Quite looking forward to starting, it's pretty cool as I get to use my current skillset (IP routing, MPLS, architecture, etc) but become a specialist in DDOS - which is pretty cool as DDOS has become such a huge thing with no signs of it slowing down, whereas many of the technologies I usually work with have remained stagnant for quite a long time.
So I'm not a big GD poster but need somewhere to vent so here goes....
I'll start with a bit of context in spoilers
Currently I am doing well for myself (at least in my eyes).
I am 28 and currently in my 3rd year of Head of Business and Computing at a local secondary. I am on course for the standard pay rise which should see me clear £40k this year.
Wife is expecting first child due in November and despite living at home (parents have pretty much said they want to retire abroad and spend many months away at the moment leaving just me, wife, older brother and younger sister) I am quite happy.
However, I know that I am not going to be in teaching forever, I have always wanted to start my own business. Be it a youth center or tuition place or whatever. I can only see myself in teaching for another few years.
Since I started teaching I contributed towards living expenses giving away half my salary on the usual bills, food etc, mortgage (which we cleared in Jan this year) and for the past 2 and a bit years have completely run the house by myself (Large 7 bed detached).
Now my parents foster care (by default myself and wife are nominated carers) and they have let the agency we are with know that after our current placement, they are out of the game and wish to retire. Current placement is due to end next summer so happy days.
Anyways, on to the business.
Keeping with the helping others and giving back to the community, my brother and I have agreed with our parents that we wish to use our house and convert it into a children's home / young adults care home. So much so that we have the business registered, business plan drawn up and are due to go through OFSTED regulations soon. Now this could prove to be a game changer for us as my brother has industry care experience, I have the education experience and our business partner has a successful business of his own. All looks good right?
This is where I need to vent. We have been given a timeline of Jan 2017 to open doors and get the business up and running. We are a loooong way from that.
That required roughly £40k worth of investment to the house and to put our family up in rented accommodation temporarily. (The plan is to run the business for a year and use the profits to buy another home that we can move into). The business plan makes sense, we stand to make some good money while helping out people in the process.
However, my wife is struggling with the pregnancy and will struggle to move unless its this month meaning we need to move out ASAP.
That means extra rent. We don't want to take any loans and want to do things ourselves (parents are willing to chip in but don't want to rely on that - they have practically given us a house) We have around 10k in savings and a further 10k from eldest sister.
Moving out, extra rent, on top of that the safeguarding and welfare of our current placement means that there are issues left and right. My brother is adamant that he wants to see it through and we should plow on, struggles at the start make it sweeter later on etc. My point is that I am fine in my current situation, should I be putting myself through all of this? I feel like he needs it more than I do but I also want to help out.
So yes, money is an issue, timing is an issue, I feel like I am choosing between this business and my family and sometimes feel like I am battling my wife and my brother. I know that a year from now if things go well I will be laughing about it all but at the moment its stressing me out Talk about first world problems
Ain't it weird how things work out....Over the weekend we managed to secure funding from a family friend, no strings attached which takes our total savings to £50k, today we confirmed rental on our temporary accommodation (well minimum 2 years) that is an awesome house everyone is happy with!
Now the real work starts, moving house, renovating the old one, starting the business. Here's to the next 12 months!
First off, we moved house, and then literally 3 weeks later my baby girl was born. Happy days!
But the old house is now a drag - we had issues with the CCTV guy, issues with the wallpaper stripper guy, issues with plasterers and issues with people falling into floorboards and damaging ceilings below!
Now since some floorboards were lifted and god knows what happened, we are now experiencing a huge electrical problem and have been quoted £3k to get the entire house certified...
The project needs proper micro management but working full time and relying on my bother is starting to drain.
Not ideal....(does anyone know any electricians based in Beds - specifically Luton?!)
But anyway, setbacks are setbacks and we must soldier on!
So another update to remind myself of where we are more than anything else...
Rewiring the house cost near enough 6k but we are all signed off and ready to go. The house is 95% done and just needs the fire doors putting in (they are almost complete) and then furnishing. Nearly there!
On other business related news, the manager we have is playing silly buggers and I am seriously considering if we have made the right choice.
Been paying them for 2 months and they have done very little. Leaves us in an awkward place as we have an application in with ofsted with their name down as manager and if they leave it screws everything up. No choice at the moment but to sit tight and hope for the best! Social workers eh?
