Originally posted by cojak
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First of all, welcome to CUK 
He's been here over 5 years!
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Do you actually know what you want to do and more importantly what you are capable of doing. I made a few bad decisions career wise and got fired for 2 jobs as i wasn't interested in them and it showed.
Went back to original career as a contractor as it was something i knew i was good at. A few bits of feedback was that my hiatus from the industry was a concern. Told agents i'd accept a low rate. A week later i had my first contract. 6 months to get me back in the game. This was extended and rate increase to market levels as well. Now my CV looks a lot better and hopefully jumping to another company (the company i did my grad training with). After this my 2 years out of the game will be lost amongst a lot of relevant experience.
It's not going to fall in your lap. Think about where you want to be and how to get there. You may hear of day rates of £600+ but selling yourself short will more likely result in some sort of gig which will pay the bills and get you a better rate in 6 months. You're a business now, you need to start thinking like one.
Your limited area is making you sound like a major troll by the way or completely oblivious to the real world of work.Leave a comment:
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Which is exactly why bob'ing can be such a failure.Originally posted by Ketchup View PostLeave a comment:
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It is the hard skills that get you a gig, the soft ones that get you extensions in my experience. I am good at what i do, but not phenomenal, I have been at numerous gigs where i have been offered extensions over better developers because i bring more to the office than being a code monkey.Leave a comment:
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First of all, welcome to CUK
Right, now down to work...
..so you thought that by simply wanting something, you would get it? Sadly this is not the case as you've found out. But at least you're now know the reality, that's the first step to managing realistic expectations.Originally posted by rocktronAMP View Post
(Oh, and what's with the #futuretech ref? I don't understand the context of that unless you mean 'futuretech', you ain't gonna trend here, anyway...)
Exactly - that's one of the reason to have contractors. So you should sell yourself as providing exactly what the customers want.Originally posted by rocktronAMP View Post
Ah right, so here is where we come to the nub of the problem.Originally posted by rocktronAMP View Post
You consider your skills as a load of bollux, you try to market yourself as an consultant when you clearly weren't and the client caught you out, because consultancy is more than knowing how to code.
You also treat your clients with contempt ('the brother'? I take it that the client was non-Caucasian..)
That's because you didn't market yourself realistically. You went too high and the client's didn't see it. Just market yourself as a straightforward coder, with the breadth of languages you'll probably be quite useful.Originally posted by rocktronAMP View Post
And I don't know where you live but you think that London Bridge of Victoria is a long commute?? I'd try looking at Manchester as well - we ARE talking contracting.
You have no career - you are a contractor now, you're only concern is bringing in the money.Originally posted by rocktronAMP View Post
So stop spending anymore and get rid of stuff you don't need (Sky subscription is the first thing I'd dump for example).
Next, be realistic regarding what you can deliver to the client, and change your attitude to them. Clients can smell contempt and don't like it.
With those changes, rewrite your CV (lose the consultant theme, bring in the solid coding contractor one), put it up in jobserve and monster and start using LinkedIn.
And with any luck you'll find a new contract by January.Leave a comment:
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That's a load of lying bullshiit that is...Originally posted by stek View PostLeave a comment:
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Got be a dedicated troll to sit and write all that...
This bit interests me..
Although not liking the feedback have you done anything about it. No smoke without fire and if everyone says it might be worth thinking about?After kicking tyres in October, basically, I am fed up with everyone telling me that I am rubbish developer, a tulip consultant and I am bad communicator, I am not client-facing enough, I am certainly worthy of being *not* a technical leader and I should be aspiring to be a manager, or being told that my years of experience mean absolutely nothing in comparison with new graduates appearing on the scene year on year.Leave a comment:
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Advice for Quickly Winning and Starting In Contracting After Permanent Hiatus
Hi All
I was last contracting in 2007 for a small financial services software house near Tower Hill in London, then I went to a British investment banking as a permanent employee. I got made redundant in 2010, year after the ill-fated merger(!), which the then government approved to save other British investment bank. I spent 10 months looking for another role, living off the compensation, and I though it would be great opportunity to find that #futuretech job that allowed to me the aspiring "ivory tower" lad, go to many tech conference, and just laud it up telling newbies how to set up their enterprise architecture. I thought I learn Haskell or Scala and get a banking job doing that. Unfortunately that great plan did not pan out, because I realised much to much chagrin that the majority banks, the people in their divisions, and departments; they wanted to just fix their current pain. They were not at all interested (yet) in the latest innovation. So I remarketed myself as Java expert, Spring, Hibernate, the usual Java EE bollox. Finally, just when I thought I would be jumping off Westminister Bridge in to the Thames, I ended up in a consultancy late last year 2011, and in September 2012, they kicked me out, because I was not up to mark of being a consultant whilst being on-site. I totally sucked for the being client-facing consultant, in my first time of doing, at least the director told me at the time, he said that I should concentrate on being a subject matter expert. Of course the brother was entitled to his opinion, which leads me to the present day...
After kicking tyres in October, basically, I am fed up with everyone telling me that I am rubbish developer, a tulip consultant and I am bad communicator, I am not client-facing enough, I am certainly worthy of being *not* a technical leader and I should be aspiring to be a manager, or being told that my years of experience mean absolutely nothing in comparison with new graduates appearing on the scene year on year.
I just want to develop software, program in Java, Spring, Hibernate or even Groovy or Scala and earn money, very soon. I, certainly, cannot afford to take another 10-12 months kicking around doing nothing. I really would like some kind on advice on getting a new contract in the London city area or central London. I am happy to commute to London Bridge or Victoria stations every day(!).
Although I have been working investment banking scence since 1999, I too have seen the misery of the recent UBS news. I know ******* well what that is like, because redundancy happening to me in 2001, 2010 and bloody again 2012. I have had enough of it. It sucks to flaming high heaven, and now what it is luck when the bastards (and b8tches) grind you down when the keycard no longer works and you are just standing there in the lift/reception area with the expressionless month #wtf #ffs. I wish I could avoid it forever from now onwards; I think my career has been unfortunately been blighted with being in the wrong company and the wrong time.
Seriously, I am not looking forward to Xmas 2012 at all, with no money coming in and without the surety of investment bank handing out compensation for months on end, I am very worried now. Thanks in advance for any advice that you may have me.
+Cheers+
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