See you all on Saturday the 28th of March (London)

For reals this time.

Unless I stop somewhere on the way

don't gooooooo

Just come visit

It's cold and miserable here now - snowed in the city yesterday

Excellent

Cool- look forward to meeting you again. Should certainly be a bit brighter here by March. What industry will you be working in?

I'm not getting my hopes up about it being much brighter - I know it snowed in April last year! I have no appropriate clothing so it will be interesting

I'm a programmer - ASP.NET/C# You don't happen to be an IT recruiter?

The good news is, it will be brighter - it's daylight savings the day after you arrive! The bad news is...um, I'm sure you've heard what the IT market is like at the moment.

Have you got your CV on monster etc?

You should be able to find some warmer autumn clothes at stores like Topman or Zara, by the beginning of April the seasons will have generally changed so you may be out of luck if you want to find a proper winter coat. It won't be too cold though.

Just need to get that dirty little fucker GNO back over.... I'm here mate.

No but my bf does the same thing, so he could give you a list of the good/bad recruiters, I know some of them give referral ££'s to, so could be a nice little earner for you both. He has been here 3 years contracting so knows the system pretty well. If you are looking for contract stuff, there are also quite a few options for paying WAY less tax.

I will introduce you as long as you promise to limit the pure geek chat to a 1 pint limit k

In terms of the cold weather, I don't think it is that bad, just get a couple of merino underlayers before you come and you will be fine

It doesn't seem to be that bad for IT developers/coders, S is still getting loads of calls/emails from agents.
I think it is more the IT support crew and helpdesk type people that are struggling to find work.

If you haven't already- check out jobserve.co.uk

Yeah "IT" is an ENORMOUS and diverse field. If you're in management for something fairly superfluous, you're fucked.
Developers/programmers = noted in several articles as one of the safest roles during the downturn. I've done a bit of reading about it after becoming pretty worried about the situation!

I really don't talk development/programming stuff much so 1 pint would probably be my limit anyway

I have to re-update my CV and make sure it's UK-appropriate... I think about a month out should be a good time to start finding interviews for my first week.

If anyone's interested, a bit of a summary of IT here:
http://www.e-janco.com/Salary.htm

It's for the US market but the fundamentals are the same in terms of job security.

The main thing for me is flagging hope of scoring a ridiculous rate soon after I arrive. I'll just be happy to have a contract and see how things go. The money wasn't one of the main motivations for moving anyway

The rates still seem obscenely high to me, but I am a public servant so I guess it is all about perspective Coming from the NZ peso, I think you will be ok.

Many companies seem reluctant to take on permanent staff at the moment, so not terrible to be a contractor

I remember the nights S and Mutant would get going, while we looked bored and tried to stare the conversation away from geek-speak

Exactly! This is one of the many many reasons why you must come back here immediately

First of all, about time.

Secondly stormgirl's bf is from Lynfield, therefore beter at life than most.

Thirdly, so far the cold hasn't been as bad as I thought, my woolen coat combined with gloves and a scarf seem to be doing the trick thusfar. I'm also heartened by people telling me this winter has ben colder than the last one.

There goes the neighbourhood!

we're not that bad!!!

Yeah, there's always work for *good* coders in London... but some people's defintions of good can vary... and a lot of it is about London experience... so I would plan to be out of work a while... minimum 2 months... (plus a month waiting for your first pay to come in)... get a job any quicker than that it's a bonus...

It's definitely a tough market right now tho.... *heaps* of people getting laid off at the moment in finance.. Addict (Java dev) just lost his job.. and those people are going to be looking for work elsewhere...

Don't want to scare you, and ya never know how things work out, might be fine for you! But the UK has been hit a lot harder than NZ (so far).

Ouch... that sounds pretty rough.

I had heard lacking UK experience was going to make it much tougher. I'm not going to be too picky though - will just see what happens