Is There Still A Contract Market For Programmers? 142
IjustWannaCode asks: "I've never done a programming contract job. I've done a few networking/Sys Admin jobs, but no programming jobs. How would one go about getting into the programming contract market, preferably telecommuting, while still keeping a hold on a solid job that may not quite fit? I have strong programming skills, a strong work ethic, the ability to work from home effectively, and a lot of programming experience. How does one make the plunge from standard full-time employment to contract work without losing one's shirt?"
Where are you based? (Score:1)
Go to an agency, apply for your jobs, let the contracting agency do all your contracts, chase up payments, do billing etc. You just collect the cash and do the work.
In Europe its a lot easier, in the US there are still plenty of agencies.
You get paid more, but more risk.
Yupe it is alive and well (Score:3)
have a bit of money set aside (Score:4)
it's not as easy to live paycheck to paycheck as it is on salary.
your best bet is to talk to the people you know and get a small gig you can do in the evenings for a contrating friend. introduce yourself to people, get visible, get your name around and if you do a good job the work will come in. this will give you an opportunity to find out if contracting is your thing. there are pluses and a great deal of minuses as well.
before you take the plunge, you should probably ask yourself why you want to be a contractor. it could be key to your success.
hit the dice.com boards and good luck.
Dice.com (Score:5)
Tell the recruiters in a cover letter exactly what you want: salary, commute limits, hour limits, interests, etc. This will cut down wasted time.
Never wait more than 5 minutes for an appointment/interview. Your time is valuable, don't let people waste it.
Dress well. I hate people that show up for an interview wearing something stupid...like a hat.
Ask for about 15%-50% more then you think you deserve. You can always bargain down. And worst, some stupid companies won't look at your resume unless you ask for stupid salary requirements.
Some tips from an Ex Contractor (Score:5)
How do I get a PERMANENT position? (Score:1)
Get tired of that, so take a permanent job in March, only to get laid off in December because they forgot to market the product that is supposed to pay your salary, spend a month job hunting and talking to recruiters before you even get to an interview...
Does anyone see a pattern here?
Mark Edwards [mailto]
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request
E-mail or signed? (Score:1)
I do have a question -- is an e-mail contract good enough? When my client wants something new, I e-mail him and tell him to reply to it with "accept" or so. Is that good enough or do you really need it signed and mailed?
reason (Score:1)
There were a couple that were genuinely helpful, but frankly, most are idiots.
Not flamebait. Truth.
Re:Work for a consulting company (Score:1)
Actually, doesn't that kind of company give you a contract that says you can't take your customers or others you meet through them and negociate contracts separate from them?
That was the case with the consulting company I worked for.
Re:Telecommuting == Work never ends (Score:1)
My client called at -- get this -- 10 PM on *NEW YEAR'S EVE*! As if I'm not out enjoying life at that time. I was watching a movie with family. I tried to hint that this wasn't a really good time to work stuff out, but he kept going on and "...just a minute... let me get tech support on the line..." even when I didn't need tech support. So I had to ask tech support a question I didn't need to ask them at about the most horrible time to ask it...
moderators -- why is that offtopic? (Score:2)
Work on other business ideas (Score:2)
Networking, networking, networking... (Score:2)
The jobs you are likely to get are either due to (a) being particularly experienced and capable doing something very specific or (b) networking.
If you can do (a), great. You're jobs will probably be fairly sporatic, since you'll have a small but very strong demand. Sometimes someone will really need you, sometimes no one will. But you can -- rightfully -- ask for a lot of money. They are skimming the cream of your experience.
But you probably can't or don't want to do (a). So you have to network. If you are talented and honest, then hopefully people will have noticed in your former jobs. Maybe some former employers could still use a hand doing some things, maybe people you've worked with have left and gone elsewhere. Other friends and family are also contacts. There's nothing wrong with using them.
If you have a contact, it doesn't have to be with someone in management. Anyone could potentially suggest you, and a small job can lead into further work. Don't be afraid to take a job because it's too small. But don't underprice yourself, it won't help you get employed. Portray success and competence, even if you are unsure about what you are doing. I'm really lousy at this, but I'm sure it must help.
A lot of computer-related stuff involves a lot of trust on the part of the employer. They might want something done, but they don't know how hard it is to do, or what is reasonable to expect. This is relatively unique in business -- usually the people higher up have some clue about what's going on lower down, but they simply can't do that with computers. They aren't going to trust you due to your resume, no matter how impressive. That's why personal relationships are so important.
I'd be very careful about doing work on a per-project rate. Hourly is much safer. I subcontracted hourly with someone who got a contract for a fixed amount to do a website. The client ended up being much more demanding and difficult than expected, and I don't think it was a good experience for her. If you are working hourly, difficult and demanding employers just mean more paying work, even if it is less satisfying.
Re:Social Networking (Score:2)
Agreed. If you're a Java programmer, join the local Java users group and participate. Ask on the mailing list how folks got started, and you'll probably get some leads towards working with other contracters.
(Of course, if you're a perl programmer, join the local PerlMongers group, etc.)
Contract Job Hunting (Score:2)
Contracting is not for the faint of heart. Most contract jobs are full-time and last for 6 to 9 months. The tools of the contracting trade are an excellent set of technical skills, good connections with recruiters and staffing firms, and utilizing websites like ours, dice.com and others.
I would suggest that you line up a contract job, give your current job your two weeks notice and take the plunge into contract work. The trick is to keep the contract jobs coming after your current contract job is up.
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In my experience... (Score:1)
Re:How? (Score:2)
Re:a few tips.. (Score:1)
Visit this page [home.net] for the example contract and additional information.
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."
Re:a few tips.. (Score:5)
I cannot stress how much I agree witht Lordrashmi. I am working on a project for my wife's former employer. I did not make them sign a contract (mistake 1) or fully describe the work to be completed on the project (mistake 2). I was stupid in thinking that the project would stay simple. In addition, my wife (an attorney) worked at this company and I was trying to enable her to stream line the tracking legal agreements in a database (the project).
The problems started when she left the company and the scope of the project increased about 500% -- after the accountants wanted their GAP reports tacked into the database.
I wanted to charge more money and they balked because I had given them a number for the original, simple project. We finally settled the amount of the increased project fee, but I ate a lot of hours and learned a hard lesson.
If you are contracting for someone you know - a friend or a spouse's company, do not let your personal relationship cloud your judgement. When push comes to shove and money has to change hands, friendly relationships can sour, so your best protection is to be honest and professional and do not ever accept contract programming without a contract!
The other piece of advice is to describe in great detail what you will deliver and put it in the contract. Then, when they want to add new stuff to the project (they always will want to do this), you will be forced to renegoitate the contract. This protects you and them because you can not do additional stuff they want because it is not in the contract. Alternatively, if you screw up and do not finish the project, they have a legal means to withhold the payment.
P.S. If you want an example contract, email me [mailto] and I will send you the one I use now.
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."
Books (Score:1)
An excellent book on this subject is Getting Started in Consulting [www1fatbraincom], by Alan Weiss [wwwsummitconsultingcom]© While not specifically targetted at the technology consulting arena, it covers many fundamentals that you'll need to work through; getting started without starving, how to keep work coming in, how to handle contracting with others, establishing billing practices, and making sure that you don't undervalue yourself ¥likely the biggest problem most people have©
Re:How? (Score:1)
No, it's a slogan.
