Reply to: Oldie Newbie needs Skills advice

[petergriffin]

Bdpoop, with your experience in the trade the only reason I can think why you're not earning a decent income is because you might be perceived as a risk, somebody with more experience that can destabilize managers, recruiters, corporate whores.

I can see some similarities with my situation, although I am not in the mood of giving you any advice because lately I have taken many risks which are not paying off (yet).

[Bdpoop]

Almost all my work is via existing contacts and I have become pretty shameless at contacting people I know via LinkedIn when looking for my next contract. It's reasonably effective.

Good stuff. I suspect I am probably like many users and dont really push it like you do.

One of my biggest issues recently was that I was a nominated supplier for IT services to two national franchises with 600 outlets. Long story short but a lot went bust then the vast majority went independant overnight after a law suit and I suddenly had no real way of keeping in touch. Linkedin may be a good way to resurect these contacts.

[Old Greg]

Fully exploiting it? Probably not. I am on there and have a fair few endorsements, have connected with plenty of ex colleagues (some of which would have been best kept burried and not many fit birds sadly) but depsite keeping it updated Ive never had much more than the odd email catching up with people from my past.

Im not sure its all its cracked up to be either unless Im missing something.

Almost all my work is via existing contacts and I have become pretty shameless at contacting people I know via LinkedIn when looking for my next contract. It's reasonably effective.

[Bdpoop]

Bleedin' obvious advice, Bdpoop, but are you fully exploiting LinkedIn?

Fully exploiting it? Probably not. I am on there and have a fair few endorsements, have connected with plenty of ex colleagues (some of which would have been best kept burried and not many fit birds sadly) but depsite keeping it updated Ive never had much more than the odd email catching up with people from my past.

Im not sure its all its cracked up to be either unless Im missing something.

[northernladuk]

Bleedin' obvious advice, Bdpoop, but are you fully exploiting LinkedIn?

I am not sure how connecting to as many fit birds as you can will help him finding gigs. It didn't do a thing for me and I am starting to think LinkedIn doesn't work.

[Old Greg]

Cheers!

68000+ posts zeitghost! Blimey thats some posting, even in 9 years. Ill watch out for the Bags of Hammers!

Bleedin' obvious advice, Bdpoop, but are you fully exploiting LinkedIn?

[Bdpoop]

Ah.

So long as you realise the inmates are all as mad as a box of frogs, you'll be ok.

Mind out for the ones who are as mad as a bag of hammers though, you can't trust 'em at all.

Cheers!

68000+ posts zeitghost! Blimey thats some posting, even in 9 years. Ill watch out for the Bags of Hammers!

[Old Greg]

You're not that old either - you've only got four years on my daughter...

Actually you are spot on the median age for all PCG members, and I read somewhere that the average age of all contractors is in the mid-40s. That a direct result of it being a trade where experience counts. the fact that most of us on here have a mental age in the low teens can be misleading.

You're being unfair. We have en emotional age in the low teens.

[malvolio]

You're not that old either - you've only got four years on my daughter...

Actually you are spot on the median age for all PCG members, and I read somewhere that the average age of all contractors is in the mid-40s. That a direct result of it being a trade where experience counts. the fact that most of us on here have a mental age in the low teens can be misleading.

[lukemg]

Appreciate you don't really know what to do but some vague assessment that cloud based stuff is probably the future is not likely to help much.
People getting those jobs are the ones who have already implemented elsewhere.
Sounds like your networking is still valid, I would get accreditation in that is it CCNA or something ? Then you have experience + certs = better chances.
Regrettably, this does leave you doing what you already know but the thing about contracting is that this happens a lot until the clouds of tedium darken overhead with the only relief being the quantity of coin sloshing into your lap...

[Bdpoop]

Thanks very much for the replies. Yeah it was a bit lengthy and not very specific. Actually I have Microsoft certification in Bleeding raidiators so if thats all I need then where do I sign up?

Its a bit old though. I got it at the same time as when I did my Windows 95 Certified Idiot course and Novell 4.1 Admin course. I dont suppose much has changed though in Radiator technology but you may tell me otherwise.

To be honest I dont know if I want to go contracting and I certainly dont want to go back to a perminent job. IVe been on my own for 13 years now, made a shed load of cash pre recession and when all the well paid work dried up instead of looking for work I bought a huge motorhome and went touring Europe on and off for 4 years.

Im still ticking over but I think maybe some training in Cloud technologies, Google Apps, 365 and maybe hosted exchange might be the direction to go in.

Didnt think it would do any harm posting on here. You are all clearly crackers though so I might hang around a bit.

Cheers
BD

[alreadypacked]

You should also look on the job sites and see what is in demand, search for recent publications and see what is trending. You are out of touch, if you did some reading you would have some ideas and would not be so general.

Welcome to our world, things are moving so fast, you should be looking to upskill on every project. If you can't push yourself to keep learning new thing, you should go pack to permi land, the dark side is not for you.

HTH

[northernladuk]

....or simply follow these five steps (just make sure you're going in the right direction)....

I think admin should use this as the rep levels

[greenlake]

Saying that there are two courses that are essential if you want to become a contractor...

....or simply follow these five steps (just make sure you're going in the right direction)....

[northernladuk]

Saying that there are two courses that are essential if you want to become a contractor...

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