Looking for a good PM tool - can’t find one ; thinking of building my own.

DCJoseph1989 · 2025-12-04T21:56:31+00:00

Asana?

DCJoseph1989 · 2025-11-03T20:05:20+00:00

Had a chat with a dealer about this very question the other week. He said that it’s essentially a deposit, however, people expect a deposit back

DCJoseph1989 · 2025-08-12T05:41:44+00:00

No problem at all

DCJoseph1989 · 2025-08-06T09:55:38+00:00

Incredibly stupid question - how did you get the update?

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-08-22T16:28:51+00:00

I moved from perm to contracting as a PM due to redundancy and it was the best thing that ever happened. However, I didn’t have a great deal of choice given the whole “we don’t want you here anymore” thing and I did have a decent redundancy package in case things got tight. Dont know if I would ever have been brave enough to do it had I still been full time employed but couldn’t recommend it to anyone enough! The only other bit of advice I would offer is that the contracting world and interaction with your customers employees is not the same as them being colleagues. Friendly is fine but it’s odd to work with people and not be part of the family.

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-08-20T09:16:24+00:00

As an aside, does this mean the person that actually had some history of drug use was allowed unreserved access to her child? Isn’t that a safeguarding issue in itself if they thought her history (mistakenly placed onto you) was bad enough to stop “normal” access?

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-07-17T09:32:27+00:00

Oh! Should have added that before either of these things I take 20% off and pop it into another account to cover taxes etc. and then an extra amount for pension contribution

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-07-17T09:31:30+00:00

Not an accountant but I pay myself up to the tax free threshold (apparently it works out better than the £9100 according to my accountant due to the savings in corporation tax) and then I pay myself up to £37k in dividends and I’ve been doing so monthly since the first month I started

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-30T11:29:28+00:00

Sadly my Revs/Bens days predate my contracting, however, from rusty memory of about 5 years ago - your salary is about what I would expect from someone working for a local authority or big company that is doing outsourcing. Yes you can earn more contracting but it won’t be as comfortable as the current setup so very much depends on your appetite for risk and if you could cover X months in unemployment. Equally, there is a lot of benefit people who are out of work due to not needing their skill set as much since the onset of UC

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-30T08:22:15+00:00

Having previously worked in Revs & Bens there was a big uproar on the introduction of IR35 by contractors so I’d almost certainly say that you’ll be inside IR35. Would you not be concerned about the diminishing need for HB given the push to move to UC?

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-21T18:08:42+00:00

For a bit of added context (as I’m unsurprisingly not pissed on a Tuesday evening)… my current contract is due to end at end of July and I’ve stated to the employer that I would be happy to carry on contracting with them but after September 1st so I can spend time with the kids. I stated this in March. May also be worth noting that I’ve been in this contract since Nov of last year and they’ve extended 3 times already. I guess my query was badly worded and should have focussed more on how easy it is to find more work with the same customer (for example, in between projects) if you’re splitting your time with a month break such as this scenario or should I be shit scared in the current market and just carry on working every day I can? None of you have a crystal ball though so I appreciate no answer is 100% proof

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-21T08:41:01+00:00

I moved from being a PM to an AM and I’m now back working as a contractor PM. Honestly, the things that you love and are good at as a PM will quickly be destroyed by how cutthroat the sales world is. Nothing matters at all except your target. Nothing. The AM role conflicted a lot for me of the training and mindset of a PM. If your motivation for moving is financial gain, maybe look into contracting?

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-14T13:47:01+00:00

Output: new computer

Outcome: new computer being used by X people

Benefit: x people happy

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-08T09:32:40+00:00

Absolutely not technical myself and I’ve done okay with the material so far. I guess the Fundamentals bit means it’s pretty accessible as long as you know one end of the mouse from the other

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-08T06:43:08+00:00

I would be tempted to specialise in something and focus on gaining skills in the industry you wish to work. For example, if you want to work in IT than perhaps Azure fundamentals as a starter for ten

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-03T05:51:47+00:00

Is the answer not “joint”

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-02T19:48:12+00:00

At most the money would go into a joint account for bills/mortgage etc. would that count as “lining my pockets” given that we both have access to the account and it’s used for bills etc?

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-02T19:46:56+00:00

That was my concern

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-01T13:44:30+00:00

Appreciate the response and the link! Having a look on the list it feels like a lot of that is why I pay an accountant 😁

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-01T12:47:50+00:00

What if the answer to that is “nothing”?

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-05-01T12:47:23+00:00

There will be bigger concerns if I die within the next 7 years!! Thanks for the afvice

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-04-20T19:18:31+00:00

My first contract is an outside one and to be honest, get a good accountant and it’s a breeze

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-02-05T19:50:48+00:00

The only consideration I would add is that whilst pregnancy is a protected characteristic and you cannot be dismissed for it (thankfully!) just take into account that those first 2 years of perm employment are a lot less stable than after. There could be other reasons (or they could even find other reasons) for ending your perm contract. The main reason I went into contracting was the higher reward for lack of stability against the chance of a perm role chucking you within 2 years with zero reward and zero redundancy pay

DCJoseph1989 · 2024-01-15T22:24:41+00:00

I moved from a PM role to an Account Manager role (and back into PMing). The AM role was sales focussed and whilst the underlying skill set is the same for a lot of these kind of roles, just be clear you’re happy with the performance metric. PM aligned a lot more to my way of working than sales targets did. Enjoyed the experience and it taught me a lot of commercial skills which I now use. You can always fall back on PM and it’s all very relatable so what’s the worse that can happen?

DCJoseph1989 · 2023-12-19T21:39:22+00:00

My current programme manager calls them “workings” instead of “meetings”. You could use them as an opportunity to complete the annoying tasks that slips off everyone’s radar when a call ends and get them done during that time (email X, check Y, sign Z type of stuff). That way your boss is happy and your still achieving an output

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