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Is There Still A Contract Market For Programmers?

Posted by Cliff on from the stuff-to-discuss dept.

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?"

142 comments

  1. Where are you based? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I read the comments below but contractings a lot easier than that.

    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.

  2. Yupe it is alive and well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    The contract market is doing well, but more so in Europe. Here is a link JobServer. And the rates are good.

  3. have a bit of money set aside by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    you should probably grasp the billing cycle of things to come. you might get paid the day you invoice or it might be, as is the case with one of my clients, 60 days later.

    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.

  4. Dice.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    Check out the old and trusted www.dice.com. Some tips for using Dice: Never submit your resume to Dice. Instead search for jobs in your area that appeal. Pick a handful of recruiters and send your resume to them alone.

    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.

    1. Re:Dice.com by rark · · Score: 1

      depends on the part of the country

      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.

    2. Re:Dice.com by paitre · · Score: 1

      So you don't get spammed/harrassed constantly by recruiters looking to fill positions you have no desire to fill.

      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.

    3. Re:Dice.com by steffl · · Score: 1

      except of problem of being harrased all the time there is another problem:

      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

      --
      ...all excited, don't know why...
    4. Re:Dice.com by AlexA · · Score: 1

      Why shouldn't ya submit your resume to Dice?

    5. Re:Dice.com by happystink · · Score: 2
      out of curiosity, what do you wear?

      sig:

      --

      sig:
      See the "..for smart people" banners Wired runs here? Look elsewhere guys.

    6. Re:Dice.com by tamboril · · Score: 1

      You'll get barraged with calls. While this may sound like a good thing, it's not. Recruiters are mostly non-techs who just see you as a piece of meat. They're salespeople, and it shows. Your name and phone number are a very valuable asset to them, and if they hire you, it could mean 10K-80K *cash* for them. So how hard do you think they'll try to find a *good* fit for you? The upshot is that it makes you become an a-hole just to get the bottom-feeders to lay off while you find the precious few that actually know the difference between "C" and Java. You end up having to be rude to a lot of people, and this results in less peace for you. So just be prepared to tell the recruiters to piss off, and you'll be fine.

    7. Re:Dice.com by MidnightLog · · Score: 1

      Hmm. I've never tried this approach. I guess it could work when looking for a permanent position, but if you're trying to find work as an independent contractor, I would recommend dressing professionally. Unfortunately this sometimes means wearing a suit and tie.

      --

      To understand what's right and wrong, the lawyers work in shifts ...

    8. Re:Dice.com by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

      Don't dress well. You don't want to work for a company that gives a damn about how you dress. I made a practice not to dress well (but I am always clean!). I want a boss that can look beyond apeareances! So far it has worked, even in very conservative environments (banks).

      --
      IANAL but write like a drunk one.
    9. Re:Dice.com by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

      Once I wore jeans, a plain white shirt and sports shoes. I was unshaved and not very presentable to be honest (I had just finished a frenzied week installing some 200 Sun machines. From opening many of the boxes and puting many of the monitors in place myself to Jumpstarting all the things).

      I got my first decently paid job like that!

      Another time I wore chinos, denim shirt while all the other guys (because they had the bad taste to interview us the same day, at more less the same hour, each applicant being interviewed by a different interviewer) where wearing nice suits. I got the job.

      Secret: I know my stuff and don't tell lies in the CV, if I am ignorant I admit it, but I would not be applying for a contract I could not handle right?

      Funnily enough the 2 interviews I ever wore a suit I was not choosen....

