.net contracting market

[Gumbo Robot]

What , is this now thread what is what and what is not? go away if you have nothing constructive to say

You're a rather chippy individual, if you don't mind my saying so.

For the record. You'll find it hard learning Umbraco or any CMS without the demands of a client that make you push the CMS envelope. Its all very well learning about macros, document types etc but what about the stuff that doesn't come out of the box?

[stek]

You're a rather chippy individual, if you don't mind my saying so.

For the record. You'll find it hard learning Umbraco or any CMS without the demands of a client that make you push the CMS envelope. Its all very well learning about macros, document types etc but what about the stuff that doesn't come out of the box?

He can learning on the toilet while pootimer is running, this guy THAT is that good....

[oliverson]

What , is this now thread what is what and what is not? go away if you have nothing constructive to say

Here's something constructive. Stop dreaming and stay in your permie job.

[SunnyInHades]

WPF I've done a lot of interviewing of candidates for WPF roles, both permie and contractor and finding decent ones is like finding a needle in a haystack.

"WPF is past and present, in the near future it will be in direct competition with WinRT, but later if WinRT gets some traction and enough market shares then WPF will become kind of deprecated like VB6 or WinForms." Codeproject article conclusion, 12 Sep 2014

Any WPF geeks familiar with this sort of thing ?

<TextBox Text="{Binding Width, UpdateSourceTrigger=LostFocus}"/>

Well in WinRT/XAML (Windows 8.1/10), UpdateSourceTrigger has been removed .. couldn't believe that -
arguably one of the most used constructs dumped. There are workarounds but no UpdateSourceTrigger, lol

Porting WPF/XAML to WinRT/XAML is gonna cause some pain hehe

[MicrosoftBob]

You're a rather chippy individual, if you don't mind my saying so.

For the record. You'll find it hard learning Umbraco or any CMS without the demands of a client that make you push the CMS envelope. Its all very well learning about macros, document types etc but what about the stuff that doesn't come out of the box?

The first time I had to use Umbraco in anger the boss had decided it was trendy and wanted to use it as a deployment platform to integrate every site and system, you just learn fast when there's no one else around to help you

It's the background knowledge that's more important, so that you can adapt to anything thrown at you as sooner of late clients will give you insane demands you have to work around, specific technical skills won't always be enough, you have to be able to learn on your feet

[TykeMerc]

Here's something constructive. Stop dreaming and stay in your permie job.

May as well drop it, this ID has the common characteristics of the Professional Forum Troll type, it's possible it's a real person in which case that attitude will go down REALLY well with the clients, but I have my doubts.

[TheLordDave]

It might be worth mentioning at interview that node.js is front end. That will get you in the door...

[diseasex]

The first time I had to use Umbraco in anger the boss had decided it was trendy and wanted to use it as a deployment platform to integrate every site and system, you just learn fast when there's no one else around to help you

It's the background knowledge that's more important, so that you can adapt to anything thrown at you as sooner of late clients will give you insane demands you have to work around, specific technical skills won't always be enough, you have to be able to learn on your feet

Yeah I wanted to apply for a role with umbraco and had an impression that umbraco was just a bonus, they were looking for a technical guy that would develop something in .net for it and maybe have some CMS experience. Either way i thought id pick this and other popular technologies up while on the bench, while further certifying myself and give it a shot on an interview. Other story is that they often require an expert with stuff like umbraco or CRM, but based on feedback they sometimes want "cheaper" contractor without certain, less important skill and willing to train him if hes the right fit. Am I not right?

[MicrosoftBob]

Yeah I wanted to apply for a role with umbraco and had an impression that umbraco was just a bonus, they were looking for a technical guy that would develop something in .net for it and maybe have some CMS experience. Either way i thought id pick this and other popular technologies up while on the bench, while further certifying myself and give it a shot on an interview. Other story is that they often require an expert with stuff like umbraco or CRM, but based on feedback they sometimes want "cheaper" contractor without certain, less important skill and willing to train him if hes the right fit. Am I not right?

Depends on the client, anything vaguely new media, they really want a front end developer, that knows a bit of .net and has used umbraco, with the emphasis on front end, with strong ajax skills for whatever framework they deem flavour of the month

The other end is integration work, where it's hot on back end skills and knowledge of the APIs warts and all, and some front end skills are needed but not to new media ninja levels

People who really want Umbraco experts are consultancies selling themselves as Umbraco experts, everything else says it, and really it means something else

[cityben]

Without blowing my own trumpet, I'd say I was an Umbraco expert or close to, being certified and developing for 5 years using it commercially. So that's my niche. I'm new to contracting but my aim is to get Umbraco contracts where I can but be open to general .net contracts, like the one I'm on now. Now I'm recommending that my client builds their own site and other projects using Umbraco. I believe as a consultant/contractor its part of the role recommending best solutions and as they know I have that niche, they agree.
I'm not naive (or have enough of a war chest) to only do Umbraco. If a contract doesn't allow much Umbraco I'll still do stuff at home to keep skills up.