u/Tiny_Major_7514

I've been working on a discovery project with a consultancy which I've loved - for now the statement of work is over until client decides if design phase will continue. It's looking good but of course you never know.
I've been offered by the consultancy another role which lasts for several months - it doesn't look as good, but obviously gotta take what you can take.

It would likely overlap the other project restarting, so I was wondering how normal is it within a consultancy to switch projects - like are they usually cool for that if it means best alignment (for example I know that project really well now, and the project lead really wants to work with me). The project lead also recommended me for this role - so i just want to find out how much am I burning bridges by choosing this project or is there generally a level of fluidity accpeted.

Thanks!

I'm pretty new to contracting and finished a contract a couple of weeks ago - but none of my colleagues have shared the work history on LinkedIn yet which makes me qusetion whether we're allowed to. The contract just states we can't share anything confidential, but I would have assumed that the fact I worked there is okay (nothing explicitly covers social media or revealing it in my work history and there was no separate NDA).

I'm happy to reach out to the project lead and confirm it's fine to share, but I also don't want to come across really green by doing that, so wanted to check here if that's something normal to check first?

Thanks

Hi everyone -

I’m an Aussie moving back home after spending several years in the U.K.
Something im confused about is what people do these days for bbq setups now that it seems almost every house I look at has a kjnd if indoor/outdoor alfresco bbq space with a gas bbq.

Here people almost exclusively use charcoal/wood and I love cooking with smoke rather than gas. Here I have a gas pizza oven and a charcoal kettle bbq.

But how many Aussies aren’t using gas and if so are they either relying on amazing ducting or just keep that to a more outdoor area and effectively have two areas? I can’t imagine people are firing up a smoker in those covered areas right near the back door but I also don’t understand why people are bbq-ing with gas right near the kitchen which also is gas.

Thanks!

Seriously, like WTF is going on? I'm currently in a contract that is ending shortly, and reached out to the recruiter who literally got me my current role who was super helpful and kind throughout the process. My project lead has bigged up my performance in the org slack channel, and we knocked the project out of the park, with me delivering over and above my responsibilities.

Reached out to the recruiter via email and slack to let them know I'll be available for opportunities - and ghosted. And this is one of the big players that are meant to look after their own.

What is happening to even just common courtesy in this industry?

EDIT: Worth noting this is internal HR, not an external recruiter

I’m curious at the moment what people’s rate of actually landjng a role vs a recruiter actually reaching out to you are, whether out of the blue or in response or an enquiry from you.

Lately I’ve had a noticeable increase in the amount of recruiters who actually get in touch but then have to ‘go check’ with whatever parties they mention and never come back. It’s becoming quite draining and I’m losing my trust for the whole process.

I'm a designer who's relatively new to contracting and I've realised two clauses in my contract prevent me from sharing IP from my role. It sucks because it's such a huge international brand and I want to be able to show some of the work ive done for a new design system, plus a lot of the drafting behind it for my portfolio.

I'm curious what others do here - I'm hoping for an extension so I don't want to piss anyone off. I suppose I could do a little write up as a portfolio piece that explains the kind of stuff I did without giving anything too detailed away, but as it's meant to be a design portfolio it's really going to be lacking!

Would love to hear what others do - thanks!

Hi everyone - My wife and I live by the sea in the UK with our little girl and on paper have a nice little life. She's currently 3 but as she grows up she'll have access to the surf, good schools, lots of nearby cities and all the practical stuff she needs.

But we have no family here - my family are back home in Australia (where i'm from) and my wife is estranged from hers. We are used to being self-reliant, so while the help of a village is a huge plus (we have had no help for over 3 years now and many years before when we weren't parents), its more just the feeling of knowing our little girl is part of a wider network that we feel we lack.

We have good friends, but we are all busy in this modern world, and my parents - although in their early 70's now, visit regularly and are so good with her and she adores them.. We really can see a world where we move to australia to be near them. The problem is, they live in a small(ish) rural city in australia that is a serious downgrade to the coastal life we have.

A plus is that it's cheap and would enable us to set up a life there and I grew up there so I do know a fair few people and have old mates there. It wouldn't be forever - but a period of time - I don't think it's a great place to be a teenager but its a nice place to be a primary school kid.

