This Business and Moment...

It doesn't explain what is happening before people even get to the interview and mostly affects older staff, quite a lot of new positions are less than full time hours.
Cast the net wide and then see what bites you get. For some people, only the point "it gets real" is where the real decision making happens.

Source: many 3am nightclub finishes.
 
We've cast the net wider as we previously recruited for a manual testing role (i.e. testing apps but on actual devices not a computer) and struggled to get enough applicants. We changed the job title in the listing and now have had lots more applicants... who all seem a) overqualified on paper and b) to want to work from home. This is a full time on premises role so that's a difficult one. We had 45 candidates' CVs sent over from the recruiter and I think about 10 were ruled out due to distance or not being prepared for in office work.

We shortlisted 18 people expecting 50% to drop off when we reiterated the in office requirement, location (not London) and the pay. I think I have 11 interviews across Monday and Tuesday. That's going to be fun...
 
“We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.”

Lol, nothing like simply saying no men.
 
I think I've finally figured this *** show out.

The politics is simple, the zero finance is being used as a weapon when coupled with the promised delivery scope for one part of the organisation to whack the other exec over the head because they're not being allowed todo their own thing, simply by pointing fingers saying "lots of plans/roadmaps but no delivery" .. and yours truly is in the middle of it between the execs/orgs.
Meanwhile the senior leadership is playing happy families believing their exec and following.. the inter-CEO group political infighting is killing the organisation(s).

As you may have gathered this role is appearing to be a bit of a step down.. and so I'm starting to get ****** frustrated and annoyed.

On other news.. I'm being invited into the senior leadership update meetings where the masterplan will be revealed.. a good 6 months too late.. from the 20 minute view I had of the review of the funding request before it was presented (I threw that up the tree as I couldn't get anywhere with it) , I seem to be heading up.. but at the same time they're redoing RACIs (there's serious role creep in the organisation) as everyone is believing they have been given funding.. which I'm still not convinced. It's going to take an absolute miracle to restore my belief and confidence in the organisation - and I'm not the only one openly expressing these concerns given the politics.

Still.. Friday should be an absolute bonfire and halloween show steerco..
 
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“We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.”

Lol, nothing like simply saying no men.

Yeah...until they start complaining "We cant find anyone for this role!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

You can lead a horse to water but you cant make them drink it.
 
“You will be working in a male dominated office where you’re colleagues (perhaps rightly) will see you as a box ticking applicant”

Precisely. It’s actually really bad. It undermines the validity of the appointee who then has to go even further to change that.
 
Curious why it's full time in the office?
I only spotted it because I've worked (long ago) in places with device museums. Occasionally you'd be asked to go test something.
Precisely this. We call it a test lab but the other company who have this setup refer to it as a zoo - one of every type so people can come and look at them For Science.

Interviews were interesting - 10 booked, one cancellation and one had to be done online due to illness/injury. We've shortlisted several to come back including the person who was remote, for an in-person second round. Seemed like the quality of applicant went up as time went on, second day better than first.

“We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.”

Lol, nothing like simply saying no men.
This is a challenge TBF, I'd like (and value) more women on the team but with a very small group in my remote office, it would be 1 woman and 3 men. It's very blokey and harsh at times here as the two existing staff are quite curmudgeonly and set in their ways. I had a good conversation with a slightly more active feminist who works in architecture/engineering last weekend. Her advice was "If you want to bring a woman in, it will need to be someone who can stand up for herself in that environment". So yeah - can't change the existing culture overnight, and need to keep that in mind when hiring.
 
Month 8 of being an employee. Senior leadership position but struggling to get fundamental changes in place such as project flows, scoping and better suited software, simply due to stubbornness.

Full company leans on me for support and guidance and onboard with my well laid plans but its frustrating. That combined with having to do reporting/spreadsheets after you've been your own boss for so many years is tougher on me than one should reasonably expect. I like to get my hands dirty.

Currently questioning everything, certainty don't want to build up and run my own company again but I’ve got a couple of small freelance consultancy retainers on the side and I think thats where my future is at. Doing what I do best, getting in and making a difference whilst not being responsible for staff and other overheads and having some quality of life.

Anyway, small rant aside, if anyone else is in the freelance consultancy or software/IT/digital contractor space, would love to hear some thoughts!
 
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Month 8 of being an employee. Senior leadership position but struggling to get fundamental changes in place such as project flows, scoping and better suited software, simply due to stubbornness.

Full company leans on me for support and guidance and onboard with my well laid plans but its frustrating. That combined with having to do reporting/spreadsheets after you've been your own boss for so many years is tougher on me than one should reasonably expect. I like to get my hands dirty.

Currently questioning everything, certainty don't want to build up and run my own company again but I’ve got a couple of small freelance consultancy retainers on the side and I think thats where my future is at. Doing what I do best, getting in and making a difference whilst not being responsible for staff and other overheads and having some quality of life.

Anyway, small rant aside, if anyone else is in the freelance consultancy or software/IT/digital contractor space, would love to hear some thoughts!
It's a tough market out there for contracting - particularly on the management side.

Inside IR35 contractor rates are still not representative of outside rates, and that’s before you take into consideration that you can’t claim for travel expenses and costs.
 
It's a tough market out there for contracting - particularly on the management side.

Inside IR35 contractor rates are still not representative of outside rates, and that’s before you take into consideration that you can’t claim for travel expenses and costs.
Yeah, I figured as much. Not management, very specialised in online retail, transformation/replatforming, performance marketing, BI, WMS etc
 
Been a bit of a journey but finally filled out all roles with people who've stuck beyond a week, interesting how mixed the quality is though. One of them I don't know how they do it - working 6 days a week, around 60+ hours, in 2 jobs (including doing 3x evening/night shifts for us), new born baby and I think 2 other kids and one of the hardest working and most diligent of anyone we've got.
 
Been a bit of a journey but finally filled out all roles with people who've stuck beyond a week, interesting how mixed the quality is though. One of them I don't know how they do it - working 6 days a week, around 60+ hours, in 2 jobs (including doing 3x evening/night shifts for us), new born baby and I think 2 other kids and one of the hardest working and most diligent of anyone we've got.

Sounds like a mental breakdown waiting to happen tbh.
 
My new hire started yesterday. Pretty rocky day with our new IT support provider taking a week to create an email address, but giving me zero human contact on the ticket and doing none of the other requests like installing software for her. Ultimately I had about 5 phone calls between 2 agents before we had her password, and a BitLocker PIN to boot the PC up.

Today I'm taking her to London HQ so currently tired on a train!
 
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