User Profile

[oliverson]

On a less confrontational / defensive note, on speaking to an agent today I was surprised to here that he was rejecting several clients that he knew, don't ask me how, were servicing two to three contracts at a time. Said this practice has kicked in obviously with the WFH, but especially in London-based...

[oliverson]

Nice one and good luck.

I've averaged 17,033 steps a day the last week out in very steep terrain in Spain and temperature mostly upper 20's, dragged around by two lively dogs!

On the work side, the most remarkable latter half of the week. Just like buses, contracts sometimes...

[oliverson]

Finally had a conversation with a real agent today and it was very productive, even if I don't end up getting an offer. It's given me fresh hope that if you can get your CV into the hands of the agent, instead of AI or screening systems sending it to /dev/null, then you stand a chance!

...

[oliverson]

I'm not sure that's going to work either.

I have a 'deep' background in .NET, going back to when it was in beta and more recently lots of 'in demand' skills ranging from Azure to AWS, Kubernetes to Iac (Terraform). Front end (Angular/React), backend (.NET, Node).

What good...

[oliverson]

Didn't sleep well last night, had a nightmare that ended up keeping me awake.

I had somehow fallen into a deep, steep-sided quarry now filled with water and was heavily clothed. No matter how much I struggled to get out I couldn't, in fact my frantic actions were only serving to see me...

[oliverson]

You're probably right about the generation and as has been said by others, they're work shy ****ers wanting to make money by shooting crappy videos. Horrible generation....

[oliverson]

I'm blaming it on the WFH brigade. What we have in mainstream recruitment is a bunch of kids who are basically doing absolutely FA. They've 'learned their trade' sat at the kitchen table since lockdowns, nobody to press them, challenge them, teach them how to be professional, courteous, how to pick...

[oliverson]

Back at my desk after walking the dogs, coffee at the clubhouse outside in the sunshine and looking at blue sky and greenery outside and the c. 800m mountain right behind us, wondering whether 'the industry has retired me'. Wondering whether that chapter of my life (contracting) is truly over....

[oliverson]

• Hybrid: 3-day onsite at Canary Wharf
• Initial 6-months with potential extension
• Rate: Up to £415/day inside

Shocking!

[oliverson]

You've waiting over 2 years for that role?!...

[oliverson]

Terrible numbers indeed and it's quite a selfish thing to say but hey, we are contractors. It only matters if you're on the bench!

I've come to the conclusion that traditional means of sourcing work, such as JobServe and the like, and even work posted on LinkedIn are in 2025, completely...

[oliverson]

Last place I used scrum the retrospectives were schedule for 2.5 hours with people bringing in coloured crayons and boards, cut out symbols, sweets and cakes. What a tulip show.

In fact this is opening some old wounds for me. In the team close to the one I was helping, the scrum master...

[oliverson]

I'm afraid I don't agree with that. My involvement with 'agile/scrum' has been since 2008 after reading the article 'Scrum and XP from the Trenches'. Seemed like a good idea on paper versus 3 years of speccing out the system in an waterfall world, but reality is it's the biggest drain on resources imaginable....

[oliverson]

Unlike your bank balance (and mine)!...

[oliverson]

So, the role I got frustrated with a few days has actually been filled internally.

Another one with a previous client where I'd had a subtle hint something was going to happen hasn't. Typical of that place to yet again have a change of plan.

Sat waiting for a 50/50 possibility...

[oliverson]

I also did one. Late Friday and I’m finishing up on a contract and this burly guy and his sidekick came marching down the corridor at pace. I watched them getting closer and they finished up at my desk! Turns out they’d been working with a contractor for over a year and he’d been escorted from...

[oliverson]

I dance around the court....

[oliverson]

Which ones specifically do you think they'd object to, even if they could link 'oliverson' to my LinkedIn profile?

On a more serious note, my tennis session yesterday was brutal in 30+ degrees of sunshine. Haven't use my ball firing machine (or tennis trainers) out here since the lockdown....

[oliverson]

Weird kind of logic you have there. Why contact me in the first place? Surely the provision of my phone number in a timely manner isn’t enough to offend? What has changed between that request and it being fulfilled? A short period of time!...

[oliverson]

It's happening again!!

So, late yesterday afternoon I'm approached on LinkedIn regarding a short piece of work. I ask the usual questions, etc. and they get answered aside from sending me the spec., which they sent through early this morning. It looks like a nice little project with potential...