This Business and Moment...

If you were getting close to 300k after tax inside IR35 (over 500k a year) it seems a massive step down to be in a role paying under £100k even assuming there is bonus, pension etc on top. I mean that must be something like a 2k day rate and now under £0.5k. I switched from contract to perm but I was earning nowhere close to that as a contractor but more as a perm.
 
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HangTime said:
If you were getting close to 300k after tax inside IR35 (over 500k a year) it seems a massive step down to be in a role paying under £100k even assuming there is bonus, pension etc on top. I mean that must be something like a 2k day rate and now under £0.5k. I switched from contract to perm but I was earning nowhere close to that as a contractor but more as a perm.
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It was a simple 6 months C-level contract. Remit was one line - fix it and do whatever you feel is needed. Yes there's some benefits on top of the FTE - one of which is an easy life (I feel the irony here). I don't work 17 hour days now for example.

I also do it because of the challenge rather than the money. Not many places have the challenge like this, the irrational is the irritation.

If you wonder what I do currently.. I'm the "product owner" for AWS for 5 international public companies. I get the feeling that Monday will see me kickstart the product teams for Azure. PO is probably a little misuse of the title.
 
dlockers said:
Product owner for IaaS?
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Central within a group, yes - more a central owner of cloud services (family of 42+ services) than the true definition of an agile product owner.

As of this week, all the principal enterprise architects and solution architects now either are “product owners” in title or do the PO role without the title. None have product experience. they fired the last two product managers a few months ago, and they don’t have any product lead or portfolio structure.
It’s like some has just decided we’re a product organisation by just relabelling the org chart with the word Product Owner. Now I don’t mind but it wouls have been nice to have a clear and communicated organisational change to a new target operating model. Instead everyone seems to get a mushroom treatment as they can’t announce the new TOM due to HR and unions.

We all have a two day training workshop planned in September. no agenda but I suspect that will reveal the grand plans and try to lay a standard way of working.. if it’a just an agile product owner course I’m going bludgeon myself to death whilst wearing y fronts on my head and sticking pencils up my nose.

I’ll have an chat with the boss, I know my area is being used as a template, but there’s some wider pieces that will need addressing and formalising if we’re operating as a product orientated org. Especially given complexity of financing (we need 5 companies to agree to split the business case bill for example).
 
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lol well the group meeting was just as you expect - answers from HR but no information so will send that out in due course.. difficult to have Q&A session when you don’t know what the information is.

The CEO has an update with HR that discussed the survey results .. in short with new HR director was making the right noises but proof will come after. They also elused to those thay go above an beyond.. now that phrase I have heard before - it typically ends up being abused without being defined as part of the OKRs of the individual that can be objectively demonstrated.

I’ve come to the conclusion this place responds to everything with a sticking plaster. It seems thy anyhing other than this approach is not wanted or desired as it leads to complexity, planning and asking for money that leads to awkward questions that don’t want to be anawered.

It’s also become clear that there really isn’t a clear understanding or enough time for people to want to pay attention.

Looks like I’m going to have to tell my peers that due to bad development (estimation) and we’re still doing work that was meant to be done before.. I feel I shouldn’t feel the need to prompt them to jump to being engaged but I feel I may have to read the riot act.
 
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NickK said:
as part of the OKRs of the individual that can be objectively demonstrated.

I’ve come to the conclusion this place responds to everything with a sticking plaster. I
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Ironic you say these two things together. Okrs are snake oil which folk seem to think substitute proper strategy.
 
No necessarily- if done right it provides at least a fined path than what does your boss think with objectives that didn’t align.

Not quite the same as sales with numbers.. but you’re right that virtually nothing is Done in isolation now.
 
Signed off on a new product today. Really excited as it's ultra high end stuff...for my business anyway :D

40Gb/s, 240W (48V 5A) charging and 8k Video@60Hz throughput - 2m and 3m length, coaxial cables. USB 4.

Should be here in 3 weeks time. It has been a while to get everything tested and ready but finally got it over the line and signed off on it...very excited :D

How nerdy is that lol

 
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Signed, Sealed, Delivered on exit package with current place and straight onto gardening leave so getting going in the job market now... let's just say they aren't giving jobs away these days!
Mid Stage for one role, if I get to the end it will have looked like this 1x Internal Recruiter Interview, 1xEMEA VP Interview, 4x "Informal" chats with the wider team, 2x US Based Senior Director Interviews, 1x EMEA SVP Interview... I am going to be knackered.
I'm also through the 1st Stage with AWS, awaiting a date for the famous AWS "loop".
Straight to a 1x Presentation/Panel Interview & 1x Hiring Manager Interview with a former employer as well next week.

