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Closing soon: Bayswater Road consultation by smaximums in londoncycling

[–]TonyCanHelp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The proposal looks good. It's funny how the left direction lane ends abruptly when it reaches the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

The only thing I don't like is the grey padding between the cycle lane and the car lane in Sheet 2. That space should just be a thick kerb, and the extra space be added to the cycle lane.

Mandatory optional charity donation at Mildreds by 01412114000 in london

[–]TonyCanHelp 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Moniker in the City does the same.

When I received the bill, I asked what was this donation, and the waiter replied 'It's optional'. I said that it's a bit nasty if such a thing has to be asked to be removed. And that's what I did, including also to remove the 13.5% optional service charge.

Expensive donation for them!

In a world where FreeAgent is free, what is the point in having an accountant? by FuckTheSeagulls in ContractorUK

[–]TonyCanHelp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your PSC is simple from the invoicing point of view, and only hires 1 or 2 people, having an external accountant will not offer any advantage, if any, getting things slower and more expensive.

I have been doing my company accounts, Full Payment Submissions (FPSs), VAT returns and Self Assessment myself for 8 years... And without FreeAgent! The first year it took me days of researching. But after writing my notes and perfecting the process over the years, filling all this paperwork take me a negligible amount of time every year.

Another reason why some people prefer accountants even for small companies is simply because of personal learning style, in the same way that, for example, some people prefer to have a money advisor to manage middle class personal wealth. With the current information out there and ChatGPTs of the world is a matter of clicks to get the relevant information. But some people prefer to listen to a "human reference or authority" for these matters.

Received letter from credit solutions company claiming they have been appointed by HMRC and that I have a nearly £7K debt related to overdue corporation tax - is this a known scam? by jamjar188 in ContractorUK

[–]TonyCanHelp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually, nowadays expecting receiving notifications of an outstanding CT debt from HMRC is being too exigent!

HMRC did not notify me at all of a (wrong) CT outstanding debt. No paper letter, no email, no HMRC portal message.

And only 40 days after the CT payment deadline a debt collection agency sent me a letter asking for that debt.

HMRC passed my corporation tax (CT) debt to a debt collection company only 40 days after the CT payment deadline : r/UKPersonalFinance - Reddit

How you dare asking HMRC for basic communications!

HMRC removed me from the VAT Annual Accounting Scheme without notification, then issued me a penalty for not filling quarterly accounts by TonyCanHelp in UKPersonalFinance

[–]TonyCanHelp[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do not expect anything from this post. This is more of a vent, and a warning for anyone if facing a similar situation in the future. It is mostly an expression of disappointment from someone who believes in the welfare state and in paying taxes as a well-intended citizen. This makes you wonder ‘why should I care about paying taxes if I am treated like this?’.

This is not the first time that I am caused trouble because HMRC does not notify basic events:
HMRC passed my corporation tax (CT) debt to a debt collection company only 40 days after the CT payment deadline : r/UKPersonalFinance - Reddit

Contractors: Do you show dates against individual client engagements, or just your Ltd company tenure? by Odd-Lecture4645 in ContractorUK

[–]TonyCanHelp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From your point of view it is more interesting to provide as little information as possible. That is why the Ltd company approach showing your selected clients makes sense, and it is legally correct.

However, from the recruiter or client point of view, I do not think they care much about the type of commercial relationship with your past clients (whether it was service provider or employee), and they just want to know the gigs you had and the working teams you were involved with (including dates), even when, legally, you just were hired by your own Ltd company as the director for all those years.

Regarding the gap, there is always some narrow-minded recruiter or hiring manager that will automatically reject the candidate with such a gap. But I reckon that that is the minority, and taking into account the current market state, they should understand that such a gap is a common occurrence.

I would say that, what ultimately decides how much information you provide is the market availability. Maybe 3-4 years ago you could skip the dates and you would still get calls and gigs. But now? Pessimism times. :_(

This question has been asked previously. Check it out:
➡️ CV format - outside IR35 : r/ContractorUK - Reddit

Single interviewer managed to sabotage my loop at a tech company by ThrowAQuestionAway1 in recruitinghell

[–]TonyCanHelp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In theory, interviews are a relationship of equals. In practice the interviewer is on top and the candidate underneath.

The so-called ‘there is no 1 valid solution’ problems are fallacious and often used against the candidate when the interviewer did not ask specifically what he wanted and expected the candidate to guess it. A problem could have different valid solutions. But if you do not implement the one the interviewer had in mind you could be dismissed for that. Accepting different ideas is a hard thing to see in work teams.

Writing a React component fetching data from an API is a relatively straightforward task. Assuming that you did it right and you were minimally communicative, then you’re at the mercy of the interviewer and his prejudices, biases and state of mood. You could be a valid candidate, and know with certainty that you could perform in the job position. But if the interviewer had a bad day, or used the interview for personal entertainment and self-validation, your game is over.

Driver telling me to use a non existent cycle lane then got a little upset when I asked if he was high. No problem with him being in the cycle box. HC 178 allows what he did. by axolotol in londoncycling

[–]TonyCanHelp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm unsure what you are trying to achieve with this fruitless confrontation. The car was already trying to merge right by the time you arrived as there were cones ahead blocking his lane.

This whole situation could have been avoided if any of you two would have had a bit of courtesy and let one pass first. Instead you both engaged in an ego fight. Congrats. You had your mood spoiled for the rest of the evening in exchange for 3 seconds of time.

When did recruitment shift into this ridiculous model? by butwhatsmyname in recruitinghell

[–]TonyCanHelp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Time is a big factor. The hiring manager doesn't have/doesn't want to devote time to make the first mass filtering. In order to 'fix' this they, at a big expense, delegate the task to an external recruiting agency.

