It’s January 2026. I’ve just finished a job interview with a young professional. I was the candidate. It was for a Knowledge and Transformation Manager role for IT service management in a well-established firm. There was just one person who was interviewing me. The People department had given me guidance before the interview. It advised me to investigate my interviewer, so I could comfortably chat with him. Knowing that this was encouraged in People Services at the company, I mentioned that I was from Liverpool. I let him know that we had this in common as I’d seen his profile on LinkedIn. He looked at me like I had slapped him in the face and as if I was a stalker. Not a great start! From the moment the interview started, I didn’t feel comfortable and there was no effort to make me so. There was little warmth or interest in what I had to say. I felt like a decision had already been made. It was at this point I made my own decision. A significant one.
Let’s go back a few years. I started my contracting journey in IT. I had decided to start consulting after I was made redundant from a company that I loved. I had worked there for 15 years. It felt like a family, but it was starting to break up. The whole of IT Support was outsourced, and when the offer of redundancy came, I took it.
I created my first limited company without any guidance, finding my feet, but not really knowing what I was doing. It was a completely foreign area for me. I didn’t know anyone who was contracting and no advice or support. I googled accountancy firms and went with a highly reviewed one. I picked a company name out of a hat, and that was it. I felt I was rich! I was invoicing more weekly than I had previously earned monthly.
Then came COVID and IR35.
I don’t believe I need to describe what happened to the workforce during COVID but IR35 is a UK tax legislation designed to ensure that people who work like employees through their own limited companies pay broadly similar tax to regular employees.
So, my next position was inside IR35, and it was a completely different ball game. A lot of the advantages I’d enjoyed through consultancy work, I felt, had been taken away. The accountancy firm I was with wasn’t helpful and didn’t understand that I wasn’t a financial whizz. Part of my role in IT is translating jargon into messages that are easy to understand. They didn’t do that for me and my exciting, newly formed company withered away, leaving me with a tax nightmare to sort out. A valuable lesson learned.
This began a five-year journey of working for well-regarded companies, feeling like an employee without the benefits. It was hard in the beginning. I felt undervalued. What I didn’t realise at the time was that something else started to happen. I honed my craft and expertise. I got good at seeking information. When you consult, you move more from business to business and industry to industry. You see what works and what doesn’t. I took this into the next role and the next and it gave me valuable experience.
Then I got the news that my contract was finishing. I was a little bit surprised but that was how things go as a consultant. I wasn’t too worried about getting a new role. I’d always been able to find work in my 20-plus years of experience. I’d have a new role in a few weeks……
……it didn’t take weeks, it took months! Over ten to be exact. The contracts had completely dried up. The only option were permanent and so, as the climate was changing, I thought I would go for a permanent role.
So began a humiliating interview period. One after the other. Applying for hundreds of roles. Roles and positions I knew like the back of my hand. For many, I wasn’t even shortlisted. I went for non-senior roles, positions that I would have managed people in, in the past (I wasn’t even shortlisted). The jobs I did get an interview for, I would either not get the role, or I’d go on to the final stages of the interview process and then be told ‘the position has been withdrawn’ (one time it was weeks after I hadn’t heard anything).
That was my experience of 2025. I’m not going to discuss the financial impact as it’s too bleak to talk about. I can only say that without the wonderful support of family and friends, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
This brings me up to January 2026 and ‘that decision’.
I decided I wasn’t going to interview for any more positions as a permanent employee and I had had enough. I had felt humiliated and I was going to support myself and be my own sponsor and only focus on that.
Since I made that decision, some wonderful things happened. I met communities of people who were going through the same thing as me. I wasn’t alone. I met Lucy Hornsby (the Founder of Women Who Contract) and took her amazing training courses on delving into yourself and what it means to be a Contractor (a vital course that I’d missed from when I’d first started contracting) and Branding (tools that I have utilised and that have helped me immensely).
I also joined her ‘Women Who Contract’ community. They were my tribe! We had a monthly meeting and straight away I saw how we had so much in common and we lift each other up. We share experiences, ask advice and celebrate our community. This gave me the strength to value myself and my abilities, to create my brand-new company Orange Daisy Technology Limited and to market myself as a Fractional IT Service Management consultant.
I now have my third client for Orange Daisy Technology Limited, with another two engagements waiting to be signed. I offer fractional IT service improvement, specialising in IT Service Management (ITSM). My service portfolio is designed for small to medium-sized organisations that may not have the budget for a full-time consultant.
At the heart of everything I do are people. Technology and processes are important, but real improvement happens when you understand the people involved and make things work better for them.
I absolutely love what I do, I have found myself again (after being a bit lost). If the climate changes in the job market, I shall adapt my service offering and continue to evolve with the market.
I now know that this is what I’m meant to do.
Connect with Claire via LinkedIn: HERE!
Thanks for sharing your story, Claire. It was really good to read as I am currently in this exact position at the start of my journey, having been made redundant six months ago and only just decided to go freelance. I have no idea where it will take me, but I’m hopeful.
I'm so sorry you had to weather the storm to get to where you are now, but what a journey! You should be so proud of yourself and your resilience. 🙌 Well done, and all the best for your your growing business!