Opportunities after cross training?

[salazie]

Afternoon all. I want to get myself some more generic skills than I have now to enable me be a bit more flexible with where I can work (at the moment there's not much demand for me outside of London). I'd like to train up in C# or maybe move into something like Sharepoint or MS Dynamics (specifically CRM).

Does anyone think there would be contract roles available for someone with strong general techie skills and lots (10 years or so) of quite specific consultancy experience, who's recently cross trained into something new (with cert's etc)? Don't really want to put the time and money into cross-training if at the end of my current contract I can't find any work because I don't have the commercial experience!!

Oh and I'd be happy to work on a low rate to begin with if that was the only way in...

Cheers.

[DBA_bloke]

Give it a try contracting. You may get a gig. If nowt happens, go permie for a year, then try again. Good luck.

[rootsnall]

I looked into it for similar reasons and the lowest level MS C#/.Net certificates should be pretty easy to pick up with some home study. If you can blag a bit and your CV generally looks OK then I reckon you would get an opening easy enough. If you are used to niche skill rates then bog standard C# coding not in the City might not be very lucrative.

If you are looking into paid training in a more niche skill then I think you really need to do your homework and be pretty sure you can jump straight into a job. If the skill goes cold it's money down the drain. I have never risked it, I know some who have done it and coined it in, and others who never had a sniff of a job post training. Finding an opening via contacts is the best way and then fire fighting your way through the initial few weeks of hell. That way you've just got to grab chances as they come along rather than plan.

[salazie]

Thanks guys. I guess the way to go is to get trained and certified in something quite generic like C# and just see how it goes, I can always fall back on Siebhell if it doesn't work out...

Anyone have any thoughts on rates for a new c# coder at a junior level? I've done a fair amount of .net but only using VB, and never commercially...

[rootsnall]

Thanks guys. I guess the way to go is to get trained and certified in something quite generic like C# and just see how it goes, I can always fall back on Siebhell if it doesn't work out...

Anyone have any thoughts on rates for a new c# coder at a junior level? I've done a fair amount of .net but only using VB, and never commercially...

Get on jobserve and talk to the agents. I get emails for C# jobs will awful rates and salaries but no idea on the real world rates. The rates scared me off !