IT/Web developer career advice - career change

[esvcg]

Edited by esvcg on Tuesday 10th December 23:38

[jammy_basturd]

Seems like you're ready to set up by yourself. Gives you the opportunity to work where you want, when you want, on projects you choose. You can choose how much you project manage and code yourself.

It's not all roses, but at least when things go tits up it's generally down to your own mistakes (whether that be directly, or poor management of other people, or poor requirements gathering, etc). And when things go well you reap all the rewards!

[Carl_Docklands]

You could get a job in a big multinational IT Vendor as an account manager/business dev manager/product manager. Decent pay and get sent all over the world.

Knowing how the nuts and bolts work is a big bonus and will make you far better at your job than others who came in through sales or other non-technical routes.

Getting into that sort of position is fairly straightforward as their internal job board listings are vast but your entry point may be what you are best at right now. Don't consider what your next job is, consider what the job after that will be.

[sdyson31]

I am in a same situation like yours. I am working as a Senior .Net Developer and yes you are right you have to upgrade your skills after every few years.

Are you working as a senior developer?

You can move to consultancy but it requires a lot of traveling.

[Crafty_]

Get away from doing the monkey work - afraid to say thats what UI is.

Brush up on UML, design patterns etc and do more back end / architecture stuff. Its much more interesting than doing front end after front end..

[Du1point8]

sdyson31 said:

I am in a same situation like yours. I am working as a Senior .Net Developer and yes you are right you have to upgrade your skills after every few years.

Are you working as a senior developer?

You can move to consultancy but it requires a lot of traveling.

PM me I might know something you might be interested in.

(depends where you are based and if you like the idea)

[shouldbworking]

Similar circumstances - I found this a useful read on the subject

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2013/04/so-you-do...

[Accelebrate]

Carl_Docklands said:

You could get a job in a big multinational IT Vendor as an account manager/business dev manager/product manager. Decent pay and get sent all over the world.

That sounds like a good option if you're sick of programming. More travel, interaction with clients etc.

From a financial point of view specialising in something generally seems to be a good move, assuming there's enough demand for that something to keep you in work. There are far too many students/out of work designers/stay at home mothers doing bad PHP or front-end work for a pittance. I'd be cautious about setting up on my own doing such work unless I had contacts at some reasonably big clients to keep me away from taking bits and pieces from small agencies.