The Red Queens Race

Yeah, notice how I dropped the non-possessive?

Lewis Carroll, hmmm, let's not go there.

Point is that I used to get somewhere between 30% and 50% more each year, but right now I am earning the same as I got last year. So a lot of running to stay in the same place. Comparatively, since the agencies wanted me to drop my rate by 25% to even 50% from one agency, you could say I have done well to hold my ground.

Trade is slow. I had coffee with one agencys manager for executive contracting for the public sector today, and she painted a very sombre picture. There seems to be just nothing on the ground from the agencies. Meanwhile I have four in the pipeline from my personal network, but nothing guaranteed for next month.

By "public sector" I meant civil service; we have public/private in Australia, rather than the government/public that they have in the US.

Apparently the public sector is looking attractive to a lot of permanents, since it weathers downturns better here. They tend not to lay off staff like commercials do, but I promise you that they are not doing too much hiring either. Anyhow, my forte is project work, and few have the budget for starting any project at this point.

Strangely I have heard from several sources now that February will see an upswing. In the government sector that makes sense; budgets will get approved end of the calendar year, everyone is on holidays through January, and will ramp up in February for their implementations a few months later. The logic doesn't quite work for the corporates, unlike governments they are usually not allowed to start spending money until they actually have it.

I had lunch yesterday with the government sector sales rep for one of the largest systems companies. I am talking Oracle, SAP, IBM, but won't tell you which one. She was being very hush, and although I know a few things that she should know as well, I will be hush as well. But she did talk about the scene as she saw it; to a degree I think she is looking at SA through rose coloured glasses, but she made some interesting points.

Adding all of this to the impressions I have picked up from the independent contractors recently, as well as the feedback through the grapevine, I get the impression that some big things are planned next year, but nothing is happening in what is left of this year.

With the contract I am on finishing in a few weeks I am left wondering how I will pay my rent for the November, December, January period. All things considered, I need at least $3,000 a month to get by, and right now I don't have the wherewithal for three months of no income. But apparently if I can weather that patch then everything is meant to look peachy.

All of this because I took such a chance on Singapore last year, and now I am left carrying the burden of that failed exercise. Normally I would have the reserves to get me through a few months of down time without any problem, but all those reserves and more got burnt up trying, unsuccessfully, to transplant my career to another country.

So right now I am feeling a little more concerned than I am used to.