Serious Question

**Ardesco** · 20 October 2006, 12:57

I seem to be doing quite well atm, do what all failed coders do and go testing \o/

**tim123** · 20 October 2006, 13:40

Yep, finished a job at the beginning of June. Spent the whole of the
summer looking.

All of the jobs that I saw were a list of must haves that were very difficult to find and I thought that I ought to have a chance at some of them with a start next week approach. But no, no-one was interested if you weren't an exact match, some of these jobs are still open I believe.

During the whole summer I got three sniffs:
1) an offer of an interview the day before I had booked a week's holiday, by the time I came back, the job had been filled.
2) a quite good job that I really wanted. The technical guy liked me, but his manager didn't. So no deal.
3) A job that I was eventually offered after some difficult negotiation. Started mid Sept.

That was it, apart from S3 agents offering me 'immediate interviews' for jobs paying 28ph. I told them to stick it, expecting the job to come around from another agency at a better rate, but they never did. Either there are a lot of people between jobs who were more desperate than me, or the jobs didn't exist.

Even for the summer months that was a pretty poor show.

And since I've started here I haven't actually seen much evidence of a change for the better. An agent (that I trust) rang me this morning for an update, he said he had no jobs to fill and was using his time usefully.

Nope, if you've just got generic skills and aren't working in the financial/government sector it's tough out there IME.

tim

**tim123** · 20 October 2006, 13:44

Originally posted by Ardesco

I seem to be doing quite well atm, do what all failed coders do and go testing \o/

Yep, I could be more fully employed if I was prepared to take crap code written by foreigners and integrate it onto the hardware. But I just can't stoop this low. I don't like being the poor sap who's got the task of integrating code in the firstm place and if it badly written I wouldn't last the week.

tim

**Shimano105** · 20 October 2006, 13:48

I know we've all said it a million times but.... now seems to be the time for me to get the feck out of this industry. Or just wait for something to turn up rather than stressing about it, in the meantime do the plan B(urger King)

**Lucifer Box** · 20 October 2006, 14:07

Originally posted by Shimano105

in the meantime do the plan B(urger King)

Careful, that's Milan's plan B. The burger flipping market might get a bit crowded.

**Pondlife** · 20 October 2006, 14:12

Originally posted by Lucifer Box

Careful, that's Milan's plan B. The burger flipping market might get a bit crowded.

I thought that Milan was responsible for changing the fat in the fryers every weekend.

**lukemg** · 20 October 2006, 14:32

I've had a taste of this Shim - thing is, it can turn back round in the space of one phone call. I was out for 5 weeks, doesn't sound long but I couldn't really enjoy it, it's all about perception.
e.g. Someone drops you on a desert island (strangely there are trees etc) and says they will be back in a month, there are enough provisions etc. Happy days, you can have a great time.
If you land on there from a shipwreck etc, have enough food for a month and get rescued a month later, you have been through the same conditions but because of the uncertainty are likely to have had a miserable time, worrying about ever getting rescued, food running out etc.
Same for me, tried to enjoy the 5 weeks off (03 time)but only partially managed to. I seemed to have dropped off a cliff, I was getting little or no response to jobs I thought I was 100% match, started monitoring/responding quicker, started applying for lower grade jobs (similar response !). Ended up getting a 3-month support gimp job and jumped into a permie team leader job which paid the same i.e. I bottled it and headed for safe harbour !
Got some training, re-invented myself and now back in the contract game but still wary.
I suggest consider permie/training/felexibility on rate/location. Try to reduce expenses/free up equity to keep the finances ticking. It can turn round in an hour so keep plugging !

**Shimano105** · 20 October 2006, 14:49

Just so demoralising having to do this for no other reason than Microsoft deciding to change the course of IT development. Effectively feel like I've been led down a blind alley as the new stuff isn't an incremental move from the old (i.e. it ain't VB7).

Yes I can use .NET productively (not exactly rocket science if you have years of n-tier dev experience), but does anyone believe me? Try to drop your rate and the agent will just take the extra difference.

No other trade or profession would have the last 16 years of their career rubbished in the way that we do. So I now have to face the prospect of going back to the start and effectively being a junior developer at the age of 40. Triffic.

**partimer** · 20 October 2006, 15:07

Sympathies Shim. It is disheartening but we all knew this when we became a business. You have to take the lean years with the boom years.

I'm sure I worked with you in York at "P" long time ago.
They (customer) were always "moving from VB6 to .Net" and every agent sold it like that. I think they folded last year but I'm sure they've resurfaced with a new name.

Anyway, like what has already been stated you just got to keep at it. Something will turn up but probably not near home / less money, etc.
The trouble is that you're going to have to compete with lots of young newbies ("contracting is p1ss easy") who have been taught .net at Uni and think you're a dinosaur. (Perception is hard to overturn)

Keep at it. The trouble with long term contracts is that you get very comfortable and you resist the attempt to stay with the market. I can't state this highly enough.
Contractors have to keep their skillset up to date, it's the only thing that distinguishes CVs and that is all the customers see.

I guess now is not the time to ask you about biking holidays in France (your plan B)

Smile mate, your new kid doesn't need a grumpy dad

Serious Question