Today... get called into bosses office... and hear those words you just dont want to hear...

 

'Sorry AL, gonna have to let you go' - Nice xmas prezzy eh! :mad:

 

Me was totally and utterly gutted- been absolutely slaving my arz off for them bastds for past 2 years, and things there worse than ever with short staffing and overworked. Maybe they bled me dry and they're done with me.

 

Been in IT contracting 6 years now and had many contracts come and go but it dont get any easier when they decide you've had your time.

 

Worse thing is I feel I have been stabbed in the back by some fekkas.

 

Lets hope its a blessing in disguise and summit good comes out of it. Tempted to join the misses in the thong business, but no dosh to keep afloat over xmas as she invested all her dosh in stock and adverts. Maybe new year eh. Meanwhile, better look for that next bit of work or we'll all be sleeping in the zed this Xmas :rofl:

Sorry to hear that mate, hope something comes along for you soon

bummer bud. Hope you get sorted

Sorry to here that mate keep your chin up :duffer:

Cheers Guys, it is the silicon valley after all and something does always come along. If your into IT and cant get a job round here- you're lazy!!

 

Me just milking all your sympathy while I can! :)

Really sorry to hear that mate. Probably a blessing TBH ... Iv'e been waiting to be laid off for a few months now .. but alas no joy as yet .. Sure things will work out though for you.

 

Good to start afresh sometimes.

 

I wish you all the best of luck mate and hope all works out OK for you and the Mrs.

Yeah mate, sorry to hear that. I know that feeling aswell and it's not nice. Hopefully something will come along soon. Good luck!

Good luck with this mate. I'm in IT too, and looking for a new place cos had enough of where i am. Quite a bit out there at the mo so chin up.

I feel for you, mate - been there, done that. You'll find something even better soon enough. Don't waste your energy hating them for what they've done to you, 'cos A) they're not worth it, B) it's their loss and C) you'll only end up hurting yourself if you dwell on it.

Buddy, keep ya chin up fella. Soz to hear the bad news.

I feel for you, mate - been there, done that. You'll find something even better soon enough. Don't waste your energy hating them for what they've done to you, 'cos A) they're not worth it, B) it's their loss and C) you'll only end up hurting yourself if you dwell on it.

 

You hit the nail on the head!

A) You're right, they are scumsuckers.

B) Its definitely their loss- Me was good- and my fan club will rare-up!

C) They have already hurt me by overwork and stress, but no more. Its 9 to 5 for my last few weeks, 50% work output and deffo taking lunch breaks.

Cheers Guys, it is the silicon valley after all and something does always come along. If your into IT and cant get a job round here- you're lazy!!

 

Me just milking all your sympathy while I can! :)

 

Has the job market in IT picked up recently then? Last time I looked around it was dire - OK if you fancy taking a job on £18k p/a, but not if you wanted to earn decent money..

Has the job market in IT picked up recently then? Last time I looked around it was dire - OK if you fancy taking a job on £18k p/a, but not if you wanted to earn decent money..

 

Me not too sure whats going on at the moment-I think its pretty much as crap as its been for a while now- £12 per hour for a general grunt or £20k per year for slave labour. Me been lucky as been on good rate for past two years so I guess thats what makes it harder to bare. I think these days for the good jobs- its who you know, not what you know. So hopefully one of my IT geek buddies will bail me out. Still seriously thinking about making a real go of it on the website alone to support the family and home. Just gotta get some serious marketing stuff in place and keep the costs down. Any positive ideas on how to sell more thongs??

Has the job market in IT picked up recently then? Last time I looked around it was dire - OK if you fancy taking a job on £18k p/a, but not if you wanted to earn decent money..

 

Has got a lot better mate. much more 30k+ stuff out there if you have the right experence.

Has got a lot better mate. much more 30k+ stuff out there if you have the right experence.

 

Me have neglected the old qualifications over past few years- only an old MCSE in NT with general Novell experience with a sprinkling of W2K. Will be washed up soon if I dont watch out. Thats why the business sounds better as no one judging you and what ya bung in, ya get out! Will probabably do a rollout or two and play it from there.

Has got a lot better mate. much more 30k+ stuff out there if you have the right experence.

 

Definitely on the up then - though the experience was always the killer for me.. I kept getting stuck with dead end jobs that offered zip in the way of learning potential other than what I could force through - if it hadn't been for me, my last place would still be desperately trying to roll out NT/IIS4 webservers.. *shrinks head back down again* ;)

 

Me have neglected the old qualifications over past few years- only an old MCSE in NT with general Novell experience with a sprinkling of W2K. Will be washed up soon if I dont watch out.

 

Same here as I say - had to really push to get Win2k brought into the company, and even then it was on a fairly small level until NT was no longer available for purchase.. Pushed hard to get Linux into the company too, set up our own bespoke firewall etc - all good experience but all so 'bitty' if you see what I mean.. add that to my programming career being mostly stuck with Retrieve 4GL (Sage Sovereign in the DOS days) and Pascal.. with a bit o' VB :(

 

So then I went and gave up my well paid job (£36k p/a :o ) and started work for myself - now struggling to make enough to pay the mortgage... :nelson: Most of the reason I jumped ship and started out though was because trying to find another - better - job was impossible given my experience and lack of degree (8yrs in the industry counts for zip if you don't have a degree, at least it seems to at 26)

 

Anyway - good luck Al :) I'm sure something will turn up - even if it's an interim thing to tide you over till some decent contracts come in :)

Unlucky al, hope it pans out for you mate. ;)

Yep; I've been in IT for 30 years, and it certainly isn't the secure and satisfying career it used to be.

