This Business and Moment...

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,158
Pretty decent year over here; had a baby, built a team of 9 across EMEA and APJC, been to Australia 3 times, 30% pay rise, hit a milestone in earnings and got a director position at a $50B company. 2020 will be tough, but bring it on!
 
Don
Joined
23 Oct 2005
Posts
43,993
Location
North Yorkshire
Pretty eventful one for me.
Working at an MSP for 3 1/2 years, I'd been promoted twice in that time but there was little prospects for the future. The role has no life/work balance and having three young kids meant it was pretty stressful never being able to switch off.
In May I found a role closer to home, a better job position, managing a much smaller team, but in a smaller company. I handed my notice in, I worked a month before being put on garden leave for two months, which was nice!
I started my new role in August. By October I was then getting sued by my previous MSP for a number of things, that was pretty stressful, but it's closed now, they couldn't find any evidence of what they were accusing me of, made up a load of lies too!
Now I have a much better job, earning a lot more, with better perks and crucially, a waaaay better work/life balance and can switch off at 5pm.

It's funny how deceiving LinkedIn can be, you see all these lovely posts and pictures about the previous company, any outsider looking in would think, wow, I want to work there! But in reality, it's all just a load of ****!
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
Posts
58,912
It's funny how deceiving LinkedIn can be, you see all these lovely posts and pictures about the previous company, any outsider looking in would think, wow, I want to work there! But in reality, it's all just a load of ****!

Firstly, congrats on getting out of there and getting a new role.

Secondly, have you heard of the website www.glassdoor.co.uk/ ?

You can leave an anonymous review of your current and/or previous employers on there, you might find there are some others already up there for your old company. Might help stop others from making the same mistake and also if they generally treat people badly then they deserve to have potential recruitment issues that might result from multiple negative reviews. Obvs you don't need to mention the legal issue if you don't want to stay anon etc...
 
Don
Joined
23 Oct 2005
Posts
43,993
Location
North Yorkshire
Firstly, congrats on getting out of there and getting a new role.

Secondly, have you heard of the website www.glassdoor.co.uk/ ?

You can leave an anonymous review of your current and/or previous employers on there, you might find there are some others already up there for your old company. Might help stop others from making the same mistake and also if they generally treat people badly then they deserve to have potential recruitment issues that might result from multiple negative reviews. Obvs you don't need to mention the legal issue if you don't want to stay anon etc...

Thanks and yeah I have, tbh, I'm just not that petty but I can see why you'd advise that. All their good reviews have come from their board members :)
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,991
Yeah I think that’s where I’ve settled on. There’s some interesting elements coming up with a new implementation I’m to be heavily involved in (PBCS) however ultimately the biggest factor is the lack of stakeholder interaction and the way the business operates I don’t see that changing. At least without moving into my bosses role which I’m not keen to do.

I’ve mentioned before an issue i have is if any prospective companies go for a DBS check due to historic stupidity which 100% rules me out, so I have to play things carefully at times and get lucky. I’ve been offered a few roles in the past which I’ve had to turn down at the last minute due to it.
DBS check only shows unspent convictions.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Aug 2009
Posts
3,848
Location
KT8
Big year - we had our first kid, then bought the house I can see us staying in for years.

Business has been ok. Had a brilliant calendar Q1 - personally did a year's worth of billing in just a few months. The rest of the year has been tough though. My colleagues are quite a bit behind on where I'd have hoped, but there's plenty to be optimistic about as I feel we've got a great chance to have a strong Q1 again from next month. We were on the verge of a couple of massive deals, which ended up going a slightly different direction and, to date, only banked 10% of the expected revenue on them although there's still time to turn one around.

Going to be another big year I reckon, as we're going to embark on a huge renovation project at home whilst I'm going go continue to grow the business and headcount out. Got 6 currently (inc. me) and expect it to be 8-10 in 12 months' time. Lots of work. Finding certain things tough, but enjoying other aspects of it.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
21,509
Location
Oxfordshire
My current client posted on our Microsoft Teams channel that contractors are likely to be inside IR35 come April and they'll let us know more later. I was pretty set on leaving anyway as it's gone a bit stale, so I'm not that fussed, but it's a **** thing to do for those who were hoping to stay. Find out on Christmas eve, and some won't even find out until they get back in the new year.

I'm actually excited about having a few months off come April, to let the market normalise a bit. I've had 19 days off in 5 years, so I'm long overdue a break. But I'd have never have taken it as long as the opportunity to earn was there, but with IR35, it might force me too. Sods law I'll take a new contract starting April and have no time off :p
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Mar 2006
Posts
3,725
Location
Scotland, UK
Pretty strong year overall -
Interviewed and was successful for a new role - moving into tech strategy / tech pre sales in a new customer account set
Helped closed out a significant deal in my previous role before moving on at the start of the FY
Started New Role with a Grade Promo
Strong first H1 in new role, up to speed pretty quickly and seem to be making some impact
Spoke at a number of partner and customer events - making new connections and getting my name / face out there
Started helping out a charity that I am passionate about and think I can make a difference into the next year so excited by that
 

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,152
Need to work out what to do this year, on one hand I have an easy life that does me well, and with some changes at home this year that’ll be of huge benefit.

