Job dilema

[Deleted User]

gettingready wrote: »

Ermmm and how long ago was that? My contract before the current one meant a 1 hour 45 commute EACH way every day from East London to SW London. Done it for 9 months...

Current one - after 2 weeks of 2 hours 30 minutes there and 3 hours 30 minutes back (so 6 hours per day - if there was no problems on the way) and resigned myself to renting a room on a Mon-Fri basis just to keep sane. Still here since June, out of London.

BUT - I am contracting (Clinical Systems, Cerner at the moment = not for them directly but on site in an Acute NHS)
and love where I am now so.. staying put.

In your position - I would venture outside the comfort zone a bit, stretch a bit, widen your horizons... move company. In your current one, you know nothing will change any time soon, you have been with them for too long

All the best

I did it for 7 years, oddly enough working for Cerner in Paddington. This was 4 1/2 years ago. Those guys once had me flying out to Dublin on a Monday, then back home on Thursday night - repeat for 6 months. The firm is full of great people, but the company has no concept of a work/life balance.

You are right, you've got to jump out of your comfort zone occasionally

gettingready

As I said I do not work for Cerner directly - with their system but not directly for them ..

Sheldon Square - I was working for Visa there, next door to cerner heheh

[Deleted User]

The saga continues. Just been promoted at work!

Turns out [5] has figured itself out... now 'Senior Consultant' and a 10% payrise. Not as much as I'd hoped for (Was banking on 20%) but we're not doing awesome financially so I'll take it with a smile.

[Deleted User]

I now have a number [6] - A large multi-national ( > 10,000 employees) firm in London are quite keen on my CV now. They're based right by the train station I can get to easily.

I've also met the lead of the team I'd be joining before, and worked with their technology partner.

Yay for Linkedin

silvercar

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I now have a number [6] - A large multi-national ( > 10,000 employees) firm in London are quite keen on my CV now. They're based right by the train station I can get to easily.

I've also met the lead of the team I'd be joining before, and worked with their technology partner.

Yay for Linkedin

I would take a careful look at your commute. It is really hard to start commuting again after time out.

How easy is it to get to your local train station in the morning traffic?

Do you need to pay for parking?

How reliable is the train service?

How does the fact you are a distance away effect your family life. What is the back up plan if the trains are up the spout and your wife needs to get to her shift?

What pay rise are you left with after taking train & Parking out of your taxed income? How many hours a week extra will your commute take?

pathtofreedom

If you take the new job, until you've been there 2 years you're no safer job wise than if you were contracting. Even if you pass probation job rules have changed to benefit employers now so everyone is essentially on 2 years probation.

I've been made redundant a lot over the years, so with a healthy emergency fund contracting can have as much job stability as perm.

As far as comparing jobs, you need to look at the benefits and not just the salary, so what pension matching, extra contributions do you get from both jobs. Do you get income protection, health insurance, life insurance. At the new job how long do you have to work there before you get more than a couple of weeks paid sick leave, compared to how much you get now. I wfh half the week, and that means you can still work most the time when you are sick, yet if I had to go into work I'd probably call in sick more as being able to work from bed is a massive benefit.

Could you look at other hobbies or interests to help keep you social so you don't feel so cut off from the world?

My last job was all wfh which was a contract, this one is only half the week which is perm, I'm hoping my next job be it perm or contract will be all wfh.

If the new company is bigger is that still a good fit for you? You won't have such a pally relationship with the management, and you'll be seen much more as a resource than a person. This also means if they want to outsourcing or replacing everyone with contractors is more likely, where from what you've said you might have better job security where you are.

How different are the jobs? Is it a progression career wise, or is it essentially the same role? As for me a job where I could wfh full time I'd be happy with a lower salary as you have less costs as you mention, but also less time lost commuting. You can also fit things like dentists etc in your lunch hour when you wfh, which you won't be able to as easily working in london.

[Deleted User]

silvercar wrote: »

I would take a careful look at your commute. It is really hard to start commuting again after time out.

How easy is it to get to your local train station in the morning traffic?

Do you need to pay for parking?

How reliable is the train service?

How does the fact you are a distance away effect your family life. What is the back up plan if the trains are up the spout and your wife needs to get to her shift?

What pay rise are you left with after taking train & Parking out of your taxed income? How many hours a week extra will your commute take?

I've now had an interview with the firm and it went pretty well. It would only be in the office 3 days a week; so perfect for giving me some family time AND making me feel like I'm not a social hermit. We drive past the train station I need to get to every day on our school run; so I'd get dropped off, then grab a taxi home in the evening. It's marginally more expensive than parking but still cheaper than running an additional car. The train is pretty reliable and I did once use it for commuting (for 7 years).

Train and taxi will add up to about £3k a year and the payrise I'd be looking at is over £10k, so I'd say it is worth it.

The new job is similar to the work I do at the moment technically, but quite different in one way. There's more of a 'research' edge to it, and since my first job was as a research assistant, it's quite an exciting opportunity.

pathtofreedom - I've worked for a multinational before (7000 people) so it's not exactly a worry about being a smaller piece of a larger system. The work itself excites me more than what I'm doing at the moment.

Now I'm just getting a bit worried that their HR hasn't contacted me yet; the interview was on Friday and I thought I aced it. I know that interviews are mainly about seeing if the person would be a 'good fit' and I'm pretty sure I would be.

[Deleted User]

Ho hum, big multinational didn't want me. Took them ages to get back to me.

In an ironic twist, we are likely to be doing business with them in my current place of work.

I shall keep on looking...

bugslet

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Ho hum, big multinational didn't want me. Took them ages to get back to me.

In an ironic twist, we are likely to be doing business with them in my current place of work.

I shall keep on looking...

Well would you want to work for a company that can't recognise a quality employee, huh?:D

[Deleted User]

bugslet wrote: »

Well would you want to work for a company that can't recognise a quality employee, huh?:D

I dunno, most of the people there are PHds, ex-Accenture types. I suspect my CV wasn't of the right kind. It's a £70k job so I'm not surprised they want to be fussy.