Career change advice - what would you advise?

[TheStoat]

Afternoon all,

Apologies for the longish post but as the title says I'm looking to change career. I've been an application consultant until now, basically learning, documenting, installing and training on a company's software suite but with technical aspects occasionally. I've been made redundant and found myself a 6 month contract so I'm doing ok for the moment. However I'd like to branch out into a specific field rather than being one of those dreaded 'all rounders' that employers seem to shy away from

Obviously some sort of training is in order and my interests in IT are of the programming / developing nature. I've previously dabbled in programming using Javascript, C++, VB (Access) and the like but nothing concrete I'd want to put front and centre on a CV. In the past I have also completed the two week Oracle course for administration, backup & recovery. This has led to a wide experience of RDMS' out there but again no formal qualifications and it was back in the days of Oracle 7

I'm leaning towards either an OCP or a Java qualification but I wondered what the PH experience of these fields was in terms of market demand? I'm already set up as a contractor so that's not a problem but I am already 35 with experience as a consultant rather than in development, thus far

So, thoughts? Questions? Advice? All received with open arms at the moment as this is potentially a big step and I'd like to get it right

Cheers,

Andy

[bogwoppit]

There are plenty of Java jobs out there, probably more in anything Microsoft-related though (and probably better paid). General consensus is that Java certifications are just like any other - crap in practice but a vague chance of getting your CV on someone's desk.

Obviously most employers want direct experience, and I have a feeling that what you have isn't going to cut it. At any rate, be prepared to start a few rungs down. Best thing for experience is to join an open source project - good for the CV and costs nothing except time.

All this said, I hear a lot of people who do other jobs in IT talk of their interest in development, despite not having a great deal of experience of it. Tinkering with code is not the same as development, in my experience, but I suppose there are plenty of poor devs out there so I'm probably being a bit harsh. Anyway, you need to make sure you're good at it and like it, so there's another reason to contribute to open source. You can probably find something you're actually interested in, too.

[digger_R]

I've been developing software for 8/9 years now - as the previous poster said do something that captivates you, I sincerely fail to see how development could, unless you find a project to capture your imagination.
On the plus side, it doesn't pay too badly if you have a niche skillset

Edited by digger_R on Tuesday 19th May 14:47

[TheStoat]

Thanks for the input so far guys

You're right of course, developing and tinkering are completely different. For me the whole thing started as tinkering and then became developing as the scope of the current requirements grew. I'm now writing new software to extend the functionality of an existing Access database and I have to say that the development of said functionality is growing on me. I really like creating new software and the Java approach is something that appeals to me because of its ethos. It's by no means certain that this is where I'll end up but after some homework I guess the opensource project contributions will be the acid test

Cheers chaps,

Andy