So I'm wondering if anyone has done a similar move, and if they regretted it, or were able to say that the sacrifice was worth it for the kids overall.

Thanks!

Hi everyone - I was hoping for some honest (but hopefully kind) feedback.

I’m an UX designer with over 20 years experience in my very early 40’s. I’ve spent most of my career freelancing and while it allowed me to travel the world and prioritise lifestyle over classic career progression, after become a dad by surprise a couple of years ago my desire has changed for something more stable.

I do have government experience as I’ve contracted in a couple of GDS roles, but in reality as most my experience is private sector I think my initial foot in the door would be a pay cut and step down with an eye to gradually move my way up the gov ladder.

My question is about ageism in the civil service, and if starting such a career trajectory in your early 40’s is really an uphill battle.

Any personal stories that are relevant very much appreciated!

Thank you

Hi all - I’m 42 and have been gojng Greg since early 30’s. But what was for a long time a Gorge lamb style streak quickly has become much more salt than pepper. It happened so fast I didn’t even think too hard whether I should recolour, and was originally just happy to let it do its thing.

However I work in tech and last week was part of a chat where I was suprised to hear three of my male colleagues all talking about using Just for men, and that they do it to avoid ageism.

Our roles are consultancy roles where seniority is kinda part of the deal, but they were adamant that it helps them secure roles.

I was curious if others have the same experience of dying their hair helping their career or this is all a bit over the top.

Thanks

Hi everyone - I’m a 40 year old Aussie living in the UK and am considering a career change. Right now I’m a software developer and although I earn good money (£500 a day - sorry to talk money but it’s relevant) I’m getting bored of just sitting and clicking all day and want to start using my hands.

I recently installed my own pre-gassed split system air con in my garden office and really enjoyed it and have always said that as the world heats up there will be money to be made installing air con.

I feel my background in design and marketing and being an Aussie gives me a unique angle and edge, and in the U.K. at least the f-gas certification required for air con install only takes days.

So I’d love to hear from anyone in the air con field - what are the downsides? How easy is it to earn a decent wage without having to rely on building a larger team (I really dont want to have to end up just managing people), and how much doesn’t the seasonality impact you?

And how physically demanding would it be for a 40 year old?

I’d really like to focus on domestic work rather than larger commercial jobs.

Any input appreciated - thanks!

For me this is the worst part of being a freelancer; I just lost a huge project because I bombed a pitch, and it just hurts, particularly when you have a family to provide for. Looking for some solidarity - who feels this?!

Hi everyone. My Australian parents are visiting Brussels for a few days as a stopover during a European trip, and while there it’s my mum’s 70th birthday. I wanted to buy them some sort of tour that included boat ride, and a chocolate/beer tasting. Problem is anything I find online is a cheap group booking. Does anyone know of a better way to do this, even if I manually piece it together from places that are recommended by locals (I’m aware sometimes organised tours go for what’s easy and has deals rather than what’s the best).

Thanks for any help - I’ve not actually been so am in the dark!

Hi everyone - I've been a freelancer for nearly 20 years, and while I've had 2 previous contract gigs, it's been a few weeks as I worked on some big scoped projects for some big brands.

Towards the end of last year I decided to try to get back into contracting, but have found it hard - expired clearances hasn't helped.

I found the process quite deflating, and combined with AI fear and general dread of turning 40, becoming a dad and having a full brain I found myself also looking at permanent roles and applied for a permanent government job - 1 day a week on site.

I got offered the job - but as soon as i got offered job also got offered a new part time contract with one of the big recruiters for a well known brand.

So I'm really torn what to do and would love to hear some insight from other folks who may have at times gone down either path. I've never worked a full time job before - so going permie would be a huge deal and mean i could stop chasing gigs and also get off linkedin - but it's a decent paycut and although flexible, not as flexible as freelance/contracting.

The contract isn't for ages, but could be extended and I feel it may lead to other things and get me back in there - although I'm still not sure how likely that is. Trying to do the responsible dad thing but not sure what this is!

