This Business and Moment...

Starting my first contract on Monday - 3 month, it's Inside IR35 but not too worried on this one as I went with Umbrella to get me going as it was all very last minute - high likelihood of being extended too.
 
Congrats all! Great stuff going round!

I just spent all morning having full on arguments with developers. One threatened to ruin my life and sell my code on the blackmarket, so that's a bonus.
 
Throrik said:
Starting my first contract on Monday - 3 month, it's Inside IR35 but not too worried on this one as I went with Umbrella to get me going as it was all very last minute - high likelihood of being extended too.
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I might have missed this earlier but what is your role?

Congratulations and all the best to you!
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
I might have missed this earlier but what is your role?

Congratulations and all the best to you!
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Thanks. I'm an Infrastructure Engineer - this role is very much focused on migrating their colocated managed service VMWare servers to Microsoft Azure as well as implementing a VMWare Horizon VDI solution on site.
 
Not sure how long I'm going to be at my new place. Was employed (at a reasonable salary) for my knowledge of Ansible and exposure to Docker/Kubernetes and Terraform to do automation and IaC stuff which they are desperately in need of and to be involved with their migration from on-prem to kubernetes on AWS for their primary application platform. I took it as I wanted to increase my AWS, Kubernetes and IaC skills.

Been here a couple for months and really done sod all on any of that. Instead the people in the team I've been placed in (which was not the team I was originally supposed to be in but has the same requirements) are just trying to dump as much legacy application stuff on me as possible so they can do other things. This stuff is not documented but they are unwilling to actually knowledge share the information regarded to do things with this application platform safely. A role doing what they have me doing would pay about 15-20K less than what I'm on. They've also scheduled me for loads of OOH work between now and the end of the year without even talking to me about it or confirming my availability.

I was employed by my Bosses Boss who is shocked when he found out what was going on and he has told my Boss to sort things out (i've seen the emails) but all that happens is an item is added to the sprint to bring me up to speed on something which then doesn't happen. To be honest I'm not sure how much longer I'll stay here, I feel like the whole thing was a bait and switch and I don't want my existing skills to degrade through lack of proper use.

/rant
 
I've just been in an hour of sprint planning for a team of 20, and then there was the suggestion of having a retro for the last sprint which lasted a week. Nobody wanted the retro...but the SM decided we should have a retro anyway... :(
 
Started a new job today - hospice doctor, out of NHS so my indemnity insurance is painful but very excited. Hospice work is so much more rewarding than hospital.
 
Maccy said:
I've just been in an hour of sprint planning for a team of 20, and then there was the suggestion of having a retro for the last sprint which lasted a week. Nobody wanted the retro...but the SM decided we should have a retro anyway... :(
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Unless the sprint was literally flawless, with out-of-the-park levels of performance, I'd still opt for doing the retro.
 
Lopéz said:
Unless the sprint was literally flawless, with out-of-the-park levels of performance, I'd still opt for doing the retro.
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Nobody wanted to be there, the SM was asking if we should have a retro, this went round a few times and the general consensus was that we shouldn't have one...and then he decided we should have one against everyone's will.

Way to go for team morale.
 
Gutted. IT Security Analyst position came up at work which I'd have used as a foothold into the infosec community.

I have no experience or qualifications, a little knowledge but it's a field that I find really interesting, always have. I've hacking books dating back 20 years, always tinkered and if I get told I can't access something, I figure out how you could. Knowing this goes against me I fired an email over to the head of the team and he asked me for a chat. Had a good natter with him for an hour, the team was being redesigned so he needed to speak to management about staffing levels etc.

Just before I go on holiday I get an email from him saying "get your CV in now" so I applied. Came back from holiday to find out he's leaving to move to a large bank, and then goes on gardening leave. Heard nothing for a week so fire an email over to recruitment and they then tell me they've taken another graduate on and I never even got an interview.

I know this is the 4th grad in 6 months, the old head of the team had told me they were just ****. Had their qualifications and no experience, no passion and they just didn't work out. He was self-taught and like he said, I know the business which is half the job.