Re:Get an Accountant (Score:1)
Find your niche (Score:2)
Whatever your niche is, the most important thing is to get your name around somehow.
You're getting ripped off. (Score:1)
I go through an agency. Their cut comes out to about 10%. Yes, I know for sure. Note that this is for a corp-to-corp arrangement (I pay my own payroll taxes, as a corporation). Even if you are a W-2 consultant, that's still too much. Payroll taxes amount to about 7%. Even after factoring in other miscellaneous expenses, for a W-2 gig the agency's cut shouldn't be more than 20%.
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How I made the plunge. (Score:4)
I just did it. Had a lawyer file the incorporation papers, then started sending out resumes, as a consultant. Note, however, that my situation is slightly different. I do not telecommute, I still report to "customer site".
This was almost six years ago. I consider that to be the best decision I have made in my life. Consulting dollars are much better, there's less stress... Well, not always, occasionally you do wind up working for some asswipe. But the thing is, as a consultant it's much easier to wave good-byte, and one benefit of being a contract consultant is that you can change jobs fairly frequently, and nobody is going to look at you strangely for hopping from one place to another, after a month or two at each place.
But that's an exception to the rule, and is usually the case only in the beginning. After a while, you do figure out that you have far more leverage than you did before. Just last month, I told some pinprick from Legal and Compliance at my current "client" that he can take what he wanted me to sign, and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. This is something that they wanted both employees and consultants to sign. The employees had no choice in the matter, in the end. But, since none of that was in my contract, I had no legal obligation to masturbate him.
Also, it didn't help his case that he initially claimed that it was a legal requirement, but I actually looked up the law on the web, and proved that it wasn't, but that's beside the point...
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Re:a few tips.. (Score:2)
The Idiot/Dummy series are decent start.
contracting = 2 x coding (Score:2)
you coding will only be half the time.
The other half is consumed by COMMUNICATION.
Get the proper specs and design.
Teach the the customer what you have done.
Promote yourself to the greater community.
Fix bugs.
Therefore, take your coding time estimate and
double it.
Re:Trust me on the sunsc^H^H^H^H^Hcontract thing.. (Score:1)
Trust me on the sunsc^H^H^H^H^Hcontract thing.. (Score:2)
Anyway, the contract programmer has to be the best deal I've had. I got burnt out of the salary position and am now making a very good living contracting out.
First off, use an agency. Until you get your name and contracting experience out they are your best bet. They know more people than you ever could.
Don't count on telecommuting until you have proven yourself to a company, in whatever way they want. Sometimes this sucks, othertimes it's quite easy.
Be fierce with your money, keep in mind that if you are going through an agency plan on them getting 30% of your pay for every hour of work you do (You make $70, they make $30 and bill the client $100 per hour). Make them work for you, not the other way around. Never let them forget that you are their client, and it's their responsibility to keep you happy as well as the corporate client. Make them pay you well, not what you think you are worth. You will get more.
Also, use the internet resources as much as possible. dice.com [dice.com] is my personal favorite, as well as most of the recruiters I know.
Don't ever expect overtime, if you do you will be disappointed. You will work 8 hours and only 8 hours, most people dont want to pay for your overtime work. Nor holidays, expect to be forced to take that day off without compensation -- while this is technically illegal under an agency (see FLSA actions for hourly employees) it is the common practice.
Definitely pursue the contracting thing, it's the best thing I ever did. While it may not be right for you, I wish you the best of luck.
Re:Dice.com (Score:1)
I've been known to wear conservative dresses
I've been known to wear slacks and collered shirts.
I've also been known to wear shirt and tie.
Consider what the company dress code is, look at what management is wearing, generally dressing as well or a bit better than management is good practice for the interview.
How I'm doing it. (Score:2)
Now, I'm working as a contract W-2 developer for a larger private consulting firm. The firm has the sales staff that finds me gigs and I negotiate my rate through them. About half of the developers connected to the regional office work from home.
The money is better than it was at the first place, but it would be better if I were doing the sales calls myself. However, I like the idea that I only have to program and I get the benefits package I would have had to get on my own.
Re:I don't recommend it... (Score:2)
Of course, everyone's mileage will vary, but my experience is that you are just as likely to find good/bad contractors as good/bad employees. The good people are always hard to find, and I don't know that the odds are better for one or the other... I've had to hire full-time programmers and I got thrown so many loser resumes it wasn't even funny...
It sounds like your company needs better screening. Shouldn't screening a contractor be just as thorough as hiring a full-time employee? I.e. look at personality fit, sense of honesty, references, etc. I don't mean to knock your recruiters, but it seems odd that you'd have so many bad experiences.
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It's almost all programming (Score:2)
My skills base includes networks, operating systems, and programming. I'm looking for contract work in networks and systems (together). Almost all the calls I get are for programmers (but I don't want to do programming for other people all day long). But it seems most of the contract work out there is programming.
Re:Work for a consulting company (Score:2)
It doesn't always work, but it's a great way to go is the circumstances are right.
Specifically, the 'others you meet through them' clause in your contract is unenforcable in Illinois and Wisc and I'm guessing nationwide.
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Work for a consulting company (Score:3)
Then if you decide you want to go it alone you will know lots of people in lots of places who know the level of work you are capable of.
Of course if you suck you may be better off not using this plan as word travels fast then too.
FWIW, I worked for consulting companies for six years and have been on my own for five. The contacts and reputation I build during the six has meant that I haven't had to go through a middle man or look for a job since. They come looking for me, and are dissapointed to constantly hear that I'm not available.
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Re:a few tips.. (Score:1)
Re:contract work is hard..... (Score:1)
Outsourcing providers (Score:1)
I almost signed up with them, myself (actually, I had already signed up, technically). They pay decently enough -- not as much as you might get as an independent contractor, but they'll keep you working steadily. The main reason I wound up *not* working for them was that they wanted me to do database programming, and I found a job locally doing full-time web development, which was my preference.
If you want a reasonable balance between doing the kind of work you want to do, and keeping a steady paycheck, you might want to check them out.
--
Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Barnes & Nobel (Score:2)
The first job offer was for contract programming in perl... a sweet gig, gave me some GREAT experience! The second job offer was to teach classes at a local Technical University on a part-time basis. And, the Third was to do web development for a local company. All three offers were solid, and I actually took two of them (not the teaching one, that's not much my style.)
There are also a number of things that you could do to get your name out there relatively cheaply:
get a website/domain dedicated just to your contract programming work
place an ad in the yellow pages under computer consulting
start going to local groups like: Java Users Group, Sertoma Club (don't know if that's local to this area or not, but it's a businessmens meeting), Chamber Of Commerce meetings (become a member of the CoC too!), etc...
put signs up on bulletin boards at the grocery store, post office, mall, etc.
talk to the local computer shops (not Best Buy or Circuit City for God's sake, we're talking the REAL computer shops) and you can use these guys to scope your competition too!
Learn more about business -- because regardless of how much you know about the technical matters, it won't mean shit if you cann't add value to your client's business processes.
...I do this quite a bit, so if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me!
-C
Here is a good website (Score:1)
Hope this helps
Contracting Jobs (Score:4)
As far as telecommuting goes, I haven't done that yet, but I have been someplaces that allow you to telecommute a few days out of the week. Just build up a resume, post it, and wait for the phone calls . . . I've also heard about a new place called www.justunixjobs.com which seems interesting . . .