      --
      IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  5. Some tips from an Ex Contractor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5
    I was a contractor in the Late 80's and Early 90's (Now I'm a professor) in the U.S. So although my advice may be somewhat dated, some of it may still hold:
    • There are several ways of contracting, none of which are any more secure than being employed directly. They are:
      • Work directly for a contract house, some places (e.g. Anderson Consulting) do this. Often people affectionately call the placement people in such organizations pimps (behind their backs of course) and time between jobs is sometimes referred to as being on the beach or down time. You get the least pay from this, but they contract house provides benefits and pays your down time.
      • Be subcontracted via a contract house. This gets you a higher hourly rate, but does not typically offer benefits. The contract house pays employer side taxes for you (usually). The advantage is that a well connected contract house can help you find a job if you are new to an area.
      • Contract directly with the customer. This option has some advantages, since you keep all you make. However, you need to do your own employer side taxes (since you are now self employed) and you need to do your own billing. I'd recommend considering hiring an accountant and perhaps a lawyer to manage your affairs, since these details can be time consuming. Many organizations have a 90 day or more lag in paying their bills (bigger organizations may do more foot dragging).
    • Location is important, being in a high tech area is best, being in a major city/financial center is a close second.
    • Reputation is very important, I recommend that you do what is best for your customer, even if it means you are inconvenienced. If you can finish a job ahead of time and under budget, you may be out of work, however this can lead to better long term opportunities.
    • The quality of the available assignments often depends on the state of the economy. Many places don't hire contractors when times are bad, or only hire when they have a software fire to put out. Often jobs are coming into a situation where all the useful people have quit, and they need someone to prevent financial catastrophe due to missed deadlines.
    • You should be very good at reading other people's software, since you often won't have the luxury of coming in at the beginning of a project. Often the software which is "close" to working has serious design flaws which you need to work around.
    • Consultants must be able to step in quickly and productively. Most places are very unforgiving of consultants who take several weeks to show progress. On the job training is rare in consulting, the consultant is expected to do this outside work.
    • Generally speaking, it is considered good form to renew or extend your contract if the customer requests it. This may not be what you want to do.
    • Some jobs are fixed rate, some jobs are hourly. If you take a fixed rate job on, be sure to carefully estimate the amount of effort needed.
    1. Re:Some tips from an Ex Contractor by dev_null · · Score: 2

      Work directly for a contract house, some places (e.g. Anderson Consulting)

      Actually, Anderson Consulting is now called Accenture :)

  6. How do I get a PERMANENT position? by Mark+Edwards · · Score: 1

    I've been contracting - start a project in March, get laid off in December because they cancelled the project for some obscure reason that has nothing to do with the project, spend a month job hunting and talking to recruiters before you even get to an interview...

    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
    Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

  7. E-mail or signed? by Micah · · Score: 1

    I agree about the necesity of the contract. Leave no detail untouched! Each and every part -- and what it should input, output, etc.

    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?

    1. Re:E-mail or signed? by HalfWalker · · Score: 1

      No, email is definitely not enough. My contracts have all been paper, with signatures on EACH page.
      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.

      --
      94TT :)
    2. Re:E-mail or signed? by skip77 · · Score: 1

      E-mail is legal under the Digital Signature Act, but you need to use a system described by the Act to be covered by it. Like the system Verisign uses. IANAL but check out some digital signature companies to find out what they use and how they do it.

      --
      --Chris
  8. reason by Micah · · Score: 1

    Becasue when you submit your resume to Dice, you get contacted by dozens of brain dead recruiters. Even worse, they all ask you to send your resume in #@%$#@ Word format, even when they can get it in ASCII format from DICE.

    There were a couple that were genuinely helpful, but frankly, most are idiots.

    Not flamebait. Truth.

    1. Re:reason by faichai · · Score: 1
      For anyone in the UK, this is exactly the same situation you get with jobsite.co.uk and I assume jobserve, never submit your CV.

      The worst thing is that most fuckers don't tick the "unavailable" check box once you've got a job, so the same damn agency phones up about 20 times.

      Fucking desperate recruiting whores.

  9. Re:Work for a consulting company by Micah · · Score: 1

    > 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.

    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.

  10. Re:Telecommuting == Work never ends by Micah · · Score: 1

    Haha. Good advice actually.

    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... :-)

  11. moderators -- why is that offtopic? by Micah · · Score: 2

    Joining an open source project is a great way to do it. You can get name recognition for one thing, and you'll gain experience in the product you're working on that could be very valuable to potential employers.

  12. Work on other business ideas by Micah · · Score: 2

    Think of a cool new technology you can work on and point to it as your own, and work on that when you don't have paying work. That's what I'm doing. I have a couple potentially lucrative ideas. Of course, marketing them might be a challenge and you need to eat before you finish them. So do it carefully. But with any luck and a good idea it could work well.

