Originally Posted by GremlinSA
It may be a little off subject here but i think you may indeed learn a little from this..
I've been programming for atleast the last 25 years,. A programming Job has been my dream job for years. How ever here in South Africa, Programming Firms have been far and few inbetween, and only realy started in the last few years.
I've worked in several companies who's core Business had nothing to do with programming, however i was able to write several small to medium app's to assit them in managing there data more effectively, this essentially gave the the basic programming experience needed to be able to step into a programmers position with a Level of experience, and not just raw knowledge.
I've just returned from a Job interview for a VB6 /.Net Desktop developer position, that is a urgent placement.. And so far i'm the only one with the Exact Correct Experiance and qualifications...
I've even run my own company for 9 years doing programming and data processing, and trust me.. It's always better to have a BOSS to worry about the salary's, than trying to ensure you yourself can pay others.. There have been times when the work for the month was minimal, and barely enough to cover salary's of the staff that I employed..
Also when running your own company the market and business strategies change over time and where some projects were previously outsourced, companies try to complete in house. And this is where you start to loose... And trying to divercify in order to combat this negative effect, leaves you too thinned out to effectivly manage everything and can cause extra expences in employing others to manage everything properly..
Take the Job's you can get... Pick up the Experiance, Learn how the Market is running, what strategies company's are using, and when you see a gap in the market, make sure you have enough savings to live for at least the first 6 months, as this is how long it can take for a new company to start showing any profit.. Sometimes even longer...
It took me 9 months to get my company to show in the green.. and when the market changed, it took 3 months and I was left with such a small client base that I barely showed any profit...
It never hurts to be too causious, but it can be painfull to jump in with out a second thought...
Gremmy....