Struggling to get to an interview...

[SpontaneousOrder]

JMS - Some experience (current co uses sonic MQ), REST/SOAP hell yes! Why isn't everybody using these? At current co integrated with their REST/WSDL interface to pull data. On my personal projects interacted with 1 simple REST service for mobile app a, for the second more complex one used the WSDL file to generate proxy objects, xml databinding objects in Apache Axis2C/WSF WSO2 (and also hand rolled my own scratchbox cross compilation toolkit for this purpose), so I'm heavily PRO REST!

TDD vs BDD - no not really - guess thats a weak point.

Design patterns - most probably yes, singleton pattern, broker/worker etc are patterns I have used. But appreciate my understanding is a little weak.

Agile - yes did agile at previous co and current co too, agile is to do with the way you do things and scrum is how you do them?

Multithreading - yes, current co and previous co too.

IoC - have been looking at spring, and built a spring proof of concept with apache and single sign on (windows), ORM - yes used hibernate and nhibernate, AOP - no. MVC -yes, my app built with QML uses this heavily, current co uses it, previous did too, but MVC is a natural design pattern becoming even more apparent and used - all the new funky JS libraries work on this principle, i.e. rather than using JSP to do the heavy lifting and then JS to fill in the gaps, JS does all the heavy lifting on the client machine, that way the server is a just a bunch of web services, and the client can be a mobile website, a mobile app etc. So rather than designing for html first and then tacking on web services (like many many companies used to do), design for web services first!

Yes - do have experience of projects with many teams, that what CI (and now Continuous deployment), is there to help.

As a developer though I have realised for quite some time now; design patterns and IoC (mainly spring for me) are the skills that are important, the language doesn't matter. Which I've been trying to fill by reading the books and doing the examples. I did have a weakness that I'd never done any C/C++ but quickly fixed that with my mobile app which uses Qt/C++, QML & Javascript - I had to worry about the linked libraries, rpath set up, header file dependency etc, so it wasn't a trivial exercise.

Sorry rashm2k - I didn't mean to make you write a load of stuff.
I was just trying to get a feel for your experience - it's hard to realise what you know that you just take for granted that someone with less experience might have missed or just skimmed over.

I think 3/4 years isn't much at all, BUT if I took out all of the junk years my 9/10 would shrug down to 6/7. So if you haven't had any junk years then it's not so far off.
I'll read this proper later - gotta dash.

BTW, I don't have any dates next to educational institutions on my CV (i think there was a post earlier talking about it).

[Gym beast]

Hmmm. Very mixed thoughts reading through all this.


Firstly I don't begrudge any man the right to make DECENT money after a suitable period of earning his stripes (no offence to all my fellow non-military). A man goes through 3/4 years of slog, UNPAID, to prove his commitment. I myself didn't go to uni, but I think it ought to be worth a small premium. Then 4 years pulling down, what, £25k??


That said, 4 years, presumably all with the same company, doesn't fill me with confidence for a serious contract position. Sorry.


I'll disagree with one of the previous posters; it's one thing to apply for and take those low-paid (<£20) contracts, but quite another to see them through. Get 'em on your CV, skill up, save up, then ship the fck out to wealthier waters. This is a mercenary field, and those cheapo clients need to make allowances for higher churn rates.

[rashm2k]

No need to apologise SpontaneousOrder, it's good to hear people honest opinions. I'm more interested in your detailed response

Hmmm. Very mixed thoughts reading through all this.
....
Get 'em on your CV, skill up, save up, then ship the fck out to wealthier waters. This is a mercenary field, and those cheapo clients need to make allowances for higher churn rates.

It's definitely not 3-4 more like 4-5 years out of uni now.

I didn't start on 25k, started a few k higher and now (almost 4.5yrs later) I am more than double that (finance pays well)

I already have a well paying permie job and they definitely wanted me to stay. The reason for leaving was to do my own thing - contracting (I hope) is not going to be for the rest of my life; just a way of bringing money in so I can do my own thing. If I can't get a contract then I'm happy to stay at home and work on my own thing.

It's interesting that you perceive the rate made as some how relevant to future earnings.

....

Park the emotion and think about where you are and what you need to do to move on.

I think I would have to disagree (with some points), I don't think clients want just experience, they want the person too. The point I was trying to make with my side projects is that this is what I like doing, sure you can get someone else in with more experience, however that doesn't mean they are better.

Fortunately I don't have the ability to just remember stuff, I need to understand stuff, so when I say I know something I really do, just need to get this across to the agent and the client.

[Manz]

It's definitely not 3-4 more like 4-5 years out of uni now.

I have less experience than you in my field and I'm not a coder. My first ever job out of uni was my current contract and its with a top company.
When an agent calls me back they usually say my CV is impressive, and "oh 9 renewals, they must like you" but I don't think the client's like my experience level. Do you think I should go permie for a while or just keep looking for contracts, albeit at junior roles?

[flipFlop]

I'm not totally new to contracting, i'm doing it for 4 years now.
I've spent these 4 years at only one company.

Come again? You've been "contracting" for only four years and those same four years were "at only one company"?

You've got to 'ave a laugh.

[flipFlop]

The Market For Lemons

Generally I'm able to hold my own even against programmers with lots of experience

This sums up the tragedy that is the current state of our industry.

[northernladuk]

I have less experience than you in my field and I'm not a coder. My first ever job out of uni was my current contract and its with a top company.
When an agent calls me back they usually say my CV is impressive, and "oh 9 renewals, they must like you" but I don't think the client's like my experience level. Do you think I should go permie for a while or just keep looking for contracts, albeit at junior roles?

Permie.

[rashm2k]

Do you think a java certification would be enough to at least get me to the interview?

[eek]

Do you think a java certification would be enough to at least get me to the interview?

nope. Paper certificates aren't worth the electrical atoms they nowadays are written on...

[MyUserName]

Do you think a java certification would be enough to at least get me to the interview?

Doubt it tbh

Your lack of certifications is not the issue. It is either your lack of experience or your cv does not do a good enough job of showcasing you.