Where is the money at these days in computing?

Ev0 said:
This is invaluable if you do ever want to move on, it's helped me no end doing lots of things in that area rather than being 'stuck' doing just one highly specialist thing.

Definitely puts you in a very good position.
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i tried to push for diversity in my current role and they did not give me many opportunity to do so.
:(
 
A lot of roles won't, hence you have to move jobs to get the different experiences ;)

As I mentioned above have you looked at working within a consultancy as then you should work on a variety of projects with different clients over time?
 
Ev0 said:
A lot of roles won't, hence you have to move jobs to get the different experiences ;)

As I mentioned above have you looked at working within a consultancy as then you should work on a variety of projects with different clients over time?
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never tried. I can see why people go contracting as it gives them that flexibility to learn more and experience more projects
 
Most people I know go contracting because they want the money, not to learn and experience more.

The nature of a contractor is you should already 'know' the field you are being brought in for, you're a specialist resource brought in to get a specific job done.

A permy role at a consultancy could give you this learning experience, working on multiple projects for different clients, which should then help you get the experience in sectors that you want.
 
Ev0 said:
Most people I know go contracting because they want the money, not to learn and experience more.

The nature of a contractor is you should already 'know' the field you are being brought in for, you're a specialist resource brought in to get a specific job done.

A permy role at a consultancy could give you this learning experience, working on multiple projects for different clients, which should then help you get the experience in sectors that you want.
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I've been contracting for around 4.5 years now and, while I initially did it for the money (more accurately the ability to earn more while still remaining technical and not going down the management route) I've found that I've learnt a hell of a lot more since becoming a contractor than I did when I was permie.
My last permie job was actually working for a consultancy as well and I found that they would just shove you onto any arbitrary project just to keep you off the bench so I didn't learn a huge amount from doing that.

Since starting contracting I've been fortunate enough to work on some good projects with some excellent developers and I've learnt so much from that.
It's not for everyone, but I'm very happy having made that choice in my career and for the moment have no wish to go back to a permanent role.
 
Haircut said:
I've been contracting for around 4.5 years now and, while I initially did it for the money (more accurately the ability to earn more while still remaining technical and not going down the management route) I've found that I've learnt a hell of a lot more since becoming a contractor than I did when I was permie.
My last permie job was actually working for a consultancy as well and I found that they would just shove you onto any arbitrary project just to keep you off the bench so I didn't learn a huge amount from doing that.

Since starting contracting I've been fortunate enough to work on some good projects with some excellent developers and I've learnt so much from that.
It's not for everyone, but I'm very happy having made that choice in my career and for the moment have no wish to go back to a permanent role.
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Which just goes to show what's 'normal' for one person isn't for the next :)

Do you think the permie work helped you in your move to contractor, or could you have done it straight off?
 
Ev0 said:
Which just goes to show what's 'normal' for one person isn't for the next :)

Do you think the permie work helped you in your move to contractor, or could you have done it straight off?
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If you're asking whether I could have gone contracting straight out of uni then I would say the answer is definitely not.
I'm in software development anyone without a good few years of commercial experience would struggle massively in any normal contract.

I had just about 6 years of experience when I first went contracting and for me that was just about OK.
Still, when I look back to what I knew and how I worked back then I would say I've improved hugely over that time.
I'm not arrogant enough to assume that I now know all there is to know about development so hopefully I'll carry on improving as I go.

Obviously when working on complex systems you're not going to be able to know everything straight away, but you're expected to hit the ground running wherever you go and be productive pretty quickly.
Including permanent jobs, companies I worked at while at the consultancy and companies I've contracted at I've now worked at 8 different companies in a little over 10 years and certainly as a developer seeing how different people write code, approach things and generally think about problems has helped me massively in terms of being able to go somewhere, see a new project and start making an impact quickly.
 
Haircut said:
Including permanent jobs, companies I worked at while at the consultancy and companies I've contracted at I've now worked at 8 different companies in a little over 10 years and certainly as a developer seeing how different people write code, approach things and generally think about problems has helped me massively in terms of being able to go somewhere, see a new project and start making an impact quickly.
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I've found the same, all the experiences elsewhere always tend to help where ever you go next :)
 
Ev0 said:
I've found the same, all the experiences elsewhere always tend to help where ever you go next :)
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Yep, I'm of the opinion that every move is a good move - even if you end up somewhere terrible.
You'll always learn new things, and often you learn more from the bad projects.
Of course this may not apply quite so much to permanent jobs where it's a lot harder to quit after 6 months if it turns out to be really bad!
 
I work in paid-search and it pays very well (due to its high demand).

Graduates 25K
Account managers 30-40K (1-2 years experience)
Search managers 40K-60K (3 - 4 years)
Account director 50-70K (4 - 5 years)
Head of search 80K+ (6-7 years).
 
Citrix / VMWare / Integration with Users.

Currently contracting in this area and rate are not too bad. 300 - 500 depending on skills and contract.

Sys Admins, networking, SQL people are plentyful. Get into a specialist area and you will be fine, but you need to know your stuff.
 
triggerthat said:
I work in paid-search and it pays very well (due to its high demand).

Graduates 25K
Account managers 30-40K (1-2 years experience)
Search managers 40K-60K (3 - 4 years)
Account director 50-70K (4 - 5 years)
Head of search 80K+ (6-7 years).
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Do you work for a company that is named after a cut of meat?
 
I think I mentioned this earlier in this thread but within any technical role your salary tends to be capped until you move until management. Managers will always get paid more than their fixed staff they are supervising.

I definitely tend to move into the management side of software, but preferably with a research twist like CTO (chief technical officer) type role. Taking part in the design of the software architecture and algorithms is interesting, anything to do with actual development it is really boring IMO.
 
Interesting reading through this thread. I hadn't seen it before so I have just spent a bit of time looking through.

I am going to be leaving college soon and I have got offers from universities to study Comp Science although I think I am now going to defer for a year. I am going to do some travelling and really look at where I want to go in life.

Who knows, I might find a job role I enjoy and has good career progression and I may never go to university!
 
Souleh said:
Course I have but im in no position to be contracting at 23..! Plenty of bluffers in this industry too that dont last long, both contracting and full time..
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Went contracting at 25...

I'd agree with HairCut that I've been lucky in the contracts I've had, learning a load, and also having the chance to really develop and do some interesting things that people say are impossible when you're contract.
I'm making my company pay for my PMP exam :P
 
D.P. said:
I think I mentioned this earlier in this thread but within any technical role your salary tends to be capped until you move until management. Managers will always get paid more than their fixed staff they are supervising.

I definitely tend to move into the management side of software, but preferably with a research twist like CTO (chief technical officer) type role. Taking part in the design of the software architecture and algorithms is interesting, anything to do with actual development it is really boring IMO.
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It's what I want to do, sort of anyway. To reach a much higher level, I'm going to get more experience of managing much bigger projects, more high level with a technical slant, and then move more towards strategy. I like a bit of management, it's more interesting to me than the tech stuff really, I do the tech stuff as I know I can earn well from it.
 
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