This site is helpful as well: http://www.cehandbook.com/
Re:Dice.com (Score:1)
Only go for what you want/desire, don't "just settle" for specific position. I was lucky, a recruiter DID get a hold of my resume, but it resulted in a job that I -REALLY- like. Most folks aren't that lucky.
Re:Some tips from an Ex Contractor (Score:2)
Actually, Anderson Consulting is now called Accenture
Re:Use your social contacts...and find a lawyer (Score:3)
Some states (e.g. CA) prohibit ownership of IP which is done off-site and off-hours.
Actually, the California limitations regarding company ownership of IP is not as simple as that. It says,
The long and the short of it is that, if it is in any way related to the work you do for your employer, the employer may own it (even if you did it on your own time, at your own place).
As always, take glib generalizations of law with a grain of salt.
-Steve
Re:Yes there is, but heres a few tips (Score:1)
Shhhhhh. This appears to be legit as far as I understand the law, but it makes a hell of a loophole, doesn't it?
The insurance companies haven't caught on to this, nor has the government. Don't tell them!
There are more gradual ways (Score:2)
If at all possible, I encourage you to take up some contract work on the side, and not to quit your day job until you have enough in the way of clients to live on. Building up a client base takes time, and keeping your day job will let you learn about marketing yourself and managing a business without risking everything.
I also found Janet Ruhl's The Computer Consultant's Guide [amazon.com] pretty helpful; it's a little dated now, but still worth the dough.
Note that you are unlikely to find a lot of telecommuting work if you're just starting out. But once you've established a decent relationship with a company, they will consider arrangements that they would never do with a stranger.
Re:The Irony (Score:1)
Just my thoughts
--John
Re:I don't recommend it... (Score:1)
I've been programming since 1984. The first half of my career was spent as a loyal salaried employee. I worked for large, medium and small companies.
I became a contractor for 3 reasons...
1. During the late 80's and up to the mid 90's the common mantra was "People are our most important asset"... But those same companies had no problem business-process-reengineering those loyal people right out of a job. Companies demanded loyalty but offered little loyalty in return.
2. So your answer to #1 is...hey, it's just business. Fine. There has been a drastic shortage of competent programmer/analysts and a growing demand for them - especially as IS becomes strategic to business. So it's a matter of supply and demand. Your rules pal. Sounds to me like you are pissed that you went into management... and now the "workers" make twice as much as you do. Now if you have a big ego to feed - it can be tough getting by on writing code. No office, little respect, no corporate technical ladder. Me - I like to build things. I like to feel like I'm making a difference. Kissing my boss's butt and sitting in on endless and mostly meaningless meetings all day does not float my boat. Sure, I have to buy my OWN lunch most days. You take the good with the bad.
3. I love learning new things in my field. And I can and prefer to learn them all by myself (graduate school taught me how to do that.) One reason people (not just contractors) leave programming positions is because companies often stick you in a spot and leave you there because you are the only one who know how some system works. Management is not interested in moving you out because it opens up a risk for them. But in this business, staying in one spot for too long means that YOU run the risk of becoming technically obsolete. That's a risk they do not mind dealing with. Eventually, when that system is replaced, your position at the company is at risk. As a contractor, you are constantly moving into different assignments. Everyone expects you to contribute from day one. But this also provides you with a wonderful learning experience - both job related and in your expanding circle of technical associates. This rarely happens in most companies.
In comment to the person who started this thread, let me just say that contract programming is not easy. Companies that hire you (should) expect a lot. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of programmers and the large number of projects that have to be staffed, you are going to run into problem consultants. They are usually there because the project needs - say 5 people - and the project manager hired what she/he could get because of the tight schedule. Under these conditions, you do the best you can - but in the end, it's up to the project manager to seek advice and deal with it. Not yours. I suggest you take pride in your work, bill honestly, become a lifetime learner, marry someone with a good health plan, and put some of that booty away for your retirement.
try dice.com (Score:1)
Contracting successfully (Score:3)
I then put my resume on monster.com and computerjobs.com, and waited for calls. They came in a flood. (I am not programming, but doing systems architecture and administration, but there are certainly a lot of programming contracts out there as well.)
When the right call came in, I negotiated a rate and time period, then quit my job. Sadly, I did not get the actual contract until after I had quit, so the terms were not great. I have since built and periodically update an addenda document. Among other things, it states that notwithstanding any other provisions of this contract, I own certain intellectual property (which I list). Generally, it assigns usage rights to the customer for whatever I bring to them, and ownership of anything that I develop on time billable to the customer. In addition, it has a set of terms related to startup, termination, pay periods and lag time, non-compete terms (I refuse to sign non-competes that would limit my ability to do business in any way) and the like.
I have to use this (as a basis for negotiation) in virtually every contract negotiation that I am in. Some customers will not sign up to your minimal terms, and in general it is not worth the job in that case, because they are likely to either try and rip you off, or to be too beureaucratic to stand working for. (Keep at least three months worth of outlays in cash in the bank.)
Some customers will attempt to impose additional terms on you after the contract has started. In my addenda, additional terms not agreed on before the first day of actual billing to the customer are not binding, and termination of the contract on the basis on violation of such additional terms not agreed on prior to initiation of billing requires full payment of the remaining amount due on the contract, with assumptions about number of hours worked and the like. A customer who will not sign this will usually nonetheless sign something reasonable about adding binding terms after the initiation of the contract.
Over time, you will get to know people doing the same work you are, and informal networks of referrels develop. Eventually, this will become your primary means of getting jobs if you are any good.
-jeff
Re:If you are good, it pays, if not it still pays. (Score:1)
- Prepare for a 30, 60, or 90 day billing cycle. This means the work you did in January will result in a check sometime in March. Part of what an agency can give you is the regular pay. They absorb the cycle
- If you use an agency (W-2), expect them to keep 30% or more
Wise advice, most of it also applies to Europe, where I am a contractor (a dutch living in Switzerland). But the two points above I have a question about:If you work through an agency in the US, do you still have that 60 or even 90 day billing cycle?!? Here, if you go through an agency the agency pays you regularly (monthly) and they are responsible to see they get the money from the client (i.e. I am on their payroll). Every month I report my # of hours, and within 10 days I get the money transferred. That is what you pay your percentage to the agency for (among others).
30% for the agency, that is gross. I pay 25%, but that includes mandatory social security and pension, so effectively I pay about 10-15% to the agency. In Switzerland working via an agency is mandatory for foreigners b.t.w. since you can't have a business of your own the first 5-10 years.
I very much prefer to work via an agency anyways, since you have to hassle with tax, insurances (all usual pension and social security is arranged for), bookkeeping etc. Even if it costs up to 20%, I think it is worth it. I'm a software engineer/architect, not a bookkeeper!
This tradeoff may be very location dependent however, I could imagine that in the US it makes less sense to use an agency.
Re:contract work is hard..... (Score:1)
Paid sick days etc: In all countries I know you are (automatically, and obligatory) insured for sickness up to one year (that is, one year you can be sick) for 80-100% of your last income, after that you get into disability insurance.