We have also managed to get in with the councils through various links in our network and meetings are being set up to generate interest which is good. Local colleges are interested in offering courses which will train our staff so from that perspective its all good! Running out of money at the minute though as we are nearly £40k into this now and down to our last £10k or so! That has to pay for at least 2 months before we see anything in the form of returns. Getting a bit tight!
Fingers crossed things are rolling come the next update!
Quite looking forward to starting, it's pretty cool as I get to use my current skillset (IP routing, MPLS, architecture, etc) but become a specialist in DDOS - which is pretty cool as DDOS has become such a huge thing with no signs of it slowing down, whereas many of the technologies I usually work with have remained stagnant for quite a long time.
Not much of an update from me. Well not much to tell anyway. My boss was being all sneaky/suspicious before I left on Wednesday and with me flying to the UK that evening for a funeral the next day I couldn't have cared less. Honestly I think if he would have given me any rubbish there and then I would have ended my own job!
But I'm back in Portugal now, gearing up for work tomorrow. During the course of the last few days Ana and I have been looking at our current situations. She is unhappy at work due to similar reasons to me...the difference between her and I is that she has really poured her heart and soul into this project she's worked on and she cares too much. So it is in turn even more upsetting for her.
What it boils down to is that she isn't very happy because of it and it's leaving her fatigued. The work schedule she's on now means we only get 1 day a week together and when we do we're so damn tired we don't do anything.
We're in a bit of a rut, and it's due to our frustrating situations at work.
So now we're considering other options. We both have ideas for our own businesses. But businesses need money. One way to do it would be to both take a contract somewhere high paying (like Singapore or Switzerland) - work and save hard for a couple of years then come back to Portugal and try again with our own solid financial backing.
Either way, nothing drastic will change until after the wedding (June) so we have some time to mull it over. In the mean time if we can change our roles and find something better then great.
I haven't lost motivation for my own business (that's still a possibility) but with everything I've had going on. I get indoors sit on the sofa and just don't want to do a single thing.
Not much of an update from me. Well not much to tell anyway. My boss was being all sneaky/suspicious before I left on Wednesday and with me flying to the UK that evening for a funeral the next day I couldn't have cared less. Honestly I think if he would have given me any rubbish there and then I would have ended my own job!
But I'm back in Portugal now, gearing up for work tomorrow. During the course of the last few days Ana and I have been looking at our current situations. She is unhappy at work due to similar reasons to me...the difference between her and I is that she has really poured her heart and soul into this project she's worked on and she cares too much. So it is in turn even more upsetting for her.
What it boils down to is that she isn't very happy because of it and it's leaving her fatigued. The work schedule she's on now means we only get 1 day a week together and when we do we're so damn tired we don't do anything.
We're in a bit of a rut, and it's due to our frustrating situations at work.
So now we're considering other options. We both have ideas for our own businesses. But businesses need money. One way to do it would be to both take a contract somewhere high paying (like Singapore or Switzerland) - work and save hard for a couple of years then come back to Portugal and try again with our own solid financial backing.
Either way, nothing drastic will change until after the wedding (June) so we have some time to mull it over. In the mean time if we can change our roles and find something better then great.
I haven't lost motivation for my own business (that's still a possibility) but with everything I've had going on. I get indoors sit on the sofa and just don't want to do a single thing.
I think what you both need to do is just make a plan that works out for you both, whatever it is.
I worked with a lad starting last year, we were our own department along with a leader. Off the main site, amazing job (low pay but we both loved it). Then, redundancy. Our department, after 3 months, wasn't on target to his £100k in projected business in a year so they shut us down. He ended up in the call centre and hated it. His performance started to drop, so we found him something else with a much larger company. Even though the job didn't change, those last 4 weeks of notice changed him. He was happier, more confident and he made more appointments in those 4 weeks than he did in the 3 months previously.
Your business idea is based on a gap in the market, in a couple of years that gap might not be there anymore and you've missed your chance. I don't know what your g/f does or if her project has an end date.
If it was my wife and I, I would make a timeline, you are going to start your business on this date. Then when her project is up, if it's anytime soon, she either helps you or looks for something else local/or starts her own. Knowing that you've only got to take someone elses **** for a limited of time makes it easy to cope with, it's light at the end of the tunnel!
It may mean a few months of scraping by but it will be worth it in the long run
This is part of our plan forming I think Harvey. Whilst I haven't had a chance to properly sit down and discuss it we are both thinking it.