  13. Networking, networking, networking... by Ian+Bicking · · Score: 2
    I've been, well, moderately successful at contract work, and moderately happy. Not extremely successful, not extremely happy. So I have a lot yet to learn, myself... but here's what I think now:

    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.

  14. Re:Social Networking by AnarchySoftware · · 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.)

  15. Contract Job Hunting by Nathan+Cassano · · Score: 2

    I work as a web developer for www.cjhunter.com (ContractJobHunter) which specializes in contract work for IT/IS and technical disciplines.

    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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    This space for rent. Call 1-800-SIGADVT to place your ad.
  16. In my experience... by PCM2 · · Score: 1

    ...so-called "hardcore programming" jobs aren't that easy to come by on a contract basis. On the other hand, Web jobs aren't too difficult to pick up. If server-side Java meets your qualifications for "programming," then why not try that? A lot of work in that field around here (Bay Area).

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
    1. Re:In my experience... by grahaminn · · Score: 1

      Despite being interpreted, I wouldn't call Java a scripting language. There are sizable applications out there written entirely in Java, such as Star Office. Would you call the people who coded Star Office 'web-scripters' ? (Star Office may not be a great application, but it certainly isn't a web-script). A lot of the Java coding I've done is on stuff where C++ was initially considered, but dropped when ease of memory-management and portability took precedence of performance. Java is certainly more akin to C/C++ than languages like Perl or Javascript.

  17. Re:How? by johnnyb · · Score: 2

    Actually, if you are a consultant, you generally own the rights to what you create, and thus can open-source it at will. The client won't care, because the client isn't selling software.

    --
    Engineering and the Ultimate
  18. Re:a few tips.. by Johann · · Score: 1
    Don't email me.... :-)

    Visit this page for the example contract and additional information.

    "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."

    --
    "You're gonna need a bigger boat." - Chief Brody
  19. Re:a few tips.. by Johann · · 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 and I will send you the one I use now.

    "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."

    --
    "You're gonna need a bigger boat." - Chief Brody
  20. Books by Logic · · Score: 1

    An excellent book on this subject is Getting Started in Consulting, by Alan Weiss© 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©

    --
    -Ed Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.
  21. Re:How? by unitron · · Score: 1
    "Isn't "Keeping ./ free of grammatical errors for three years" a fragment?"

    No, it's a slogan.

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  22. Re:Get an Accountant by unitron · · Score: 1

    If you know anything about accounting you'll probably prefer Peachtree to Quickbooks.

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  23. Find your niche by Stele · · Score: 2

    It can help to find a niche where you have some expertise. At one company I worked for, I designed a plugin architecture for their product suite. Once vendors found out about it, my name got around and I've had plenty of extra work porting and implementing plugins using my own API.

    Whatever your niche is, the most important thing is to get your name around somehow.

  24. You're getting ripped off. by mrsam · · Score: 1
    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).

    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%.

    ---

  25. How I made the plunge. by mrsam · · 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...

    ---

  26. Re:a few tips.. by peter303 · · Score: 2

    There are a few books out there on general self-employment, and specifically for software.
    The Idiot/Dummy series are decent start.

  27. contracting = 2 x coding by peter303 · · Score: 2

    Even if you manage full time contracts,
    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.

  28. Re:Trust me on the sunsc^H^H^H^H^Hcontract thing.. by Xerithane · · Score: 1

    30% is what I have noticed to be typical. Different firms do it differently, the only way to know is to ask the corporate client or ask the agency. Otherwise it's just a ballpark.

    --
    Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
  29. Trust me on the sunsc^H^H^H^H^Hcontract thing.. by Xerithane · · Score: 2
    Sorry.. pun came to mind. Be gentle

    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 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.

    --
    Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
    1. Re:Trust me on the sunsc^H^H^H^H^Hcontract thing.. by deeznutsclan · · Score: 2
      Be fierce with your monkey

      The words of a wiseman.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, post on Slashdot about it.
  30. How I'm doing it. by liquidcarpet · · Score: 2

    I started working as a consultant out of school. I was salaried by the firm, but it ended up being an hourly rate. After realizing how badly I was being duped, I left.

    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.