So, maybe for the US contract work is not for people with a family, but for me (holland, switzerland) with a non-working wive and two small kids it is no problem and has absolutely no risks or drawbacks compared to a regular job.
Yes, of the rate the customer pays you pay 20% in social security (mandatory), but for that you get:
- sickness insurance
- pension plan
- disability insurance
- income insurance (if you get out of a job, or in between two jobs, you get 80% of last income for a while)
- accident insurance
- when the income insurance expires, there is a minimum allowance (for everyone, whether you have been insured or not) to stay alive, eat and have some place to live in.
If you don't work through an agency you can skip some of these, but it would be very unwise to do so.As an employee you pay only 10% (the other half is paidd for by the employer), so contrcting, while earning double or more, costs 10% extra, still leaving at minimum 90% increase without much risk.
I keep wondering why not most computer people here go contracting. The Swiss (and europeans in general) are very risk avoiding, that may be the cause. The thought of being out of work for a while and not being able to find something new (one must be very bad in these times not to find something) scares them so much.
One big drawback: as a contractor you don't make any management career internally in a company. If that is what you want, and you believe you can achieve that, it may be better to be patient. In the end when and if you become a high level manager, you'd earn more than as a contractor.
Re:Dice.com (Score:1)
some recruiters just send your resume and figure that they will worry about contacting you later, which may result in your resume being sent more then once and therefore being rejected outright...
erik
Re:If you are good, it pays, if not it still pays. (Score:1)
An agency worth working for should absorb the cycle. If not, find another one.
About the best you can hope for when using an agency in the US is an 80/20 split. The agency has to pay 10% tax, just to have you work. If the owner takes benefits they must be made available to the employees. This often forces the 30% split just so they can have their own retirement fund.
If you are in enough demand you do not have down time, forget the agency in the US. The taxes always work for a business owner. For example, as an employee your equipment is not deductable. As an ower, most expenses are.
The exception to this is H1-B holders who need the agency. It would be interesting to see what would happen if I hired you to work at my company from your location. H1-B does not matter, but I wonder how the taxes, etc. work.
If you are good, it pays, if not it still pays... (Score:5)
Here are some of my experiences:
If you cannot sell yourself you are in trouble. An agency will get you an interview, you will get yourself hired
If you depend on an agency to look for positions before you are on the street, you are kidding yourself. You need to know when your contract date is coming up and force the issue with the current contract or start looking for the next.
Most companies expect to pay more for you and will pay any hours you work. Bigger companies resist paying for overtime, even though they expect you to work it. If that is their deal, be prepared with an alternate rate.
Prepare for a 30, 60, or 90 day billing cycle. This means the work you did in January will result in a check sometime in March. Part of what an agency can give you is the regular pay. They absorb the cycle.
You are responsible for your own training and upkeep.
You are a guest. You have given up the right to complain, remark or criticize unless asked.
You are not an employee. Never forget it because employees do not. Many are great to work with. Many are repulsed by your presence. Why are you paid X more than they are for doing the same job? Forget the reasoning, stay out of it. And yes, someone will tell them how much your billable rate (regardless of the portion you get)
Take a task or do not. Do not complain, whine or describe to the world the pain and suffering you went through to complete the task.
Yes, they did hire someone who could not find their desk with a map and GPS, and they are paying them more. Get over it. You said you would work for X/hour, everyone else is not your problem
If you are paid by the hour, for all hours, I HIGHLY recommend taking on anything past to you at any time. Someone calls me at 8:00pm after I have been working all day...bring it on. You do not want to work yourself to death, but you want to be the person people know they can call anytime. You will be the last of the contractors to go.
Never talk money in the office. It like telling your wife how good your last girlfriend was.
You will need insurance. Join the Chamber of Commerce, etc. They offer a discount rate compared to what you can get on your own.
Build a nest egg first. If the economy tanks, contractors are the first to get booted. Know you will need to live for three months without income.
You will get booted. That is why you were hired, so they could let you go at some point. If you take that personally you will not last long
Finance your own retirement. It's a great deduction and you will not have many.
If you use an agency (W-2), expect them to keep 30% or more.
As your own agency, you lose an additional 10% minimum to taxes beyond what you pay as an employee
Finally, if you do not know the difference between a contractor and a consultant you are the former. Heads down coders are paid the least. Pick up your head and see the forest through the trees. Bring solutions to problems and pay attention to your bosses problems.
Re:Of course there's work (Score:1)
7. Have Savings Have at least 3 months' living expenses and bills saved up. You will have slow periods and the worst one is usually at the beginning.
-steve
Problems as a Student (Score:1)
I've personally had the problem of only being able to be hired on a contracting basis because I am a student. Companies don't like the idea that I wont be available full time and that I would eventually be leaving for college.
For a while when I didn't have any work I posted my resume on Brain Power [brainpower.com] and other sites like it and got a ton of response. It got to the point where it was sort of annoying. This route should be a good route to try.
Re:YOU are the problem.... (Score:1)
In any case to assume that I am a manager or want to be one is your fucking moronic assumption. I am the CTO of a company, I was forced into doing something I had little experience in. I was forced to deal with a Project Manager who was hired against my recommendations and thus I was doing something I couldn't possibly know how to do.
Again I was right out of school, and I guarantee you I am far better at YOUR job (coding) than you will ever be. I was forced to hire contractors by our VCs. Finding competent people of any sort on the market here in Boston 10 months ago was impossible for somebody with no industry connections. It's trivially easy now thanks to the economic downturn.
Anyway, my point is that nobody is worth 3 times what a full time person is worth. We only want the best full time people here, they work for fair compensation. Any shithead can hire bozos who work at market rates but accomplish nothing (and therefore are 1/5th as valuable as a good engineer).
In any case, the underlying premise is still true: that there are a greater proportion of moron contractors than moron full time workers was extremely true 10 months ago here in Boston. It may or may not be true now. Furthermore, it is obvious that people who invest themselves in their work and their projects will have better quality results than those who don't. And many contractors don't. And that's why contract code often == shit code even when the person is quite good.
Besides which your argument makes no fucking sense. Why would I be achieving such good results now with a full time team and before I had to do all the work myself with a contract team?
To each their own. But don't insult ME when I'm simply reporting the reality that I've observed and measured out there. Like I said, a lot of other people who've had to hire contractors before have had similar experiences. When I hire somebody at 100 dollars an hour, goddamnit, they ought not to need any fucking micromanagement or any of that shit and they better produce at 3 times the rate of an average developer. If they don't then they are a waste of fucking money, JUST like you and all your little friends really are, sir.
In short, your little contract worker-cronies have burned me and you can all go fucking rot in hell for all I care about your problems. I won't work with contract shitheads any more, period. And I can't wait to see all these fucking H1B contract agencies en masse deporting their workers back to India when there aren't enough contract gigs for them to pawn people off on anymore. God bless the economic downturn.
I don't recommend it... (Score:2)
Anyway, there will always be some big companies that don't care about bleeding money through their arses. But the first people to go in economic downturn are the biggest line items on engineering budgets. The contractors. A good quality full-time software engineer I will fight to the death to keep around, because they are extremely valuable assets to the company and our development effort. Other managers feel the same way.
Also, a MAJOR point that you MUST realize. A lot of us who do hiring at software firms will simply throw away the resumes of people who have been doing mostly contract work. Why? They have an ingrained salary expectations that are unreasonable. And they tend to have the attitude that they can bail as soon as they become disinterested or they are mildly displeased with something. These are not the people you want working on your team.
