Realised the other day that although I've known most of you guys for several years now, I only know what about half of you actually do to pay the bills and fill your non training time... so what do you do?

For me, the last two years for me have been about planning to move away with my girlfriend who has been based in the states, so I've deliberately avoided any long term work commitments and tried to keep things flexible by combining temporary work with some online writing for a few places and even cash in hand work.

Also been volunteering in two places - a multiple sclerosis centre that offers therapeutic treatments, and for the local environmental and conservation trust. Also doing a short course in nutrition with the OU.

Has been tough at times working like this, but it's given me the flexibility to travel out to the US several times a year, not tied me to any long term contracts or projects, and helped me improve some skills like time management, being proactive, and financial organisation etc.

With things up in the air with my girlfriend right now and not looking good, I may have to reassess what I'm gonna do next. On the plus side, have managed to save well and reduce debts and financial commitments to practically nothing, and when the cash comes through from the sale of my house in italy (is still happening but long story), I'll be in a good situation.

Whatever, if I stay in the UK, I may well look to retrain - i may have to as my working has been 'non conventional' for quite a while and combined with my age it does makes me less attractive as a candidate for many jobs. Still no strong ideas there.

Im a Police Inspector working shifts in Sandford . I joined nearly 20 yrs ago from university . I spent the first 10 years as a PC as I just enjoyed the sharp end . Eventually I got a couple of supervisors who were terrible and i decided that if you cant beat them ...join them .
Ive also worked as a family liaison officer dealing with the families of those killed ( murder/manslaughter) . A role I found hugely rewarding .
I would still join if I had it over again although the red tape and admin that gets in the way of doing the job is unbelievable .
Also according to some guy called Winsor I get over £4000 of " perks " and " bonus payments " a year which would be good if it were not a complete load of bollocks and propaganda . RANT over !!!

I run an specialist insurance broker dealing with PI for Property Professionals. In the past I dealt with Kidnap & Ransom and before that TV & Film Insurance. I basically insured every UK film for about 3 years, plus Channel Four and most independent film and tv firms in the UK

I Work in the Arms trade

Build Warships for the MOD and for friendly international countries. Im a draughtsman and specialise in piping systems

I specialize in Rab's piping system.

I work for the co-operative 12 hours a week! woop woop!

tbf, it has it's bonuses. eg. organic eggs 30p a box etc.

Also studying sports science.

I'm a student. Reading for a degree in Business & Management (Accounting), which basically means it's a Business & Management degree, but it's more heavily weighted with Accounting modules than a 'normal' Business & Management degree. I plan to go and become a qualified accountant, but don't mind doing something else if the oppurtunity presents itself along the way.

I also work part-time in a call centre for a personal injury company, that also dabbles in accident management... So basically, I contribute to why we pay such high car insurance premiums.

I'm an accountant who specialises in corporate tax with a very strong international bias.

So I'm one of those nasty international tax avoidance people the government hates - Well I used to anyway - I do other more mundane stuff now thank god

i do whatever the mood takes
a questionnable past 6 years being a pharma slag

april 2011- check this for a bullshit job title: diagnostics development manager

does anyone have a fcukin clue what i should/will be doing

julesm wrote:does anyone have a fcukin clue what i should/will be doing

Prime Minister mate. I'd vote for you just because I know you'd bring in a policy to allow me to get free test on the NHS

What an interesting bunch of people - from Rabs big pipes to Rillas use of said pipes, Gympigs policing of the piping activity, Simon insuring the event, Ader doing the accounting for the whole process, Roadz and Karlos studying it all and jules supplying the drugs!

I'm currently a policy advisor to the Scottish Government on marine nature conservation, specifically national and international spatial measures for the protection of rare and threatened habitats and species.

Really enjoy it but get infuriated by some of the shit we have to do. Bit like Captain Swine the amount of beurocracy that is involved eats into time taking you away from your modus operandi.

Purdah here in two weeks meaning no Government to support in effect, although ministers retain their roles until re-affirmed or replaced. So come mid May I could have new Ministers and a completely new Policy perspective to take forward. Quite an exciting prospect depending on who we get.