Thanks

Maybe this is a good place to ask, let's see. I've been working as a designer for 20 years, mostly freelance mixed with the odd government contract. After covid I went hard on my own studio as at that time contracting became uncertain at least amongst my contacts, and I ended up winning several big scoped projects.

Fast forward to now and I have a little one, and with the ol' AI dread and the increased competition around - I thought I'd get back into contracting.

Unfortunately I've found it tough, and it seems as my security clearances are lapsed no one wants to know.

So to as much try a door as anything I applied for a senior design governement role and have been offered it.

Pay works out the same really - less take home now but the pension is better so it's pretty like for like.

I was hoping to get some insight from folks who've worked gov permie jobs and I figured there'd be a fair few folks knocking about here with that background.

1. Would you consider it relatively safe longer term? I've had solid freelance income for 20 years, but I can't lie, the narrative around the industry has rocked me quite a bit, and it seems a good option (and definitely better then private sector).
2. I've just turned 40, and i feel if I do give up freelancing and join the workforce proper it should be now or else I'll be on the wrong side of the hill - agree?
3. Do you find you can switch off more after work in a permie job? I love freelancing but there's always stuff going in in my head. Saying that I do get to avoid the office politics.

Any other insights truly appreciated!

EDIT: Other details: IxD role & hybrid working, just a day a week on site. My current day to day work is scoped projects and some fractional work with brands - some of it quite fun creative stuff, so quite a change of pace.

Hi all - really interested to hear some insights here- i know it's so personal and subjective but I feel so stuck and so worried about impacting my little one either by staying or moving. I'll keep it brief, but obviously there's so much nyance and more info to tell, so please feel free to ask any questions (and please be kind!)

- I moved here 20 years ago from regional Australia. Always intended to move back but we underwent IVF which went on for years and meant we accidentally built a live in the UK.

- Life is good here; we both are freelance creatives, earn decent money, own most our home by the sea and have a 3 year old who we can give lots of time to. Being in Europe we can also travel relatively easily.

- But my wife's family are almost estranged from her, and so we have no support, but beyond that it makes me sad my little one doesn't have a family unit. While my parents get on well with her, they are 70 & 74. This works both ways for me; they may not have long left, which is a gamble to uproot your life for, but also more of a reason to make memories with them now.

- They do see us regularly; we did xmas there and they are coming to see us on a campervan trip we're doing around europe in the summer, and will come back to stay with us. This is another perk of being here, but they wont be able to come for ever.

- Back in aus though they live regionally (Riverina) and my sister and her kids live in canberra. We don't want to be in either of those places for a couple of reasons, but that leaves us with the illawarra area (We love being near the sea, and this is on the same kind of line as those two areas, plus we just did a recce there and liked it). So yeah while our little one would hae a family unit, we would still be a good while from family ,and won't have any friends in that area.

- But Australia is expensive, and particularly property in that area. We missed the aus property booms by way of being here, and while we have some savings behind us, we don't have very transferrable jobs - my wife could work in a school as a teaching assistant but id probably have to survive initially on some of my freelance clients who still would be happy working remotely before i either found a full time role (from what i can tell this isnt easy at the moment) or slowly built up new clients (again not easy). Really would love to talk to anyone in creative/tech fields on this one.

- My parents have an annex we could stay in a while while we found our feet. My wife would need a visa though which isnt cheap (nor is moving in general) and takes 18 months so its hard to view the whole thing as a quick 'try it an see' kind of thing. She is open to move but isn't pushing for it - she just wants a decision to be made.

I'm aware i could have nostalgic views of australia, and its hard to tell on reddit what people actually think of aus now as theres a lot of doom and gloom - so really would love to get some insight from other aussies.

Thanks!

Reposting as a few people seemed to misunderstand my intentions. In short both my wife and I are feeling very stuck about potentially moving back to Australia from the UK and I'd love some kind (please) outside insight.

In short:

- I moved here 20 years ago from regional Australia. Always intended to move back but we underwent IVF which went on for years and meant we accidentally built a live in the UK.

- Life is good here; we both are freelance creatives, earn decent money, own most our home by the sea and have a 3 year old who we can give lots of time to. Being in Europe we can also travel relatively easily.