And it's not really fuelled by money. We both earn enough to live comfortably and enjoy what we enjoy. But the work situations are so demotivating it's making us yearn for change.
Not sure if this is the place for it, but I'll voice my thoughts anyway.
Today I tried to book three days holiday for a trip I have planned some six months away.
I was essentially asked if it could be moved (it can't), and if there was any flexibility with it. My line manager has kind of sheepishly agreed to the time off, without actually saying yes or no, implying that I should be in because it's on a busy period of the month. My line manager also have holiday booked at this time. He kinda said, 'it's up to you'.
Essentially, he views me as a sort of second in command, however I do not have the title (nor the wage) to accompany this. Furthermore, it's busy at this particular period due to the demands of one particular lucrative client, but we have a full time member of staff who is employed for the sole purpose of meeting the demands and requests of this client, and is fully versed in doing so competently.
The argument is, if this member of staff isn't available (e.g. on the off chance they are absent from work for any other reason), then the work won't be completed.
Is this a little unfair? I mean, I'm giving a shed load of notice.
Or should I asked to be given a payrise to bring myself in line with the likes of a team leader wage, and agree to be in for the period?
Asking for a pay rise or else you won't be in to support the business is a sure fire way of making enemies. Not only can they just say no to the holidays as I imagine your contract states they are to be taken at a time convenient to the employer, you'll also make yourself look rather silly. Either the trip can be changed or it can't.
You've booked it, he's hasn't said no, just take it.
Asking for a pay rise or else you won't be in to support the business is a sure fire way of making enemies. Not only can they just say no to the holidays as I imagine your contract states they are to be taken at a time convenient to the employer, you'll also make yourself look rather silly. Either the trip can be changed or it can't.
You've booked it, he's hasn't said no, just take it.
It's a tough one really... you have to think of it as, regardless of when it is in the future, he knows he's going to be off and knows it'll make the team short. I have been in this position like you and you think, "what an asshat!" but he's just thinking about covering the work and his ass while you're off. I'd just explain that you'd be as flexible as possible, but the trip can't be changed date wise as it's not just you going and you'll do what you can to ensure it's as smooth as possible while you're off. Something like that.
Got 3 demos this week. Another possible 2 coming if I can arrange them in time... Push on!
I enjoy the process, I know it well and I've created a set of templates based on what I've done and Steve Blanks methodology, so knocked it out while I had an hour this afternoon. Excuse the lack of content etc. I'm going to pad it out, I literally did it this afternoon and took a while to setup payment integration and forms etc.
We've got a couple more delegates on our course and a few enquiries on others we're planning on, along with some potential work in the pipeline.
I'm still looking to get back to full time work though. Have a presentation to do on Wednesday for a job, but other than this most of my other interests have cooled down.
Had considered trying to do more contracting based work, but i'm not sure i have enough past experience to be able to sell myself to clients and to do a good enough job. Nor am i sure of the best way to try and market myself.
My long term plan is some kind of management conultant based role, however all the BA type roles i've applied for require more relevant experience than an Accountant who wants to get more involved in the operating side and less in the financial side.
How come you're doing what you're doing now? I must have missed the reasons... are you pushing to get back into MC/ BA roles? Trouble with those are, the time spent out of it, it's much harder to get in again. Where are you looking?
I was a Systems Accountant, implemented an ERP package and a few add ins like a PO systems and working closely on the reporting side of things.
Left after about 8 years as i didn't want to get pidgeon holed as a systems accountant and got a BA role at a manufacturing place, however it ended up being less of a BA role and more a financial analyst. Which in itself wasn't too bad. I was working with the heads of a lot of departments managing budgets and setting up dashboards using Microsoft Dynamics.
Then about 18 months ago my dad suggested working together. He's a Maintenance Engineer and we got talking and he said a lot of big production companies have terrible Cataloguing of their spare parts, with duplicate part numbers, bad descriptions etc. Said why don't we work together and offer to help sort this out and run training courses for Maintenance Engineers.
It's been fairly interesting but he turned 70 towards the end of last year and it's not something i can really continue with on my own. He brings a lot of technical knowledge to it and is a big part of how we win work as he's well known in the industry.
