Hi

[PeteD]

Hi everyone, I'm new here. I'm looking at training/certification as a way back into a software job after redundancy.

I spent 10 years since leaving university working for a certain small telecoms equipment company that er.. without being too harsh, seemed to occupy its own little world from the start, and nothing much really changed all the time I was there.

Perhaps unsuprisingly I'm finding it a bit hard to find a job, which is where some training might come in, in modern skills. I was going to go with a provider because at least some of them give you work experience, but not cheap... and theres some interesting opinions here on these companies.

Well, I guess I'll post with some questions soon!

[greenbrucelee]

Hi Welcome

If you have cash to throw away go with a provider, if you don't look at your local coolege or self study.

[jk2447]

Hi Pete, welcome to Cert Forums. All my certs are through self study so can't be bad, Jim

[wagnerk]

Hi & welcome to CF

-Ken

[Notes_Bloke]

Hi & welcome to CF

NB

[dmarsh]

Originally Posted by PeteD

I spent 10 years since leaving university working for a certain small telecoms equipment company that er.. without being too harsh, seemed to occupy its own little world from the start, and nothing much really changed all the time I was there.

10 year exp and a degree, what on earth would you need a training provider for ?

You've already got work experience, why would you pay a TP for that ?

If someone with 10 years experience needs to pay for a job we'd all be better off doing dishes... a job is where they pay you no ?

[PeteD]

Thanks for your replies and I know what it looks like, but:

Lots of people have degrees.

Experience of ancient languages like C (for everything, I'm not talking device drivers), and bizarre ones this company made themselves for the hardware they made themselves, is not going to cut it in a world where people want and expect you to already know about servers, C#, .net, UML etc... I've even been learning these at home for about 2 years but its not "commercial" so who cares?

I know, I been getting absolutely nowhere for about 10 weeks...

[dmarsh]

UML came out in 1995, what you been doing for the last 14 years man !

Not everyone has degrees, but yes I agree a lot of people do these days. My point is you are educated so you can self study.

Well most places stopped using C for everything ages ago, most at least started doing a mix of C/C++.

Thats one area where certs can help out, nothing to stop you taking a few certs self study.

10 weeks is nothing in this market, I wouldn't worry until you hit the six month mark.

seemed to occupy its own little world from the start, and nothing much really changed all the time I was there.

If you knew that why did you wait for redundancy, why not upskill earlier, why not actively manage your career ?

Redundancy is not nice, but unfortunately its a fact of life for the modern programmer. You really do need to save during the good times to prepare for the bad times.

If you have realtime embedded exp you shouldn't struggle to get a job, the wage might not be great, but you should be able to land a position.

Best of luck !

[PeteD]

Thanks DMarsh.

Well, I guess I was over-paid and under-skilled (or certainly very niche skills) so though I wanted I to leave I couldn't anyway after the first few years. And believe it or not, I overheard a conversation before I left that "nobody really uses UML". I notice its taught right from the start in the MS course materials...

I was trying to learn stuff at home and certainly have done to an extent but its fine line between doing this, people thinking you're a nerd, fitting it in with work and social life, and wondering what this "hobby" will actually bring you. I run a website for a cycling club, learning all that was actually quite useful... but I wasn't really aware of the possibility of certifications until quite recently. I suppose I now have the satisfaction in knowing I was right all along and I should have done it a whole load more .

And unfortunately I'm not sure writing mostly fairly normal C on an embedded/non-standard platform is really "embedded" enough although I am trying that route.

[dmarsh]

Well, I guess I was over-paid and under-skilled (or certainly very niche skills) so though I wanted I to leave I couldn't anyway after the first few years.

Well not too sure about your situation, but for embedded theres automation, automotive, telecoms/mobile phones, telecoms/CTI, as well as many non embedded applications that require realtime/multithreaded experience.

Depending on your experience you could do well, its all about selling yourself, pick your strengths not your weaknesses and sell yourself on them. Look at how you can build on your strengths and bolster your weaknesses.

And believe it or not, I overheard a conversation before I left that "nobody really uses UML". I notice its taught right from the start in the MS course materials...

Its a tool like any other, use it where it makes sense, most places in fact do not use it that much. A diagram paints a thousand words, doesn't mean it has to be a 100% UML compliant diagram to be useful or that I should use every form of UML diagram in my design.

You can pick up all the UML you are likely to need in a week by skimming Applying UML and Patterns or UML Distilled.

I was trying to learn stuff at home and certainly have done to an extent but its fine line between doing this, people thinking you're a nerd, fitting it in with work and social life, and wondering what this "hobby" will actually bring you. I run a website for a cycling club, learning all that was actually quite useful... but I wasn't really aware of the possibility of certifications until quite recently. I suppose I now have the satisfaction in knowing I was right all along and I should have done it a whole load more.

Unfortunately just keeping an IT job is a fulltime business, that includes doing all the nerdy stuff with most of your evenings and weekends. I've done this for 15 years now and recruiters still give me a hard time. I honestly do wonder if its worth it sometimes. Certs help but they are no more an answer than anything else, look at your degree, how much does that help ?

And unfortunately I'm not sure writing mostly fairly normal C on an embedded/non-standard platform is really "embedded" enough although I am trying that route.

I don't know your platform so its hard to say, its a very tough market at the moment and recruiters seem to be looking for 99% matches the last few years. You might just have to bite the bullet and take a pay cut to retrain.

I made the decision to get out of embedded 13 years ago because I had similar concerns, it seemed a little too niche, career progression seemed limited etc.