My Bench Time

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tim123 replied

27 January 2009, 21:05
Originally posted by Shimano105 View Post

I've got bugger all c# experience but I managed to blag my way into a c# gig - then I was turning down offers for c# work over Christmas. I'm also mainly financial services (but what does that matter if you're a techie - programming is programming, no?).

Is it more about selling yourself?

Are you talking to me?

I'm sure that I could "sell" myself if I can get the agents to put me forward, but I can't!

tim
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Shimano105 replied

27 January 2009, 19:49
I've got bugger all c# experience but I managed to blag my way into a c# gig - then I was turning down offers for c# work over Christmas. I'm also mainly financial services (but what does that matter if you're a techie - programming is programming, no?).

Is it more about selling yourself?
Leave a comment:
tim123 replied

27 January 2009, 12:40
Originally posted by norrahe View Post

WHS

you may have to consider a hell of a cut in your rate to get into another industry

I've been telling agents that I'm prepared to do this, for years, (even to the extent of cutting it to zero for a trial)

None of them are the slightest bit interested in trying. Spending 2 minutes looking for the round peg, to fit into the round hole and then moving on to try to fill the next round hole is the MO that (they think) gives them the best return for their effort.

tim

Last edited by tim123; 27 January 2009, 13:15.
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norrahe replied

26 January 2009, 15:11
Originally posted by spud View Post

Seems your problem, and indeed mine, is the 'mainly worked in finance' bit.

20+ years in insurance, even as a contractor, isn't get me many interviews these days, so diversification of industries is the key rather than digging the very deep well of technical expertise.

just my 2 cents worth...

WHS

you may have to consider a hell of a cut in your rate to get into another industry
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spud replied

26 January 2009, 15:00
Seems your problem, and indeed mine, is the 'mainly worked in finance' bit.

20+ years in insurance, even as a contractor, isn't get me many interviews these days, so diversification of industries is the key rather than digging the very deep well of technical expertise.

just my 2 cents worth...
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d000hg replied

26 January 2009, 14:34
Originally posted by Sid Lines View Post

I have finished a contract in Nov and have not had any luck finding my next contract gig.

I am a .NET/C# Developer with 6 yrs exp, ASP.NET, winforms, WCF, T-SQL ... usual stuff ... mainly worked in finance.

Since I may be on the bench for a few months, what new skills are worth learning??
(been considering maybe WPF, ASP MVC, Silverlight, iPhone ...)

Any suggestions appreciated ...

I reckon Silverlight could be big if MS continue to aggressively push it. iPhone certainly has lots of people making stuff, but probably smaller companies with smaller budgets.
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pmeswani replied

26 January 2009, 11:57
Originally posted by FSM with Cheddar View Post

personally I don't see why we can't do everything with excel and macros

That's discrimination... what's wrong with Word Macros or even Access flat-file tables?
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FSM with Cheddar replied

26 January 2009, 11:18
personally I don't see why we can't do everything with excel and macros
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pmeswani replied

26 January 2009, 11:01
Originally posted by Archangel View Post

Cobol, CICS, Db2 is the future.

I thought the future was QBasic.
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Archangel replied

26 January 2009, 10:55
Cobol, CICS, Db2 is the future.
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FSM with Cheddar replied

26 January 2009, 10:36
I maybe completely wrong on this one, but I reckon F# is going to be very lucrative in a few years time. It's not a skill set that many people will have, but the finance and power industries will be crying out for it. These industries are also the sort that will prefer to bring in contractors, than permies.

Probably a few years away though.
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Sid Lines started a topic My Bench Time

26 January 2009, 00:06
My Bench Time

I have finished a contract in Nov and have not had any luck finding my next contract gig.

I am a .NET/C# Developer with 6 yrs exp, ASP.NET, winforms, WCF, T-SQL ... usual stuff ... mainly worked in finance.

Since I may be on the bench for a few months, what new skills are worth learning??
(been considering maybe WPF, ASP MVC, Silverlight, iPhone ...)

Any suggestions appreciated ...
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