IT Contracting was the talk of industry press and sounded like a good idea. After working for the same company for eight years, he didn't particularly want to jump back into permanent work - not when people seemed to be throwing top dollar at folk without half the experience or qualifications.
To facilitate contract work, the best ploy was to form a private limited company. Serious thought was given to naming the company, which seemed far and away the most difficult aspect of running your own business. He was thinking "Initials" - maybe get a personalised car registration plate in future... then it finally clicked! Why not do it the other way round and save himself some money in the future. And so, on the 26th June 1998, RMJ Computing was born.
Now all that remained was finding some work...
After being told there were no parking spaces (you had to park wherever you could find locally, and not use the visitors spaces he'd used today), and being within bowling distance of Elland Road, it didn't sound too good. But maybe the work would make up for the lack of parking arrangements, which, after all, would only make up small part of the working day. As far as he could gather, the job involved changing toner cartridges and helping people locate the space-bar. Interest waned from both parties, and it went downhill from there.
The agency were supposed to get back to him shortly after the interview to tell him what had happened. He never heard from them again.
"Are you available immediately?" they asked. He was.
"Would you consider Central London for 5-8 days work at an exceptional rate?" they asked. He would.
"Don't worry about accomodation, we'll have you in a hotel, or company accomodation for the duration of your stay. Is that a problem?" they asked. It wasn't.
"It's relational database work, the client have lost confidence with the guy there at the moment, can you do it?" they asked. He could.
"Excellent, excellent! I'll call you back." he said.
9pm, the phone rings.
"All set - we've got to get moving on this one quickly, a possible tomorrow afternoon start - we'll phone you tomorrow and get all the details to you ASAP." They didn't, and he never heard from them again.
The London one was effectively a second interview, after a telephone interview which went incredibly well. The job sounded new and interesting, and London definitely appealed. Ignoring the Redditch one, the weekend was spent trawling the internet for accomodation in London. That was the one he was really going to town for.
Monday arrives, and the Redditch job is very interesting, and the people seem fine, but London's the real deal. So he's in and out of the Redditch interview, into the car, screeching down the M40.
Around Oxford, the phone rings, when the agency were sorry to inform him that the London interview had been cancelled. "Yes, I know it's late notice, and I'm sorry." Gutted. A slow drive back up the M40 was all he could do.
Almost home, the phone rings, and an agency goes, "Are you available to start this afternoon?" Er... yup. And so he does. Heads into Aston to meet the people at Crisp/Cap Gemini, and stays there until around 7pm. That night, the agency phone and the guy says he'll bring the contracts in the following morning.
Afternoon turns up, and people are laughing at the task he's been employed to do. It appears everyone there has attempted it at one time or another, and the contractors have quit, and the permanent staff requested to move to another project. As Han Solo once said, "No reward is worth this."
His phone rings on the way out, and he got the Redditch job.
Arse.
Four people have different views on how long the Aston contract is, so he calls the agency out of courtesy to sort of hint what's going on. During the course of the phone-call, the agent changes his story three times on when the contracts are coming. It starts to sound strange.
He calls the other agency and agrees to start the Redditch contract on Monday, feeling a bit awkward about it all. Then comes the big call to the Aston Agency :-
Thom: I'm not going in to Crisp/Cap Gemini...
Agency: Why not?
Thom: Too many doubts.
Agency: Well, that's not very professional, I have to be honest.
Thom: Having me work without a contract, postponing delivering
the contract, four different views on contract duration, misleading
me about the position - well, I don't consider that to epitomise
professionalism.
Agency: The contract is in the post, it will be with you
this morning.
Thom: We've already had the post today, and it's not there. And
now this is the fourth story you've told me about when or how I'm getting
the contract.
Agency: Completely unprofessional of you, this is, you've really
dropped me in it.
Thom: Well, I'm sorry...
Agency: I'll make sure other people are warned about you. [click]
After 10 unpaid hours of contract work, he gets threats of being blacklisted, and starts to feel really bad about what he's just done. About whatever comes around goes around...
And then thinks of being in Oxford and an agent pulling out. Interviews where people haven't had the decency to call and say he hadn't got the job. People promising him jobs, then never calling him ever again. Ill-feeling? Guilt? Bollocks. Whatever comes around may well go around, but for once he caught it on the going around side. He thinks.