Return to IT and contracting?

[oliverson]

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

Probably want to get involved with open source code:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/tarzan

[BlasterBates]

Your skills are now way out of date it is all big data, C++17, Docker containers and cloud technology.

I would learn the latest version C++ and also Java, but focus on C++. Java on its own won't get you anywhere as you would need to be familiar with all web stuff that is associated with it and that is a huge topic.

Your best bet is legacy development using C++ and a relational database. I still see some jobs around, but you need to be up to date on C++. You may also be able to slip into embedded development.

[uk contractor]

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

Highly illegal age discrimination is a major factor in IT right now due to savage cost cutting & agents misunderstanding on purpose the best candidate for the role (the cheapest not the most experienced sadly). Your best bet will be an outsourcer or management consultancy but the pay will be super low (perhaps £100 a day max) as your competing with imported Tier 2 Visa workers. As an IT contractor you have little chance of success getting your CV past an agent it will be an uphill struggle as many are very junior and just see when your last contract was. Also many IT contracts require extensive onboarding requirements like police, credit background checks & 3-5 years references upfront before even being allowed onsite.

[SeanT]

Probably want to get involved with open source code:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/tarzan

Probably not with contrived and largely pointless nodejs projects that haven't been committed to for three years though. Start here - https://www.cncf.io/

[washed up contractor]

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

Returning to contracting can be done but would be very difficult. And unless you give your DoB on a cv, they wont know your age until you stepped through the interview door so, yet more rubbish spouted by someone (who isnt a spring chicken themselves apparently!).

[northernladuk]

Returning to contracting can be done but would be very difficult. And unless you give your DoB on a cv, they wont know your age until you stepped through the interview door so, yet more rubbish spouted by someone (who isnt a spring chicken themselves apparently!).

Eh.. But surely you are still on the recruitment phase and can be discrimated at any point, not just at the CV sifting phase?

Also, unless you've dropped much of your earlier career from your CV it wouldn't be too hard to put the applicant in a category. If he's got 10 years programming and 15 years tree chopping you've got a pretty good idea.

It's only going to get worse when Andy Halletts video profiles gets going. A bunch of old codgers acting it out in front of a camera. Like that's going to help.

[SueEllen]

Eh.. But surely you are still on the recruitment phase and can be discrimated at any point, not just at the CV sifting phase?

Also, unless you've dropped much of your earlier career from your CV it wouldn't be too hard to put the applicant in a category. If he's got 10 years programming and 15 years tree chopping you've got a pretty good idea.

Add to that an undergraduate degree and/or a spell in the armed forces, and people can guess your age group.

Oh and if you were the owner of the tree chopping firm you may want to be careful how you represent that if you are going for a role where you aren't a manager, as some people think you won't want to work under someone else.

[nomadd]

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

"I'm a highly seasoned developer, having spent the last 15 years working on tree optimisations in safety critical environments. Much of my work has been in the 'cloud' arena."

Interview will go so much better with that kind of c.v.

[pauldee]

"I'm a highly seasoned developer, having spent the last 15 years working on tree optimisations in safety critical environments. Much of my work has been in the 'cloud' arena."

Interview will go so much better with that kind of c.v.

Get something about ladder logic in there too.

[WTFH]

Root & branch analysis to problem solving