- But my wife's family are almost estranged from her, and so we have no support, but beyond that it makes me sad my little one doesn't have a family unit. While my parents get on well with her, they are 70 & 74. This works both ways for me; they may not have long left, which is a gamble to uproot your life for, but also more of a reason to make memories with them now.

- They do see us regularly; we did xmas there and they are coming to see us on a campervan trip we're doing around europe in the summer, and will come back to stay with us. This is another perk of being here, but they wont be able to come for ever.

- Back in aus though they live regionally (Riverina) and my sister and her kids live in canberra. We don't want to be in either of those places for a couple of reasons, but that leaves us with the illawarra area (We love being near the sea, and this is on the same kind of line as those two areas, plus we just did a recce there and liked it). So yeah while our little one would hae a family unit, we would still be a good while from family ,and won't have any friends in that area.

- But Australia is expensive, and particularly property in that area. We missed the aus property booms by way of being here, and while we have some savings behind us, we don't have very transferrable jobs - my wife could work in a school as a teaching assistant but id probably have to survive initially on some of my freelance clients who still would be happy working remotely before i either found a full time role (from what i can tell this isnt easy at the moment) or slowly built up new clients (again not easy). Really would love to talk to anyone in creative/tech fields on this one.

- My parents have an annex we could stay in a while while we found our feet. My wife would need a visa though which isnt cheap (nor is moving in general) and takes 18 months so its hard to view the whole thing as a quick 'try it an see' kind of thing. She is open to move but isn't pushing for it - she just wants a decision to be made.

I'm aware i could have nostalgic views of australia, and its hard to tell on reddit what people actually think of aus now as theres a lot of doom and gloom - so really would love to get some insight from other aussies.

Thanks!

Reposting as a few people seemed to misunderstand my intentions. In short both my wife and I are feeling very stuck about potentially moving back to Australia from the UK and I'd love some kind (please) outside insight.

In short:

- I moved here 20 years ago from regional Australia. Always intended to move back but we underwent IVF which went on for years and meant we accidentally built a live in the UK.

- Life is good here; we both are freelance creatives, earn decent money, own most our home by the sea and have a 3 year old who we can give lots of time to. Being in Europe we can also travel relatively easily.

- But my wife's family are almost estranged from her, and so we have no support, but beyond that it makes me sad my little one doesn't have a family unit. While my parents get on well with her, they are 70 & 74. This works both ways for me; they may not have long left, which is a gamble to uproot your life for, but also more of a reason to make memories with them now.

- They do see us regularly; we did xmas there and they are coming to see us on a campervan trip we're doing around europe in the summer, and will come back to stay with us. This is another perk of being here, but they wont be able to come for ever.

- Back in aus though they live regionally (Riverina) and my sister and her kids live in canberra. We don't want to be in either of those places for a couple of reasons, but that leaves us with the illawarra area (We love being near the sea, and this is on the same kind of line as those two areas, plus we just did a recce there and liked it). So yeah while our little one would hae a family unit, we would still be a good while from family ,and won't have any friends in that area.

- But Australia is expensive, and particularly property in that area. We missed the aus property booms by way of being here, and while we have some savings behind us, we don't have very transferrable jobs - my wife could work in a school as a teaching assistant but id probably have to survive initially on some of my freelance clients who still would be happy working remotely before i either found a full time role (from what i can tell this isnt easy at the moment) or slowly built up new clients (again not easy). Really would love to talk to anyone in creative/tech fields on this one.

- My parents have an annex we could stay in a while while we found our feet. My wife would need a visa though which isnt cheap (nor is moving in general) and takes 18 months so its hard to view the whole thing as a quick 'try it an see' kind of thing. She is open to move but isn't pushing for it - she just wants a decision to be made.

I'm aware i could have nostalgic views of australia, and its hard to tell on reddit what people actually think of aus now as theres a lot of doom and gloom - so really would love to get some insight from other aussies.

Thanks!

Reposting as a few people seemed to misunderstand my intentions. In short both my wife and I are feeling very stuck about potentially moving back to Australia from the UK and I'd love some kind (please) outside insight.

