Good morning all!
I've been lurking these boards for a number of years and find the place an excellent resource for all things contracting. I won't bore/annoy you all with my questions, of which most have been answered using the most helpful links in the CUK Navigation area to my right and of course the search facility.
The purpose of this thread is to introduce myself and to bore you all with my circumstances, I'll keep it brief!
Have been a West Midlands based permie IT monkey for about 13 years and have worked in both private and public sector. Started out on ServiceDesks/1st Line and then progressed into 2nd line desktop support. After a number of years on the desktop side of IT support I then moved into 3rd line infrastructure project and BAU roles. Of course, all permie!
I'm pretty much a 'generalist' in that I'm open to take on anything which comes my way but my specialties are in the areas of Active Directory, Windows Server, Exchange 2007/2010, Lync 2010/2013 and VMware vSphere...yadda yadda yadda!
Nowt special really!
To cut a long story short: split up with the missus 4 years ago, followed by a 1 year battle in the family court to see the kids and was awarded 'contact'. After that court stuff I decided to stay the fook away from the concept of relationships which is compromise at someone's expense, usually the fathers! So these days I concentrate on being a good dad in the little time I'm 'allocated' by the ex-crement!
After the above debacle, I spent what seemed an eternity in a sub 25k PA Infrastructure permie role for a private company. Was grateful for the job, they paid for a lot of training and I got my hands dirty on a lot of new technologies.
After many moons of paying rent and wondering just what the hell I was going to do with my life, a close relative sadly passed away. In her will she left her entire estate to my family which included her property in SE London (Zone 3). After some discussions, the property was passed to me. About two months ago, I jacked in the above mentioned permie role, paid off the landlord and then got my fat @rse down here! Only took a short time to settle down but there were a few loose ends to tie up before I could start looking for work.
A few weeks ago I scored a 3 month contract gig up near Angel in Islington. Daily rate is a smidgen over £300 which really great! All of it happened so quickly in that I was telephone interviewed, followed by face to face and then asked to start the next day! Even though I had been looking into contract work, I had not formed a Ltd company so opted to do this gig under a brolly. But in the next month or so I will get a Ltd sorted along with an accountant etc. I'm looking at getting it sorted by SJD as I want this done right and I don't want to cut corners. But for my first gig, a brolly will do just fine and will give me time to soak up the world of Ltd.
So I've decided to drop the permie stuff and make a success out of contracting. I have no missus or in-laws to answer too nor do I have to worry about mortgage or rent. For me the risk is quite small so I'd be damned fool for not pursuing contracting.
My intention is not to contract only in London but all over the UK with London being my secure base (my home). I have no issues with checking out for 5 days per week to work elsewhere because I want this to be a success and I believe flexibility is the name of the game.
Anyway, that's enough bollo!
Thanks for reading and apologies for the naff grammar too!
ExPermie
I've been lurking these boards for a number of years and find the place an excellent resource for all things contracting. I won't bore/annoy you all with my questions, of which most have been answered using the most helpful links in the CUK Navigation area to my right and of course the search facility.
The purpose of this thread is to introduce myself and to bore you all with my circumstances, I'll keep it brief!
Have been a West Midlands based permie IT monkey for about 13 years and have worked in both private and public sector. Started out on ServiceDesks/1st Line and then progressed into 2nd line desktop support. After a number of years on the desktop side of IT support I then moved into 3rd line infrastructure project and BAU roles. Of course, all permie!
I'm pretty much a 'generalist' in that I'm open to take on anything which comes my way but my specialties are in the areas of Active Directory, Windows Server, Exchange 2007/2010, Lync 2010/2013 and VMware vSphere...yadda yadda yadda!
Nowt special really!To cut a long story short: split up with the missus 4 years ago, followed by a 1 year battle in the family court to see the kids and was awarded 'contact'. After that court stuff I decided to stay the fook away from the concept of relationships which is compromise at someone's expense, usually the fathers! So these days I concentrate on being a good dad in the little time I'm 'allocated' by the ex-crement!
After the above debacle, I spent what seemed an eternity in a sub 25k PA Infrastructure permie role for a private company. Was grateful for the job, they paid for a lot of training and I got my hands dirty on a lot of new technologies.
After many moons of paying rent and wondering just what the hell I was going to do with my life, a close relative sadly passed away. In her will she left her entire estate to my family which included her property in SE London (Zone 3). After some discussions, the property was passed to me. About two months ago, I jacked in the above mentioned permie role, paid off the landlord and then got my fat @rse down here! Only took a short time to settle down but there were a few loose ends to tie up before I could start looking for work.
A few weeks ago I scored a 3 month contract gig up near Angel in Islington. Daily rate is a smidgen over £300 which really great! All of it happened so quickly in that I was telephone interviewed, followed by face to face and then asked to start the next day! Even though I had been looking into contract work, I had not formed a Ltd company so opted to do this gig under a brolly. But in the next month or so I will get a Ltd sorted along with an accountant etc. I'm looking at getting it sorted by SJD as I want this done right and I don't want to cut corners. But for my first gig, a brolly will do just fine and will give me time to soak up the world of Ltd.
So I've decided to drop the permie stuff and make a success out of contracting. I have no missus or in-laws to answer too nor do I have to worry about mortgage or rent. For me the risk is quite small so I'd be damned fool for not pursuing contracting.
My intention is not to contract only in London but all over the UK with London being my secure base (my home). I have no issues with checking out for 5 days per week to work elsewhere because I want this to be a success and I believe flexibility is the name of the game.
Anyway, that's enough bollo!
Thanks for reading and apologies for the naff grammar too!
ExPermie
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