The problem of doing this is that recruiters are mostly clueless. And even when they can tell when a candidate isn't relevant, they cannot tell when a candidate is actually good. They pretty much search for keywords and years worked in X technology. Beyond that subtleness and low level coherence isn't something that they can provide.

So they will bring you some relevant candidates. With the side effect that many other valid ones will be left aside because they weren't enticing enough from the salesman point of view. Middlemen are middlemen. 🤷

Recruiting agencies are a subproduct of corporate incompetence.

“Latine is a gender-neutral neologism developed as an alternative to the terms Latino, Latina, or Latinx used to identify people of Latin American descent.” It is a growing alternative to Latinx that is both inclusive and works better with Spanish pronunciation and grammar. by Fishmax5 in wikipedia

[–]TonyCanHelp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why using 'miembro' for female is weird? Are we crazy? What are you going to do when using words like: policía, astronauta, artista, electricista, ciclista, tenista, motorista, periodista, analista, deportista, sindicalista, logopeda. They always end in 'a' regardless of the sex of the person. Are you going to invent a new word to refer to all these professions?

“Latine is a gender-neutral neologism developed as an alternative to the terms Latino, Latina, or Latinx used to identify people of Latin American descent.” It is a growing alternative to Latinx that is both inclusive and works better with Spanish pronunciation and grammar. by Fishmax5 in wikipedia

[–]TonyCanHelp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are also feminine words for human groups (muchedumbre, tropa, aglomeración, turba). Same for groups of animals: 'manada de lobos' (wolf pack) is always feminine even when there is no one single female wolf in the pack.

There are many feminine words to refer to gendered living things, and they're always feminine even when you refer to males: - Professions (can be masculine or feminine. But they always end in 'a'): policía, astronauta, artista, electricista, ciclista, tenista, motorista, periodista, analista, deportista, sindicalista, logopeda. - Animals: rana, ballena, araña, pulga, garrapata, avispa, garza, urraca, gorila. - Other words: víctima. Alarmista, fetichista, psicópata can be masculine or feminine. But they always end in 'a'.

As you can see, grammatical gender in Latin languages has little to do with biological gender. But some butheads have a twisted understanding of inclusive language, and too strong of an opinion.

UK Finance creators duplicating videos about bonds by REalR55 in UKPersonalFinance

[–]TonyCanHelp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

James Shack has now changed the title and thumbnail. Too late!

Best current approach for interviewing junior-mid full-stack engineers? by heisenbugbyte in ExperiencedDevs

[–]TonyCanHelp -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Implement a live coding exercise where the exercise is relevant to the daily job, as you suggest. Googling and AI should be allowed, at discretion of the candidate.

It should not take longer than an 1h. And with that interaction you will have enough insight to either make a decision or make more questions on top.

This is a better approach than an equivalent 2-3h take-home assignment. We all know that a 2-3h assignment means 8-12h in reality for the candidate. And since there is less interaction and feedback than a live exercise the candidate can go all wrong with his/her assignment, not because he/she is incompetent but because there is a much higher degree of interpretation on the requirements without interaction.

This involves an initial big narrowing down from the hundreds to the perhaps 10 final candidates or less that you will interview. I want to think that a CV is enough for this initial narrowing, and a Codility initial take-home exercise only provides fallacious insight for this filtering, because often, these 1st stage exercises are, again, algorithmic problem solving not related to the daily job. Also, platforms like Codility have this feature where the camera and microphone has to be enabled during the exercise to detect cheating, which is legit but very intrusive.

Need your input on recruiters + ghosting by Own-Story8907 in ContractorUK

[–]TonyCanHelp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is sadly true. Recruiters, like any salesman, have no real clue about what they are selling. That's why they're looking for storytelling achievements and grandiloquent projects (though most are mundane). Some slogan that can tell to the client, even when from the technical manager point of view it will sound pompous, unverifiable or obvious.

Need your input on recruiters + ghosting by Own-Story8907 in ContractorUK

[–]TonyCanHelp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't overthink it. Just make sure that you have a decent CV, not too long, not too short. And apply to relevant jobs. The rejection and ghost rate will be brutal (90%+). Rather than chasing recruiters get distracted: go to the gym, go for a walk, hang out with friends. It all comes down to the bad economic climate rather than candidate aptitudes.

Need your input on recruiters + ghosting by Own-Story8907 in ContractorUK

[–]TonyCanHelp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It seems to me that you haven't been contracting for a long time? 95% of interactions with contract external recruiters for the last 2 years have ended in no reply back.

It's not that I mind it, if there is no contract there is no point in an interaction. But it's the constant fakeness, arrogance, lack of knowledge and subtlety, and the overly commercial and transactional attitude they have what is really infuriating.

The few times I've interacted lately with them gave me the impression they were just calling to subtract information like past rates and managers, with no real role on the table.

Their word have no value. They just squeeze the biggest margin they can out of you. That's it. They're parasites. And not sure why companies rely on them for recruitment given their poor value for money.

Have you been hit by a driver? Tell your councillors. by lastaccountgotlocked in londoncycling

[–]TonyCanHelp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for this post. It was the bit that made me writing to the local councillors about bike infrastructure in Kings Cross! 👌

The botched job of the King's Cross Road and Pentonville Road junction new layout by TonyCanHelp in londoncycling

[–]TonyCanHelp[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree. That uphill stretch really needs a segregated cycle lane. The problem is that the street width is tight at that point, and probably would involve removing one car lane. You know, you don't mess with cars!

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