Originally posted by edison
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Previously on "Am I restricting myself too much if I can only contract in London?"
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Originally posted by dabevan View PostHi,
I'm being made redundant from my company and am tempted to try contracting.
I've got 20 years of IT experience, 5 of which are as an IT Project Manager, I'm Prince2 Practitioner certified and have run both infrastructure projects, and development projects for a leading UK retailer.
In the last 3 years, most of my experience has been in project managing Oracle developments (OBIEE and EBS) and my prior technical career was as a Java Web Developer.
I've got a family life and so would only really be willing to work in London (plus Kent or Surrey).
...my question is, is this an unrealistic restriction?
i.e. would I *have* to travel to stand any chance of finding contracts? Note, I'm not that fussed about rates, I'd prefer to lose £100/day than have to drive for hours a day, or stay away all week in hotels etc.
I don't have any financial services experience - but would be happy to work in any sector that would employ me!
I think you might struggle to find work in the Kent region, Surrey is a much better bet. Many of the larger non-FS companies in approximately the M25 region tend to be on the western side of London - think of a segment running from Hatfield to Luton, Slough, Woking, Kingston and Hammersmith. SABMiller, GSK, Sky, Diageo, Unilever, Tesco, Whitbread, TUI Travel, Easyjet, British Airways and Dixons Carphone are just a few of the FTSE100 companies in that area I can think of off the top of my head.
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Originally posted by TheFaQQer View PostIf you genuinely aren't fussed by the rates, then that helps. However, looking like a cheap project manager may scare some clients (who aren't all driven by price) away.
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Originally posted by dabevan View PostNote, I'm not that fussed about rates, I'd prefer to lose £100/day than have to drive for hours a day, or stay away all week in hotels etc.
Some of the bigger projects I've been involved with have been in London (central government departments tend to do that) - the issue with that is that you can end up at the mercy of the consultancy as to location. For example, you start off working in the government department building in London, then get moved to the consultancy offices in Slough, and then in the call centre in Newport.
As oracleslave says - see what your network throws up. Assuming that you have a network in London.
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What were you earning before ball park monthly net? You could probably bring in 6-10k a month as a contractor.
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Most contracts are in London and around there so it is a realistic prospect. Better still if you can break into the financial sector.
The contracting market isn't as good as it once was and these days the permie sector seems to be booming. Therefore no harm in trying your luck because it won't be a problem getting a good permie job if you can't find a contract.
Give it 2 months, and see if you can land anything.
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I got into it after redundancy as well. Hopefully you'll have enough cash that you can spend a couple of months looking for jobs and experimenting - that's what I did. Spend a couple weeks reading up about how to form a limited company etc. and got an accountant, a little handholding and now pulling in more income contracting than I would've had from the old job if I'd had 10 years worth of promotions. DO IT.
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Originally posted by dabevan View PostI've got 20 years of IT experience,
Originally posted by dabevan View PostIn the last 3 years, most of my experience has been in project managing Oracle developments (OBIEE and EBS) and my prior technical career was as a Java Web Developer.
Originally posted by dabevan View Posti.e. would I *have* to travel to stand any chance of finding contracts? Note, I'm not that fussed about rates, I'd prefer to lose £100/day than have to drive for hours a day, or stay away all week in hotels etc.
I'd remove your actual name from your post.
Good luck - and don't cheapen my niche
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I'm Yorkshire based and have managed projects all over the place in the last decade, well everywhere BUT Yorkshire, I tend to avoid London.
Being London based is (as said by vwdan) is probably not going to cause you a lot of discomfort.
The only caveat to that is if there's nothing there and loads elsewhere you have to be prepared to wait without work or travel.
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Of all the places in the country, London is probably the best you could pick for being "stuck" there. I'm from the Midlands and the vast majority of my contract work has been London based.
I think the SJD survey said something like 40% of ALL contracts (from the contractors they surveyed, of course) were in London.
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Am I restricting myself too much if I can only contract in London?
Hi,
I'm being made redundant from my company and am tempted to try contracting.
I've got 20 years of IT experience, 5 of which are as an IT Project Manager, I'm Prince2 Practitioner certified and have run both infrastructure projects, and development projects for a leading UK retailer.
In the last 3 years, most of my experience has been in project managing Oracle developments (OBIEE and EBS) and my prior technical career was as a Java Web Developer.
I've got a family life and so would only really be willing to work in London (plus Kent or Surrey).
...my question is, is this an unrealistic restriction?
i.e. would I *have* to travel to stand any chance of finding contracts? Note, I'm not that fussed about rates, I'd prefer to lose £100/day than have to drive for hours a day, or stay away all week in hotels etc.
I don't have any financial services experience - but would be happy to work in any sector that would employ me!
Any help, or suggestions greatly appreciated.
Regards
David Bevan.
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