Reply to: I need some help

[ChimpMaster]

WHS - Can't think of what else to do, sad as that is !
Had a similar thing happen, skills obsolete after a 10 year run. Panicked and scored a perm role on 60% of the money and it took 3 years to push into a new area with legs. Had to lie and cheat my way back up, shifted company to get the right job title and went back contracting.
REALLY appreciate it now and furiously stashing cash to insulate me from the same happening and so I don't have to go places I don't want etc. If it keeps going, the stash is my pension/early retirement fund.

This sounds like what I'll have to do i.e. move into a permie job for a while. I've got some savings stashed so there's no financial doom for a while, but I don't want to be out of work for 6 months and then look stale to employers or clients.

For my benefit, can you tell me what else you could/should have done or done better?

[lukemg]

WHS - Can't think of what else to do, sad as that is !
Had a similar thing happen, skills obsolete after a 10 year run. Panicked and scored a perm role on 60% of the money and it took 3 years to push into a new area with legs. Had to lie and cheat my way back up, shifted company to get the right job title and went back contracting.
REALLY appreciate it now and furiously stashing cash to insulate me from the same happening and so I don't have to go places I don't want etc. If it keeps going, the stash is my pension/early retirement fund.

[TheFaQQer]

With the death of this product, can you take what you have learned in it and use that with the replacement / similar products?

For example, from a technical point of view, you might know what common changes people make and how they implement it. This could then be transformed into an analyst-type role and then into architecture - you just need to market what you already know better. If you can talk about experience you have gained using the dead product, you might know how most customers use it, that kind of thing - the use cases and what customers want it to do could well remain constant regardless of the product.

That way you get away from being linked to one product and it opens up more paths to you.

I wish I could think of something away from IT as a plan B, but I have no idea what else I could do.

[ChimpMaster]

It's the new skill thing that is the key. Unless something wonderful happens, Then my rate is going to almost half when I leave my current gig if I stay contracting. Or If I am lucky I can pick up a consultancy role in one of the big houses for maybe 100k + Bonus. throw in 5 weeks holiday and the current trend to treat contractors as criminals it seems like a no brainer...

I figure that if I stick it for a year or two I can do something new once I come back to the market.

100k is awesome but you have to sell your soul to these consultancies. I'd be relatively happy at 50k if the job was local and allowed me to learn something new.

Indeed if I go permie I'm looking at it from 2 angles:
- either I gain a technical skill that will (hopefully) be marketable if I choose to return to contracting later.
- or I move into an Architecture role and gain experience as an architect in a particular sector, for example banking. This could either remain a good permie job or lead to contracting as an architect in the future.

That's all assuming I get a job! I wish I was as sharp as some of you guys - able to pick up new skills on a contract and take them forward

[bobspud]

A permie job for me will probably be around the £50k mark (hopefully not less), which is less than a third of my contracting income. But if I can learn new skills, it's the way to go I guess

It's the new skill thing that is the key. Unless something wonderful happens, Then my rate is going to almost half when I leave my current gig if I stay contracting. Or If I am lucky I can pick up a consultancy role in one of the big houses for maybe 100k + Bonus. throw in 5 weeks holiday and the current trend to treat contractors as criminals it seems like a no brainer...

I figure that if I stick it for a year or two I can do something new once I come back to the market.

[ChimpMaster]

If you've been raking in the cash then a plan B is an obvious answer. If the thing you've been doing for 12 years is now dead, is there some way you can create a modern equivalent/successor to it and therefore use your valuable experience? It's hard to guess without some idea what you've been doing all these years but I'd guess whatever you've been doing, the need it met hasn't gone away?

The area I work in has other products that I could try to move into, most probably through getting a permie job that will allow me to learn those products (hopefully, if I can get a job).

Over the past few years, my Plan B has simply been to invest the money so that I have residual income being generated. This has largely been in BTL property, the income of which is OK but not enough to live on (not when you have a family and house etc to run).

I have no other Plan, and I'm not good enough technically to create something in I.T. I definitely need a rest, and hopefully that'll recharge me and give me some ideas - but having a few months off is a very frightening thought in itself.

[Scoobos]

Don't write it off (working abroad) I've seen many families do it and I personally think their kids become more balanced as a result.

[Scrag Meister]

Ah the life of a singleton!

Now don't get me wrong, I love my wife and kids, but there is the added 'benefit' of not being able to travel the world living a good simple life

Not single, g/f gone with him, but no kids is probably the important factor.

[cojak]

A colleague of mine worked a year in a role that I left, and then I took it back.

He stashed his cash and is currently living in Thailand for some unknown amount of time. He says it absolutely dirt cheap and the cash will last a lot longer than he first thought.

He'd better not spend it all. I went on holiday there a couple of years ago and the sad, melancholic/alcoholic expats nursing beers unable to go home (because they couldn't afford it) were a sad and depressing sight.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Easy to say but hard to do!

5. sign up on positive thinking course

[ChimpMaster]

A colleague of mine worked a year in a role that I left, and then I took it back.

He stashed his cash and is currently living in Thailand for some unknown amount of time. He says it absolutely dirt cheap and the cash will last a lot longer than he first thought.

Ah the life of a singleton!

Now don't get me wrong, I love my wife and kids, but there is the added 'benefit' of not being able to travel the world living a good simple life

[ChimpMaster]

I've got a great background in picking short lived products You are not alone

I worked with a niche security product for 4 years and did pretty well out of it , then moved onto a "new product" rode the wave right up to the top of support for it - then it's also died off in popularity.

I got a bit depressed to be honest, for that along with other reasons (family illness) - all I can advise is that you try and reskill and re-enter the market in a new area.

What else is there to do?

Yes it's a shame to work so hard to become an expert in a product, only to see it go down the pan. And then to do it again! Becoming depressed is one of my fears so I am aiming to plan and fight from now.

Time for a perm role I think. If you think the IT market sucks see how the normal people are feeling...

Funnily enough I had a rather similar discussion with the wife today asking I we could take the hit if I take a perm role on... I recognise that I have had a fairly good time but need to change my skills and given the difference between 450 a day (vs what I have been on till now) or 100k + bens and 5 weeks holiday for the time being my company will have to go.

If I could get 450 a day I would probably stick to contracting, but there isn't any contract out there. The odd one pops up in Europe but it's not worth the Euros to go out and stay away from family. My rate has been decent the past few years and so I must admit I've become accustomed to the earnings, in an 'accomplishment' sort of way if that makes sense. But we've always treated contracting as a 'bonus', and so we have saved/invested for this eventuality.

A permie job for me will probably be around the £50k mark (hopefully not less), which is less than a third of my contracting income. But if I can learn new skills, it's the way to go I guess

[Scrag Meister]

A colleague of mine worked a year in a role that I left, and then I took it back.

He stashed his cash and is currently living in Thailand for some unknown amount of time. He says it absolutely dirt cheap and the cash will last a lot longer than he first thought.

[d000hg]

...

If you've been raking in the cash then a plan B is an obvious answer. If the thing you've been doing for 12 years is now dead, is there some way you can create a modern equivalent/successor to it and therefore use your valuable experience? It's hard to guess without some idea what you've been doing all these years but I'd guess whatever you've been doing, the need it met hasn't gone away?

[ChimpMaster]

1. Take a month off - you can do that comfortably and that will be enough to recharge your batteries but not so much that you stress about not working
2. Think about what you really enjoy doing - just because you are an IT contractor it doesn't mean that's your life's passion
3. Think about whether what you really enjoy could present a business opportunity for you
4. Start a new business and enjoy

Easy to say but hard to do!