Is Voluntary Redundancy from IT job good idea at the mo?

[Emeye]

I've just been put at threat of Redundancy from my Role as a Technical Project Manager (1 year), but my background is as an IT Systems Engineer/Consultant (>10 years, mainly Wintel).

I'm not really enjoying my current role or the company at the moment, and as I've been there 10 years the package offered isn't bad (would keep me going for about 5 months).

I may not get chosen, but I could volunteer and I am seriously considering this.

I don't have kids and I am renting with my girlfriend after selling the house earlier this year.

Is this a good idea? Is the IT job market buoyant at the moment? (I live in the Manchester Area).

What would you do? Or is walking away from a decent paid job crazy in the current economic climate?

Thanks for any advice.

[WhoreLex]

I'm unsure as well, quite tempted to jump ship but don't know if the UK IT market is going to go ala 99-2000 and contract.

[telecat]

The Jobserve mails I'm getting seem to have more positions avaiable in the North West and with higher salaries than being offered on this side of the peninnes. However how many of them are real is anybodies guess.

[Emeye]

Cheers, anyone else - I need to let them know by 9.30 tomorrow!!!

[cs02rm0]

I haven't heard good things tbh, but I'm down the other end of the country. Perhaps have a look through the job sites.

[ringram]

Well we are based in the SE and cant find enough good people. Seems to be lots of foreign types who think they know what they are talking about. But really have no clue. We are hiring about 1 a month at present. So if you are down near the SE and have good infrastructure skills (MS, Cisco, citrix, vmware, novell, prince2 etc) PM me Permy only please.

[Rayhoop]

The market is quite dry at the moment (in London), Im guessing its probably going to be similar around the country.

Im coming to the end of a contract in the city, and am finding very little is advertised at the moment (permie and contract). Usually when you search for e.g. project management or business analyst roles, you get pages and pages of results (whether they are just agents fishing for CV's to bulk up their database, or whether they are real jobs - thats another story)... but recently there are very few roles appearing. Even is you search for a lower daily rate, you still get very little coming up.

However, as your a Project Manager... if you have the right skills/qualifications etc, I would have thought you wouldnt find it too difficult finding a contract. 5 months worth of £ is a fairly comfy buffer.

Royal Bank of Scotland are in the middle of a huge Infrastructure programme - might be worth taking a look there if you dont mind working in London?

[fade2grey]

have a mooch on jobserve, if you can fill the skills gaps there will always be work. Spending was tight earlier in the year but seems to be starting to flow a little again..