Finishing my first contracting role

A weeknote starting 11 August 2025.

My last week

Sadly, this week was my last as an interaction designer at the Home Office (HO).

After 2 years and 5 months, this was my second longest stint in a role since I moved into public sector user-centred design (UCD), just over 10 years ago. Second only to my time at Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It feels ironic that my first contracting role ended up being one of my longest jobs. I'm very thankful for that.

Thanks to…

  • everyone at HO that I worked with and supported me
  • especially the core UCD people that I worked with!
  • my managers for the extensions and trusting me to work on important work
  • my recruitment agency
  • the staff that gave up hours of their time so we could do user research with them

I feel very privileged that my first contracting role was so long and fulfilling. Especially given that the UCD contractor market seems so tricky at the moment.

I feel like there are signs that the UCD contractor market is starting to pick up a bit. I'm hoping to write more about how I found my next role in another post. I found it emotionally tiring, but in the end I was lucky to have a few solid offers.

Next up, I'm moving to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Which funnily enough is located next door to ONS. So it feels a little bit like full circle. It's also going to be the 4th "Office" I've worked at after being at HO, ONS and the Met Office.

I'm very much excited about getting stuck into a new challenge and learning all about a new organisation and a new set of services with new teammates.

For now, I have a couple of weeks of unplanned funemployment before I start the next role. Hopefully a good opportunity to switch off from work and spend the last of the summer holidays with the kids. Although I don't have much savings, so it's going to be a financially interesting period. Note to self: get better at saving.

Running update

I ran 12K this morning. It's 7 weeks until Cardiff Half Marathon. Please sponsor me if you can.

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