No work for a year in London

[Winterlit]

I’ve name-changed for this post.

My husband and I have found ourselves without work for a year while raising two kids in London. We’ve had a string of unpredictable events that depleted our savings in the 3 years before. So, we only had savings for 3 months plus I had made some small investments that I could liquidate. Since then we’ve used credit cards and taken out 2 loans.

We thought it may take us 6 months at the most to find work! We work in tech as freelance contractors (for over 15 years) and all contract work has dried up. A couple of small freelance jobs almost went through but got cancelled last minute. We’re very proactive people and as such have applied to permanent jobs as well as working on a tech product for which we are applying for investment for.

We have had so many contract jobs, permanent jobs and investment rejections - in the hundreds! - over the last 12 months. Moving to a cheaper city is a last resort option I’ve thought about but changing the kids schools + home is not something I want to do. Especially as one of them is in secondary.

I have this feeling that perhaps we’re too experienced to be hired?! Perhaps most of the tech hiring is happening at junior levels. I say this as we know many others in their mid 40s also out of work for 6 months + in London.

I’m not sure why I am posting! Maybe to hear a hopeful story or ideas on how to get out of this mini crisis for our little family.

As a side I had a fairly emotionally and possibly physically traumatic childhood and have been working / self-sufficient since I was 16. My partner has also been working since a young age. We worked many jobs to pay our way through uni. We got together young and supported each other a lot in our careers.

I feel bad complaining as we have our health, our two lovely children and live in a fairly stable country. Apart from the recent riots! We’re both UK born ethnic minorities so it’s close to home. Anyway, that’s a digressions. Essentially, financially this last year has been a lot!

We’ve cut back on many expenses and are living quite frugally with a small mortgage on our tiny London flat. Our biggest expenses are school fees and we’ve given ourselves another academic year to see if we need to change to state school.

My husband and I feel even stronger as a unit through all of this which has taken me by surprise as it’s quite a testing time. We’ve had some issues in the past and had couples therapy a while back which was very helpful. We’ve also always actively worked on our relationship since the beginning which I feel is helping us now.

A bit of long winey post but I guess I am so ready for some tailwind! 🤞 🍀

@hattie43 when you lose work in a particular field the natural step is to apply to jobs in the same field. It didn’t occur to me to apply to McDonalds while we were getting interviews for other jobs. Many of those went to the final stages.

But yes, if I had a mystical ball to look into the future back then I would have applied to McDonalds, knowing it would take this long.

The independent schools won't mind about you not having a teaching qualification. If you demonstrate that you have knowledge of the curriculum content and the ability to stand calmly in front of a class, that will be enough for Computer Science. They will teach you the rest. (My DH recruits teachers for a large, well known school. They can't find CS teachers for love nor money.)

@hattie43 I know the question was to the OP, but the friend I mentioned who’s been out of work for 1.5 years says he uses all his time applying for jobs. He was a contractor and I think was used to having the odd 3-4 months between jobs but he was paid so well, it wasn’t a worry. It’s when that time lengthens and nothings showing up. I believe he works on his applications and interviews, he doesn’t want to sell and move out of London. But I too think, surely just any job meanwhile. I’ll tell him about UC, he might qualify now.

Keep going @Winterlit. You are doing all the right things and your luck will change soon. It seems sensible to me to exhaust all
other options first before making such a significant change to your childrens’ lives by moving them into state schools. It might come to that but it doesn’t sound like you’re there yet. Private schools also tend to work hard to keep smart kids whose parents have temporarily fallen on hard times. Good luck.

I’d be very wary about going into teaching because you “like teaching stuff” it really is a vocation and miles away from what the general public think it is. If you are seriously considering this then offer to volunteer in schools first to gain experience. You’ll need this for your application but also it’ll give you an insight into the reality.

Finally, you and your DC have come through the independent sector. No NOT base your expectations on this 🙃

Private schools favour paying parents over anything.

OP could only really consider teaching in an Independent school now as the new Government are about to (rightly) insist that all teachers in maintained and academy schools have QTS. This will not apply to the Independents. Independent schools like qualified staff too, but are largely in a 'warm bodies' situation for Computer Science.