I will be absolutely gutted if I don't come away from this with a decent offer in the bag.
 
blairw said:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered on exit package with current place and straight onto gardening leave so getting going in the job market now... let's just say they aren't giving jobs away these days!
Mid Stage for one role, if I get to the end it will have looked like this 1x Internal Recruiter Interview, 1xEMEA VP Interview, 4x "Informal" chats with the wider team, 2x US Based Senior Director Interviews, 1x EMEA SVP Interview... I am going to be knackered.
I'm also through the 1st Stage with AWS, awaiting a date for the famous AWS "loop".
Straight to a 1x Presentation/Panel Interview & 1x Hiring Manager Interview with a former employer as well next week.

I will be absolutely gutted if I don't come away from this with a decent offer in the bag.
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Good luck. Enjoying garden leave with a new job lined up is the best feeling!
 
Azza said:
What are you looking to do next @blairw?
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My background is software sales and alliances - I skew pretty heavily to vendor side so looking at Account Exec, Specialist Sales or Alliances / Partner Development mainly. Being based up in Scotland means I am having to leverage my network a fair amount to get through the initial sift's where recruitment teams are rejecting because I'm not in London.

I feel pretty good about where I am at considering the ink isn't dry on my settlement agreement yet but on the flip I could walk away without an offer having invested a lot of time and energy!
 
Interesting turn of events - I got told I’m to focus in the family (portfolio) side of things. Which I’m happier doing.

Through a number of conversations some of the organisational change is leaking out, yet that’s all being very slow to be formally announced.

So it seems I have a few fun tasks coming my way that are right up my alley and will stop me from getting bored:
* long standing board problem-child - this is like open heart surgery. So prepping up for that programme of work. There’s years of work on that programme I feel will appear.
* operating company transition - some executive programme work.
* kickstarting 2025 business case prep - we have this as part of our winds for 2024’s BC but with org changes this could take a while.

blairw said:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered on exit package with current place and straight onto gardening leave so getting going in the job market now... let's just say they aren't giving jobs away these days!
Mid Stage for one role, if I get to the end it will have looked like this 1x Internal Recruiter Interview, 1xEMEA VP Interview, 4x "Informal" chats with the wider team, 2x US Based Senior Director Interviews, 1x EMEA SVP Interview... I am going to be knackered.
I'm also through the 1st Stage with AWS, awaiting a date for the famous AWS "loop".
Straight to a 1x Presentation/Panel Interview & 1x Hiring Manager Interview with a former employer as well next week.

I will be absolutely gutted if I don't come away from this with a decent offer in the bag.
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I remember having 8 interviews over about 5 months - finally got the job at the end of a coffee shop interview.
 
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I don’t mind five months worth of process for a long term strategic role while I am already employed but I can’t entertain that length really at the moment, severance would cover it for sure but I’d be approaching the end of the runway for that cash specifically which would be disappointing as I’d like to come out with a decent net positive
 
Holiday season - the time when entire reporting lines all take vacation at the sametime. It’s the behaviour when people are sick of the status within the company that they don’t give a hoot.
Actually achieved something - got the CTO and one opco CISO to agree on something which flies against the preference of the CDIO. Now I just need the other CISO to fund a proposal to reduce risk across the operating companies. All this with a backdrop of board level operational meltdown.

Seems my role is quickly turning into whack-a-vendor without direct control over them contractually whilst providing governance and steerage. I can see a list of issues that need addressing - mainly organisationally driven.

So much for “product owner” or even portfolio lead. It’s feeling like we’re switching gears finally.
 
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NickK said:
It’s the behaviour when people are sick of the status within the company that they don’t give a hoot.
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Seems to be everywhere these days. Very few people take personal responsibility, have any conscientiousness or care unless forced to.

Not that I expect anything more than the minimum with the pay and conditions in many workplaces but so many don't even do that.
 
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Rroff said:
Seems to be everywhere these days. Very few people take personal responsibility, have any conscientiousness or care unless forced to.

Not that I expect anything more than the minimum with the pay and conditions in many workplaces but so many don't even do that.
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I think a large portion is due to an economically drive. down turn in investment resulting in erosion of corporate engagement as the scope doesn’t change.. money=quality*scope. Pride is linked to quality.
 
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I think this week I've manually typed out of resignation letter about 5 times, then deleted it just before sending.

Never in my life have I been in such a crap role, (Jesus wept) haven't even found anywhere else to go yet.
 
NickK said:
I think a large portion is due to an economically drive. down turn in investment resulting in erosion of corporate engagement as the scope doesn’t change.. money=quality*scope. Pride is linked to quality.
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I do enjoy skimming through this thread and I like to think I’m pretty savvy with corporate/enterprise chat but I must admit I read your posts sometimes and have no idea what you mean, Nick :D
 
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