Do you still have update access to any live software or data during your notice period...? :D

Sorry to hear that :( CW keeps reporting that jobs have been on the increase all year and have stats to prove it, don't seem to make much difference down here tho, but a few more agencies have been in touch. Seems web dev work is on the up with .net and (hopefully) Java. Been doing jsp for last few months and enjoying it.

 

Good luck i'm sure it will work out for you :)

IT has been picking up recently so you stand a reasonable chance of getting somethig wothwhile. Good luck mate.

Bigal, I might be able to help you on shifting some thongs, I'm currently starting up an err 'adult novelties' ahem, business on T'internet. I could possibly be interested in selling them on my site if their saucy enough ;)

If your interest mate let me know and i'll send you the web adress, be kind to me though i'm only just starting out lol so the website is far from finished.

Bigal, I might be able to help you on shifting some thongs, I'm currently starting up an err 'adult novelties' ahem, business on T'internet. I could possibly be interested in selling them on my site if their saucy enough ;)

If your interest mate let me know and i'll send you the web adress, be kind to me though i'm only just starting out lol so the website is far from finished.

Good stuff Scoops! SEX SELLS!! Its a great business to be in if ya an old perv like me. No problem on the thongs- she buys em in in bulk from France. Have a look at em and let me know if saucy enough http://www.delicates.co.uk Hopefully we can sort out a price where you can still make a good bit of money on. Me was thinking of doing a similar thing to you- starting another site that sells the more novelty stuff. Theres a place in east london where you can get stuff so cheap, you can make about 300% profit! I'll see if I can dig out their details. Send me over the link and I'll have a butchers at your site.

Me not too sure whats going on at the moment-I think its pretty much as crap as its been for a while now- £12 per hour for a general grunt or £20k per year for slave labour. Me been lucky as been on good rate for past two years so I guess thats what makes it harder to bare. I think these days for the good jobs- its who you know, not what you know. So hopefully one of my IT geek buddies will bail me out. Still seriously thinking about making a real go of it on the website alone to support the family and home. Just gotta get some serious marketing stuff in place and keep the costs down. Any positive ideas on how to sell more thongs??

 

Are you using google adwords? Dunno what the cost per click is like for thongs/undies. I use it for the IT security business I run and it seems to get us a fair few leads, expensive for the keywords we use though, up to 3.50 per click!!!!! some keywords are as cheap as 5-10p per click though.

 

I packed in contracting two years ago now, thinking a permie job would give me more security, I walked on a guaranteed 18month contract to go to a permie job and was made redundant four months later!!! No such thing as job security these days I feel... :( "properly" self employed now and although its a bit more of a worry that things could go pear shaped with the company the lifestyle is a lot more relaxing and stress free.

You hit the nail on the head!

A) You're right, they are scumsuckers.

B) Its definitely their loss- Me was good- and my fan club will rare-up!

C) They have already hurt me by overwork and stress, but no more. Its 9 to 5 for my last few weeks, 50% work output and deffo taking lunch breaks.

 

You're better off out of there by the sounds of it. Good luck in finding more work, sure it's only a minor hicup.

 

Shaun

Nah- we be lucky and rank top on loads of words and phrases. Problem with words like lingerie is that you get a lot of picture browsing folk looking. We get about 100,000 hits a day, but only sell a few items. I agree on the going permy thing. If I took a permy job, I would still look at it as a contract. The worst thing is if you get made redundant over 50+ years old and then folk find it hard to get a job. I dont want to end up in that situation, so own business is ideal as you can stay earning til the day you die (as long as you got folk you trust running it by then).

 

Meanwhile I've decided if a good contract comes up, I'll take it. But if all I get offered is crap money, I'd rather risk making a go of it at home.

Thanks for all the support guys- this place is great!

Start as I mean to go on for my last few weeks- off down the pub for lunch now:duffer:

 

Are you using google adwords? Dunno what the cost per click is like for thongs/undies. I use it for the IT security business I run and it seems to get us a fair few leads, expensive for the keywords we use though, up to 3.50 per click!!!!! some keywords are as cheap as 5-10p per click though.

 

I packed in contracting two years ago now, thinking a permie job would give me more security, I walked on a guaranteed 18month contract to go to a permie job and was made redundant four months later!!! No such thing as job security these days I feel... :( "properly" self employed now and although its a bit more of a worry that things could go pear shaped with the company the lifestyle is a lot more relaxing and stress free.

Bummer Al.

I don't work in the same field as you but there are some comparisons.

If YOU put as much effort into getting a new job as you appear to have done in your last one, you'll be fine.

40 hours a week job hunting and you'll get what you want.

 

In the meantime, as a clinical biochemist, I recommend at least 10 pints of Stella a day, taken with a curry and a fag!

 

Good Luck

 

Chris