I work as a contractor and that is kind of similar to what I do. If I have to use a new tech (an important one in the stack but not the main one) I will normally invest 5~10h of my time pre-anything in learning the basics of the stack.
Then if I get stuck at something I'll try to fix it first, then learn more about the stack to see if I'm missing something basic and finally ask for help. These go normally for free if it's because of my lack of knowlege; otherwise I'll charge for them ofc.
I've also found out it's quite important to explain this to whoever is hiring you. That way they don't feel cheated on (money) nor like you are slacking off and working only X hours instead of 2X per week.
PS, your comment sounded quite negative/exploiting, probably that's why the downvotes.
PS, your comment sounded quite negative/exploiting, probably that's why the downvotes.
How is that "exploitive"? When I'm contracting I always get paid 10 -30% more than I could get as an FTE all in - even if I include the cost of benefits, paid time off, the gap between employment, etc.
When they want me to work more than 40 hours a week, they pay me for more than 40 hours a week.
Companies don't hire contractors over FTEs as software developers to save money per hour worked. They hire them because they need to ramp up development fast and need the flexibility of reducing head count fast. The only difference between an FTE and a contractor in today's economy is that the company is honest about your expendability. As a contractor, you should charge a premium.
> "When I'm contracting I always get paid 10 -30% more"
From my experience (and quite a few people in a similar situation), as a foreign contractor I am making ~50% less money than FTE are making doing the exactly same job just because of the country I was born in.
I am not charging this learning time because I don't want/need to, but I would certainly not work with a company who would require me to do part of the job for free. However I am in a privileged situation where I can choose. Forcing an employee to do a not-in-the-contract learning for free is exploiting them (because they could have other needs to do in their own time, family, other jobs, etc). If they want to learn something on their own time that would improve their work that's great and definitely a plus, but not everyone can do that.
but I would certainly not work with a company who would require me to do part of the job for free.
If I'm hired as a React developer to implement a set of business requirements, they are hiring me to learn and implement the business requirements. They are not hiring me to learn React. If they hired me with the knowledge that I'm not a seasoned React developer, the expectation is that they will not be expecting me to charge them for my learning React as billable time. How is that unfair? My React skills increase my marketability and I'm investing in myself by learning it.
If a person is not willing to sacrifice to learn skills on their own time, software development is not the field they should be in.
I was replying for the situation that you mentioned of full time employees, with contracting I think we both agree.
> If a person is not willing to sacrifice to learn skills on their own time
That's what I mean exactly. They might not have free time! That's why you're supposed to work 40h/week and any extra is a plus, not a requirement. The same argument could be applied to any field, so should someone without free time just not work? That's why it's unfair to require that employees spend large chunks of their free time to learn how to do the company's job.
There are many companies that do care about their employees and let them learn during work time or even teach them themselves! I believe those are some of the best companies around the globe as well (;
Sure a company that is still writing software that is based on their tech stack would be more than willing to make sure that you know that. But what happens when the tech stack they are using becomes outdated?
Then if I get stuck at something I'll try to fix it first, then learn more about the stack to see if I'm missing something basic and finally ask for help. These go normally for free if it's because of my lack of knowlege; otherwise I'll charge for them ofc.
I've also found out it's quite important to explain this to whoever is hiring you. That way they don't feel cheated on (money) nor like you are slacking off and working only X hours instead of 2X per week.
PS, your comment sounded quite negative/exploiting, probably that's why the downvotes.