Is Finding Part Time Work In IT Unrealistic? 396
I like my current job writes "Having worked full-time in IT for the past 12 years, I would really like to work less and focus on other goals and priorities in my life. I asked my current employer and was shot down. It seems like everyone I know in IT works full-time except for entry-level help desk staff. Striking out on my own seems to be the only way to control the ball and chain around my ankle. However, my experience with independent consulting is a 'feast or famine' situation, with work coming all at once, thus making part-time impossible, or the other extreme (which is even more likely). Is part-time work a pipe dream in IT? Maybe a career in toilet cleaning is calling me."
Microsoft (Score:1, Interesting)
Get a job at Microsoft, there is a reason why they have been rated 'best employer' serveral times in a number of countries.
I work parr time - or used to (Score:5, Interesting)
As a contractor I have the option to work less. I can voluntarily choose to cut my hours to 6 hours a day (or alternatively 4 days a week) if work is slow & I have nothing to do. That saves the company's money and gives me more time to enjoy life.
The drawback is that when crunch time comes, then you're expected to put in the overtime.
Are there many high level PT jobs anywhere? (Score:5, Interesting)
Outside of IT, how often do you find people working higher level jobs part-time? It seems to me that part-time jobs are almost ways lower level, lower responsibility positions. You'd probably have better luck finding something with some sort of flex time or telecommuting. By altering your schedule that way, you can save quite a few hours.
Find a small company... (Score:5, Interesting)
My advice... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not completely unrealistic.
(( tl;dr - Find a one-man show who needs help with current workload and is willing to contract out. ))
Let me tell you my quick story: I've been in IT most of my professional life, having made a lateral move from printing (prepress) into working for a hard/software developer in the field. A few years later, after running my own show for about five years, I worked for a helpdesk.
I didn't like working at this helpdesk, but I kept chalking up my displeasure to personal concerns. In the end, I was trying to fit into a management role and I hated management. My anxiety and depression (as I am inclined to) kept building to a point where I literally walked out one day with a serious bent toward harming myself.
Despite my situation, I needed work. I set out to find work in which I could set my own schedule. Now, I _hoped_ for part-time work, but was willing to do full-time if that's all that was available.
The first thing I did is leverage _all_ my contacts. I interviewed with companies with which I already had worked with or employed people I knew. When they asked me about availability, I told them "I would prefer part time, but we can talk about full time."
One contact was a guy who was in the same situation I was during my business' run. I had loads of work, but didn't know how hire or manage people. I never really solved that issue, but he was committed to trying. I started working for him part-time. Today, I work 4 days a week at about 4-6 billable hours a day. The rate is generous.
Now, initially, the hours available were pretty low. (Considering my mental state, I was happy to have a lot of time out.) What's key, however, is that as I learned his customer base and their needs, the customers realized that my colleague's business was simply more available. So, the customers started making more requests and, now, the company has the ability to serve the requests. My hours increased and I can do more if I want.
So, like any other search, you have to network. You have to state what you want, but be willing to compromise. Be nice. Be humble. Be enthusiastic.
Take a full time job and don't show up. (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, if you are really bold, you could take a full time job and just not show up sometimes. Sooner or later, you will get fired, but, if you can keep the balls up in the air you might be able to make it work for a year or two, and, you'll make a lot more money. Let's face it, there's plenty of people that simply do not do anything except show up, so, it might not be too hard to give output comparable them..
Work at a unionized non-profit (Score:2, Interesting)
The benefits are twofold.
Unionized workplaces usually have a lot of flexibility in terms of hours, part-time, mat/pat leave, benefits, leave of absence, etc. The only way to lose your job is to do something really stupid and indefensible, your employer can't just sack you, they have to prove their case.
Working at a non-profit means profit isn't the be all and end all, the focus is on service instead. There's a different mentality and work philosophy, people work at non-profits mostly because they're either useless at any other job or they really do believe in the cause.