  31. Re:I don't recommend it... by Raul+Acevedo · · Score: 2
    I have heard (especially on past slashdot rummagings on contracting) similar complaints. I find them interesting because I have done contract work for 5 years, and have only ended up along side other excellent contractors.

    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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    --
    In a real emergency, we would have all fled in terror, and you would not have been notified.
  32. It's almost all programming by Skapare · · 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.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  33. Re:Work for a consulting company by rw2 · · Score: 2
    First of all that kind of contract is probably illegal. Second they all have expiration dates. The one at my last consulting company (the one that mattered contractually) said I couldn't work for any client that I had worked for (the only inforcable restriction, if they are doing business at GE and I never go there personally they cannot touch me if I leave to go to GE) for a period of one year. So, I told them I was ready to go, but if they wanted they could keep me at my current customer and subcontract me. I did that for almost a year, thus eliminating the contractual problems, delighting the client and keeping a customer for the company I left.

    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.

    --

  34. Work for a consulting company by rw2 · · Score: 3
    Let them pay you a salary, pay your benefits, absorb the risk and move you from place to place as you meet lots of people and learn lots of things. Don't loose touch with anyone you got along well with.

    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.

    --

  35. Re:a few tips.. by delysid-x · · Score: 1

    Always get a detailed feature list and make them stick to it, or the client will be thinking up "just one more little feature" over and over again

  36. Re:contract work is hard..... by Surt · · Score: 1

    Just a quick note ... in CA and a lot of other states, solid individual health care can be purchased from kaiser for about $80/month, with reductions for buying for a family. You can get a pretty good deal for husband/wife/2kids at less than $250 per month, and for a lot of people it's pretty easy to get an extra $250/month out of contracting.

    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  37. Outsourcing providers by emc3 · · Score: 1
    My brother-in-law works for Comsys, and telecommutes most of the time. They're an IT outsourcing firm that does a lot of programming conracts.

    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

    --

    Ernest MacDougal Campbell III
    geek ramblings
  38. Barnes & Nobel by cjsteele · · Score: 2
    This is no joke, just read... I goto Barnes & Nobel, look for people who are in the computer department, but don't quite seem like they fit in, and start asking them questions. My experience has been quite interesting, for example: I have recieved three job offers, and met some of the most interesting people ever, just by striking up a conversation at B&N!

    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

    --
    "This above all, to thine own self be true" :x!
    1. Re:Barnes & Nobel by amilo12345 · · Score: 1

      can't we just go to B&N to buy books? I've been approached by a recruiter the last two times I was in the computer section - worse than the subway... The initial question used the word "telecommute" in the question. Not many ways to find gigs that allow you to stay put but there is a relatively obscure website that actually posts detailed specifications for projects that programmers can do. The company (forinstance.com) does all the scope mgmt and testing so developers can work from anywhere. Hmmm... might work.

  39. Here is a good website by Polo · · Score: 1

    Check out PACE, they do a billing or contract programmers and have some great information on negotiating rates, getting gigs, etc. I'm not associated with them. I was just investigating a contract job with a company (no middlemen involved) and they came up as a billing option. They charge 5% for billing.

    Hope this helps

  40. Contracting Jobs by beta64 · · Score: 4

    I've been a contractor now for the last 9 months. I used web sites like www.dice.com and www.monster.com. From there, the recruiters took over and got me the job interviews for those contracts that I was interested in doing. As with most jobs, the most important parts are the resume and the interview (course it helps if you actually have programming skills too). In essence, you have to be able to sell yourself and you abilities. Having done past projects is always a good thing as it gives you something to focus on and talk about with an employer.

    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/

    --
    -- Juan
  41. Re:Use your social contacts...and find a lawyer by youngsd · · 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,

    Any provision in an employment agreement which provides that an employee shall assign, or offer to assign, any of his or her rights in an invention to his or her employer shall not apply to an invention that the employee developed entirely on his or her own time without using the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information except for those inventions that either: (1) relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer's business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer; or (2) result from any work performed by the employee for the employer. To the extent a provision in an employment agreement purports to require an employee to assign an invention otherwise excluded from being required to be assigned under California labor code section 2870(a), the provision is against the public policy of this state and is unenforceable.

