Serious Question

[cojak]

Yep - I love books, me (to the despair of hubby - "another book??") they are part of my business.

To repeat Alexi and Milan - get yerself noticed by supporting communities (open source are always crying out for people) and blogging. Blogging is under used by business (and people). You might be surprised at the response if you set yourself up as a problem-solving blogger in C## or whatever.

Learn 'it' from a book, think about it solving real life/community situations, post it in your blog....

[VectraMan]

I used to be good at keeping up with the industry; used to regularly read the PC and developer mags, and could always get books on new things through work. But somewhere through my long term permie job I lost touch; the mags went unread so we cancelled the subscription; new stuff like .NET didn't seem relevent to the work we were doing so we didn't bother and there's a point where you just do the job in front of you and lose interest in any extra curricular activities.

All part of the curse of permiedom I suppose.

[milanbenes]

it is our responsibility to ourselves and our families that is we want to maintain the standard of living to which we have become accustomed we must not be lazy or complacent and must keep on top of the market place and technologies

the great thing with IT is, tomorrow is another day, and it is not too late to begin making the effort again and set yourself a plan and find a way back, it IT is is possible

only another hour and half and I'm off

good luck,

Milan.

[partimer]

bad times

Personally I think the key to survival, in addition to what have been said already, is diversification. The only reason I got through the previous recessions is that my skillset ranges from Support body all the way through to PM. Yes I invested shedloads of money in all the key areas. Not a master of everything but it's enough to keep going. At least one skill should help me when the going gets tough.

You can never have too many skills (you change your CV to highlight the bits that are relevant).
If you're a techie it may be worth getting into the business side more. You can't be worse than the BAs I work with

One thing I've always hated about our industry is the sheer "cowboyness" of it all. I've worked with people who are just cr@p and contracting was ideal for them since they could constant jump ship once people realised they couldn't do the job.

I've worked with project managers who were ex-forces and their idea of PM was to shout, shout and SHOUT again. I've worked with BAs who couldn't find their own @rse with both hands. One techie I worked with use to thumb through his copy of Dummies Guide to SQL Server and he never made any bones about it. (Blame the people who hired them)

Yes, there are good and bad businesses but I reckon there are more bad contractors turning over loads of 3 month contracts.

[MarillionFan]

As much as I hate to admit it. Milan is correct in above.

We need to retrain. I have been particularly bad at this.

[milanbenes]

MF,

in fairness to you I know from personal experience it is not easy to develop a plan b AND keep your skills in top form AND have family etc

but the fact is we have to keep the effort up and keep on top of everything

Partimer, I have no shame about owning tulip loads of books and some excellent Dummies guides in there too, you'd be surprised how good and useful the Dummies guides are, they are straight to the point and the stuff you need to know to get you going as opposed to the three hundred pages of tulipe you get in an oreily book explaining things that WROX would explain in one chapter

obviously though I don't have the dummies guide sat on my desk, but credit to your colleague who had no shame in openly using it

one more piece of advice, I used to be more on the dev side, moved 4 years ago to the sys admin, implementation, deployment, design and construction 3rd level support side

a much easier life

as a developer there was nothing worse than beginning a development project with a deadline and the requirements changing millions of time but the deadline not moving - sys admin side is much easier and more stable

all the best,

Milan.

[Shimano105]

Well if I felt that reading 10 .NET books or dropping £3k on any number of .NET courses would actually count for anything then believe me I'd do it. I am already, to a degree.

But that won't count for anything really will it? Clients are only interested in your last 2 years worth of contracts, so you have to resort to lying and blagging. I really don't see why I should have to lower myself to do this just to get on in life.

Maybe I'm just getting too tired, bored, jaded, lazy etc. but I really can't be bothered to do all this just for a £25 an hour 3 month contract which is where all agents seem to be driving at in the North.

Permiedom is an option but I have been stung by this last time I tried it and, to be honest, it felt like I had been sent back to the beginning. Awful, demoralising feeling.

Doing full time techie projects and posting them on a blog is one way, but I'm certain of one thing - it's not my way! I can envisage super keen spods like AtW doing this which is fine if that's how you operate.

Looking increasingly like my time in IT land is up. Maybe I'll land a couple of short contracts doing bits but I'm looking for other income streams now. And it won't involve bikes or France!

[MarillionFan]

Ive decided to move over to do SQL Server DBA work. A monotonous thing if ever there was one. Just updating my skills at the moment, then a little reworking of my cv and kapow - 10 years worth.

[Shimano105]

Interesting that MF, I was trying that angle as well seeing that most leads seemed to be heavy on the SQL side nowadays.

[milanbenes]

Shim,

Clients are only interested in your last 2 years worth of contracts, so you have to resort to lying and blagging. I really don't see why I should have to lower myself to do this just to get on in life.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If you have worked as a permy for, or contracted to one of the big consultancies you will no from experience when they are selling you to a project they will write anything on your cv to send to the client and give you books to get up to speed. If you question your boss about this he will tell you that you as a consultant have to be able to deal with this.

What's the difference if freelance consultants use similar techniques to a degree ?



Maybe I'm just getting too tired, bored, jaded, lazy etc. but I really can't be bothered to do all this just for a £25 an hour 3 month contract which is where all agents seem to be driving at in the North.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I would have thought in a country where wages are being lowered through the influx of cheap labour, where the majority of people are trying to make ends meet on the minimum wage, that to be self employed with all the related expenses and perks on 25gbp per hour and especially in the cheaper north of england is not the end of the world ? Are you becoming complacent ?



Also, have you considered a permy job abroad, or a long contract abroad, move your missus and young family, rent out your pad in the UK and contract in Europe, it is really like a working holiday and by expending your search you europe you will open yourself to more opportunities

Good luck,

Milan.