Updating skills

[twice_nightly]

Bejeezus, that was scary to read. Sounded like someone reading my own life back to me! I went contract the same year, in the same location, at the same rate. And then, like you, thought I'd "made it" by buying a BMW 318i. I paid extra for the four-spoke alloys and metallic black paint. Oh, and a decent stereo.



It didn't. I've stayed contract ever since.

But back on-topic...

I think you should update your skills by buying some books and maybe doing a course, if that's your sort of thing. I think you should look around for a permie job that is a 50/50 split managerial and technical. You've no idea how many PMs/BAs/Team Leads I work with who have found themselves in those roles because their technical skills got out-of-date and they couldn't compete direct with other people on the market. I work with a lot of clients who look for UK staff, with good communication skills, and some technical background to help them manage the offshore "bob teams". I think you stand a far better chance of landing a role like that than a direct support role.

Wow Nomadd..are you me? Sounds like you were a bit flasher than me back then, I couldn't afford the alloys only the radio! Good times though eh?

Thanks for the sound words of advice, has given me something to think about. Maybe I need to push the management experience more on my CV rather than the outdated technical experience. Appreciate your help and thanks again.

[SueEllen]

Clear now?

Cheers.

Better I do it now then ask in a few months what you were actually saying like some of the Bobs I've had the pleasure of being in contact with.

[nomadd]

AHHhhh..the good old days. You got your boss at your permie job to get 'computer weekly' for you and then spent your days scanning the job adverts in the back.

My first contract was in 1989, £25p/h in London...

I thought I'd made it back then, I bought a new BMW (paid extra to have the 318i badge taken off)...

Bejeezus, that was scary to read. Sounded like someone reading my own life back to me! I went contract the same year, in the same location, at the same rate. And then, like you, thought I'd "made it" by buying a BMW 318i. I paid extra for the four-spoke alloys and metallic black paint. Oh, and a decent stereo.

Where did it all go wrong..?

It didn't. I've stayed contract ever since.

But back on-topic...

I think you should update your skills by buying some books and maybe doing a course, if that's your sort of thing. I think you should look around for a permie job that is a 50/50 split managerial and technical. You've no idea how many PMs/BAs/Team Leads I work with who have found themselves in those roles because their technical skills got out-of-date and they couldn't compete direct with other people on the market. I work with a lot of clients who look for UK staff, with good communication skills, and some technical background to help them manage the offshore "bob teams". I think you stand a far better chance of landing a role like that than a direct support role.

[stek]

Could you write in English rather than abbreviations?

Thanks.

Sorry.

Sun = Sunday
Permie = Permanent
Sun = Sun Microsystems Inc. and see above

Sorry.

Inc. = Incorporated

Clear now?

[twice_nightly]

23 years ago I imagine you were not competing in a market saturated with cheap Bobs.

AHHhhh..the good old days. You got your boss at your permie job to get 'computer weekly' for you and then spent your days scanning the job adverts in the back.

My first contract was in 1989, £25p/h in London as a 'computer operator' on a DEC/VAX, work was hard, job involved checking the overnight backup had worked and then changing the tapes ready for the next backup, in between you had to listen out for the printer when the system crashed and then press 'b' to reboot it. No users, no call centres, no cheap bobs!

I thought I'd made it back then, I bought a new BMW (paid extra to have the 318i badge taken off) and like everyone else had a big fat filofax with all my agency contacts in..er well actually I just bought loads of useless pages such as tube maps to pad the filofax out and look successful.

Where did it all go wrong...your right, it would seem these days there is a lot of competition for fewer jobs, paying much less. Last week I saw a job that wanted you to provide your own laptop, phone, car etc etc and paid £8.00 an hour, I said who on earth would do that and my wife said..someone will, I suppose that is the trouble, someone will always do something cheaper these days.

Damn..you've made me want to go back to the eighties now like ashes to ashes and fire up my beemer.

[SueEllen]

Having been squeezed out by the cheap Bob's in my last contracting role, I can say with glee that in this currently temporary permie role - our Bob's are for the chop.

Just last Sun Evening we had a bit of an outage, and one of the call entries in Remedy (spit) was;

"Oracle (ie was Sun in this case) left site - could not understand the Bangalore Engineer over the phone..."

Result: one hour probable outage turned into seven hour outage...

The worm is turning...

But it will turn back after this turning - it's cyclic....

Could you write in English rather than abbreviations?

Thanks.

[stek]

23 years ago I imagine you were not competing in a market saturated with cheap Bobs.

Having been squeezed out by the cheap Bob's in my last contracting role, I can say with glee that in this currently temporary permie role - our Bob's are for the chop.

Just last Sun Evening we had a bit of an outage, and one of the call entries in Remedy (spit) was;

"Oracle (ie was Sun in this case) left site - could not understand the Bangalore Engineer over the phone..."

Result: one hour probable outage turned into seven hour outage...

The worm is turning...

But it will turn back after this turning - it's cyclic....

[moorfield]

23 years ago I imagine you were not competing in a market saturated with cheap Bobs.

[nomadd]

Long story but basically I worked in IT for 23 years before redundancy forced me to take a new path..which unfortunately didn't work out as planned, so here I am after a four year break wanting to return to IT and the joys of contracting!

I've contacted a few agencies and applied for loads of jobs on jobserve but so far have got nowhere. I've taken a look at my CV and decided maybe I need to update my skills as things have moved on since I've been away, for instance my MCSE is in NT 4.0 and I am also Prince2 qualified although my last 'big' project was the millenium one!

I'm looking for desktop support/rollout/deployment stuff, I was IT manager in my last IT role and have done some project management.

Can anyone suggest a course or recommend a training provider that would bring me up to date? Do you think if I took some training courses I'd be more likely to secure a contract?

Thanks for any help
Cheers.

Probably not. Lots of experienced contractors already around with those skills, both "on" and "off" shore.

I'd just take any role you can get your hands on, TBH. Experience is all that counts these days (well, for the most part.) Maybe go permie for a while.

There are a million training providers who will get your M$oft Certs back up to date. Although I prefer reading books and playing around with the software myself.

Wouldn't have thought going contracting in your situation was the best choice, TBH. Still, keep banging out the cv's, you might get lucky. I still think the permie option first would suit you better, though.

[twice_nightly]

Long story but basically I worked in IT for 23 years before redundancy forced me to take a new path..which unfortunately didn't work out as planned, so here I am after a four year break wanting to return to IT and the joys of contracting!

I've contacted a few agencies and applied for loads of jobs on jobserve but so far have got nowhere. I've taken a look at my CV and decided maybe I need to update my skills as things have moved on since I've been away, for instance my MCSE is in NT 4.0 and I am also Prince2 qualified although my last 'big' project was the millenium one!

I'm looking for desktop support/rollout/deployment stuff, I was IT manager in my last IT role and have done some project management.

Can anyone suggest a course or recommend a training provider that would bring me up to date? Do you think if I took some training courses I'd be more likely to secure a contract?

Thanks for any help
Cheers.