Building the War Chest before the leap?

[Hardgrafter]

WPF is the best current solution for developing desktop apps for the Windows desktop. There's plenty of WinForms still around so I think WPF will be alive for a while yet. Be interesting to see if Microsoft stick with xaml for windows 10. If so, the transition should be fairly straightforward.

You're right, there's not as many opportunities out there as ASP.NET or MVC but there's still enough. The learning curve with xaml is fairly steep so being an expert puts you in a smaller pool of devs chasing a smaller pool of jobs.

[eek]

Thanks for your input. I'm in West of England nr Bristol.

As I said 'A view to become a contractor when I feel I have the necessary experience/Skills' I am fully aware that I do not currently have the experience. I am shooting for 4-5 years at 2 or 3 different firms as a minimum.

My skills and area of specialism are in WPF- Windows desktop development. The contract market is well paid and seemingly buoyant in London but mostly all in the FX Banking sector. Closer to home a bit more thin on the ground but still potentially viable.

Thanks

There is a reason why the market for WPF is banking in London. No one else uses it any more and so it's a very limited market

[malvolio]

Thanks. That's why I have realistic expectations of my experience level. When I feel I'm ready, I'll give it a shot.

Also I believe that with the resources at our finger tips now 'self taught' means being self motivated & motivated to learn from the correct resources rather than through trial & error sat thumbing a 'C# for Dummies' book. Services such as Pluralsight allow an individual to learn any given technology in depth with detailed instruction from greats of the industry. This combined with real world experience, blog reading, user group attending & structured learning can provide a better professional learning platform than any university degree.

OK, but does it also ensure you can write industrial strength code that, for example, pays decent attention to maintainability, BCP and Infocsec demands?

Writing the functional code is not the whole story these days, which is why BigCo exposure is important.

[Hardgrafter]

Who knows? But the guy that effectively wrote the old VME/B operating system, one of the most sophisticated ones out there before everything went open, was a doctor of classical Greek with no IT background at all. Come to that, I started as a microbiologist...

Contractors are hired on what they've done, remember, not what they can do.

Thanks. That's why I have realistic expectations of my experience level. When I feel I'm ready, I'll give it a shot.

Also I believe that with the resources at our finger tips now 'self taught' means being self motivated & motivated to learn from the correct resources rather than through trial & error sat thumbing a 'C# for Dummies' book. Services such as Pluralsight allow an individual to learn any given technology in depth with detailed instruction from greats of the industry. This combined with real world experience, blog reading, user group attending & structured learning can provide a better professional learning platform than any university degree.

[malvolio]

What is the point you're trying to make?

Who knows? But the guy that effectively wrote the old VME/B operating system, one of the most sophisticated ones out there before everything went open, was a doctor of classical Greek with no IT background at all. Come to that, I started as a microbiologist...

Contractors are hired on what they've done, remember, not what they can do.

[Hardgrafter]

You are 'self taught with unrelated degree' there are people in IT doing these roles.

Use their rates as a benchmark, approach your employer for a 'market rate' or be prepared to leave.

Although, my having to spell this out to you .....

Alright Pal, keep your hair on. Thanks for the advice.

As for being 'self taught', not sure that's necessarily a hindrance. If you have the motivation & ability to push on without having your hand held through 'uni' then I think it shows you have genuine interest & ability. There's no way I'd swap my 3 yrs experience on the job for a CS degree.

[Dallas]

You are 'self taught with unrelated degree' there are people in IT doing these roles.

Use their rates as a benchmark, approach your employer for a 'market rate' or be prepared to leave.

Although, my having to spell this out to you .....

[Hardgrafter]

I have worked in finance, IT and middle office with people with degrees in aromatherapy, nutrition and biology, one with a 1 year IT conversion masters.

They were all shyte. How they got in I'll never know but it is possible.

What is the point you're trying to make?

[Hardgrafter]

Thanks for your input. I'm in West of England nr Bristol.

As I said 'A view to become a contractor when I feel I have the necessary experience/Skills' I am fully aware that I do not currently have the experience. I am shooting for 4-5 years at 2 or 3 different firms as a minimum.

My skills and area of specialism are in WPF- Windows desktop development. The contract market is well paid and seemingly buoyant in London but mostly all in the FX Banking sector. Closer to home a bit more thin on the ground but still potentially viable.

Thanks

[Dallas]

I have worked in finance, IT and middle office with people with degrees in aromatherapy, nutrition and biology, one with a 1 year IT conversion masters.

They were all shyte. How they got in I'll never know but it is possible.

[northernladuk]

Who knows. Small firms are a bit of a law unto themselves. Some owners can be as tight as a gnats chuff and be awful places to work, some value employees and reward them. It's hard to say.

Regarding contracting you are in a wish and a prayer. 3 years with one small company isn't going to impress anyone when there are experienced contractors out there in the bench. You are also supposed to be a specialist in your field. Not even knowing what you should be paid or what the market is like won't help your case one jot.

Get on the job boards and do a bit of research as only you know your circumstances. You haven't even told us what part of the country you are in let alone any other factors. Time to buck up and start digging.

[Hardgrafter]

Hi All,

I'm a self taught developer with just under 3 years experience. 32 yrs old, unrelated degree blah blah.

Sole developer at my work alongside my boss who is the DBA\PM. Small firm of 30 or so.

I was taken on at £27k as a junior, more for my potential & enthusiasm rather than skill set at the time. Since then I've improved somewhat for example have:

Written an entire SOA including WCF service, SQL server relational DB, WPF MVVM Client app, unit testing suite etc. on my own with little training or supervision other than self motivated learning from PluralSight etc.

Maintain all the code to SOLID standards, add new features, lead many of the design processes etc. I manage my own work, no micromanagement needed, good communicator etc.

My question is, I'm looking to start building a war chest with a view to becoming a contractor when I feel my skills/experience are up to par. Obviously on £27k this is a bit of a struggle especially with 65 mile commute every day.

Am I being underpaid or is this salary typical for someone with my level of experience?

As sole developer at my firm I have no basis for comparison. I want to approach them for a raise but unsure on what salary figure to proceed...