Frustrated with IT jobs market

[leeLeague]

IT jobs ? I am now starting to think about the long term prospects of the IT industry. The (non-London/SE) market rate for a 'permie' with 2+ years in what I'm doing appears to be maybe £35k.

To have a higher earning potential, I need to specialise, right? So I look at the jobs market and I see Sharepoint developers are paid well. Microsoft AX developers are also paid well. But exactly how do I gain experience in this without experience? I cannot see an employer accepting self taught without professional experience.

Is there anything wrong in my analysis? Where should I go from here?

[vwdan]

Time. You've done the grand sum of nothing so far - it takes years to be an expert and you need to find your feet.

The second half of your second paragraph shows how green you are - bad work is very expensive.

[administrator]

Yeah, what vwdan said. But what is in your favour is that you are thinking about it already

Take pride in what you do, work hard and opportunities will arise and doors will open. Some of it is luck but a lot of luck is generated!

Take on whatever new technologies you can, learn as much as you can and work hard is my advice. Personality counts for a lot as well...

[TheFaQQer]

Where should I go from here if it's money that I am after?

London - the streets are paved with gold.

[The Spartan]

London - the streets are paved with gold.

This ^^

[northernladuk]

Take pride in what you do, work hard and opportunities will arise and doors will open. Some of it is luck but a lot of luck is generated!

Take on whatever new technologies you can, learn as much as you can and work hard is my advice. Personality counts for a lot as well...

Absolutely this without a doubt. Starting thinking about a career possibly? Do you want to code all your life. Why not think about looking at the next level up and work towards that, then the next level etc Maybe in a lead/management role in the next 6 years with double wage and on top of that you have skills to push for better contracting rates.

[northernladuk]

I assume you will be 26/27 when you hit this 30k in two years. Don't knock 30k at that age. I know most grads expect big bucks nowadays but keep it in perspective. The mean income for people age 25-29 is only 20k. At 44 it's only 34k so you still quite ahead of the game.

[leeLeague]

Absolutely this without a doubt. Starting thinking about a career possibly? Do you want to code all your life. Why not think about looking at the next level up and work towards that, then the next level etc Maybe in a lead/management role in the next 6 years with double wage and on top of that you have skills to push for better contracting rates.

I assume you will be 26/27 when you hit this 30k in two years. Don't knock 30k at that age. I know most grads expect big bucks nowadays but keep it in perspective. The mean income for people age 25-29 is only 20k. At 44 it's only 34k so you still quite ahead of the game.

Thanks for the advice. I don't know whether I want to code all my life. I don't object to the idea, but as the technology progresses and gets easier and easier, more and more people get into it. I'm thinking of the difference between C++ and C#. There's also the ever increasing threat of outsourcing.

[leeLeague]

Thanks for the advice.

[The Spartan]

Programming is quite lucrative along with a number of other I.T. roles, I always see programming roles advertised at decent rates and even have sent to me even though I am in no way eligible (the usual agents just matching keywords on my C.V.) obviously you could try specialising but I've chosen not to on the basis that I'm suited to more roles and have more to choose from.