I am also a PM and the market is tough. Different scenario as I took VR but have managed to find a position in the charity sector which I am very happy about and will start soon.

There may be opportunities in the charity or non profit sector as they are slower to change their ways of working. Of course not as well paid, but it seems for you at the minute one paying job would be a god start.

I would also say PMO seems to be recruiting a fair bit, if you can tweak your experiences accordingly, also take online training to be Product Manager rather than Project manager.

It all seems ridiculous to me as I have no idea how projects or programs are meant to deliver themselves and it makes no sense for people like developers to be wasting their time self managing when the company could just pay someone to do it, I think in a couple of years companies will realise this and there will be a lot of contract PM roles available.

You might btw better working with training adults or in further education, as the teaching courses are shorter ie. level3 AET and the topics delivered can be more focussed. Contact IT training companies as their courses and materials will be largely written for you and ask what qualifications they require.

I would recommend looking at civil service jobs as well, they have a lot London based, maybe worth looking at related sectors within that too. For my field they do have their own interview style which needs researching. Good employers.

Someone I knew in IT got a job as a computer science teacher in a private school, presumably not that well paid relative to IT in a bank, but it got him something like 30% off the school fees. Big shortage of computing teachers.

Apply for jobs outside of London eg Crawley, Redhill.

The salaries will be lower (£70k is better than £0k!) but you will probably have a greater chance of success as not everyone wants to commute out.

Sure they need to change to state school before they claim UC!

Exactly

Just to give from the child's perspective, in the 90s recession my dad lost his business and had to take me out of private school for the local comp at the age of 13. It wasn't traumatic! It took a little adapting to, culturally, but I still did really well and got straight As. Kids are resilient.
No guarantee OPs kids would have the same experience as me, but thought I'd share.

Have you looked at a completely different industry?

Loads of colleagues at work are going into the energy sector, and loving it.

How are you getting loans with no income?

This too, is me. 44 contracting for 15 years and the market has truly dried up for the last year . My current contract is coming to an end in 3 weeks and I'm frantically searching .

Only this week only I noticed the market perk up , 5 agents, calling up about 5 different investment banks.

So I think the tide is turning.

If you're a good PM I'd have a look at small SMEs in the STEM sector as another option. Either permanent or as a fixed-term PM for a project/grant.

A lot will have a core of old staff who have some informal PM experience from when they were a start up and had to do it themselves, but can't (and probably don't want to!) manage the new projects and new staff that have come in as they've expanded.

If you're lucky you'll find a company with a programming/electronics component, and they'll probably be delighted to have you!

I agree with this

https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs?keywords=It

IT jobs here although probably not at the salary levels you're expecting but anything is better than living off loans.

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/search/it-services

IT jobs

I think you're both too fixated on the contractors rates & deliberately holding out for those. You're getting yourselves into debt to maintain a particular lifestyle which you can't afford. Any job at this stage is better than no job and multiple loans & private school debt.

The other benefit of being upfront with the school is that, if you do need to move to the state system, the current school should be able to give you advice and support with the move. A friend of mine experienced this and her daughter’s class teacher was a huge help advising on the various options. The temptation is to keep all this stuff private but actually schools can be really helpful and will have gone through this with many parents before.

At least one of you should be doing any job you can get. Supermarket, waiting tables......

How are you paying the school fees OP?

Quite possibly, you both need to be working any job right now, just to get an income and then you can both decide what happens next, career wise.

Best of luck, as you have big decisions to make!

To clarify there are no contract jobs to apply to so nope we’re not holding out from some magical contracts to appear that we can apply to and twiddling our thumbs in the meantime. We’re applying to any job we have relevant experience for in the £50+ range.

I would go to a country where is less expensive and pays more to work in tech. If any group has an advantage is yours. London is so expensive and most go in taxes and not money for you. Even where there is not healthcare. Add insurance and you are still better off. There is a myriad of digital nomad visas from Medellin Colombia to Spain.