Nothing I can do about it but needed to vent. It would have been a slight pay drop as I'm a team leader for the support analysts dealing with the clients and our software so I'd lose the shift allowance we currently have but future earnings would have doubled once I had experience and the qualifications they are offering.
 
AHarvey said:
Gutted. IT Security Analyst position came up at work which I'd have used as a foothold into the infosec community.

I have no experience or qualifications, a little knowledge but it's a field that I find really interesting, always have. I've hacking books dating back 20 years, always tinkered and if I get told I can't access something, I figure out how you could. Knowing this goes against me I fired an email over to the head of the team and he asked me for a chat. Had a good natter with him for an hour, the team was being redesigned so he needed to speak to management about staffing levels etc.

Just before I go on holiday I get an email from him saying "get your CV in now" so I applied. Came back from holiday to find out he's leaving to move to a large bank, and then goes on gardening leave. Heard nothing for a week so fire an email over to recruitment and they then tell me they've taken another graduate on and I never even got an interview.

I know this is the 4th grad in 6 months, the old head of the team had told me they were just ****. Had their qualifications and no experience, no passion and they just didn't work out. He was self-taught and like he said, I know the business which is half the job.

Nothing I can do about it but needed to vent. It would have been a slight pay drop as I'm a team leader for the support analysts dealing with the clients and our software so I'd lose the shift allowance we currently have but future earnings would have doubled once I had experience and the qualifications they are offering.
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Why are they taking grads when they know you are interest? Is this some back door agreement the company has or something?
 
After nearly 6 years of contracting, I'm hanging up my books so to speak. I'm joining VMware at the end of the month, in their Northern EMEA professional services team as a senior consultant on a permanent basis. Little bit of a drop in take home (initially) but I've thought long and hard about this, spoken with friends & colleagues and pretty much everyone thinks it's the right move.

A few brain dumps for my reasoning:
  • My current (well paid) contract won't last forever. Yes, it may stretch beyond March next year but that's a 'may' and not will. Also, expenses are not paid for and the past month alone I've spent probably £600+ in travelling/food/hotels etc. I'm in the South, most of my clients are in the North. :|
  • Post April there's IR35 to contend with; even on my current rate, if I were to be deemed as 'inside' I would be taking home less than I will as a permie - without the benefits of being permanent.
  • See above - benefits. VMware offer a lot over and above the usual pension/sick pay/holiday etc. I get a brand new top of the range MacBook Pro, iPhone, bonus/share scheme, generous car allowance etc, plus expenses covered.
  • The other benefit that I am really looking forward to is training. Currently I spend many hours on evenings and weekends studying, then my ltd company pays the costs (books, licenses, courses, exams etc). This will all be free now. Fingers crossed I will be doing VCAP training soon after joining.
  • My new manager wants me to get at least one VCAP, if not VCIX, by the end of the year (it was my intention anyway). Qualifications go towards my bonus. He's also said he will happily put me toward VCDX and line me up with a project that would help me considerably with my design submission. To be one of a handful in the world with VCDX would be a major personal achievement. The current count is 283 and not many are accepted each year.
  • The annual pay rises are generous, I'd envisage that within 3-5 years my take home will match if not exceed what I get now.
  • No more worrying about tax returns, looking for a new contract, having to deal with periods of being without a contract (4 months in the previous 2 years!), accountants and all of the associated annoyances of running a ltd company and contracting.
  • I suspect the contractor market will fall on its arse next year for a bit. In the New Year there's going to be a lot of contractors looking to go permanent. I will have already jumped the gun on this movement.
There's more but I'd just be waffling. Contracting is a great gig, I will miss it and who knows, perhaps in 6 months I will return. But my feeling at the moment is that I will be with VMware for some time.

Throrik said:
Thanks. I'm an Infrastructure Engineer - this role is very much focused on migrating their colocated managed service VMWare servers to Microsoft Azure as well as implementing a VMWare Horizon VDI solution on site.
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*VMware

Good luck with your new role.
 