    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

    --
    Democracy is a poor substitute for liberty.
  42. Re:Yes there is, but heres a few tips by catfood · · Score: 1
    [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]

    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!

  43. There are more gradual ways by dubl-u · · Score: 2

    This poster has some good advice, but it's a little extreme for my tastes.

    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 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.

    1. Re:There are more gradual ways by Richy_T · · Score: 2
      Indeed. I had decided to move to the States. Visa applications took about 8 months. In the last month, I handed in my notice. A week before my employment ended, they offered to let me telecommute. A great improvement over the hour-each-way commute I would have been facing.

      Rich

  44. Re:The Irony by JohnDB · · Score: 1

    I have heard that a lot of companies are outsourcing their IT departments, but that doesn't mean that the work doesn't need to be done anymore. Check with that other company, see if they're looking for work and be sure to point out that you are already familiar with the department your old employer sold.

    Just my thoughts
    --John

  45. Re:I don't recommend it... by bubbha · · Score: 1

    Sounds to me like if you are scrapping all this "contractor code"... the person who ought to get fired is YOU since you clearly lack the required project management skills.

    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.

    --
    I want to be alone with the sandwich
  46. try dice.com by samantha · · Score: 1

    Post your experience/credentials, maybe a pointer to your resume and what kind of arrangement you are looking for. Some recruiters will call you. They also have an online project/situation database and search system that I have found invaluable.

  47. Contracting successfully by medcalf · · Score: 3

    In my case, I saved up a month and a half's worth of outlay as cash, in case there was a between-contract lull. In retrospect, I should have saved up three months.

    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

    --
    -- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
    1. Re:Contracting successfully by alyandon · · Score: 1

      Personally I feel uncomfortable if I don't have enough cash saved away to make it 6-9 months (assuming minimal expenses).

  48. Re:If you are good, it pays, if not it still pays. by Baki · · 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.

  49. Re:contract work is hard..... by Baki · · Score: 1
    Luckily, these remarks don't apply to many other countries. In most european countries 'health plans' are no issue, since empoyers don't ever have anything to do with health (everyone takes a health insurance for about $150 a month himself, low income get subsidies for that).

    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.

  50. Re:If you are good, it pays, if not it still pays. by Kefaa · · Score: 1

    To answer you questions:
    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.

  51. If you are good, it pays, if not it still pays... by Kefaa · · Score: 5
    I have been contracting for about 5 years. Before that I was 12 years with a fortune 5 company doing development work.

    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.

  52. Re:Of course there's work by retrosteve · · Score: 1

    Great advice, he forgot one more thing:
    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

  53. Problems as a Student by rhughes · · 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 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.

  54. Re:YOU are the problem.... by Fnkmaster · · Score: 1
    You my friend can go fuck yourself as well. There are more opportunistic morons working as contractors than as full time people. There was an economic boom and a lot of unqualified opportunists ran to where the money was, which was proportionally more in contract work than in full time. There are tons of bozos working as full time developers too, but if you were interviewing contractors 6-10 months ago in the Boston area, you would realize the ratio of moron to competent was far higher among them than among full timers.

    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.

  55. I don't recommend it... by Fnkmaster · · Score: 2

    As somebody who has employed contractors at my company, I would say I wouldn't recommend it. We hired them because we were in a bind early on in our company's history. They were awful workers, didn't invest anything in the quality of their code and wasted a lot of time and tried to bill us for it. We ended up scrapping most of the code they wrote and I instituted a no-contractor policy at my company. I'm not the only person who's been burned by contractors, and most saavy company's won't deal with them. Why? It's just not cost effective. I can hire three full time, dedicated software engineers for what it costs to hire one decent contractor. And with the full time person we can worry about results and quality. With the contractor, we spend more time worrying about their honesty in billing.
    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.

    1. Re:I don't recommend it... by Fnkmaster · · Score: 2
      You my friend are a fucking moron. I should get fired? Hardly. It's MY COMPANY, I own a significant percentage of it, I founded it. I WAS NOT the project manager, shithead. I had a project manager who I did fire because he couldn't do his job. I'm the CTO of the company, dickbrain. And I am extremely good at it. I was right out of college and forced to hire people in an impossible job market by our VCs who gave me no support, no guidance no nothing. I wrote about 75% of the code for our first product release and it fucking worked and was great.

