Gambling on a year out to study

[Spacecadet]

Agree with BlasterBates here... a part time course will only need a few weeks of full time commitment per year and you can spend a few evenings each week studying.

[BlasterBates]

20K investment that's a lot of money and when you add lost earnings would be around 100 grand.

Part-time courses for example an MBA are much much cheaper, and of course as a contractor you don't necessarily have to work 40 hours a week, say reserve 4-5 hours for your studies, and after two years you'll have enough knowledge. You don't need to study at the weekend, I would say put aside 2 or 3 nights a week where you do 2 -3 hours 8-11 pm lolling in front of a television "half-listening" and then a few hours on a Sunday morning/afternoon after the hangover has subsided.

Then you may spend an hour on the train commuting so that would be 5 hours a week.

...and of course if you're doing assignments, that just requires thinking about the problem and what you're going to write, that's just thinking in a few spare moments at work, while your walking to the coffee machine. Then when you get home just write the assignment up.

You'd be amazed how much free time your brain has in a day to learn, the books don't need to be in front of you, just need to be thinking about it.

[Wanderer]

The third option is to take neither and embark on studying for 12-15 months to finish off qualifications that I've pursued for a while (sorry won't reveal details here) which would improve my reasonable expectations of permie salary + contractor rate to £55-£70k permie or £550- £800/day contractor, or at the very least would help me thrash any competition for a £400/day contract hopefully more locally.

I would say do it now while the market is down a bit. Why wait until the next boom time to take a year off? You would have to consider carefully how a year out studying would impact your career and CV. Would the qualification make up for the gap in your CV? How big is the gap going to be compared to your number of years work experience?

You sound pretty confident of your prospects though, so ahead and do what you want now before marriage/kids or whatever happens.

[GillsMan]

I find it very difficult to study and work as I'm tired when I get home, pursue my other interests, watch footie and generally enjoy getting drunk on weekends. This would mean it would take a few years to complete the qualifications rather than get done in a year. That means income lost as take longer to get the qualifications needed for the jobs with more pay.

Hearing about how graduates will soon be leaving uni with £32k+ debt for a bachelors degree... it seems my £20k investment would be cheap in comparison.

I'm not trying to set myself up as some kind of superman here, but I do most of that as well. I watch football (albeit not as much as last season) - my local club live, Goals on Sunday, zone in and out of Goals Gillette Soccer Saturday, etc, usually attend some sort of birthday party at the weekends, one or two nights a week out with old work colleagues (admittedly that's not every week, maybe two weeks in a month will be like that), etc.

You're right about degrees taking longer, although I am way ahead of where I'm supposed to be (course started 2 October (although I got materials earlier), first TMA due end of November, second due end of January - I've done first two already). It's self-paced so if you're a fast learner it's great. If you're not then maybe it's not such a great idea.

As I said, I'm also fitting in more industry qualifications. I should state that my IT skills are soft skills, so the IT qualifications I'm working towards are MOS, MCAS, MCP, TAP, etc, and my degree is Computing and Business, so I expect it's a lot tougher for people doing real qualifications that are actually properly techie, but the point is, you can fit a lot into the day, maintain a social and family life and all of the above if you put your mind to it.

Depends how determined you are really.

[northernladuk]

Hearing about how graduates will soon be leaving uni with £32k+ debt for a bachelors degree... it seems my £20k investment would be cheap in comparison.

Yet again, if you are going to plan anything please use realistic figures rather than best/worst case or numbers from thin air. Might be pedantic but can make a big difference to your plans and expectations.

[contractor79]

you'll end up more than likely going back in a job you've been doing before, but if your experience is relevant to the new field you might be able to get an expanded role and get a better rate.

yes that sounds good to me

[BlasterBates]

I doubt whether as a fresh graduate you'd walk into an £800 a day contract, you'd have to have a couple of years at least applying what you've learnt. My advice would be to do it part-time and as you get some knowledge get some experience at the same time. The other thing to remember is that a degree has more leverage when you're a youngster, i.e. will get your foot in the door at a top management consultancy or investment bank, that doesn't work as well for an experienced contractor, you'll end up more than likely going back in a job you've been doing before, but if your experience is relevant to the new field you might be able to get an expanded role and get a better rate.

[contractor79]

I find it very difficult to study and work as I'm tired when I get home, pursue my other interests, watch footie and generally enjoy getting drunk on weekends. This would mean it would take a few years to complete the qualifications rather than get done in a year. That means income lost as take longer to get the qualifications needed for the jobs with more pay.

Hearing about how graduates will soon be leaving uni with £32k+ debt for a bachelors degree... it seems my £20k investment would be cheap in comparison.

[GillsMan]

Can you not both study and work? If the commute time for the contract is 4 hours per day, can you travel by train and use the time to study? Qualifications are good, but I'd choose someone who's been working on a challenging project for the last 12 months over someone who'd been studying for the past year if I were a recruiter.

I have a full time contract, am studying for an OU degree (first two TMAs due shortly) and have two Microsoft exams booked for the next couple of months. I also have a wife and child (and even a semblance of a social life).

So in your position I think it's definitely possible to both study and work. I'd definitely be looking at the 12 month contract if I were you.

[northernladuk]

Depends on what the course but I think your expectations of output are a bit far fetched. No one course will give you rises like that, particularly not in the first few years. There are not many roles around at that rate let alone to new qualifiers.

Re-set you expectations to something like reality then sum it up again.

[achilles]

I think that taking a year out for study in the present climate is a good option. Cameron won't admit it but the UK is heading for double-dip recession in 2011 so it will be a very challenging year for the IT industry.

For IT contractors it might be worthwhile gaining more skills or working on their Plan Bs.

[DS23]

if you haven't worked for a year or more how come you haven't already qualified?

[cojak]

How can we have thoughts if we have no idea if your assumptions are correct?

Good luck on your MBA/ SAP certification/Bronze swimming certificate though, if you can afford to take the time out go for it.

[contractor79]

Not been working for a while but have a healthy warchest. Been offered things but not taken anything up, yet.

In this current market I have been offered a £35k permie job locally (rare things up north) however a recruiter is lining me up for a £400/day 12 month contract 2+ hours away.

Just worked out that permie job works out at probably less than £20/hr and after enjoying £50-65/hr for many years on long contracts this is just too psychologically damaging to contemplate when my CV is way better than when I previously worked for less than £20/hr.

The third option is to take neither and embark on studying for 12-15 months to finish off qualifications that I've pursued for a while (sorry won't reveal details here) which would improve my reasonable expectations of permie salary + contractor rate to £55-£70k permie or £550- £800/day contractor, or at the very least would help me thrash any competition for a £400/day contract hopefully more locally.

Another year out of work would cost my warchest £20,000. I've no wife and kids.

Thoughts?