Return to IT and contracting?

[lupacexi]

Hi,

I'm a former C, RDBMS, UNIX programmer, that has spent the last 15 years working up in trees.

With age and injuries, I'm looking to return to IT and contracting. I've 'kept my eye in' a bit.

I guess I need to learn new programming languages - and a flavour of C++ seems most obvious, but I'm interested in which languages and skills members think I should learn in order to get regular contracts?

Thanks in advance

[silverlight1]

There's no reason why anyone would employ you as a contractor after 15 years out if the market.

I sell myself at a premium to my clients based on my 14 years experience as a professional contractor and my up to date and hopefully relevant knowledge and skills.

Also personally I view being a contract programmer as being a dying breed and highly risky given the continuing move to offshore everything.

[fullyautomatix]

What is working up trees?

Your best bet is to lead C++ or whatever you fancy and try to get a permie gig. You might get silly money like say 30k but use that as a stepping stone to get back in.

[northernladuk]

What is working up trees?

Your best bet is to lead C++ or whatever you fancy and try to get a permie gig. You might get silly money like say 30k but use that as a stepping stone to get back in.

Not even a stepping stone and it's not getting back in. You are starting from scratch. No skills, no experience and almost completely changing career again. 15 years is far too long to consider it returning to contracting I'd say.

3 to 5 years and a couple of permie jobs behind you and you might be in a position to even consider it.

[gables]

Following 13 years in IT (4 permie, 9 contract) I then had 5 years out of IT per se when I ran my retail business, which was both bricks and mortar and online (website and ecommerce) so not exactly totally divorced from IT. So even with that a permie job was the best way back in, 6 years later I'm now contracting.

[ladymuck]

Do you have other marketable skills that don't require such a marked learning curve to get up to scratch? BA or PM work perhaps?

I agree with the above in that it's quite hard to switch into technical side of contracting after so long doing something completely unrelated. As long as you're happy you'll be at the bottom of the rung, with all the newly graduated oiks too young to be shaving, then there's no reason why you can't earn a living.

[pauldee]

There's a lot of legacy systems still in place with old languages and systems that need maintaining but none of the youngsters have the old skills. Have you looked at that route? Any COBOL especially could come in useful.

[northernladuk]

There's a lot of legacy systems still in place with old languages and systems that need maintaining but none of the youngsters have the old skills. Have you looked at that route? Any COBOL especially could come in useful.

Absolutely but not having touched them in 15 years is a bit of a disadvantage don't you think?

[SueEllen]

Apart from the things the others have mentioned one thing you have against you is age.

While age discrimination is illegal the majority of companies aren't going to want to employ someone over 35 in a job they can employ (and exploit) someone under that age for.

I suggest you try and find out what your old acquaintances are up to and network with them to get a permanent role.

I know when I was starting out some of the people I met who had buggered off to other things for 5-10 years had to go back and get another qualification to prove they were interested in IT and that their skills were up to date. They then still had difficulty as they were competing with people under 30 however they found that some larger companies would employ them but they had to apply directly not by using agents.

[Lance]

Absolutely but not having touched them in 15 years is a bit of a disadvantage don't you think?

You're probably right but a lot of companies are struggling so much to recruit for the older technologies, particularly mainframe skills, that they may well consider the OP.

I was working with HP when the customer asked if we could find a (mainframe) guy who retired 10 years previously and they'd pay big bucks for him to get him back for 3 months. He'd died 2 years prior though.

I'd suggest to look for both perm and contract roles and see what the market's like. At least you know you'll not be competing with the youngsters and bobs who'll undercut you.