Up skilling to a programme language but which?

**Kanye** · 12 April 2012, 11:45

JavaScript & JQuery for front end development would be the obvious suggestion here.

**Scoobos** · 12 April 2012, 11:51

Without being too pedantic - get the word right first, you'd be upskilling to a Programming language , not a programme one.

My advice, which is worth what you pay for it - is to learn a methodology first , like you would in a uni course. E.G OOO and UML or Relational Databases and Systems Analysis.

Failing that:

Web Development -> ASP.NET with C# and PHP with SQL knowledge. Ruby on rails

Apps -> Java J2EE , C++ or C and Assemby if your wanting to work on hardware.

**nomadd** · 12 April 2012, 12:12

Originally posted by noter View Post

Hello all

I lurk here regularly and had another profile but it's been disabled.

I'm a content manager by trade and enjoy what I do but the a@se has well and truly fell out the bottom of the market. I work for a bank and the rates have been severely reduced and now I'm on the lowest rate I've ever had! This seems common and is now 'in line' with market rate though it's really poor and isn't sustainable.

I want to up skill and learn a language but don't know which. I know HTML and basic CSS.*I think what I'm asking if you guys can give any guidance as to the natural next step up from content management into a more dev role where I can have an edge and try to increase the rate.

Thanks for any help..

If you have a read of many of the threads on the forum, you'll see that there are some very skilled programmers sitting on the bench right now.

Unless you have excellent programming skills, a (minimum) of 5 years under your belt, and either excellent business skills and/or niche technical skills, I'd say you are going to struggle to find a contract.

Just sayin'

**northernladuk** · 12 April 2012, 12:13

Good on you for taking the first step but usual caveat here about the fact you get contracts based on you being skilled AND experienced in what you do and have delivered in the past. Just having it on your CV may help in the short term but isn't the be all and end all you are looking for.

Try see if you can work your client at the same time to see if you can get visibility of a project or piece of work using the technologies you are thinking of. Also try and get in with the guys doing what you are after and see if you can get some ad-hoc training in from them and get them to show you what they do. If you show an interest there is a slight possibility you might be able to grow that role and slip in to a proper one should someone leave or something.

Certs alone won't cut it. Do what you can to get hands on.

**cojak** · 12 April 2012, 12:36

Originally posted by noter View Post

Hello all

I lurk here regularly and had another profile but it's been disabled.

I'm a content manager by trade and enjoy what I do but the a@se has well and truly fell out the bottom of the market. I work for a bank and the rates have been severely reduced and now I'm on the lowest rate I've ever had! This seems common and is now 'in line' with market rate though it's really poor and isn't sustainable.

I want to up skill and learn a language but don't know which. I know HTML and basic CSS.*I think what I'm asking if you guys can give any guidance as to the natural next step up from content management into a more dev role where I can have an edge and try to increase the rate.

Thanks for any help..

Content Management? There's a real niche there if you add Data Architecture/Identity & Access Management/Record Management/etc Companies need a lot of expertise around those areas and you'll already know your way around a good bit of it.

You just need to be a bit more creative in what you'll go for next.

**BlasterBates** · 12 April 2012, 15:47

Firstly you have a job, in this market that´s very good, so you´re not doing badly. Secondly everyone has taken 10 if not 20% cut,....at least, so it isn´t just the web developers.

Rates will get better they always do so don´t worry unduly about the longterm, however it´s a good idea to inprove your skill set. As above you need to learn something which complements what you already have so that you can be employed on your current skill set but with the opportunity to add some additional skills for which you don´t yet have 5 years experience. Cojak came up with a good suggestion, maybe follow that one up. If you want to get into something new, that´s difficult and you´d probably have to go perm to skill up.

Basically look at adverts and look at things for which you do have some relevant skills and the rest to which you could get a qualification or read a book about. "Read a book" works I´ve used it to good effect but I did have the basic skill set. It´s usually the list of "nice to haves" for which "I read a book" works well, and obviously they will test you but if you answer as good anyone else that´ll be fine.

**Wils** · 12 April 2012, 15:55

Looking at the demand graphs on JavaScript Contracts, Contractor Rates for JavaScript Skills for contractors, Javascript is one language that there is increasing demand for. Ruby isn't bad either.

**escapeUK** · 12 April 2012, 17:23

Originally posted by Wils View Post

Looking at the demand graphs on JavaScript Contracts, Contractor Rates for JavaScript Skills for contractors, Javascript is one language that there is increasing demand for. Ruby isn't bad either.

But .NET is already at rank 10 compared to JavaScripts 22.

**noter** · 13 April 2012, 10:44

This is great thanks guys, some good advice here. I'm very grateful to have a contract as know how tough it is out there, just want to differentiate from the crowd as well as much as I can as there's a lot of competition for the few contracts there are later down the line. Will def look into shadowing someone and getting a little bit of hands on exp too as every little helps as they say.

Cheers and all the best.

N

Up skilling to a programme language but which?