Impartial advice required

Lopéz

Lopéz

Lopéz

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
29,261
Location
Ottakring, Vienna.
Hi gang

I need some advice. Ultimately this is a decision only I can make but I need some opinions and counter opinions. I'll try and explain the situation.

Global company.
I am currently permanently employed in the UK, but have been on a business travel assignment (similar to a secondment) for the past 2 years.
My old permanent contracted role is as a trainer working in Learning & Development.
My current assignment role is to travel the world implementing Salesforce (I am a trainer & implementation specialist, this is not an IT role)
When I took the assignment it was made clear to me that I would not be guaranteed to return to my old role at the end of the assignment. So I have been working under the assumption that come December, when my assignment ends, I will be made redundant if no position is available for me to fill.

The company is going through a post-takeover integration and there are lots of changes going on. T
he net result for me is that my old role (which I thought was a closed door anyway) will no longer exist.
I was called today to be told this, and offered a new permanent role.
My terms and conditions would remain unchanged.
The new permanent role involves European travel but is UK based and is a training role - it's not so much a backward step, but a sideways step back to something I have done before.
The biggest issue is the timescales are tight due to a breakdown in communication between departments.

I have two choices:

1) Stay in my assignment. Go to live in China for 2 months (accom/food/flights etc paid) to do the next implementation and then continue working on various things on the same project until December and then be potentially unemployed. No redundancy as I have refused the job offered to me. I love my current job.

2) Accept the job. Leave my current role now and lose the China opportunity. I don't know if I will love this job, it does involve travel but nowhere near as much as I do now, which I would miss. I do know I would be good at it, I have done a similar role in the past.

Other influencing factors:
I am 38.
I have a girlfriend who lives abroad.
I may consider moving to Vienna to live with her at some point in the future.
I have no real UK ties.

So OcUK, what would you do?
 
Would you ever get another opportunity to go to China? If not go to China :) What's the quote about regret? No one regrets what have done only what they could have done?
 
You love what you do and it's the chance to go and work somewhere new and exciting. It's only 2 months so will fly by, I think you should go for it!
 
Hi Lopez,

I’m the kind of guy who plays things safe most times, However I think point 1 suits best.

I was a little unsure until I read your influencing factors, no uk ties, girlfriend abroad ambitions to move to Vienna.

I just felt... your obviously a well travelled guy. If you take option 1 and in two months time are looking for work.... It actually seems like a great opportunity to look for work based nearer your girlfriend or even nearer Vienna. If not then something with travel outside of Europe or that you would love more.
 
Option 1.

And come December, you may not be made redundant and something else will come up which you may enjoy just as much. Then you have options once more.

Option 2 sounds like you will spend a lot of time travelling and living out of a suitcase. which isn't a lot of fun.
 
Have you checked the job market for your skills ? Whether or not there is a chunk of redundancy money to tide you over, it sounds like you need to be looking even if you do accept the new permanent role. Takeovers take forever to sort out so all permanent means at the moment is "we know we can use you today". The counter side of that is that if you take the China role and tinkering until December then an awful lot could have changed by the time that ends.

On balance I'd recommend the China placing, primarily as its a good bit of experience to have on your CV going forwards.
 
2 month assignment is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. If you want to go work in China, then go work on China.

If you want to travel doing these consultancy gigs, then get another consultancy gig.

At your age, in your field, you won't have any trouble finding work.

I wouldn't go back to work in the UK right now even if the 30% better pay I get in DE was reversed, steer clear of that shambles if I were you. Remember you are a full EU citizen until next year (probably a couple years more after that) and entitled to live and work wherever.
 
I've got a week in Cairo, then a week in Singapore, then just over 2 months in China.

Based primarily in Shanghai but will also be visiting Beijing for a couple of weeks and Guangzhou for a week or two.

After that I'm not sure - my assignment to the head office team lasts until December and they have promised me work up until that point. The MD of the department also spoke to me and said that whilst he cannot guarantee me a perm role within the sudden short time frames that were put upon me, his intention is to retain me.

If that doesn't work out, then I still have 9 months to find another role in the company, or go elsewhere. Very happy with my choice and thanks for the advice all.
 
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