Anyway, just my opinion and the hiring practices I follow. That does not represent my company's official policy or anything like that. But there are a lot of others who share my experiences and my opinion. And while there are some great contractors out there, there are tons more who are highly incompetent opportunists. And the people doing contract work who are employed by low-end contract/consulting firms are even worse.
Re:I don't recommend it... (Score:2)
So in response again, I hired a PM who couldn't do his job and misrepresented his experience level because I had no experience. Within 2 months I learned what I needed to know, fired the guy and hired a full time person to the job extremely well.
And obviously, not all contract people are bad. In times of economic boom however there are a lot of opportunists and those opportunists go straight to where the most money is. There was a ton of it in doing contract work, and a lot less in doing full time work. Not to say full time people are all great. We get tons of resumes for bozos as full timers everyday. But I don't get annoying FUCKING AGENCIES pushing full time people down my throat day and night, while I still get that occasionally now (actually, I just refer them to other people in the company and don't deal with it myself).
The point of all this. Go fuck yourself if your going to insult me, I challenge you to accomplish a quarter of what I have in my life.
Re:Social Networking (Score:1)
Re:Dice.com (Score:1)
Re:If you are good, it pays, if not it still pays. (Score:1)
Build a nest egg first. If the economy tanks, contractors are the first to get booted.
My (UK) experience is rather different. Contractors never get "booted" -- the paperwork is too complicated (over here we nearly all work through agencies). You'll probably not get a contract renewal, no matter how things work out, but it's really exceptional for anyone to get pushed mid-way.
On the sorts of project (usually VB/SQL business apps) I used to work on, I'd get a 3 month initial contract. Rarely did this extend, because that type of job just shouldn't take any longer unless something is badly broken.
Know you will need to live for three months without income.
That's very important -- fortunately the contracting deal is that your rewards are pretty tangible (i.e. they all hate you, there's no pension, but you're paid twice what the others are) so getting the survival money together isn't too hard (but no BMW with your first cheque !).
My first contract ('92) was at a downturn in the contract market, when everyone was going back permie. I went contracting to a Big 4 bank, where many cow-orkers were ex-contractors, all telling me how important the job security and cheap mortgages were. I, OTOH, just waved wads of cash at them - that's my idea of security. 3 months later, my contract ended (exactly as I expected and had planned for) so I went on to the next one. A week after that, the bank closed that department and made most of the others redundant. Just shows how much this "job security" thing counts for.
Best things you could do (Score:1)
#2 Write a few sample applications. Make them freeware and include your postal address, voice number, e-mail, etc. Don't make it very complex, just a few simple applications and then in the documentation say you are available for contract work and can turn these applications into more complex programs.
#3 Work with Contracting Companies (turn a lemon into lemonade) by giving them your resume, and talk to them (meet them for lunch, etc) about your abilities and what you can do. Show some examples of your work (reference #2) and lay it on the line what you want to do (telecommute, programming, etc).
#4 Create a web page (tons of Free web service hosts, or if you have the cash pay for one) that lists your services, and create meta tags and submit it to the major search engines. List that you want to Telecommute and do Contract Programming work. Let the clients come to you. Set up voicemail with JFAX or another company to have a voicemail that gets e-mailed to your address so you can pick it up from anywhere.
A Good Web Site for Contractors is Realrates (Score:1)
Yes there is, but heres a few tips (Score:1)
If your contract, "be irreplaceable, they have to pay you more.'
Conversion $$$ between F/T Salary vs Contract:
*General rule to work by* There are 2000 hours in a year (pending how you calc).
If they pay you 100K a year thats about 50/hr. Forget all the VC/Sick etc, it varies on how you set things up anyway.
Different ways to get paid (from worst to best):
* W2 Salary (F/T employee or contract firm):
Everything is taken out of your taxes and your duductions are almost nil. You get health etc. Stock options (80% of the time its a joke).
* W2 Hourly:
Much like the above, your o.t. is paid at straight time. Opt in for buying your benefits. Still screwed on taxes.
* 1099 :
Gets better now on the taxes. You have to buy your health ins. outright. [Tip: If you leave a W2 gig where you have health, get COBRA to cover you 18 months beyond. Grab another W2 gig for 31 days, quite and repeat COBRA]
* Corp 2 Corp :
Best on taxes and liability. Much like 1099, they sue your company - not you (sorta). You make yourself a W2 salary emp. of the company.
Consulting Firms : (aka 'Pimps') .25 with you even though they are making 40/hr. They make your think they are making nothing. The tricks they use are *much* too long to post here (sorry).
They will screw you long and HARD (You are their 'high tech crack whore' and they send you to different 'Johns'. Watch out! Fight tough with them, they will barter over a
Working direct (Corp 2 Corp):
You have to (almost) always get on a the approved vendors list of the company you wish to work for. Sometimes easy, sometimes not. This is what the consulting firms do and then bring us in by the dozens. You can do it yourself it just takes a little work. You can also do a corp to corp to the consulting firm, you get all the benefits (of C2C) and SCREWED to as they take a chunk out. scot
Re:a few tips.. (Score:2)
`ø,,ø!
Methods (Score:1)
Re:There are more gradual ways (Score:2)
Rich
Consulting Hall of Shame - Be Warned (Score:1)
Here's a taste of what unwaits the unwary:
Bait and Switch
* Offered a contract 'in Hawaii', paying $60/hr with free local housing, transportation, and monthly trips home to the mainland (extremely attractive terms, don't you think, considering the desirable location?). Recruiter 'needed to check' which city the contract was in. I submitted my resume', and never heard from them again about this or any other contract (1 year now). This may have been a new start-up's way of building a resume' data base.
* This firm also advertises signing bonuses but never pays them as well as exobortant salaries that it never delivers.
* Agent promised interview and requested my list of references. As I found later this promise was a lie and my list of references was used for marketing.
* Sales representative pressured me to sign a non-compete agreement after I interviewed with the client, stating verbally to me that an offer was on the table. I signed the agreement. The day after I signed the non compete, the representative stated that the client withdrew the offer. I confronted the representative with this suspicion and my impression was that the offer of a position was an out and fabrication to induce me to sign the non compete agreement.
* Although the recruiter and I had agreed to a rate before the interview, when I called her several hours after the interview (which had gone well, as I was rejoining my former project), she tried (and failed) to chisel me down, saying that 'the client is reluctant to pay your rate'. This might have been plausible, except that she had quoted me what she said was the billing rate, and it was below that of at least one other team member (I had checked). When I mentioned this, she quickly dropped "the client's" demand, and gave me the rate we had originally agreed on.
Pestering
* Called me several times after I told them to stop, and I had also told them to take my resume off of their database. I stopped getting calls from them only after I changed phone numbers. Staff acted like used-car salespeople.
* Marketing was done in so unacceptable style that some of my references asked me not to use their names again. I met other contractors with the same experience.
Contract Shenanigans
* Submitted a different contract than the one signed by me and therefore a lower rate showed up on my pay check. After checking and verifying the difference, they corrected it after 3 weeks of calling and demanding the change.
* Required that [I] sign a "contract before the contract" before being submitted to anyone. This contract
* Before the interview, told me that I had to accept the contract if the client offered it to me. When I balked, they seemed visibly upset.