      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.

  56. Re:Social Networking by gluke · · Score: 1

    what do you mean "use assembly again"? as if it's not used anymore?

  57. Re:If you are good, it pays, if not it still pays. by dingbat_hp · · 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.

  58. Best things you could do by Cable · · Score: 1

    #1 Network network network, talk to people, socialize, get your name out there. The more people that know about you, the more likely you can get that programming job you want.

    #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.

  59. A Good Web Site for Contractors is Realrates by conrad6 · · Score: 1

    Real life real contractors on Janet Rules real rates home page includes salary surveys by skill and by geographic area, and an active BBS populated by vocal and opinionated contractors. The site also includes some arcane information, such as contracting overseas (my contribution).

  60. Yes there is, but heres a few tips by sbence · · Score: 1
    If your a W2 Salary guy, the saying is, 'Dont be irreplaceable, you cant be promoted'.
    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')
    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 .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).

    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

  61. Re:a few tips.. by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 2

    Another example of a bad contract is an open-ended one. A friend once worked for a company that had a contract which said that the customer had to sign off before they got paid off. Surprise, Surprise: The customer came up with item after item that had to be "fixed" before they'd sign off. I don't know if they ever signed off (this was 20 years ago).
    `ø,,ø!

    --
    Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
  62. Methods by sbergstrom · · Score: 1

    A cheap and easy way to get your feet wet so to speak would be to place an ad in your local paper. See if this would scare up some attention, and go from there.

    --

    Love, Stu
  63. Consulting Hall of Shame - Be Warned by Janet+Ruhl · · Score: 1

    Below are entries from the "Contractor Hall of Shame" which were collected from visitors to Realrates.com in 1997. If the messages on our BBS are anything to go by, the abuses are far worse now.

    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 ...would have required paying a lawyer twice. One of the provisions was that, if the client makes an offer, the consultant must "finalize all contractual matters with ACS" within one business day of the INTERVIEW (not the offer).

    * 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.

  64. Contacts, Contacts, Contacts.... by cruachan · · Score: 1
    I've been doing this very successfully for two years now - before that I negotiated with my old employer and did it half time for 18 months (they new I was going to leave but figured they rather have me assured for a while than just straight out the door). I telecommute exclusively - from the middle of the Scottish Highlands,

    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.

  65. Why work from home ? by mge · · Score: 1
    ...when you can work anywhere ?
    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,

    1. Re:Why work from home ? by NullAndVoid · · 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

      You can do this if you have a passport from the UK or a commonwealth country. It doesn't apply to US citizens, we have to get a work permit for a specific job at a specific company, which takes about 5 months to get after the company applies for it. I know this for a fact, having worked in London for 3 years and dealt with the OLS (Overseas Labour Services) to get my work permit.

      If you have a parent (not a grandparent) who is a UK citizen, you can get working papers that way.

      --


      -- Sigs are for losers
  66. Information on contracting through a company by snakelady · · Score: 4
    I am a technical recruiter in Silicon Valley with an established firm. We place a lot of software engineers, technical writers, and various other technical professionals.
    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

    1. Re:Information on contracting through a company by aclarke · · Score: 1

      What's this about W2s and getting paid when companies go under? I just quit my full-time job to go work on a contract, and it only lasted a day and a half before the contract company cancelled the project I was working on and me along with it. Now I'm not making any money even though it was supposedly a 3 month (at-will) W2 contract. Am I being screwed here?

      --

      www.clarke.ca
  67. Re:a few tips.. by roman_mir · · Score: 2

    As someone who has only started, to someone who is thinking about it: Don't be too picky. If this is your first contract, it is important that you actually get the job done, get the feeling for it. It is very different from working full time but the difference depends on the company. Don't worry about the author writes just yet, find a contract that will credit you with what you've done.
    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.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  68. geek hangouts by small_dick · · Score: 2

    i know a couple people who leave 3x5's at the local techie hangouts (electronic parts/surplus places)

    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"

    --


    Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
    See my user info for links.
  69. Being more than a programmer by gestalt · · 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.