In short:

- I moved here 20 years ago from regional Australia. Always intended to move back but we underwent IVF which went on for years and meant we accidentally built a live in the UK.

- Life is good here; we both are freelance creatives, earn decent money, own most our home by the sea and have a 3 year old who we can give lots of time to. Being in Europe we can also travel relatively easily.

- But my wife's family are almost estranged from her, and so we have no support, but beyond that it makes me sad my little one doesn't have a family unit. While my parents get on well with her, they are 70 & 74. This works both ways for me; they may not have long left, which is a gamble to uproot your life for, but also more of a reason to make memories with them now.

- They do see us regularly; we did xmas there and they are coming to see us on a campervan trip we're doing around europe in the summer, and will come back to stay with us. This is another perk of being here, but they wont be able to come for ever.

- Back in aus though they live regionally (Riverina) and my sister and her kids live in canberra. We don't want to be in either of those places for a couple of reasons, but that leaves us with the illawarra area (We love being near the sea, and this is on the same kind of line as those two areas, plus we just did a recce there and liked it). So yeah while our little one would hae a family unit, we would still be a good while from family ,and won't have any friends in that area.

- But Australia is expensive, and particularly property in that area. We missed the aus property booms by way of being here, and while we have some savings behind us, we don't have very transferrable jobs - my wife could work in a school as a teaching assistant but id probably have to survive initially on some of my freelance clients who still would be happy working remotely before i either found a full time role (from what i can tell this isnt easy at the moment) or slowly built up new clients (again not easy). Really would love to talk to anyone in creative/tech fields on this one.

- My parents have an annex we could stay in a while while we found our feet. My wife would need a visa though which isnt cheap (nor is moving in general) and takes 18 months so its hard to view the whole thing as a quick 'try it an see' kind of thing. She is open to move but isn't pushing for it - she just wants a decision to be made.

I'm aware i could have nostalgic views of australia, and its hard to tell on reddit what people actually think of aus now as theres a lot of doom and gloom - so really would love to get some insight from other aussies.

Thanks!

Hi everyone - really need some input from strangers on this one as feel totally paralysed by indecision. This could easily be a long one but I'll just keep this as brief as possible. Please feel free to ask q's. In short:

- Moved from Australia to the UK after uni, ended up meeting girl and marrying and settling down early.

- Always planned to head back at some point, but due to infertility issues we went through years and years of traumatic IVF and had to stay in the one system. Thankfully we have a 3 year old now.

- Now almost 20 years since moving I am still drawn to being back in Aus, but maybe some of it is nostalgic. I am aware Australia is a different place now, but it's hard to tell from short visits just how different day to day is.

- Here financially we do ok. We both work as freelance creatives, so various AI and other industry concerns at the moment, but are on good pay, work from home, and can give our little girl lots of time and generally have a good work life balance. This means no typical government/school/hospital job that transfers across. In a way it gives flexibility but in another way we'd have to work hard to get in again (my wife also is a qualified teaching assistant so could do that).

- The big draw is to be near family; but my parents aren't getting any younger (70 and 74) so partly i'd fear going and they don't last long but also that seems a bigger reason to move. Otherwise we go see them once a year and while theyre able they generally come see us once a year too.

- But my parents live in the riverina, and my sister and her family live in canberra. I don't fancy living in either place for a few reasons, and we always wanted to live in the illawarra (prior to covid that was the plan, before prices went nuts). I also don't know anyone in that area, we just like the area, and find it the next closest place to be to everyone. But it's so expensive.

So the question im trying to navigate is - is it worth moving back to aus to be near family when I'd be so far, and are my childhood memories of australia being tainted. I hear a lot of people complaining about cost of living in australia but is it really that bad? Yes UK has gone up too but thankfully we're not in london, we are in a nice place near the coast where we've accidentally built a life.

A good example is this year; we saw my parents at xmas and now in the summer we're taking my van around europe (and seeing my parents in europe before coming back here with them). Is maybe that and being self employed and living by the sea attractive to someone in aus? Yes it's grey a lot of the time but thankfully the summers can be lovely.

Would so love to hear some perspectives of australia - is the grass really greener?