SG is shedding a LOT of posts via voluntary exit. Many of these are stalwarts with long service and often a long time in one area. A lot of knowledge and experience is going. Knowledge can be replaced but experience takes time to rebuild. A hard time ahead in the next parliamentary cycle for us but I'm hopeful of career advancement

mine's a top blag
question: why employ someone who has not got a biochem degree and knows fcuk all about immunoassays and more importantly computers and networking them
i can feel a whole world of pain for them and for me, i dread to think of the training required- i got an email saying they were creating a bespoke package for me, a chem degree in 3 wks would be nice

I'm a regional business improvement manager. So things like LEAN, 6 Sigma and general business/process improvement falls under my category, including programme/project management, also dealing with what is ostensibly management consultancy within a FTSE100 company.

Will wrote:I'm a regional business improvement manager. So things like LEAN, 6 Sigma and general business/process improvement falls under my category, including programme/project management, also dealing with what is ostensibly management consultancy within a FTSE100 company.

Read that 3 times and still no fooking clue what you do

Gym-pig wrote:

Will wrote:I'm a regional business improvement manager. So things like LEAN, 6 Sigma and general business/process improvement falls under my category, including programme/project management, also dealing with what is ostensibly management consultancy within a FTSE100 company.

Read that 3 times and still no fooking clue what you do

All Management consultancy BS

and i thought i was fluent in shite

Ok, simply put, I review business processes and try to make them as efficient as possible, minimise overheads, reduce waste, rework and improving the end to end, for both internal and external customers. We've got so many procedures and double/triple/quadruple+ handling of things so try and improve those. Also, assist with problem solving (root cause analysis), improve daily management and achieve maximum efficiency for minimum cost.

Minimising overheads by paying an external consultant to tell you how to minimise overheads...

Hmmm

It's worrying that companies and organisations are run by people who don't know how to do this themselves.

worse still paying a frenchie
at least keep it english

Alex wrote:Minimising overheads by paying an external consultant to tell you how to minimise overheads...

Hmmm

It's worrying that companies and organisations are run by people who don't know how to do this themselves.

Alex - Its not as clear cut as that.

Politically - a company will more than likely leverage the skills of a Consultancy to

- buy the skills they dont have in house
- demonstrate value add to their peer group / management
- move accountability for issues-resolution to the 3rd party

More often then not - the core reasons are a) limited skill set and b) covering themselves by ensuring the 3rd party can be blamed for something they cant do, will not know how to do, but want to do it without direct accountability

I've seen this countless times in private and public sector. In fact public sector is THE worse for this. Hence the irony when Government comes out and says it wants to kill the Quangos and Consultants. It is the middle management that engages the top tier consultancies. McKinsey for example, have won numerous contracts in the last few months for advising GP's on the new NHS Blue Print. McKinsey charge no less then £1500 a day for a basic consultant.

I understand that but it is as clear cut as that.

Employ the right people to start with...

Alex wrote:Minimising overheads by paying an external consultant to tell you how to minimise overheads...

Hmmm

It's worrying that companies and organisations are run by people who don't know how to do this themselves.

Not external - our department (Called "continuous improvement") is part of the company, and yes, we're effectively doing ourselves out of a job. As the culture for improvement and minimising errors, and getting it right first time becomes organic within the company we won't be needed anymore! Certainly as other members of staff/management become familiar with the analysis tools and techniques we are less required. However, we're a LONG way off that yet - and with a work force of over 500k people worldwide, we're going to be busy!

It's not just about minimising overheads though - it's about changing the culture from accepting the status quo, to wanting to improve and taking that step back to analyse the processes and see if things can be done better. At the moment there's too much fire fighting going on, because of the failures in the processes (the important things to bear in mind in that in general people aren't to blame, it's the process that has allowed them to fail - this is in general of course, some people are bone idle and do cock things up because of it). If we can reduce the fire fighting and the mistakes, we get better customer satisfaction, our managers are able to step back from the operation and be more strategic and also deal with customers and staff - rather than that ivory tower/silo'ed mentality that so many big organisations suffer from.

It's a lot more than just doing time motion studies, project management, and people management etc...

Look into lean 6 sigma etc... It's quite interesting and quite powerful stuff.

Alex wrote:I understand that but it is as clear cut as that.

Employ the right people to start with...

not going to happen - alot of the time its niche skills which would mean people at 80-120k a year

Costing the tax payer though within the public sector.

The whole pension shake up is another wake up call. Good decision in my book as it'll stop those a few years short of retiring getting a big promotion and a hefty pension off the back of it.

kp1512 wrote:

Alex wrote:I understand that but it is as clear cut as that.

Employ the right people to start with...

not going to happen - alot of the time its niche skills which would mean people at 80-120k a year

Cool - Where do I sign up?