates. You probably don't have time for friends what with all that working

1 week holiday and a total of 7-8 weeks benched
I did buy a house though

Get to the pub occasionally

How often do you see your mates when stuck out in Germany?

[doodab]

1 week holiday and a total of 7-8 weeks benched
I did buy a house though

Get to the pub occasionally

How often do you see your mates when stuck out in Germany?

In the last 2 years I've been to one stag do & wedding, I have another this year, a couple of them visited me during oktoberfest last year and I try and catch up with a few over christmas & new year which is the only time I've been in the UK for more than 3 days at a stretch. I did visit a fellow cukker who used to work here as well, he lives in Cologne now so I went up for the Karneval weekend. Most of them I just haven't seen for 2 years.

Apart from Karneval I have been to the pub twice since new year, one of those visits was a work do, the other was the girlfriends birthday.

Edit: IIRC, didn't you also used to waste money on fags?

[TheFaQQer]

What about me, I've had to sell my sports car, cut down on fine wines and only watch free porn.

Just because you download it illegally, doesn't make it "free"

[TheFaQQer]

I've actually got a tent. And a whizzy little gas stove with 2 rings and a grill. And a nifty little lantern with a remote control to switch it on and off, although it does attract a lot of winged insects.

Get Suity to build you a campervan - sorted!

[Peoplesoft bloke]

No, I'm investigating various options regarding sorting out the horrible mess I seem to be finding myself in. At the moment bankruptcy is slightly below moving to Basingstoke on the list of possibilities. So it's safe to say I'm not seriously considering it.

Bankruptcy. No contest.

[TheFaQQer]

TBH I don't think a lack of generic skills is the problem. I've got them. In London at least it's getting past the agents when I have zero experience of financial services on my CV and a lot of "integrating niche project X with X, Y Z" even though the truth of it is java with web services, spring, hibernate, JMS and so on has been my day job since 2005, before that I was a PL/SQL programmer and before that a combo of PL/SQL & C made up 80% of my work for about 6 years.

...

The main avenues I'm thinking of pursuing are are sitting the Sun Java Programmer / Web Component / Business Component etc cert exams and perhaps getting back up to speed on Oracle and doing the OCP cert, but I don't know if it would help. The other thing I might try is one of those CV writing services. Has anyone tried those?

Sounds to me that your CV needs a bit of a re-write if you aren't getting past the agents over here. There are normally a reasonable amount of PL/SQL roles in London / Reading and if you can then get more into eBusiness Suite from there (and PL/SQL is PL/SQL, regardless of what some people will tell you) then there are more opportunities with varied rates. I've not used a re-writing service, but have tinkered a bit over the years - is there an agent that you know / like / trust (!) that you could ask to run it by them? Failing that, any colleagues that might do it? Last year, when we had some project downtime, a couple of us got together and reviewed each other's CVs which was a good way.

The problem with doing the certifications is that ultimately, I don't think that they make too much difference and they cost money. For example, an OCP will need a hands-on course, so you've got to pay for that - you can't just take the exams. I went to India to do mine, because it was cheaper than doing it in the UK, but given your financial situation, you can't afford to do it (sorry if that's a bit blunt).

I can relate to the niche disappearing, though - Oracle scrapped my niche a few years back. 10 years of specialism, including training Oracle in how the product worked and writing a book, and they scrapped it. Not that I'm bitter, you understand.

[Spacecadet]

Edit: IIRC, didn't you also used to waste money on fags?

At the time it wasn't a waste, it was a necessary living expense
Stopped it, but not for the health not the money.

[doodab]

Sounds to me that your CV needs a bit of a re-write if you aren't getting past the agents over here. There are normally a reasonable amount of PL/SQL roles in London / Reading and if you can then get more into eBusiness Suite from there (and PL/SQL is PL/SQL, regardless of what some people will tell you) then there are more opportunities with varied rates. I've not used a re-writing service, but have tinkered a bit over the years - is there an agent that you know / like / trust (!) that you could ask to run it by them? Failing that, any colleagues that might do it? Last year, when we had some project downtime, a couple of us got together and reviewed each other's CVs which was a good way.

There are a few I could talk to, also some mates who hire people. I will have a google for templates as well maybe.

The problem with doing the certifications is that ultimately, I don't think that they make too much difference and they cost money. For example, an OCP will need a hands-on course, so you've got to pay for that - you can't just take the exams. I went to India to do mine, because it was cheaper than doing it in the UK, but given your financial situation, you can't afford to do it (sorry if that's a bit blunt).

Yes, the OCP needs a course now but it's a 4-5 day one, should be doable for £1500 + the exams I reckon. The main reason I'm considering them is because it shows basic technical competence that maybe is a doubt in some peoples minds because I'm seen as a "product X" guy rather than a Java guy that knows "product X" as well.

I can relate to the niche disappearing, though - Oracle scrapped my niche a few years back. 10 years of specialism, including training Oracle in how the product worked and writing a book, and they scrapped it. Not that I'm bitter, you understand.

I am. To be fair, they haven't scrapped it but the firm that originally developed it were acquired and the new owners have taken it in a different direction focussed on selling packages built on the core product rather selling the core product as a bespoke development platform. If I could get a bit more experience there I would be laughing. Bored to tears but the money would be rolling in.