Marc Cudden, Senior .NET Engineer, DOB 1978

How many years have you been in IT?

9 years

Did you do a degree, if so, which type and where?

No degree, National Certificate Dundalk IT

What was your 1^st job in IT?

Intel, Programmer

Have you worked abroad and if so, where and for how long?

Holland 3 months,

Philippines 1 year approx

What was your biggest career break and why?

Intel, First job, Once you get your first job in IT and lasted a good length of time, it showed to other employers that you were able to work.

Describe your current role in brief.

Title Senior .Net Engineer

Industry, Banking Finance

Size of company, 1000+ employees

Size of team, 10+

Report to (title), Manager/Director of IT

Technologies / applications you use.

SQL Server, DB2, .Net, Remoting, CSLA, NHibernate, Reflection, XML, Encryption, COM Interop, COM+

Are you currently on Permanent or Contract status.

Permanent

Which do you prefer in general and why?

Contract, being permanent one can get stuck for too long doing the same project. It can get tedious and somewhat stale. Contracts can be more dynamic. I tend to work on projects at home on my own to keep my interest and also to keep up to date with newer technologies.

What trends do you see happening in the next 18 months - 3 years in your specific area of expertise.

Programming is still relatively new, not like construction, so there will be newer techniques developed in how to write better code, more efficient ways of programming. .Net will continue to evolve. Looking at MS’s roadmap Vista will be big (if it ever gets released). Biztalk will become big.

What advice would you give to grads / what would you have done differently if you could “reel back the years” career wise.

I would have got my degree; it may have given me more options. I don’t know if I am stuck at a crossroads as I am not sure what I’d like to do in the future.

Out of 10, are you happy in your choice of career in IT and if so why?

I’d say I’m about a 7. I love programming but I don’t particularly enjoy programming for some sectors (finance/banking/insurance). I’d like to work on much bigger projects, solutions, maybe for a software house. I’d also love to program graphics/digital entertainment.

What is your favourite top 1-2 technical resource websites ?

Codeproject.com

Google.ie (everyone hits google when they come across a problem they can’t solve)

What age would you like to retire from computing?

Possibly 50, I’d not like to be sitting in front of a computer programming at 50. If I can make enough money, I’d like to achieve other things with my life after that.

Do you feel you will hit a certain point where your salary could be capped?

Yes, unless you work on really big high profile projects. Companies only offer permanent staff the bare minimum to keep them. Once you become permanent they tend to ease on the increases in salary.

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