Una McGarth is this weeks Star Of The Week. Currently working for the CIPD, Una has a vast amount of public sector. Roles based around Project and Programme Management, and Learning and Development (Strategy, Management, Procurement, Design, Development, Delivery and Evaluation) have taken Una through central government (the Home Office, Department for Innovation Universities and Skills amoungst others) and public sector organisations (Police IT Organisation).
I am new to the interim market having taken the 'queens shilling' last summer and left the public sector as part of the CSR reductions. My views are therefore from the perspective of a new girl entering the market in Challenging times!
How is the interim market from your perspective?
Before Christmas there was very little about but things have definitely picked up post Christmas. However, as someone coming from the public sector (and this must apply to interims with public sector experience), there is very little opportunity to cross over into private sector work. The Finance and Insurance sector seem to advertise all jobs as 'must have had recent experience in the Finance/Insurance sector'. This worries me from three perspectives:
a) It is not exactly opening the doors for absorbing ex public sector workers which is what the Government are trying to achieve
b) It does mean they end up choosing 'like for like' experience when bringing people into the organisation which can mean there is a danger of never really challenging the organisations way of doing things.
c) It could be argued the problems started in the Finance sector so surely some sense of 'responsibility' must lie in them opening their doors at least partially to those with experience in other sectors.
What effect has CSR had on your job security and future prospects?
Well I got 'severed' from my job so the job security went. That said, all my reasons for staying in the public sector were removed (cuts meant remaining jobs were less interesting to me, pay had frozen, pensions were going) so leaving was a no brainer. Therefore it gave me the push to take a risk on doing something completely different. I wanted to try working for myself so here I am. It was probably not the best time to move on given the overall state of the economy but you could end up waiting a indefinitely to make life changing decisions. So I got brave and jumped ship!
How do you see the interim market in the short and long term?
I have seen the number of roles pick up in recent weeks although many are not specific about the rate on offer or the rate is quite low. My areas of interest are HR, Learning & Development, Change and project management, and there do seem to be a number of these around, not unsurprising bearing in mind the change that organisations are going through. I am not sure if it is a fault of some websites but I can get an email saying a job is available and when I link to it, the job is gone. This could indicate the speed at which jobs are moving and the need to keep an eye on opportunities on a daily basis and move on applications as a regular first thing in the morning activity. In the longer term the public sector will realise it has overdone the number or job cuts (thousands are going over coming months), I give it two years maximum before the number of public sector roles increase as the lack of internal resources starts to bite.
Are you seeing any increase in job opportunities in the private sector as public sector positions have declined?
The answer to this is there may be an increase in opportunities but they are not open to ex public sector workers/experienced interims. I also think that agencies could do more to convince advertisers to open up the market more. At this time of year I have seen more short term roles, clearly mopping up the last of this financial years budgets. The public sector roles appear to be around helping to deliver the cuts but these are limited as funding has already been slashed.
Have you been forced to reduce your rates since the general election?
I don’t have enough experience as an interim to back this up but friends of mine in who have been in the interim market for some time have been forced to cut their rates. I spoke to one group of interims recently and found that they had experienced cuts of at least a third in their rates. Certainly the longer contracts appear to offer lower rates so I am guessing you need to balance the need for a higher day rate versus a longer contract. I personally am being flexible and my business plan takes account of the need to charge less in the short term, if that means living off Tesco’s baked beans for a while – so be it!
