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Reskilling as contractor

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    Reskilling as contractor

    I've a lot of experience programming language $a -- very popular in the early days of the web but now more out of favour -- there are still roles which I'm getting but its getting too boring, niche and legacy for my tastes. So I'm looking at moving into Java dev since I've done some at work, it's not hard and many of the java contractors I've met don't seem to particularly know much about it.

    So how do I actually make the break? In theory I'd rather reskill in my own time, reading books, writing open source and maybe taking the SJCP thing (even if it's a bit crap). But when I'm in contracts I come home tired and can't be arsed with reading about Spring or whatever. Should I take off three months and work on self training and just regard the lost income as training expense? Or just go for a bunch of (probably lower rate) contracts, or even shudder, permie and blag it?

    Anyone have any suggestions or war stories about reskilling?

    #2
    I managed to get paid to learn C# on a contract. It was because they had an urgent requirement for maintenance of their legacy C++ software, but a longer term development with C#. So a good angle is to find somebody who needs your current skills, but are moving in a different direction. It probably also helped that I was cheaper than any experienced C#'er.

    I can't see learning in your own time is really going to be enough to convince anyone, at least not for a contract.
    Will work inside IR35. Or for food.

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      #3
      Originally posted by VectraMan View Post
      I can't see learning in your own time is really going to be enough to convince anyone, at least not for a contract.
      As you sort of eluded to in your first paragraph, if you pick the right thing to learn, i.e. a complimentary skill to the one your normally contracted to do then it can pay off as you will end up using that new skill on the job.
      Coffee's for closers

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        #4
        Originally posted by VectraMan View Post
        I can't see learning in your own time is really going to be enough to convince anyone, at least not for a contract.
        The trick is to do your learning by building an online app that's of value to at least some people. Put it out there and you can point at it as a live site that you've worked on. If it isn't a service that people want to pay for, you can probably get a few bob back from it in the long term with Google AdSense or similar.

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          #5
          Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
          Put it out there and you can point at it as a live site that you've worked on.
          I once did that when I was between contracts as a way of moving from 'classic' ASP to ASP.Net.

          Technically my CV is correct in that the site was real and I built it for the company mentioned. All I failed to mention was that I owned the company!

          Probably only worked as I had two Ltd companies at the time (long story) so was able to put that one on my CV while contracting through the newer one. Though the totally honest approach of "I did this during my time on the bench" may have been just as successful.
          Feist - 1234. One camera, one take, no editing. Superb. How they did it
          Feist - I Feel It All
          Feist - The Bad In Each Other (Later With Jools Holland)

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            #6
            Originally posted by gruntling View Post
            I've a lot of experience programming language $a -- very popular in the early days of the web but now more out of favour -- there are still roles which I'm getting but its getting too boring, niche and legacy for my tastes. So I'm looking at moving into Java dev since I've done some at work, it's not hard and many of the java contractors I've met don't seem to particularly know much about it.

            So how do I actually make the break? In theory I'd rather reskill in my own time, reading books, writing open source and maybe taking the SJCP thing (even if it's a bit crap). But when I'm in contracts I come home tired and can't be arsed with reading about Spring or whatever. Should I take off three months and work on self training and just regard the lost income as training expense? Or just go for a bunch of (probably lower rate) contracts, or even shudder, permie and blag it?

            Anyone have any suggestions or war stories about reskilling?
            I would never voluntarily take 3 months off especially in this economic climate. If you want to switch then I think evenings / weekends is the best approach. If you have already learnt several programming languages then it shouldn't take 3 months to get to blagging standard

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