  70. Social Networking by jstone · · Score: 5

    Acquiring contract work for programming can be challenging if you just plain on using online resources like elance.com or itmoonlighting.com (neither seem very effective yet imho).

    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.

  71. Advice from my limited experience by hoegg · · Score: 4

    Well, I tried it. And I'm afloat. To summarize what follows, you have to work long hard hours and sacrifice the financial benefits of full-time employment for a while. And you have to spend a lot of time doing non-programming related duties such as accounting, bookkeeping, marketing/networking, and writing proposals. First, I got some paper behind my name while I was still full-time and made sure I did my full-time job well. At the time I was doing networking, server installations, and desktop support. Then, some friends and I decided to do a network upgrade for a guy we knew over a weekend, and it went well. We continued to do small, hourly contracts for a fairly small rate (about triple my salary rate though) and built up a reputation with that client. Over time, we got larger and larger contracts for him, including a small database application he needed on short notice. After delivering that, we agreed to do a larger database application without fully understanding the requirements and settled on a flat rate. Although financially we suffered for this, the fact that the application we turned out performed as we believed it should impressed the client that we had programming skills. However, in the course of four days of programming with a grand total of four hours of sleep, I lost my partners. They like networking, not development. Since then, I have done several successful development projects for the client and refined my methodology for understanding customer requirements and providing a satisfactory solution in budget while turning a profit. In the meantime (I know, what meantime!) I spent a lot of time calling up former coworkers and making contacts and buying people lunch. Out of that came my current largest client for whom I am subcontracting on two very large web applications. The original client has brought me on for a large e-commerce project, and I have brought on two friends as subcontractors to help. The downside to this is that I spend sixty to eighty hours a week programming and driving to customer sites. On top of that, I spend ten to fifteen logging my hours, making invoices, accounting, marketing, and attempting to get a good lawyer. My next business strategy change is to try to convert all this hourly work into contract work. All of that probably sounded like complaining. The clincher of the whole deal is that, if you are up to the work, it is a highly rewarding experience to provide solutions directly to clients and make a living doing it. Whenever I finish my website, it will be here. Good luck!

  72. Re:How? by tony+clifton · · Score: 1
    Well -- if he's got free time, doing open source is a great way to learn new things, if you're lucky get your reputation out there, etc.

    When I have down time, I do three things -- vacation, get some training, and find something interesting to hack on.

  73. Re:contract work is hard..... by tony+clifton · · Score: 2
    Yeah agencies skim your check, but they provide a lot of liquidity. Even with an agency, I'm easily making twice the going salaries.

    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!

  74. Get an Accountant by tony+clifton · · Score: 3
    Especially if you incorporate -- there are a ton of rules in terms of how you can pay yourself. No company is doing withholding, it's all on you. So ask a contractor who seems to be doing OK for the name of their accountant. And it's a pain in the ass to do yourself -- I can debug two dozen EJB's at once, scrawl UML on a napkin, and solve a halting problem: but bookkeeping is a black art as far as I'm concerned. I'll leave it to an adult.

    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?

    1. Re:Get an Accountant by The+NT+Christ · · Score: 1

      Can you really solve a halting problem? ;)

      --

      I didn't pay for my operating system either

  75. FT to Contract in 3 Easy Steps by TheFuzzy · · Score: 1
    Cliff,

    I made the leap from FT to full-time contracting 5 years ago. I don't regret it in any way, and have helped a number of my friends get started in freelancing. That being said, contracting is not for everyone.

    If you have chronic, serious health issues ... keep your FT job. If you get anxious about money easily, don't freelance. If your skills are not up-to-date (i.e. You're a PASCAL or VAX expert), reconsider. Make sure you're comfortable with a)working alone for long streteches from your home (it can get lonely) and b) schmoozing with potential clients. Consider that you will need to handle your own, potentialy complicated, billing, taxes, insurance (business AND health!) and legal issues.

    Once you've thought about all that, here's your three easy steps:

    STEP 1: Save up 3-6 months salary. Six months is ideal, but you need a minimum of three. You can expect that after you take the plunge, it'll be at least 30 days before you get a decent contract, and another 30 days (or more!) before you get paid.