I've since been looking at getting back to BA type roles, but as you say it's proving tricky to get back into it. Plus i've never really formally worked through the whole Scrum/Agile methodology as when i was running projects as a systems accountant i just winged a lot of it and didn't have a project manager to guide me through. A lot of these roles have this as a requirement though and whilst i could self fund some training it doesn't help the practical experience which is needed to really hit the ground running.
Been asked to go to KL on 16th Feb to showcase for the Malaysian and Singaporean government, which is nice, free accommodation, too. I can also get a flight for like 750chf, so that's pretty damn good. Issue is, I'm supposed to be taking the family skiing on the 18th.
I've worked out that I can get back by the 21st and then drive straight to the alps from here. Need to make the yes/ no tomorrow so I can book something.
Just been looking at other flights and I need to book one for going to the UK for a wedding on 3rd March and then straight to Austin on 5th March to 9th for SXSWedu.
This is going to be painful in the wallet and my sanity.
About to finish my 4th week at the new role and it's not what I expected it to be. As I mentioned here a couple of week ago, I was chucked into the deep end. Now while that's perfectly ok and even exciting, the salary ain't matching the responsibilities I'm swimming (drowning) in. Don't matter which way they try and cut it, I'm doing the role of two people and at least one support person. Which means everyone working under me, are forced to take one step up in their roles and responsibilities to make the trains run on time ... so to speak.
This is starting to cause some resentment amongst them as they're doing work one step up but not getting paid for it. Me being new, I can only do so much with the available time/knowledge I have and I have to make pretty complicated decisions on the spot to ensure the whole project keep trucking along.
Anyway, just wanted to have a good old moan up. I've pretty much decided to see this project out with these lot and move on. This decision sure lifted a load off my shoulders as I'm not trying to build a career with them now, just wait out time. If it's a balls up, oh well, I can get another job
Oh what a **** mate, can see why they're ****ed, but like you say, there isn't much you can do.
We've had 2 contact forms come through from our website in 3 days... which is really weird, but good. Big uni in Brazil and one from Canada. Arranging meetings now.
Side note; I put a job up on Angel list for a head of Big Data and Machine Learning, as Sean, who is our VP Engineering (dev dude) could probably do it, he's bloody good at anything, but he has no resource. Now, we can't afford someone hardcore, but we need someone... we can give equity and take someone who's got skills and passion.
The stack we've spun up for it is a cassandra cluster with apache spark instance...
This girl has applied (we had another 6 people with like no skills at all) and she looks good!
What do we think? Good Qs to ask?
**** Whereas it is fine to ask for opinions on a candidate's skillset, please sanitise personal information first - Gaijin
More clashing with the manager. I honestly think he is trying to build some form of case against me to justify not renewing my contract which is due in about 6 weeks. In a team meeting the other day he backed me into a corner regarding a task which was overdue, but fortunately as I get every task assignment in writing from him (made sure of this for the past couple of months) he set himself up to fail. I proved it in the meeting and he backed off.
Even other team members have noticed he is targeting me a lot.
Anyway, enough of him. I have some good news!
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted regarding an SCCM Premier Support role at Microsoft. I had the 1st interview last week which was 25 technical questions over the phone designed to weedle out the fakers. 2 hours after the call I found out I passed this and they wanted to schedule a 2nd interview, a more technical one.
I had this yesterday. I spoke to two great people and the call was very calm, casual, and I explained I hadn't used SCCM for about 2 years since I had gone travelling but I used to live and breathe by it so there may be some gaps but pretty much everything was memory based. I'm glad I did this. During the call I could explain a process of SCCM, how it works, how to diagnose everything...but then would fall over on say...the name of a specific log file...but once they reminded me of the log file name I could tell them the contents of said log file...
Funny how the memory works, isn't it?
The call lasted an hour. They told me whilst they were on the phone they really enjoyed it, and that they were very happy with my answers. They told me they could tell I used to use this a lot and I did say if I had a week back in the seat it would be like riding a bike, they agreed.
I asked how quickly they're looking to move on this. They said whilst it is not down to them how quickly it goes forward they were happy to tell me I had passed and would like to put me through to the next round of interviews, stage 3. Which is a face-to-face with the hiring manager of the Lisbon office
I'm over the moon! They said they guy who had been arranging the meetings (a nice guy called Jon) would be in touch to schedule it. So now I just have to wait
As far as I know there is no more technical parts to the interview process, but a character/personality assessment which is part of the face-to-face.
We'll see. I was so hyped yesterday, really struggling to contain myself in the office
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Talk about first world problems
