New year - new job search :)

Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2003
Posts
24,365
2022 new year job search is now going into full effect. With a rethink and remit of the LinkedIn and CV.

last 7 months has been applying to a few roles, including a couple of interviews just the last week before Xmas with a varied response:
* Chief product officer - 15 seconds it was clear we have different approaches. Role - senior product manager. I’m expecting to own the whole thing including the budget. Nope..
* COO - good conversation, less interview more “if you give us 6 months we could use a person like you”.

It’s bad when you scare people with the breadth and depth. So I’m resolute in targeting my first full CTO/CIO role although a head of software is an option.

Anyone else starting 2022 with a job hunt?
 
Sounds like you like similar things to me, although I prefer the product / business, over tech! I interviewed for a head of product role before Christmas and a Head of Product Operations. I basically do the prod operations role now, so wouldn't be a jump, but company is interesting. What sort of companies are you looking at? I'll definitely keep my eye out linkedin wise. What locations also?
 
IIRC he's based in Norway.

On a similar vein I had an interview for a "Head of" position last week but in the interview it became clear that they wanted a product owner which I wasn't really prepared for based on the job spec / aligned to my prior experience.

Not technically starting 2022 with a job hunt more ending 2021 when I thought my contract was ending early, got a few irons in the fire still due to processes stalling a bit over the Xmas period.

My current dilemma is trying to figure out what sort of perm salary I would accept. I've seen rules of thumb saying 1000x hourly rate but that seems a bit low to me, I mean that's going to pay a lot less even when you factor in pension contributions etc.

Overall the market seems fairly bouyant in my sector with a lot of different opportunities available, albeit a lot of them would be more of a fallback option rather than what I would really see myself wanting to do long term.
 
Sounds like you like similar things to me, although I prefer the product / business, over tech! I interviewed for a head of product role before Christmas and a Head of Product Operations. I basically do the prod operations role now, so wouldn't be a jump, but company is interesting. What sort of companies are you looking at? I'll definitely keep my eye out linkedin wise. What locations also?

Yep, I’ve been P&L product, love the hustle for investment. The last role was technical pre sales for quantum cryptography - role underutilisation traded for experience in the quantum/startup market. The folks I had prior introductions with leading/driving the quantum initiative prior to the 50,000+ layoff. Now looking for something meaty to get my teeth into however I’m expecting that I may need to opt for a formal certification for programme management to be taken seriously however there’s no explicit CIO certifications atm (and comparing CIO to COO programme management is doing it a disservice).

I’m UK based, hence the market is a little on tender hooks with 2022 with brexit. Especially startups in funding rounds.
 
Last edited:
IIRC he's based in Norway.
My current dilemma is trying to figure out what sort of perm salary I would accept. I've seen rules of thumb saying 1000x hourly rate but that seems a bit low to me, I mean that's going to pay a lot less even when you factor in pension contributions etc.

What type of role and industry? I've done a fair few temp-perm conversions since IR35 so can give some insight into day rates vs salary. Overall though it's very close at a high level when you include the benefits package. Benefits package (net of a bonus) is normally 15-20% salary value (bonus, well it a bonus right!)

Overall the market seems fairly bouyant in my sector with a lot of different opportunities available, albeit a lot of them would be more of a fallback option rather than what I would really see myself wanting to do long term.

We are struggling to get suitable candidates at mid-higher levels as lot's of people are still staying put, so it's a jobseekers market in my neck of the woods.

Hope this helps
 
Data & BI, on the perm side it has to be management positions to get any sort of decent remuneration, which still seems to be lower than you get contracting in more junior roles. Obviously you expect contract roles to pay more due to the lack of security but the disparity seems quite large, so it doesn't matter if you are unemployed for a couple of months every year. There are a small number of well paid perm roles but they don't come up that often and probably a fair bit of competition.

The issue with benefits package is it is really only the pension and bonus I'm interested in. The bonus at typical levels doesn't top up the base salary enough to get close to contracting pay, and pension contributions you can just fund yourself. Most of the other stuff like private healthcare, gym membership etc is a taxable benefit and just seems like an extra outgoing on the P11d you have to fund, so I normally opt-out anyway. Sick pay, compassionate leave etc is handy of course but in 20 years of working I've not taken all that many paid days off work. Sick pay is also less important than it used to be thanks to remote working as some illnesses that would keep you out of the office can still let you work at home (e.g. mild respiratory illnesses). Training is a good benefit but it's hard to really judge an organisation before you join in terms of how committed they are to funding it and more importantly carving out the time for it.

At risk of derailing the thread a bit, so I'll leave it there.
 
OK no problem, Data and BI is part of my remit so I can give some broad examples:

£600 to £650/day contractor (within IR35, we don't do outside) would normally go into 80/100k band (assuming you would be talking senior here) plus 15% pension (non-contributary so you can sacrifice it) and 20-30% bonus.

Financial Services
Central London
Either Microsoft Stack (inc. Azure ADF etc) or Python/Airflow/Snow-flake (filter!)/AWS

I'd say our comp is 2nd top Quarter. Hope that helps give you a reference point.

Just a data point :D - good luck in the search.
 
I’m expecting that I may need to opt for a formal certification for programme management to be taken seriously however there’s no explicit CIO certifications atm (and comparing CIO to COO programme management is doing it a disservice).

That's kinda where MBAs might be worth a punt, if you're a credible candidate for those positions then stumping up the $$$ for a good MBA (it's like £100k for an LBS one now) might well be worthwhile (I guess in general they're perhaps not worth as much as in the past as lots of people have them but lots of people aren't necessarily in a position to go for those roles and not all MBAs are equal in terms of content, network and brand value).

Re: programme management, maybe this would be worthwhile too:

https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/programmes/degrees/msc-major-programme-management

There was a dev manager in one of the firms I worked at in the late 00s as a fresh grad who'd studied for a part-time MBA, certainly hasn't harmed his career as he's now the CEO of a fairly large firm.
 
I looked at MBAs before - about 2009. A fellow leaver about the same time and funded his own attendance at Henley Business School - he was more driven sales/business development and ended up being drafted by his old boss into McLaren applied technologies. I've not seen him make much out of it in terms of return to be honest - then it was a good £30K IIRC.

The CEO of my old employer is heavily embedded in in the faculty of Judge business school - the fact the company was spun out of an accelerator and maintained significant ties to the top three was not only a way to get the required level of research staff but also was one of the negative traits of the company where those without Oxford/Cambridge qualifications/faculty membership or a respected family name were third class citizens. Moving swiftly on.

Yes the price of Judge/Said/LBS is about £70K minimum before any of the 'frivolities' required to really make use and build the network which is the main value in most of the high end MBAs. If you're funding that yourself it's unlikely (unless you focus only on board level) that you'll make that back financially.

However I get the impression that part-time MBA/innovation/PMP courses etc are seen as a commitment to 'perfecting' yourself and a commitment to a work ethic on the CV. From experience I've not really noted a difference between an MBA/PMP and an experienced non-qualified individual for the most part given most companies have typically paid a consultancy to adopt a specific framework with adaptions - be it ITIL, SAFE, Pragmatic Marketing etc. However I suspect I'm starting to see that tip of the iceberg that needs a rubber stamp to say you've had the training at C-level.
An additional observation is around the thought leadership which tends to be a key unwritten point on most board level positions - I have some but I suspect I need to develop those skill/visability more.
 
Back
Top Bottom