* Real contract has Penalty clause ($1500) for cancelling + restrictive non-compete. Very vague about this at the interview.
Pressure to Go W-2
* They claimed to deal with contractors or Incorporated people, but when I went to interview with them, they "suggested" that it wasn't "profitable for you to go as an IC or Corp unless you were making at least $45-50 per hour," and instead I should become one of their employees. I brushed them off, and they called again recently saying they had a position at Chevron, and they I only had to send them a non-compete agreement before they submitted me. I did so, and they COMPLETELY avoided talking to me or returning any of my msg's.
* Extremely aggresive Legal department. Every Contract renewal is a fight ! - with more demands surfacing every time. Wanted 2 yrs Corporate Tax returns and all kindsa information - on a renewal...
* Initially said I must incorporate to be independent. Then, after I went into them for an interview, said I could not be independent even if I were incorporated. They were advertising their positions on the DICE Bulletin Board as INDOK rather than W2ONLY. At the interview (before revealing their requirement for W-2 work) they pumped me for my company's confidential client list.
* They had gotten me a job, which, to my understanding, was to be 1099. At the last minute, they said it was W-2 only, and that if I were to do 1099/corp-to-corp, I'd have to have had a "relationship" with them for over 6 months before they considered it. After telling them to fly a kite, due to "ethical" reasons, they "deactivated" me from further work with [their firm]. The recruiter I worked with was EXTREMELY pressuring, and very hard to deal with.
Looking for Cobalt programmers . . .
* They also had test questions in CICS and COBOL that they gave consultants over the phone, and some of their "right" answers were out of date by about 10 years!
* The recruiter...felt I didn't have enough experience in WinNT (I have 2.5 years NT experience), because their client requested the contractor have at least 5 years experience in windows NT...the program didn't exist back then.
High Pressure Tactics
* Were trying to make me promise that I will take the offer if the client decides to take me. Idiotic bargaining by increasing the rate by $1 or $2 while I was asking for about $10 more. Absolutely arrogant.
Pay? You mean you expected to get paid?
* I know several people working for them who earn $30/hr-$37/hr and are billed out at $90/hr.
* Stiffed me for the last week of the assignment then refused to return phone calls and/or letters
* After signing a contract with which specifically stated I was a hourly employee, they placed me at a client that only paid consultants on a "professional day". This meant I was they expected to work up to 10 hours for the same daily fee as 8. Regardless of my contract, the agency would not pay me the additional hours.
* Contract states that they pay in 30 days, but I was lucky to get 45-60.
* After getting a raise from them, it took over 2 months and repeated phone calls to actually see it on my paycheck.
Out of Control
* Sent my resume to a client where I was on a contract without informing me.
* Faxed resumes to my boss for my contract position to replace me by getting the company's name from my resume.
* Kept trying to pump me for names of my co-workers, even after I said "no". Sent my resume to many firms without consulting me first.
--Janet Ruhl
Author of Answers for Computer Contractors.
Re:E-mail or signed? (Score:1)
With email it would be way to easy for one party to make changes to the details (scope of work/hours/rate/etc) and in the event of litigation, who says which is the right version.
Anything in bits on disk can be changed, email, email logs, etc. Get paper. Not fax, but original copies.
Contacts, Contacts, Contacts.... (Score:1)
I've never gone looking for work and often have more than I can handle. The trick is to get yourself a few reliable clients - if you do a good job for them they'll keep coming back and hopefully recommend you to others too. Also never miss the chance of making a contact - you never know when it will come in handy.
In the long run you're more secure working with a group of clients than in normal employment. If your employed and you loose your job then that's you completely out of work until you find another. In my case I effectively have about 6 employers, and my chances of loosing all of them in one go are a lot, lot less than conventional unemployment.
Why work from home ? (Score:1)
If you're 27 or under, you can work here (Australia) or the UK for up to a year, on a working holiday visa. If any of your grandparents were citizens of countries of the EC, you can work there for life...
As an ex contractor, I'd suggest working via an agency to get the foot in the door and getting used to 'being on your own'. But do your research !!! The good agencies are wonderfull, the rest will suck you dry.
Good Luck !!!!
All software is flawed. All hardware is flawed. If you haven't learned that yet,
Information on contracting through a company (Score:4)
The rule of thumb for contracting wages compared to perm salary is you should get 30 to 40 percent more for a contract, since you don't have paid holidays and other benefits. Many companies (all those that belong to the trade group NACCB) offer health insurance at group rates for their contractors who want to work as W-2 employees of the consulting company. The other advantage to working W-2 is if the company you are working at goes broke you are still paid by the consulting company.
You can also become incorporated. The downside is if the company goes down the tubes and doesn't pay you, you are screwed. You also have to do more complicated taxes, (and ask about 15% more than a W-2 contractor to cover self-employment taxes) but you can deduct quite a few things.
Things to look for in a consulting company:
They should tell you (you may have to ask) that they won't submit your resume to anybody without your explicit permission.
They shouldn't make a practice of contacting people who haven't either sent their resume directly or posted it on a board like Dice or Monster. If you think your buddy Joe might be interested in a job they have, the recruiter should ask you to let Joe know about it, not ask for Joe's contact information. A good recruiter won't try to raid companies for their employees. That is what a headhunter does, and to a good recruiter the term headhunter is derogatory.
The recruiter should share your resume with other recruiters in the company. Where I work it isn't uncommon for one contractor to be submitted to multiple jobs with multiple recruiters (with the contractors permission). This gives the contractor more options with us, and makes it more likely that the job he/she chooses will be with the company.
I haven't worked for an unethical recruiting firm so I'm not sure what else to check for.
When you talk to the recruiter about a job that you want to pursue, be honest about your salary requirements. Usually they will ask for you current salary, your asking salary, and the lowest you would take for this job. The recruiter will use that info to get the most money for you they can. It is in our interest in a couple of ways. For many companies we have a contract with a fixed markup, so the more you make the more the company makes. Also if we make you happy by getting you as much or more money than you asked for you will probably be happy to work through us again. Good contractors are valued at a good recruiting company. We have people who have worked for us off and on throughout the 90s.
A point to remember on how much markup the company use: the money covers your payroll taxes (about 15%) and the cost to search Dice and Moster, they charge companies thousands per year to search resumes and post jobs. The money also has to pay all the expenses, including the back office people who do billing and payroll. Industry standard gross margin (not counting the tax burden) is about 25% to 30%. If you don't like it don't use a recruiting company.
It doesn't seem appropriate to advertise the company I work for, but if you are in the Silocon Valley area and would like to send me your resume you can send it to me by private e-mail. It will be read and shared with the other recruiters, and placed in our database.
Denise
Re:a few tips.. (Score:2)
First - make sure you have know what you want. Set your mind on a specific rate and figure out what type of job you want to be doing. Do you mind working in a very small company? For your first contract, I wouldn't recommend it. If the company is very small and new do an analysis of their business, do a small project architecture overview to find out whether the project can be done in the given period of time. (they all have their deadlines but often no idea about what it takes to complete a project by that deadline). Anyway, starting with a larger company gives you some comfort that they will not go bankrupt by the time they have to pay you.
