The Day Today

Well I stopped writing here for a couple of reasons… the poorest one is that the site is blocked by my work network and I can’t be bothered to disconnect the VPN for long enough to write and post an entry. The slightly better reason is that I’ve had a lot on my mind and wanted to post more about my work situation, of which I still had no real details of until yesterday. So my silence is now broken and hopefully I’ll be updating more frequently again.

I’ve had many nights where I haven’t slept much, with my mind full of impossible decisions that I knew one day would need to be made. I’ve discussed it with pretty much anybody that will listen, and have probably made what is initially a shocking and exciting opportunity now sound to my close friends as a boring internal debate. The fact is that it’s still real, and a life changing decision will still need to be made.

Yesterday I finally found out the salary and relocation package, although I don’t have this in writing and still need certain other details before I would be expected to make a choice. Now I have these two important details I can now begin to discuss this more seriously with friends and family (and bore them again).

Clearly the figures they’ve given me aren’t making it an easy decision (too little and I’d stay without hesitation, much more and I’d be stupid not to go) but there are so many other factors - as I’ve discussed in a recent entry.

Today I intend to write a list of pro-Florida things and pro-England things. This is something Andi suggested, and although I initially didn’t like the idea because just writing one word doesn’t show the significance it has on my life, but the more I think about it the more I should probably get these thoughts written down. I might surprise myself and end up making it an easy decision!

I also have several questions to ask my employer: Can I get a short business trip out there before I make a decision to see the area and meet the people? Will they provide a visa for Pam - if she wants one? If things don’t work out, will they help me to get a job within the company back in England? All things that I believe are reasonable requests…

Anyway, I intend to update this blog with details in hope that it might help somebody else in this situation. It’ll certainly make for interesting reading for me in five years time, whichever decision I make!

I have the week off from work and have new things to think about. The more I looked into contracting the more interested I became, however there seems little point in setting up a company as practically the same benefits are available if you become a ‘flexible employee’ through an umbrella company. This path would probably be temporary, but there appear to be a few contracts out there that deal with 2nd/3rd line support, and systems/server/network administration.

The other path that has now presented itself is a permanent role in Tampa, Florida. This is where my department’s function will continue within the company (the aquisition of a company in FL resulted in the redundancy of the UK staff). I would be supporting the application as I have been, as well as several other applications. Of course this is tempting, especially if they sort out the visas but there are a few hesitations.

Could I move so far away from friends and family?
Okay so it’s not Australia, and many of my friends have already said they’d love to visit but this is possibly the hardest part of my decision.

Would I have the same cost of living?
What I mean here is will my pay be relative to my pay in the UK, or will it be more/less?

Do I still want to work for the same company?
I have to decide if I want a completely clean break or if I am happy to work for the same company. In the last year we have experienced several cut-backs, or maybe this new location will have more autonomy? Also, if I leave I get redundancy (severance) pay that I was already planning to spend on a Macbook Pro and put the remainder towards property in the UK.

I have asked some of these question of our Human Resources team, and am currently considering during this for a trial period (not sure how long that trial will be). If things weren’t to work out I may still be entitled to my redundancy money.

Thanks for reading. Happy Holidays!

This is the big thing I’ve had in mind recently. I will soon be made redundant from my job and need to find something new. This year I have been for a few interviews (both before finding out about the redundancy and since) and have been offered two jobs, both of which I turned down for different reasons.

As the redundancy applied to an entire department I have seen people leaving already and one of these turned to contracting and started his own company. This has an appeal to me, even though I don’t specialise in application development as he does. I have now started to look into contracts that involve systems engineering, application support, helpdesk support, et cetera, and there appear to be a fair number out there.

This isn’t about making more money - although I’d be disappointed if I made less - it’s about variety and independance. I have almost come to the decision that I will try this path as there’s practically nothing to lose. If it doesn’t work I simply go back to a permanent job.

Today I started my research into contracting, and there’s plenty to read. I’m starting with ITContractor.com as there seems to be some good advice there. I’m also keen to hear your thoughts/advice either as a comment to this entry or send me an e-mail. If I do go ahead with this then you can expect me to write about the whole process.

Finally, if I start my own company then I’ll need a company name. I’ve had a few suggestions but nothing that’s really grabbed me so if you want to help me out there then that’d be great.

I’ve been reading a lot of job specs recently as I’m looking for something new and have to agree with Guy Kawasaki’s post about How to Not Hire Someone with a totally unattainable list of requirements.

I had a job spec recently asking for a ‘master of all trades’ and it wouldn’t surprise me if the only people actually that applied for the role would be chancers where one of their only skills would be having a way with words. This means that the role would likely be filled by someone who would end up frustrating most of their co-workers by being incompetant in their job. I’ve worked with such people in the past and I’m sure there’s at least one person you’ve worked with and thought “How on earth did they manage to convince anyone they could do this job?”.

At the end of the day, interviewing is tough and the only way you can really find out if someone can do a job is to give them a chance, but you can at least test all candidates and really push them in the interview. I had an interview recently that I left feeling exhausted because I’d had so many technical questions thrown at me as well as a 50+ question written test. Now even if I don’t get an offer I at least know more about how I can cope under that pressure. I’m sure many would crumble…