Of course, this combo is guaranteed to keep your wages down...
why am i replying to my own question??? (Score:5, Interesting)
i too have worked in IT fulltime for 12 years, and i've always been in positions which required working above and beyond the standard 40 hour work week. in the beginning i used to envy my 40 hour co-workers, but then i started putting things into perspective:
+ i don't punch a timeclock.
+ although i am consistent in my arrival and departure time, my time is flexible enough that i can come and go as i please.
+ my lunch hour can be as short as 30 minutes, or as long as a couple of hours.
+ i'm often taken out to lunch by various vendors(existing and potential) to discuss new products, services, etc.
+ the company pays for my cell phone(i know it's a leash, but i'm also not limited in my usage).
+ i get equipment refreshes with a higher frequency then most users(save owners and other bigwigs).
+ i have more technology in my cube/office than several co-workers combined.
+ i can wear what i want.
+ i usually set my own agenda for my work week.
+ i'm often involved in interesting projects, many of the involving exploratory research regarding cost, deployment, etc, stuff that actually is challenging.
+ i'm a techno-god in the eyes of my co-workers.
+ i get a regular paycheck.
+ i have ability to authorize up to $5000 purchases per P.O.(no limit on number of P.O.s... how did that happen?...)
+ i get reimbursed on work related expenses.
+ i get paid vacations and official holidays.
+ i get to go home to my family and leave work behind from time-to-time.
of course on the downside:
- i get stuck holding the bag when technology misbehave.
- i have to work long hours from time to time.
- sometimes there just isn't someone to hand things off to, so i have to see things thru to the end.
- there often isn't anyone else to blame.
- i don't always get compensated for my time appropriately.
etc...
etc...
i can go on and on with the plusses and minusses, but the bottomline for me, i'm better off workin' for the man, and not for myself. you need to run a +/- list for yourself and see how it shakes out. work less? and you're thinking of going into business for yourself? pull your head out of your ass!
your gonna work harder and longer when you work for yourself, for a while(months, maybe even years)...
and you bring your work home with you...
and you can't take a day off 'cause your sick...
and you can't just up and quit cause your boss is an asshole...
why don't you ask for a different compensation schedule? or maybe a flex schedule? track how many hours you work(regular and overtime) and see if you qualify for overtime pay in your state/country. ask your employer to pay for your cell and home internet connection(so it's less money out of your pocket). start becoming creative about how you are compensated for your work, and maybe not just money...
sometimes i wish i was a bricklayer: only responsible for making sure that my shit is level, straight and plumb, and be able to leave all my work behind at the end of the day, but alas, that's not my lot. oh well, maybe the next reincarnation.
Re:The Boss Decides... so be the Boss (Score:3, Interesting)
Pretty much business 201 there. If you're doing hardware repair then no, you probably can't start a company on your own that does just that. The margin is too small in most markets. However, if you choose a thing like security consulting the current margin is ridiculously huge enough to really get something viable going with one single person.
That doesn't mean that the breaking point (where you have to hire someone else or risk either ending up on nitro glycerin or thorazine) is any easier with a very high margin product. In fact I think it makes it even harder; the tendency is to wait much longer than you need to when you see the kind of profit you're bringing in by yourself. It's death to a number of one person operations every day, having bad timing in that moment.
Re:Are there many high level PT jobs anywhere? (Score:5, Interesting)
We actually had an interesting situation where I work (spacecraft operations). We had a senior aerospace engineer depart after 15 years to become an airline pilot, of all things (decided to turn a hobby into a job).
About a year later, he came back part time because the routes he flew left him with large blocks of free time at irregular periods during the month, and he was getting bored (because before his "hobby" was flying....and he stopped doing that on his days off!).
It was a win-win situation. He'd give us 40-60 hours a month of hourly work when it was convenient for him. We kept his hopper full of things like documentation, training, and other stuff that most senior guys consider dreg work. Even though he now has enough seniority to avoid pilot furloughs, he'll volunteer to drop his flight hours if the airline needs him to. He just increases his hours with us (and he's so good, we'll take whatever he gives us up to full time).
Since he's not interested in advancing up the ladder, he really does a great job on this low-visibility stuff that really helps an organization run well if it's done right.
