Getting to contracting...

[MikeHowarth]

Hi all, first post on the forum so please be gentle.

I've been doing open source web development (mainly PHP with bits of Perl, Python) for the past 6 years in perm positions, however I'm getting really frustrated with the limited amount of holiday on offer and the general company/office politics which seems to go with most perm positions and wonder whether contracting may offer some of the answers I'm looking for.

The end of last year saw me facing redundancy when the company I was working for began to outsource their e-commerce function which was a bit of a shock to say the least (isn't it always).

At that point I stepped back and reviewed my situation. I realised that whilst I had carved myself quite a comfortable little niche doing PHP development I had essentially reached a ceiling in my earning potential within my area (North West) and there were very few comparable jobs around without a reduction in money or more time spent commuting - neither of which were preferable.

As luck would have it I found a job working as a Java developer with a very understanding IT Director who was more than happy to cross train me in to Java and IBM Websphere Commerce which seemed ideal and so I grabbed the opportunity with both hands with a view to getting as much out of the role and moving towards contracting within 18 months to 2 years.

Upon joining the company it became apparent that the project I would be working on was in a bad way, and the past 6 months have essentially been spent bug fixing. Whilst the company has made good on its promise to provide me with Java training I'm yet to write a single line of Java and have spent alot of my time working around Websphere Commerce and doing simple fixes to the web front end using HTML/CSS/Javascript.

As most can imagine I'm really frustrated. In my previous role I was tech lead in charge of a team of 5 developers so this is somewhat of a backwards step. Don't get me wrong I've got no problems rolling my sleeves up but I'm not overly sure how I could possibly turn my current situation around to provide me with the type learning I want.

My intial thoughts were to just hand my notice in and go in to PHP contracting, day rates aren't that great (~£150 per day) and contracts in the North West don't seem to come up that often. In that case I'd almost be better going back in to a perm position doing PHP development.

To be honest that sort of defeats what I've been trying to acheive over the past 6 months. From where I'm standing Java seems the way to go and there seems to be a fair few opportunities around, however this would essentially mean me starting from scratch again and finding somewhere where I could do some real Java development with virtually no commercial Java experience.

If I'm starting from scratch would I be better looking at Java or .NET specifically C#? Any difference in possible day rates etc.

Sorry for the rather long post. As you can imagine my head is spinning at the moment and I'm rather unsure on the best approach to take.

The ultimate goal of going contracting is to be able to take extended trips abroad of up to around a month at a time, whilst earning comparable money to what I'm currently on. Ideally I'd be looking at day rates £200+ per day.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

[MikeHowarth]

110 views and not one pearl of wisdom! When they say as a contractor you're on your own they really mean it!.

Having re-read my post, and taken stock. I think I'm going to continue down the Java route and look to do some self study to get me up to speed with J2EE, Spring, Hibernate and going from there.

[jkoder]

110 views and not one pearl of wisdom! When they say as a contractor you're on your own they really mean it!.

Having re-read my post, and taken stock. I think I'm going to continue down the Java route and look to do some self study to get me up to speed with J2EE, Spring, Hibernate and going from there.

Java! Such a great choice.

Not sure what level of Java you are at but it might be in your interest to do the SCJP programmer exam, it's not as easy as the corresponding Microsoft exam where everyone seems to get 98% or above And it will look good on your CV if you don't have a lot of real experience.

Hibernate, Spring are really hot now in Java, almost everywhere is using it, don't waste too much time on EJB's and other parts of the J2EE API's. To gain some experience you could join an open-source project or create your own and host it. There is a good Apress book out which covers Spring 2.5 well, it's called "A problem/solution approach" or something similar.

You will be able to find more about the current trends and popular API's used in Java by checking the job boards. I'd learn Tomcat over a full blow app server because most Spring apps don't use an app sever.

Good luck.

[MikeHowarth]

Thanks for the reply. Its reassuring to know I'm not invisible. Was beginning to feel a little like Royston Vasey round here!

Yeah looking through alot of the job specs it seems that Spring, Hibernate are all sought after. I'll bear in mind the points about EJB and Tomcat.

Will definitely take a good look at the SCJP exam, I think it is probably something worth pursuing given my lack of commercial Java experience. Don't get me wrong I've been doing OO development for the past 5 years just not Java.

Any more for any more?

[chicane]

£150/day!?

There are companies out there screaming out for good PHP devs - they will pay at least twice that for the right person.

[Ardesco]

To be honest you would be insane to go contracting in JAVA now with no commercial experience. Nobody will hire you because contractors are expected to be highly experienced individuals who can hit the ground running and quickly produce the goods.

I would recommend anybody thinking of going contracting now to stay where they are, it is really not a good time to switch.

[chris79]

To be honest you would be insane to go contracting in JAVA now with no commercial experience. Nobody will hire you because contractors are expected to be highly experienced individuals who can hit the ground running and quickly produce the goods.

I would recommend anybody thinking of going contracting now to stay where they are, it is really not a good time to switch.

I agree with the above. At a very minimum stay put and apply and see what comes, but don't jack it in thinking a land of opportunity awaits you.

[max]

I've been doing open source web development (mainly PHP with bits of Perl, Python) for the past 6 years in perm positions, however I'm getting really frustrated with the limited amount of holiday on offer

Contractors get no holiday.

They never get sick, never get old.

and the general company/office politics which seems to go with most perm positions and wonder whether contracting may offer some of the answers I'm looking for.

Well there ain't no politics.

The end of last year saw me facing redundancy when the company I was working for began to outsource their e-commerce function which was a bit of a shock to say the least (isn't it always).

Nope. When you contract, best to assume it can end tomorrow.



Anyways, sounds awful.

Check out GWT, EXT(extjs) and smart client..with spring and hibernate....it's a mighty fine piece of kit.


With a bit of banking experience that could get you £600/day, perhaps in slightly more optimistic times!


PM me if you want more details

[MikeHowarth]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I realise that contracting isn't without its pitfalls, no paid holidays sick etc however I'm willing to accept and have spoken to a few other contractors previously about this side of things.

Don't get me wrong I'm not thinking about jacking things in and just going in to Java contracting at the moment - I wouldn't have a leg to stand on, sounds like some of you are finding it tough enough with experience behind you.

Really what I'm trying to do is get together a bit of a plan for how I can make it happen in the medium term. The ideal would obviously to have 12-18 months commercial experience backed up with something like SCJP before I did anything and this would obviously be dependent upon how the market is looking.

I guess my first post was really a bit of an excercise is trying to get down everything I was thinking. I've now made the decision I'm going to go down the Java contracting route and am really looking to find out what the big hitting skills are that would make my cv more attractive to companies/agents etc.

[MikeHowarth]

Hey Chicane - I'd be interested to know of any companies paying a decent rate for PHP dev work as well!