Fingers crossed - de-benched soon

[mace]

Well done and good luck

Did you put your age on your CV?

What's your speciality anyway? I myself am worried that if I don't be careful in gig selection I may end up having to move back to being a permie(to jump up the ladder)...though I want that war chest well and truly stocked before that happens

KL

business intelligence & data warehousing

[kanulondon]

Well done and good luck

Did you put your age on your CV?

What's your speciality anyway? I myself am worried that if I don't be careful in gig selection I may end up having to move back to being a permie(to jump up the ladder)...though I want that war chest well and truly stocked before that happens

KL

[groovybeetlecar]

The positives were that the quality of work that I was doing went up and I managed to shin my way up the organisational chart. The negatives were that I never really grasped the noses that I were putting out of joint. So after working like a dog (way longer hours than when I was contracting) for almost 2 years, when the opportunity arose I got knifed in the back. For the first 75% of my tenure it felt good making the move back, the last 25% I was trying to escape. Contracting was marvellous until the money couldn't overcome the boredom of the trap that I found myself in. I'm not cut out to be a permie, however, (just can't brown nose to save my life) so will suffer it until I've got a viable plan B. What I really want is to make just enough to maintain my current lifestyle with nobody pulling the strings. I reckon if I can make £15k pa out of plan B, I can bail out before the next recession kicks in.

I struggled to cut it in the permie environment too. Brown nosing not my game and not quick enough to dodge the tulip being thrown in my direction.

Glad to hear you're nearly off the bench!!

(my posts still have to be approved by the mod so it may be some time before this appears... hope it is still relevant)

[mace]

Gd luck...permy interview myself tomorrow...how did you find permiedom after a long stint in contracting??

The positives were that the quality of work that I was doing went up and I managed to shin my way up the organisational chart. The negatives were that I never really grasped the noses that I were putting out of joint. So after working like a dog (way longer hours than when I was contracting) for almost 2 years, when the opportunity arose I got knifed in the back. For the first 75% of my tenure it felt good making the move back, the last 25% I was trying to escape. Contracting was marvellous until the money couldn't overcome the boredom of the trap that I found myself in. I'm not cut out to be a permie, however, (just can't brown nose to save my life) so will suffer it until I've got a viable plan B. What I really want is to make just enough to maintain my current lifestyle with nobody pulling the strings. I reckon if I can make £15k pa out of plan B, I can bail out before the next recession kicks in.

[Muttley08]

Gd luck...permy interview myself tomorrow...how did you find permiedom after a long stint in contracting??

[mace]

Amen to that and best of luck.

How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

40.

[Clippy]

Amen to that and best of luck.

How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

[MonzaMike]

Good Luck

Hope that it all works out for you.

A couple of weeks back I thought I would have the choice of two roles. One's dead and the other is looking a little flaky.

No fun chasing jobs when the war chest is looking thin.

[DS23]

big relief eh? champagne on ice for you... come and have a drink in tpd when it is confirmed. well done!

[mace]

After perhaps the longest permie application in history, I've verbally confirmed that I want to take up the new job. As it's with a financial outfit, I've still got to go through a background credit check which takes a couple of weeks, so I won't be home and dry until 3rd/4th week of September (almost 3 months after I originally sent in my CV).

After over 2 months of being glued to this bench, it feels like I'm on the way to the airport but with the remaining feeling that I may yet forget my passport/miss the flight.

Base salary's substantially lower than previous but the package is much better as my previous company was an SME and the new one an MNC. All in all, it'll come out similar to what I was on up until April this year.

My tips, such as they are, are to scan the job boards for ads placed by companies rather than agents and you're especially in luck if it's with a company you've worked for before. The only other company that I got interviews from was by spamming all of the HR departments of the companies in the sector that I've predominantly worked in. I didn't get anywhere with agencies. Not sure why, perhaps it's my age, perhaps I'm just bitter.

My background is that I was a contractor for almost 9 years and survived the last recession (2000-2003). Last time, I was 4 months out of work in 2002 and had to scrabble for around a year between Autumn 2002 and Autumn 2003 when things began to settle again. Trying to avoid a similar scenario, I turned perm in Autumn 2007 when the credit crunch started in the hope of avoiding a similar situation. I got laid off in July, however, so it wasn't that smart after all. I'm aware that there's a permie/contractor divide but at the end of the day, we're all pawns in the game. At least as contractors, especially when you're young, you're better prepared to cope. As a contractor having my gig cut was an occupational hazard, whilst as a permie it came as a much bigger shock.

I consider myself lucky if I'm definitely off the bench. It's not about skill or experience or who you know really, it's just a numbers game. Having experienced 2 recessions now, I'm focussing on plan B when I get back from a short trip. I don't want to ever have to feel that my life is in the hands of other people again. Good luck to everybody.