Do you want to go through an agent? Do you want a short or a long term contract? Figure out what is the maximum amount of time you can stay unemployed while searching for your job. It is very hard to search for a job while working, so you'll have to take a short vacation or use your sick days. I quit Before finding a job, it's hard to work and search for a contract at the same time, you have to go to the interviews, you have to be on the phone all the time, you must be able to make time for interviews quickly. You WILL be offered all kinds of permanent positions while searching on the Internet, you WILL be approached by hundreds of agents, you WILL be offered positions that will require you to move to another city, you WILL be stressed out, you may ran out of cash, you WILL have to get yourself a suit (good if you have one.) Go through the job postings on the web, go through various websites but the best is to go through some contacts. Anyway, if you don't mind giving 30% of what you make to an agent, you'll find a job with them. However if you can continue your search long enough, you'll eventually find something.
geek hangouts (Score:2)
dunno where you are but you could look there.
you could also send a cover letter + resume to all your favorite companies. the response might be low or zero -- but if this is want you want to do, you'll have to get used to people saying "no"
Being more than a programmer (Score:5)
I was thrust into the world of independent contract work a couple of years ago when the company I was working for fell apart. All of the other web developers were fired, and I was given the chance to finish everyone's work by myself. I decided to quit instead, and charge my former employer a discounted hourly rate to get their clients off their back. By the time all the existing work was finished, most of their clients had become my clients.
Luck was a factor, to be sure, but it took more than luck to sustain my little one-man operation after the first batch of work was finished. Even if I had gotten started differently, there was more to consider than just the actual tasks clients asked me to do.
The money, at first, seemed like a lot more than I had been getting before. But, what I discovered quickly was that my former boss wasn't lying when he told me where the company's money went. Taxes, payroll, equipment, etc. I needed, and quickly acqired, a lawyer, an accountant, and a new S-corporation. All of a sudden, in addition to being a marginally-talented web developer, I was also an entrepeneur.
My friends, upon seeing the bohemian, independent lifestyle I had made for myself, were jealous and wanted to know my secret. It was no mystery, though, because while I have extreme freedom to choose what I do, I also pay myself about a third of what my friends get on their W-2 jobs.
Why? More important than what your hourly rate is, is what your free time is worth. Working a salary job often means the time the boss wants from you isn't measured. (Hello, 70 hour weeks!) But, when you're hourly, the client expects real work for the time you charge. The 30 minutes you spend talking to your neighbor about Half-Life doesn't usually go on the time sheet. Billing 40 actual work hours isn't as easy as working a 40-hour salary week. For me, this means I rarely bill 40 hours in a week, and when I do, I pay myself so the money that generates covers the whole month's expenses.
My point here is that if you really want to be an independent, be prepared to overhaul your entire lifestyle. You can't be joe salaryman and take the the weekly dole for granted when you're signing both sides of the paycheck. You have to be billing work now and setting up work in the future all the time. You have to make sure if there's a dry spell, there's still money in the account for you and your biz expenses. And, you can't get greedy and spend the next 6 months' payroll you have saved up unless you got the whale-ass retainer check that will keep things going. Learning this discipline is what stops most people I know from doing what I do.
Don't get me wrong, I love working for myself. But now, it's like there's me the developer, and me the entrepeneur. Don't try to do the same unless you're prepared to take on those roles.
Social Networking (Score:5)
It seems that the best way to get contract work is word of mouth; find a group of *consultants*, people who are already out in the field working on their own and see if you can strike up a cooperation with them; ask them to pass on things that they don't want or can't handle and let them know that you'll do the same.
Also, don't be surprised if all you can get at first is maintenance code. Don't turn your nose at this type of work, it can lead to bigger things especially if you start throughing in enhancements that really save someone time.
Advice from my limited experience (Score:4)
Re:contract work is hard..... (Score:2)
And -- with dot.coms going under, it's really nice if your contract is with the agency than directly with the company.
Benefits? There aren't any. Except the extra money and tax writeoffs when you incorporate!
Get an Accountant (Score:3)
And buy QuickBooks. If you're contracting, you'll need to do invoicing and keep track of your expenses. Your accountant will appreciate its reporting abilities too: beats a shoebox of receipts. QB does a great job -- has anyone found an open-source alternative that compares?
Re:How? (Score:2)
I got the impression he wanted to do something they'd pay him for.
--
RE: Contracting ... a bigtime warning (Score:4)
Many firms don't understand that not everyone migrates to contracting for non-monetary reasons, and as a result your loyalty can be suspect down the road.
Ultimately there is work out there if you bring something unique to the table... but I thought knowing this might help out.
ttp://www.roytalman.com
The Irony (Score:3)
Unfortunately, right now I'm sitting in my office waiting to hear whether I still have a contract. You see, the company I contracted with sold the department I work for to another company. This company, after the huge cash expenditure, is looking for some quick ways to save money. And terminating contract employees is a real easy way to save some short term cash. After all, contractors know they can be let go at any time. That risk is one reason for their higher salaries. Right now, someone can cut me loose and claim my year's compensation as a direct savings to the bottom line. So I'm sitting here, awaiting my fate.
So, is there a good market for contract programming? Not sure, but you can bet I'll be actively researching that question!
a few tips.. (Score:3)
As someone who has done contract work before, make sure you get everything in writing (prices, goals, etc).
Also, take measures to make sure they cannot steal the product from you (don't give the the source code until they pay if possible). If you are going to be doing small, short projects with many companys you could check out Encomia [encomia.com]. It does online contracts, digital signatures, etc (I haven't used it but a friend said it was good).
Good luck!
--LordRashmi
Re:The Irony (Score:2)
Yeah. And so can employees. And their salary disappears from the bottom line too.
What about getting a programming job ... period (Score:2)
until (succeed) try { again(); }
Websites! (Score:2)
Check out allfreelance.com [allfreelance.com] and especially eLance.com [elance.com] and guru.com [guru.com]. There is tons of contract programmer work out there.
Re:Dice.com (Score:2)
sig:
Re:Trust me on the sunsc^H^H^H^H^Hcontract thing.. (Score:2)
The words of a wiseman.
It depends on why you want to contract. (Score:3)
You may want to look into working for an agency. They will do all the marketing, will often pay you competively, either salaried with benefits or hourly without benefits. The best thing to me is that the agency does the marketing, freeing you to simply program. AIC is an example of a national agency with this model. Other agencies exist in other areas of the country, check the want-ads.
One thing to be very careful of if you intend to moonlight is to make sure that your current employer does not have a no-compete clause that you have already signed that prevents this! Make sure you haven't signed away your rights to explore contracting, or you may just have to leave your current job before you can even start...
contract work is hard..... (Score:2)
If you run into an employer that likes your work ethic and you like their company, sometimes they will pay the penalty from the agency. This is a rare instance but it does happen, we are investigating that very option. We ran into a programmer with a very good work ethic and he's good with people ( a rare combination).
The bottom line..... If your after money (and decent benefits), don't go to an agency.
Re:contract work is hard..... (Score:3)
I would also hate having the anxiety of my wife and kids not covered under a good health plan. Contract work is great for young people without a family who just want to absorb as much as possible, as fast as possible.
I would never knock anyone's career choices, I would only say it's not for me.
