Reply to: Considering C# Contracting

[Ardesco]

Nobody is saying he is no good, what we are all saying is that he is unlikely to be belived.

The hard part is getting to interview stage, not shining in the interview.

[ChimpMaster]

I once knew a girl who did A-Levels.

[where did my id go?]

I think that unless you have a very niche skill you will find things difficult.

When interviewing you will hit a massive credibility issue. Not only your credibility as a 19 year old contractor with no quals but the credibility of whoever recruits you. He/she is taking a risk with their reputation in their organisation that they have no need to take.

[Stan]

The younger you are the more important qualifications are. When I was first getting jobs people cared about crappy gcse and A level certificates but at the experience and level I am at now I don't even need a degree.

I've worked with allsorts and will myself take experience over qualifications any day.

I have also found younger coders are happy to slap any old tulipe in that will compile just because they have reached the limits of their attention span.

[Ardesco]

Oh hell, ignore these guys. There's just a bunch of bitter twisted old men. You know ... contractors.

So yes, you won't fit in with this crowd, and it's going to be tough with people judging you by your age rather than abilities. (Come on guys, what the hell did you ever get from A-levels or degree?) If you can stick the ageism you can make it - but you'll need to go by contacts and personal recommendations rather than agencies and contracts.

If it helps any I work with a guy started off just like you. He does a full time contract at this tuliphole, and runs a hosting/coding business in his spare time. He'll be a millionaire by the time he's 35. It's a hard road (this guy hardly sleeps and it's affected his health), but you've always got the option of dropping out and hitting Uni for a degree and 'credibility' if you're not up to it. Good luck.

Because we are telling him what everybody else is going to assume.

You may notice that most of us have said we are not disputing your skills or experiance (seriously why bother lying unless you get a kick out of bigging yourself up on an anon forum). What we are saying is that hardly anybody in the industry will belive you. Big difference and yes it sucks but hey life's a bitch then you marry one and die...

[VectraMan]

I have no A levels.

And you do Java. Hmmm.

[Sockpuppet]

(Come on guys, what the hell did you ever get from A-levels or degree?)

A bucket load of sex.

[dang65]

There's a huge variety of businesses out there that all need developers - some for crusty old corporate intranets, some for yoof-targeted cool sites, and all sorts in between. You sound like you'll be happy with a rate which is pretty low for a .NET developer with 4 years experience. If what you say about your experience so far is true (and, as you say, there's little point in you making it up) then you should be snapped up. Not by a big corporate employer, no, but one of those places that reckon they've got a "young, dynamic and creative team", that sort of thing.

Do A-levels really make much difference? I can understand that they would for someone with nothing else at all on their CV. But you just sell yourself with what you've got, don't you. Word it right and they won't even think to look for the qualifications section.

[Cowboy Bob]

Yes, but somebody who didn't even get A-levels is not going to get taken seriously unless they have an awful lot of real commercial experience to make up for it

I have no A levels. Yet I have an MSc. That confuses the hell out of people...

[horza]

Oh hell, ignore these guys. There's just a bunch of bitter twisted old men. You know ... contractors.

So yes, you won't fit in with this crowd, and it's going to be tough with people judging you by your age rather than abilities. (Come on guys, what the hell did you ever get from A-levels or degree?) If you can stick the ageism you can make it - but you'll need to go by contacts and personal recommendations rather than agencies and contracts.

If it helps any I work with a guy started off just like you. He does a full time contract at this tuliphole, and runs a hosting/coding business in his spare time. He'll be a millionaire by the time he's 35. It's a hard road (this guy hardly sleeps and it's affected his health), but you've always got the option of dropping out and hitting Uni for a degree and 'credibility' if you're not up to it. Good luck.

[VectraMan]

Have to agree with cowboy. A degree is not a requirement. Experience is the kicker for any contract. If you drop your age from your CV, you may well get a few interview slots.

Yes, but somebody who didn't even get A-levels is not going to get taken seriously unless they have an awful lot of real commercial experience to make up for it, and then any recruiter/agent/IT manager is going to be very sceptical. Also "my Dad got me my first job" doesn't look that great either.

Sorry to be negative. You may be better than all of us, but you have to be realistic about the way you'll stack up against the competition.

[Sockpuppet]

What? I am (with all the modesty that it demands) better than most logistics project managers out there. Why? Because I and understand the logistics market better than most other people becuase its what I have always done. I'm not a manufacturing person that is now in logistics becuase my own work has fecked off to china. Also being more numerate than god also helps.

[Joe Black]

Re: Considering C# Contracting

I think I'd agree with a lot of the comments here. Given that you're only 19 will be a major negative on getting decent work as few people will believe you have the experience. In this regard I don't think lack of O/A levels/, degree will matter. Simply most people will think you're just too young to have proper experience, and quite possibly see things like "my dad got me my first job" as suggesting that whatever experience you had was some sort of work experience, helping dad at the office sort of stuff.

It's possible of course that you're extremely brilliant etc and, like a mate of mine who did indeed start his first business at 16 and was a European manager for a well known games company not many years later, could do well. But in all honesty it will take a heck of a lot of selling of those skills if you don't want your CV to be chucked in the first 15 seconds.

However the last 3 years which is all post Uni is nothing but large, cv worthy projects. New national warehouses, international projects, large clients etc etc. Which gives me more "experience" than someone with 15 years in the same place doing the same job.

[Weltchy]

Have to agree with cowboy. A degree is not a requirement. Experience is the kicker for any contract. If you drop your age from your CV, you may well get a few interview slots.

However, Age Discrimination aside, you will have to be sh*t hot in an interview if you go against any normal contractor who will mostly likely have twice your experience if not more, both workwise and lifewise, will have sat through maybe 30+ interviews and so know how to walk the walk and talk the talk.

However, that said, if your confident in your ability and come across older than your age, go for it!!!!!

[Lockhouse]

At 19 you just don't have enough experience - and not just in IT.