wooUK

I was also in a similar position as you as a valued lead dev with 15 years of experience working in a company that didn’t want to embrace newer technologies (stuck on WebForms, not moving to MVC, etc). I was not interested in progressing into middle management and had hit the ceiling with regards pay so I became a contractor. I taught myself MVC got an initial bum-on-a-seat noddy contract which was doing MVC CRUD screens for 3 months. Then for the next contract I combined my wealth of experience with my new found proven MVC credentials and got a lovely MVC contract at a senior level earning much more than I have ever earned before. Contracting is not for everyone but I’ve been doing it for 5 years now and still consider it one of my better career moves.

I've just rolled out a service using TopShelf having not used it previously. It really does simplify things. The best bit for me is being able to just hit F5 and having the thing run as a console application. No need to manually attach to processes for debugging.

I'm a developer who has worked in law firms for over 10 years. There is an interesting overlapping career for legal/IT literate people - the Business Analyst. A good Business Analyst can analyze legal processes and recommend suitable IT solutions to help automate/streamline the legal workflow. One of the biggest problems law firms face is the disconnect between lawyers and technology. Anyone who can understand both will find a rewarding career in a Business Analyst position.

I've used .NET from the start and since 3.5/4.0 its just ramped up. Feels like every day there is a new acronym to master!

ASP.NET MVC 4.0 projects now include knockout.js by default. So that may be around for a while if only to support .NET devs who are just using out-of-the-box technologies.

My experience reflects yours. However of late I have had to crack open the source code for ASP.NET MVC & the Azure SDK. Not so much to correct a bug but to ensure functions that I am overriding follow a similar design pattern to the original.

I've never had the need to get into ASP.NET or the .NET framework itself but being able to get into components built on top of these lower level technologies has been very helpful.

I've been told that the newsagent next to the US embassy will keep your mobile in a safe for £10.

Ergo BBC reporters must use IE.

I've spent the past 10 years working in global corporate law firms as a software developer and have witnessed this change first hand. The legal profession is based around chargeable hours. This is not a good deal for the consumer of legal services. Billing by the hour does not encourage lawyers to work more efficiently or effectively, in fact it rewards the opposite. Recently larger clients have started to stand up to the legal firms and demand that work should be done on a fixed fee basis or a shared risk/reward basis. Suddenly lawyers are beginning to to act like business people and are looking at improving their own internal efficiencies now that their fees are capped. One example of this are lawyers trying to empathise more with their fixed fee clients' business strategy and point out legal pitfalls before they happen - wow a proactive lawyer! Observing how much money law firms are currently investing on improving their efficiencies then I think what we are witnessing is a shift to a new model and not just a blip.

I think spending some time in a big company after graduation is very worth while. Preferably not a software company. At least you'll learn the culture, the way they work, their problems. With this knowledge under your belt you will be in a better position to sell into these companies in the future.

You could run another HIT to get people to verify the submissions and reduce the error rate further.

I was an architect student now turned developer. The thought processes are very similar between the two disciplines however I personally find developing more rewarding.

In architecture you are considered a 'young' architect if you are in your fifties. That means you spend your best years designing underground drainage systems (that nobody will see) or garage extensions for pittance and long hours and minimal job security.