I have a bachelor degree and a master degree and i'm 25 and wanted to know what if any advice or links could anyone give me on contract software engineering work. Or any advice on the contracts and also what to except and what not to except. any advice is helpful.

 

I'd suggest getting some real world experience first. In the industrial controls world, few people care about how many degrees you have.

 

Unless you already have contacts, I wouldn't recommend starting out contracting on your own.

My recommendation would be to start with a contracting company to develop your contacts - and also learn the business side of contracting. Then once you feel comfortable that you have enough contacts to keep you busy - break out on your own.

You're still young and have plenty of time to break out on your own in 5-10years.

 

I suspect that's exactly what Anonymous is trying to get...

I mean, how are you going to get real world experience other than going out in the real world and getting paid to do real work?

Jiri

--
Jiri Baum <[email protected]> http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jirib
MAT LinuxPLC project --- http://mat.sf.net --- Machine Automation Tools

 

Hello;

Unless you have at least three years experience in the control field, it's not a good idea to go into direct contract work. You'll probably end up frustrating yourself and your customers. The reason is that most projects are so fast paced and involve either upgrades or retrofits that you need a reasonably good practical knowledge of what is out there already along with their limitations.
You also need a track record for most company to allow you close to their production and manufacturing equipment as a consultant.

An exception to this is if your work is limited to designing like say a controller; in which case classroom knowledge may be enough to get you started. I will suggest you look for work with a systems integration company that serves the manufacturing and or research industry... This will give you enough exposure within a few years to move on to consulting.

Walt Njuh
Akumeka