But there’s the feeling of just treading water, albeit in a pool/sea that keeps throwing money at me, so maybe this year is a good time to start setting things up for a change.

I’m in tech sales, maybe look at more strategic roles either internally or other vendors.

Who knows, just a few thoughts out loud there!
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
11 Sep 2009
Posts
13,925
Location
France, Alsace
New Year, same me. I have that call today with the HR at Doodle. See what they are chatting about.

Also, managed to get the Android version of my app out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mystoragehunter.storagehunter
Less than a month for a turnaround from idea to app store. Got the iOS pending, but Apple need to sort their **** out with my company account so I can push it to that store. That and need to fix banner ads with Google. No idea what's going on there but have a ticket open. Then I'll do a proper launch with it and push some marketing a bit. Would be interesting to see if I can pick up some B2B interest for storage companies to white label it.

Cheezus still pushing on. Biggest part at the moment is this admin part of the app, but the dude is getting there.

Started a family youtube channel as well last year for all our travels, cooking and stuff which has been really fun so far. Keeps us busy for sure haha https://youtube.com/c/barefamting

Let's see what the year has in store...
 
Man of Honour
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
21,509
Location
Oxfordshire
Congrats on the app! That's awesome. Yeah Apple took a while to sort stuff with my company account, once that was done though, everything since has been really quick and painless. They approved my app within a couple of hours which was surprising as I was expecting it to be up to a week based off of other sites.

Will definitely check out your app when it's on the iOS store though :)
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
11 Sep 2009
Posts
13,925
Location
France, Alsace
Thanks man! Got a call with Apple this afternoon, so hopefully sort it then. The very same thing happened with my other one. Said payment was successful but shows pending on account but then gets returned. Nothing blocked bank end, so it's weird.
I told them this but they still need to go through all the BS system and process and don't believe this same thing already happened.
Hoping they take payment today and I can get the app up there asap.

Call with Doodle went pretty well. At least I felt it did. HR lady was lovely and we ended up running over by 20mins as we were deep in convo. Sounds like a really interesting time at the company, they're targeting the B2B space and moving from the consumer market. This pretty much means it's got to operate like a startup in the way it does it's product development etc. Would be fun, I think and definitely something I'd enjoy doing.
I don't think I'll get anywhere though, they have a number of candidates in the process already and just don't think I'll stack up with them, but hey, nothing lost in the conversation. It was nice just having the first interview tbh.
The commute would be a ballache, but they mentioned the top level salary which made my bum twitch and I just nodded and said OK, that sounds fine.

Quiet at work here at the moment on this contract. Everyone is waiting for announcements of this reorg and what jobs they're going to be put into. That's at the end of Jan...! Going to cause so much ****. Hey ho, I make the most of it and carry on as per. Still not felt like I'm back into the work rhythm yet, so need to find my pace again.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
21,509
Location
Oxfordshire
Here I was planning some time off from March because of the IR35 thing...

Looks like I'm starting a new role, outside of IR35 so no time off for me :p I just can't say no to money
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Nov 2005
Posts
40,383
Location
Cornwall
About to go through my first redundancy at 40, after rejecting the offer to apply for a new role, and the look on my managers face was priceless. Not sure he expected the most senior member of the team and the only person that can do 40% of the role to tell them to **** off :D

I'm in a pretty good financial situation, so can afford to lose the job, but have stagnated due to the workload preventing me from taking the training I've been offered. Having some extended time off will allow me to further my education and hopefully lead to a better paid job down the line.

My team's being reduced from 4 people to 2 and the decision has been made by a new manager who is using the size of the team at his previous employer as a guide to determine how big our team should be, rather than our workload. I think that's wrong, as do my colleagues, but the decision has been made.

I've got 4 years worth of experience working in a team of 2 for the business, when they were much smaller and we had far less work, and it was hell. This decision will put my colleagues under immense pressure and will probably cause one, if not both, to suffer from stress/mental health issues. It also puts some critical business systems at risk.

Do I go above my managers head and argue the above or do I just accept the payout and walk? Even if they reverse the decision I've made up my mind that I want to leave so I'm not worried about burning bridges.

Anyone been in this postion before?
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2007
Posts
7,427
Location
UK
Took exam to start GP training
Passed exam with top 20% score
Therefore skipping all face-to-face interview & practical exams

Woohoo
 
Man of Honour
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
21,509
Location
Oxfordshire
Had to let my current client know I would be leaving today, all fine and well until they asked who I'd be moving on to next. It's my old managers new company, so they immediately think he's poached me, which isn't true as it was a genuine surprise when he called me to say I'd applied there, but I feel bad for him as it's made him look bad. Couldn't be worse timing for it as well, we get told about all contractors being told to leave come March, then a week later I'm telling them I'm going to a new company, and his of all the places. So I can see why think it's pretty suspect

Made things pretty awkward and I hope I've not burnt any bridges, but ultimately I've just done what's best for me as they couldn't offer me a contract past March anyway
 
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