The consultation period started in January when the announcement was made that Glass's were looking to streamline the business and close down the Crowborough office. The news was made official a month later with an end date of May 18th. Different people handled the news in different ways, but everyone started looking for jobs and opportunities - the first of my team left on Friday, to start his new role at Ballard Chalmers.

I started networking more, but otherwise didn't do much other than set up job alerts at wired sussex, jobserve and the it job board (although to be honest the quantity of jobs coming through from jobserve was so overwhelming that I deleted the email more often than I read it). Friends and colleagues sent through some job adverts they thought were appropriate to me, and I made use of the fortunate position that our ex-CTO now works at RBI and sent my CV through to him too. The "friends, colleages and ex-CTO" approach got me 2 interviews, one in East Grinstead, one in Brighton - neither feeling like the right job for this time, although they were both great opportunities. I started to list what I wanted from a new job, and felt that the most important things for me were (in no particular order): walk to work, or get bus/train to work - need a break from driving, web work - probably an agency so there is variety, busy - a job where things get delivered and I get a feeling of achievement.

On Tuesday I got a Wired Sussex alert email and followed the link to discover that Madgex wanted freelance senior developers. Madgex are a company I have heard good things about, and from what I'd heard, and from reading the website I got the feeling that they met my requirements. So, I sent off a quick email, attached my CV and waited to hear more. I didn't have to wait long, and I had a good email conversation with the Chief Technical Officer and we agreed that I should go in and meet them on Thursday for an inteview for a permanent position with them. I did just this, got on well with him and the other guys I met and went away with a great feeling.

My CV lists this site for all to see, I feel that blogging, and all the information held here is part of who I am. Madgex are the only company who I've interviewed with this time that took the time to follow the link and read a bit about me - resulting in a conversation about BrightonBloggers - where the idea came from, how long I've looked after it etc. The fact that someone had taken the time to do a bit more research in preparation for meeting with me was really pleasing to me.

The upshot of all of this is that as of May 21st I will be permanent, full-time, Senior Software Developer for Madgex Limited. I've signed the contract today (April Fool's Day - hope that isn't a bad sign!) and am looking forward to moving on and starting to make a contribution.