Many Costs Don't Scale (Score:5, Interesting)
If you work three days a week - 60% of the time...
Your computer doesn't cost 60%.
Your software licenses aren't 60% either.
That desk you use didn't cost 60% as much.
The office space to put your desk in doesn't cost 60% as much.
The HR department doesn't only do 60% of the work for you.
Your health insurance doesn't only cover 60% of you - you either insure or don't insure a person.
And so on.
As a rule of thumb, most employees cost their companies 2-4 times the cost of their full time salary. Take a hypothetical $50,000/year salary. Cost to the company may well be around $200,000 a year. You take a pay cut to $30,000 in exchange for working 40% less, that $200,000 cost has just dropped to $180,000 or only 10% less. They're paying 10% less to get 40% less value out of you. Hardly a good deal. Admittedly, many costs do scale - 401k matching only matches what you pay, taxes are relative to salary, etc. Still, those that don't ensure the argument's not in your favor.
Worked in reverse, it makes it painfully obvious why companies like EA so famously loved forcing overtime, especially when they could get it unpaid, out of workers. Health insurance doesn't cost them any more for a 100 hour week than it does for a 40 hour week. Office space costs no more. Hardware and software costs no more. On purely mercenary terms, efficiencies come in with more hours, not less. You're asking them to do the opposite.
Re:Take a full time job and don't show up. (Score:4, Interesting)
I assume (and hope) you were joking. But at a place I used to work (giant telco), there was a guy who worked in IT and did just as you described.
Long story short, it caught up with him eventually. Before too long, everyone was onto him, including his boss. It took a while to fire him because, well, that's how big companies work sometimes. Meanwhile, hundreds of people were aware of what he was doing. The damage he did to his reputation will surely outweigh any benefits he gained from his dishonesty. People move around from job to job. He now has ~200 people at various IT shops who know what kind of moral character he has. Last I heard, he is working at a Home Depot driving a forklift.
And if you *weren't* joking, well...you should be banned from giving advice for the rest of your life.
Re:Not only part time (Score:2, Interesting)
Have you considered training? (Score:4, Interesting)
I worked as a trainer in this fashion from '99 to '05 and it was a great experience. Generally it involves traveling to a client's site or training facility to do the work, but if you live in a big city, it will reduce the probability that you have to travel depending on the organization you do work with. The pay is pretty good... you can bring in between $400 to $1000 a day or more depending on various factors such as content complexity, demand, and class size. Most IT classes seem to run for about 3 to 5 days.
It is part time work in the sense that you train only when classes are available to be taught, and when you feel like teaching them. (Though turning down requests for training will move you to the bottom of the 'available trainers' list with most companies) So you could easily work 26 weeks during the year and realistically bring in a $75,000 salary. That gives you the other 26 weeks of the year to learn new skills and brush up on old ones, and to basically do whatever you want to with your free time.
On the downside, unless you are always learning the next new "hot" thing, it can be difficult to find work... Especially now that the economy sucks, as training budgets typically are the first to get slashed.
But if you find the right niche, you have partial control over the times and places you work. Also, you typically don't work during the weeks where there are holidays. And usually, a training day is exactly 8 hours, which includes a 1 hour lunch break and other smaller breaks in between. You typically won't work more than that unless the materials are new to you, where you have to spend an hour or two per night reviewing what's to come the next day.
As a bonus, if you can write your own materials, you can also make an additional income. Course materials sometimes go for anywhere from $10 to $75 per student per day.
Granted, training is not for everyone, and this is probably the worst time to consider starting off in the field... wait for the markets to go up... but it's an awesome part time gig!
Schools, my friend (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Get the definition right (Score:3, Interesting)
Having all these skills available is useful in web site development, but HTML and CSS must be the primary tool set. If a task can be achieved using just HTML and CSS, it should be. There are far too many web sites out there that use scripting to perform tasks that are easily achievable in HTML and CSS, and the result is that many of those web sites are unusable on some web browsers. And I mean unusable, not "harder to use" - the content is often completely inaccessible.
