Reply to: To tell or not to tell?

[gauche]

Re The Ashes, I'm running out of comebacks

Re the money, my pay nearly trebled on my first contract. It went up another 30% on my current contract. I've saved enough to pay off my mortgage (even at today's crappy exchange rate - I haven't actually paid it off because I'm willing to wait several years for that to improve), and will be heading back to Oz after my current contract expires, which I'm sure will make some of you happy (and me too, to be honest)

[d000hg]

Did you get a big payrise going direct?
Did you save up enough to live with no work for a few months when/if you need to?

[Churchill]

Well, it's been 18 months but thought I'd update this thread. I did find a couple of contract offers and handed in my resignation, but had a heart-to-heart with my manager to explain that I wasn't leaving because of the project, but because of the money. The client then liased with my employer to keep me on board (presumably they had to pay a packet). I then contracted with that client for 14 months before moving onto my current contract in finance.

Since your last posts we won the Ashes, again.

[gauche]

Update

Well, it's been 18 months but thought I'd update this thread. I did find a couple of contract offers and handed in my resignation, but had a heart-to-heart with my manager to explain that I wasn't leaving because of the project, but because of the money. The client then liased with my employer to keep me on board (presumably they had to pay a packet). I then contracted with that client for 14 months before moving onto my current contract in finance.

[malvolio]

Fair enough. My apologies if it came across as childish.

No worries...

What about all the immigrants leaving, not to mention all the emigrants "taking" jobs in other countries? Have you seen the official figures? They would suggest that net migration has lowered, thus there is less competition in the job market.

The ratio of joiners to leavers is roughly 11 to 1, officially. God knows what the illegal count is, since HMG doesn't try to find out.

Don't get me wrong: I'm as ignorant of all this as the next person. All I'm saying is that I think it's easy to point the finger at immigrants in the middle of a recession.

Luckily I'm not ignorant, since I'm one of the guys trying to fight it. 50k is a conservative estimate, most of whom started coming here by breaking ICT visa rules once we'd got the Tier 2 one sorted out. Nobody's pointing fingers at anyone, we are simply concerned that UK workers are being displaced by non-EU workers, many of whom are acxtually unqualified for the work they're being given. The odd Antipodean (and I know some very odd ones) is neither here nor there, but it's probably a smart move to keep out of the debate.

[mrdonuts]

"Have you seen the official figures"

i laugh in the face of official figures

[RichardCranium]

Wow, you guys sure know how to sell contracting! Or mayhaps you're just trying to keep competition to a minimum in these tough times?

Glad you can laugh about it. Going contracting here now would be batty.

I'm an Aussie

That's a win 'cos Strines don't pay employment taxes. At least, over the years I've worked with them, I've never known any pay any. They just go home when the taxman gets shirty. But have you the balls to do that?

I like London, and so does my family

I take it you got pads to live in and need to pay for.

I'm a very competent (if I do say so myself) developer (.NET, C#, WPF, Silverlight, Surface etc)

There's a few roles like that on Jobserve you could pitch for. And if you're that good you'll bowl them over at interview. Just test the field before you get out of consultancy.

You could probably rescue your employment position and be happy, and rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.

[gauche]

Grow up, you're just catching a bit of backlash

Fair enough. My apologies if it came across as childish.

What about all the immigrants leaving, not to mention all the emigrants "taking" jobs in other countries? Have you seen the official figures? They would suggest that net migration has lowered, thus there is less competition in the job market.

Don't get me wrong: I'm as ignorant of all this as the next person. All I'm saying is that I think it's easy to point the finger at immigrants in the middle of a recession.

[malvolio]

To those who accused me of trolling/stealing "their" jobs, all I can say is that your attitude and ignorance astounds me.

Grow up, you're just catching a bit of backlash. You're talking to a community that has seen 50,000 jobs disappear in the last few years to people who are not from the EU. We tend not to be too sympathetic to such as they. Can't imagine why....

[gauche]

If your that good / confident then find a new contract with another firm,
taking risks by approaching new clients and work is what maintains your
edge in contracting, otherwise stay as a permie.

But . . . this is a risk; a greater risk than finding a contract first and then resigning. If it weren't risky, it would be a no-brainer. And I could argue that it is a new client. I'd no longer be working for my consultancy and would instead be working directly for that consultancy's client.

To those who accused me of trolling/stealing "their" jobs, all I can say is that your attitude and ignorance astounds me. I dedicate a large part of my time to helping the development community at large for the betterment of our craft. Chances are I've helped some of you in the past for no personal gain. If this is karma, she's a bitch. Oh well,

PS. My replies are taking a long time to appear on the forums, making it hard to converse.

[Bright Spark]

If your that good / confident then find a new contract with another firm,
taking risks by approaching new clients and work is what maintains your
edge in contracting, otherwise stay as a permie.

[DS23]

Some points:

1. I'm an Aussie (shutup about The Ashes already)

we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes
punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes
we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes
punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes
we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes
punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes
we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes
punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes
we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes
punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes
we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes we won the ashes
punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes punter lost the ashes

[Zippy]

I smell the odour of a feeble sockpuppet.

It's a fairly obvious attempt at someone trolling as a fake ICT visa holding underpaid permy.

Yet another pathetic attempt at sockpuppetry, it's not even vaguely amusing.

If that was the case they got very little comfort here.

[KentPhilip]

Hi all,

Just looking for some general advice/guidance here.

I am a consultant and just got a visa that allows me to do contracting. Therefore, I am looking for contract work and will be resigning from my employer when I find one.

The thing is, I really like the client I am currently consulting for, and am quite enjoying the project, too. The client also likes me and insisted on having me on board.

I am pondering whether I should tell the client that I am looking to get into contracting in the hopes that they will offer to take me on (and pay less than they're charged through my consulting firm, incidentally).

The risk here is that various non-compete clauses in contracts may prevent them from taking me on. Therefore, they may get worried that I won't be around for long and insist on going back to my employer and asking for a replacement. That is lose/lose for me.

However, they could potentially find a way around those clauses or pay my employer a lump sum to take me on as a contractor - not sure.

Anyone have any thoughts/guidance on this?

I've done it, but as a move from long-term contract to perm.

I was working as long term contract (IR35-caught ) for a small software company, and spent time based at client site of a medium-sized company.
Latter company offered me a job on perm rate that was equivalent to old contract rate (£44K 7 years ago) and I took it.

Mind you, I did feel a little nervous when I told my MD at the small company what I was doing - but he took it really well - I think he had been expecting it actually.

My advice is to forget the business relationship between the two companies, and just go work where YOU are happiest - that's all that counts.

[TykeMerc]

I smell the odour of a feeble sockpuppet.

It's a fairly obvious attempt at someone trolling as a fake ICT visa holding underpaid permy.

Yet another pathetic attempt at sockpuppetry, it's not even vaguely amusing.