Use your social contacts...and find a lawyer (Score:5)
Participating in the contract programming market, however, means that you'll necessarily be signing at least one contract. Contracts are tricky things, and can range from fairly loose to absurdly restrictive. Since you mention that you already have a job, that means you've probably signed some sort of employment agreement with the company you work for. You might want to take a close look at that agreement, since it may include a clause that says the company owns any intellectual property you produce during the term you work for them, including work completely unrelated to your job that you do on your own time and with your own resources. If your current company owns everything you do, they'll have a problem with you working as a contractor for anyone else.
If you find a contract job and get to the point of having a contract in your hand, I strongly urge you to have a lawyer look it over (at least the first time or two, while you're still getting used to the language). The few hundred bucks you pay the lawyer will be paltry compared to the pain a bad contract could cause you. For example, who's held accountable if a bug in your code is responsible for something bad that happens two years from now? Does the contract state that you indemnify? Because that could really suck for you, and if you don't know contract-speak, you might not even know what you're getting yourself into when you sign the contract.
-laura
It's been done, but go prepared (Score:3)
We have developers in our office that work from home a day or two a week. It's much easier to justify telecommuting if it's only a few days, rather than vice-versa.
Of course there's work (Score:4)
I haven't been on salary for almost thirty years now, and I'm doing quite alright. I wish you the best of luck.
Lessons To Learn From (Score:4)
I did not write the contract in Legal mumbo-jumbo because I couldn't afford an attorney to do so. So I wrote one in plain English. I scored contract after contract, they felt like they knew what they were getting and I felt like I understood that they understood.
Lesson Learned: the evidence project was supposed to be 90 days at valued roughly $60k. Rather than quoting the project fee, they wanted to to break certain "key areas of functionality" into smaller chucks of cash so they can see where the money is really going. So I broke it down and it changed so much (some of which was accounted for in negotiations) that it really took 180 days.
They day we were to deploy it, they changed their mind about many of the "key areas of functionality" and stated they were "optional" from the beginning. The bottom line, is that I ended up receiving $2,400 for the whole project based on loop-holes in our agreement. Namely, the areas of functionality never stated optional or required, just that they were "eliments" and not "product". Then, agreed early on, they database structure and barcode libraries I could not retain the rights to, simply because they needed to interface with their own proprietary system that I could not gain access to as a developer (for security reasons). So all the software I wrote, they scrapped and kept the database structure and some of the API's, and they kept the barcode stuff (because I couldn't control whether they did or not).
I've sinced changed my contract to two things: 1) quote by hours of labor instead of project based, therefore it gives them less incentive to keep dragging it out, since time-is-money. This usually forces things to be thought through more efficiently before hand. 2) when I do quote by the contract, I have certain fail-safes in place: namely, if I write any portion of an element of functionality listed in the contract and at any point they decide to cann it, instead of paying the agreed upon price for that or those elements, they must pay for my hourly effort at standard consulting fees. I find, it's much more difficult to strike an agreement with that in their, they usually opt for the hourly-based fee instead -- because changing their mind doesn't jack the price up significantly from the fixed project price agreed upon. $2k for a feature, or $4,500 for labor, there is a price difference if I don't estimate my hours correctly and put much time into it and they change their mind.
They are allowed to make changes to the spec, as long as the features are already mentioned in the project proposal. Anything removed (and already worked on) gets paid for, because of the time (invested), or because of the time (if it's a project-based proposal), and anything added not specifically mentioned much be negotiated.
Also, now, in all cases, I retain the copyright and rights to use the software for anything I want, commercial or not, so long as anything specific to their organization is not discussed or included. They also have a right to the source code, but they must sign an NDA and any person directly or indirectly accessing that source, cannot create a competing product based on anything in my source.
As far as bugs and training goes, you have to make sure that you agree to fix bugs but aren't responsible for loss of data, system down time, or whatever. You also have to define that bugs in windows of office isn't your responsibility. You also have to define what the difference between a glitch in the intended purpose of functionality, and what an enhancement is so they don't think that because you didn't agree to list 100 items on a screen instead of 1 is not a bug, but rather an enhancement that was not originally agreed upon.
Training should be fee-based, however, usually it's not important if you don't get creative and stick to their specs or ideals, they should already have a grasp. Some contracts mandated that I figure out how to make things work so for that, training is necessary, a simple walkthrough and explanation is required, but training the users themselves is fee-based. That requires time, patience, and usually ends up in a list of chagnes. So please, cover your ass.
This covers my ass, and makes them happy. The down side is that it's harder to land a contract these days with such strict payment and licensing terms. But I will not go 6 months on a project only to get paid for what I now make in one week. When the contracts are complete, there is a much greater since of satisfaction between two parties and a good business relationship as opposed to my loose agreements before, we both carried bitter feelings against each other. That's another plus that's priceless.
Remember, if you write a contract like an amateur and they exploit the loopholes, they'll treat you and think of you as an amatuer. Presenting a water-tight and satisfactory agreement which they have difficulties exploiting, makes them feel like you are professional and have experience, and they'll respect that.
Bottom line: do your homework and try to think of everything you can to strike a medium between covering your ass, and protecting their investment. Your payment collection should never be compromised, or as I've learned, in 3 contracts not specifying clearly enough, they will find the loopholes and exploit them to their fulleset advantage if it effects their bottom line.
Regards,
Me
finding the job (Score:5)
dice.com (Score:2)
I didn't even know of the consulting firm I got hired through. They found my resume on my personal website and contacted me. I have lost count of how many have called me so far. But -- if you actively want to persue a specific type of job (telecommute seems difficult to get), check out dice.com -- they have a LOT of listings.
One thing to keep in mind -- if there is something you do NOT want to do, turn the job down -- someone else will come along. I turned down quite a few jobs that wanted me to do J++, and I explained to them I was a Java programmer, not a Microsoft programmer. They had already heard it many times and expected as much from anyone who knew what they were doing. But, they in turn called me on other opportunities, and passed my name along to others.
So, in short, search dice.com and don't be afraid to say NO.
Degrees of independence (Score:2)
When switching to contracting you get to choose a tradeoff between responsibility and reward (extra flexibility, diversity, profit). The more responsibility you take on, the better the reward. Some of the extra skills that are desirable in freelancers are: software project management, marketing yourself, learning about software intellectual property and contract law, communication skills, business skills, and ancillary skill sets (e.g. web design, system administration, marketing). Freelancers with these skills are worth more, can pick from larger and broader contracts, and have more control over how they work (e.g. telecommuting).
A lot of freelancers get started by leaving their job and working for that company on a contract basis until they start bringing in outside work. Joining a consulting company is a good option in that you can focus on programming and you get to work with like-minded people. (The down side is that you rarely get to pick what you work on and you only get half of what the client is paying for you.)
Personally, I took the road less travelled. A year and a half ago I had just about given up on freelancing when I landed a large contract developing the back end for Worldisround.com [worldisround.com]. I work 30 hours a week from home and since I am the only techie I have full control/responsibility over the site implementation and administration. The contract has a 'startup' feel to it, without the additional risk or long hours. The contract has been very challenging and rewarding in every way.
For more information on freelancing, I highly recommend checking out Guru.com [guru.com]. I don't know how many job connections Guru has been making but their articles are invaluable. It is also helpful to go through the process of creating a Guru profile and comparing your profile with others' as a sort of introduction to self-marketing. A recent Guru.com article, Independence Day [guru.com], might be a good place to get started.