A web site developer who uses scripting to achieve what can be done in HTML and CSS is less competent than one who only knows HTML and CSS, not more competent. I say this not knowing whether or not you are one of the ones who does this, but this is such a huge problem in web site development that it's a point that needs to be made at every opportunity.
I did it! (Score:4, Interesting)
It took me two steps to make it happen.
Step one was to move to an industry where part time is the norm. In my case I moved into health care.
Then after getting settled and proving my worth I asked about part time.
I am now working 32 hours per week, Monday to Thursday.
Extra hours/overtime happen during my normal work days. If I have to work on my scheduled day off I take another day as comp time.
Good luck. YMMV.
Re:On the right track (Score:3, Interesting)
The only way out is to either strike out on your own or to give up on the industry altogether.
I disagree. There are plenty of part-time IT jobs, you just have to know where to look. My current job is a part-time IT job at a small company that started up a year or two ago. Sure, my boss wouldn't mind me working full-time, but it is, in fact, a part-time job, and honestly if I weren't doing web development work alongside the regular IT stuff, I wouldn't have enough stuff to do to fill even a part-time job.
My advice would be to find a small startup in need of some IT help. Easier said than done, I know, but that's the best bet, and it's probably a better alternative than striking out alone or giving up on the industry altogether.
Re:I did it (Score:3, Interesting)
my erratic "lead" engineer [...] is not giving me any direction
That may be solvable. Make it your business to learn the big picture for the project. If he still doesn't give you direction, pick the pieces that you *want* to work on and that you know none of your peers are working on yet and go to it.
Make sure you're turning in completed pieces of the work at least weekly. He'll either have to accept the work product or he'll have to correct you and tell you what he wants instead. Either way it's now his problem instead of yours. And you've spent your time on the interesting problems instead of the scut work.
If he's as disorganized as you suggest, the project may fail. But if you're seen to take the initiative and be productive, there will be room for you on the next project with a different lead.
Re:Get the definition right (Score:1, Interesting)
>This assumes the overtime is free because the workers are on salary
In the US being salaried doesn't mean not being eligible for overtime. There's a difference between "salaried, exempt" and "salaried, non-exempt". Sadly, too few people actually know this, and many small and medium-sized companies are happy to keep them in the dark about it, especially if they are service organizations: When your technical staff is billing by the hour and the company is charging extra for after hours and weekend work, well, it's *very* tempting on the part of management to classify everyone as "salaried", where "salaried = salaried, exempt"... and I know this after having had this done to me by every company I've worked for over the past 25 years.
Most helpdesk jobs fall into the non-exempt category, as do technicians, even if they have fancy titles with "Engineer" in them. I'd imagine that network administrators are non-exempt, too.
So, if you're an overworked IT person not getting paid overtime "because you are on salary", you'd be wise to look into whether or not your position is actually exempt under the law. And no, the job title doesn't do it: It is the work that you regularly perform that does.
And, if you work for a company whose HR department cannot, or will not, make the distinction, it's time to find another job. A good company with a good HR department knows the difference, and makes sure that its employees are paid properly.
Re:Get the definition right (Score:2, Interesting)
Not to be an ass or belittle your skill set, but anyone who is able to deal with COBOL at the moment is making great cash. I know of positions where COBOL programmers are making 6 figures. Why? Because all the web developers are running from Cobol in droves, and frankly the companies who are running on Cobol are all listed in the fortune 1000.
Resolving conflicts is harder with friends (Score:4, Interesting)
> I have several friends who have tried this over the years, and know other people who have tried this. The bottom line is: friendships can fail under the strain of a business relationship ...
This is so true. I've worked on a number of projects with friends and have to conclude it's a bad idea. People, even those who hang out a lot and met in the same organization have very different expectations about how to go about work. Being friends, it's so much harder to confront the issues because you don't want to end up fighting them. Even if you agree lets be upfront as soon as we think there's a problem and we'll head it off, well, that doesn't work either. People hold it in.