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I completely agree with you 100% Chris (apart from the VMWare thing which is a bad habit of mine :D) - Contracting is going to take a massive downturn, especially in Financial Services reports say they're all looking to dump contractors due to IR35 which is a hailstorm of crap anyway, it's so un-intuitive. VMware would be the ideal one to work for although not sure I want to specialise too deep - I have a good friend who is going for his VCDX he's VCAP-Design at the moment, but just failed his VCAP-Deploy he said it was a proper wakeup call on the timescale and depth of stuff. I'm going to see how the pay for contracting goes over the next 6 months (i'm inside IR35 atm as it's public sector) and grab another perm role.
 
malachi said:
You was living or working in Dusseldorf, am I correct (unless it was someone else)? You had enough of Germany then...lol.
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Not really no, there's a lot of things I really like about being here, but ultimately the gf's job didn't work out, and some declining health in both our families made us decide to move back to the UK. Been gone nearly 10 years, so it's gonna have an element of the 'moving to a new place' novelty I expect :P
 
Throrik said:
I completely agree with you 100% Chris (apart from the VMWare thing which is a bad habit of mine :D) - Contracting is going to take a massive downturn, especially in Financial Services reports say they're all looking to dump contractors due to IR35 which is a hailstorm of crap anyway, it's so un-intuitive. VMware would be the ideal one to work for although not sure I want to specialise too deep - I have a good friend who is going for his VCDX he's VCAP-Design at the moment, but just failed his VCAP-Deploy he said it was a proper wakeup call on the timescale and depth of stuff. I'm going to see how the pay for contracting goes over the next 6 months (i'm inside IR35 atm as it's public sector) and grab another perm role.
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Companies will need short term contractors so it will be interesting how it all unfolds. The public sector have not been fair which is a shame. I know some been at a place for many years yet still deemed outside. Likewise some have put people outside IR35 when the org struggled to recruit. Seems to be a case of rip as much tax as possibly until it affects project delivery then allow them to be outside which IMO is completely unfair. I'm helping a client atm and someone there has managed to stay outside which I think is unfair - they're still doing a role a perm could and should be doing. They argued enough and hey ho, they blagged being outside. I'll be negotiating to be outside if they want me to stay and I'll give them a 0 day notice period and I only turn up if they need me deal which will save UKGov more money than paying me to turn up when they don't have work for me to do (which being public sector, has been the case a few times so far). Semi retired now with other interests so not bothered about a 5 day a week contract. I'm not an employee :)

I'd like to see it changed, possibly based on things like notice periods and/or the two year rule. Ie, as a contractor any notice period should really be minimal if you're providing a service and this is something a perm wouldn't put up with. Likewise, being with a company for 2 years is a typical perm position.
 
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With this huge reorg in my contract place, as I've mentioned I need to think about what I'm going to do. My good friend who's on the T1 leadership team is arranging a sit down with myself, him and the other T1 heading up all the product line teams in the future org. My mate sees me as a good fit for the product line manager role, heading up a product line on the business side (I said to him I'd do dev tools or business tools lines) and it'd be a perm position. Thing is, the contract rates are getting hammered down here, so I think I'd be able to wangle a pretty high FTE base salary. I'd aim for about 150-160k for the role (it's Associate Director level, under the head of business products) and that's not far off my contract rate. Then I'd get paid holiday (jeez not had that in 10yrs!), great pension and bonus. As much as I'd like to be like meh, I'll find another ****** contract and push on with my own stuff, I have to also think of both sides of the coin.

Everything with my stuff is going well... but it's always slow and it's not paying me so I can't put any eggs in that basket. I want to not care about this meeting coming up, but I'm bloody swatting up on a ton of reading prior to it. It would put me above my current manager, and think it might rock the boat a bit, especially coming from contractor to that. It's not until Sept so I have some time to finish these books I'm reading. I even took a refresher Coursea course on Product Management to brush up like a massive nerd.
 
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