which microsoft skill is hot now?

[Ashwin2007]

In the current markety which skills get you contract quickly?

[Cowboy Bob]

If you've not got any skills other than Microsoft, then probably none of the above. To get a contract quickly you need to stand out from the crowd, which means getting some non-Microsoft skills on to your CV as well - Unix, Linux, Oracle, DB2, etc etc

There are many more mixed technology companies out there than there are ones that are 100% Microsoft. For example, I was hiring recently for my current client and they have a whole bunch of AS400s. I wasn't bothered about the lack of AS400 on the CV, but I wanted to see experience with other systems than Microsoft. Any CV that was 100% Microsoft went straight in the bin.

[daviejones]

No Win95 option?

[d000hg]

No VB6 option, I thought there were still a gazillion VB6 apps out there even in big companies.

[QwertyBerty]

Web development's my game so ASP.NET, SQL Server, HTML, Javascript. VB.NET or C#, doesn't matter. Knowing some web services and AJAX/Atlas helps.

QB.

[dang65]

I'd say Sharepoint, going by the endless ads I get sent just because I mention it once on my CV. I should remove it, because I only did a bit of customising on an intranet Sharepoint site and all the contract jobs require "Webparts" expertise and all that. Hideous application, adding layers of irritation to any kind of straightforward web development. I'd want an extra amount added to the standard rate just to cover the cost of tranquilisers.

[VectraMan]

No VB6 option, I thought there were still a gazillion VB6 apps out there even in big companies.

Still loads of C++/MFC apps out there too.

[BoredBloke]

Bugger - I've spent the last week learning the ins and outs of edlin

[Jaws]

I'd say Sharepoint, going by the endless ads I get sent just because I mention it once on my CV. I should remove it, because I only did a bit of customising on an intranet Sharepoint site and all the contract jobs require "Webparts" expertise and all that. Hideous application, adding layers of irritation to any kind of straightforward web development. I'd want an extra amount added to the standard rate just to cover the cost of tranquilisers.

I spent a week or so creating a couple of webparts for Sharepoint in this contract, I dont think it's worthy of mention on the CV for the same reasons. There is no way on this earth that I'd like to work extensively with that framework. That said, it was possible to almost completely abstract the sharepoint side of things when developing the parts and just work as per usual.

[lilelvis2000]

What? no MS Office choice. I do a lot of work with Excel and Access. I'm just learning the ropes on Sharepoint whilst I'm on the bench.
Like to get into SQL Server 2008 but lately I've been doing quite a bit of Oracle.

As for non MS- Does running two Linux machines in my office and managing to get a RAID, DNS cache, CUPS and SAMBA up on one. And Oracle, Alfresco (quite the bitch to install) and SAMBA on the other qualify?

How about changing the heat sink and all the fans in my PC to quieten it down?