Trick to resolving problems WITH ANYONE is you need to jump on them asap. Putting it off only makes it worse. Being friends, you put that off (and it gets worse) until one of you blows a fuse, then it's so much harder to undo the damage.
And hate to say it, but money changes most people. Sure there are people it doesn't, but at the moment my sample rate shows 100% and that includes some awfully nice people. One stage I was owed $100K by someone I thought was a friend. But when they had to decide between me and $100K, from their luxury waterfront beachhouse, well, Satan likes water views.
> where two friends created a business, had a falling out, and the business collapsed as a result.
I've never *lost* a friendship because of business. When it did go bad, we agreed to put it behind us and never do it again. That required a lot of forgiving in some cases, but learned the lesson.
Toilet Cleaning - The big Secret (Score:2, Interesting)
Know what you do -- and don't -- want to do (Score:4, Interesting)
After I establish myself with the customer, I get their new PC & peripheral setups, along with any future problems & infestations. I have several customers with multiple PCs who have spent well over $1000 each over the years.
The number in my ad is my cell phone. I answer all my own calls, and usually schedule jobs for the same day or the next day. I often tell new customers "We accept Visa, MC, and cash" if I'm unsure about their checks (e.g., if they live in a trailer park or a crappy apartment complex). I have a concealed carry permit, so I'm not too afraid of bad neighborhoods... but I don't take unnecessary risks, as it doesn't make me bulletproof. I only have two or three (business) customers who don't pay upon completion, and their checks arrive within the week; my A/R balance is $0.00 right now.
One of the most important things, IMHO, is knowing how, when, and to whom to say "NO." I don't get sucked into working for people who think $90/hour is exorbitant, and I routinely decline to work on Win9x. I don't fix video games or hook up HDTV's. I usually turn down obvious major electrical problems like lightning strikes, and I don't do internal hardware work on laptops. I don't provide phone support to anyone, even family: within 60 seconds of answering the phone, I have usually said "I would be glad to take a look at the machine." This separates the real customers from people who are fishing for free advice. (However, I will often tell a caller something like "You don't need me: tell Verizon you have a bad FIOS router" because I don't want to knowingly charge for an obvious one-sentence fix).
My goal is to accumulate 1200 customers who spend an average of $100 per year, so I can easily live without the most annoying 2 or 3 percent of the customers I meet on the way to that goal.
Re:The Boss Decides... so be the Boss (Score:3, Interesting)
I expect my salaried employees to be WILLING to work 45, 50, or even 55 hours / week when the chips really are down. But they will *always* get vacation time to compensate so the average is 40 hours.
Period.
I will NOT be burning out the people whose work I depend on. And for software programming, people who are "fresh", happy, and well-rested are more productive, anyhow.
In general, a person's dedication and professionalism are qualities of the individual, not their employment status.
People who spend only part of their energy solving your problems are, by definition, not going to tune themselves to solve your problems. Practice makes perfect, and full-time employment forces people to organize their mentality and experience towards their employment. By definition, this makes them better at what they are doing, and therefore, the return per hour is better for full-time staff than for part-time staff when there is a large amount of domain expertise. (and our domain expertise is managing a HUGE software stack)
I will not have anybody working part time for long. I want to see dedication, I want to see longevity, and I want to see the competency that comes from full-time dedication to my particular problem set. If you aren't willing to dedicate yourself to the cause we are creating, then you don't belong on our team.
Don't get me wrong - we treat our staff *very*, very well. We offer compensation well above the area average, even for the skill level required. We offer excellent benefits, flexible schedule, respectful and courteous work environment, and an extremely cooperative style of management. I encourage intellectual dissent - I value the best idea more than I value who specifically came up with it! And we are very, very careful to pay attention to the specific needs of all of our staff.
I want the best possible performance from my staff, and I find that I get it by making the workplace environment the best I can possibly manage. People who are happy doing what they are doing are much more likely to do a better job of it. They are more likely to take pride in their effort, they are more likely to put out effort to do a better job.
How is this not a situation that's great for everybody involved?