    STEP 2: Find a contractor in your area, in your discipline, who is successful and wants to hire you as a subcontractor. I've done this for a few others - I take 10-20%, and they get the benefit of my experieince with contracts, clients, project management, and setting up a business.

    STEP 3: Start contracting on your own! form an LLC (don't consider incorporating until you're making at least $100,000), get business cards, a website, and an office, and go for it.

    I reccomend against trying to "ease your way into contracting" by moonlighting. As an experienced master contractor, I don't hire moonlighters ... whenever your contract interferes with their day job, you lose. As a result, the only projects you'll be offered as a moonlighter will the really awful ones no successful IC wants to take.

    E-mail me for more useful advice: mailto:josh@agliodbs.com

    Josh Berkus, Aglio Database Solutions

  76. Re:How? by nomadic · · Score: 2

    Join an open sourced project!

    I got the impression he wanted to do something they'd pay him for.
    --

  77. RE: Contracting ... a bigtime warning by rustin_ross · · Score: 4

    I can tell you from personal experience that if you're unsuccessful at contracting it gets MUCH tougher to go back to full-time employment at many firms.

    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

    --
    www.hiredinsight.com
  78. The standard rate for big companies by c0d3r · · Score: 1

    150/hr.. i worked in the finance dept.. the interviewers can't see your rate.. but they won't be questioned unless its over that.. i've personally done 130 at most just to keep it from the barrier.. i've seen some at 250+ /hr on the hr systems. Just have some skill thats tough to get.. like working on systems that are expensive.(erps, or expensive app servers.. sap, iplanet,netdynamics, mainframe).. you'll be tested for 2 weeks and if you can't hang they'll throw you out.. if so then you just become part of the process like any other employee..

  79. Alive but not so well in the UK by wapwam · · Score: 1
    I presume (since you don't mention) that the original poster was based in the US? If they have the misfortune to be in the UK then they will discover that the contract market here has been sent back into the Dark Ages by our mis-guided Labour government.

    There is a lot of work here but the new law (nicknamed IR35) means that you pay 10% more tax then regular employees but without any of the perks of full-time employment. Insecurity AND more tax! hmmm-mmmm give me more of that! I'll make my voice heard at the election ;-)

    for more information check:
    http://www.pcgroup.co.uk (The UK based contractors association who has taken the taxman to court!), http://www.shout99.com and http://www.contractoruk.co.uk.

    BTW, remember that it is called contract programming for a reason! ;)

    1. Re:Alive but not so well in the UK by wapwam · · Score: 1
      oh dear! Another blind, confused and mislead Anonymous Coward!

      This is not really the place for this but no I do not get treated like any other employee. Yes, the 10% is the employers tax but I don't get any of the benefits. I do charge more but I work and train a lot harder than most employees that I have worked with. I also am also investing money to build a small, profitable business and hopefully employee a couple of people. Under IR35 I cant do this. If I want to buy a PC I have to pay tax @ 40% AND social tax at 22.5% before re-investing it to pay another 15.5% VAT.

      Your view is valid, shame it's not correct.

  80. The Irony by Mr_Huber · · Score: 3
    I'd really love to tell you that the market for contract programming is booming. I really would. You see, I've been contracting for about a year now and it has been unquestionably the most enjoyable job I've held.

    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!

    1. Re:The Irony by bataras · · Score: 2
      After all, contractors know they can be let go at any time

      Yeah. And so can employees. And their salary disappears from the bottom line too.

  81. a few tips.. by Lordrashmi · · 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. It does online contracts, digital signatures, etc (I haven't used it but a friend said it was good).

    Good luck!
    --LordRashmi

    1. Re:a few tips.. by EGNi · · Score: 1

      Stick to the specs. If the client wants more features, do a "phase 2" later. More money for you.

  82. What about getting a programming job ... period by SnapperHead · · Score: 2

    Like many others, I have been searching for any form of a programming job. Is it me, or is the market starting to slow down. I have noticed there are a lot less computer jobs these days. Companys going down left and right, has the computer industry reached its highest point ? What goes up, must come down ...
    until (succeed) try { again(); }

    --
    until (succeed) try { again(); }
  83. Faith, brother by dstone · · Score: 1

    Re/ transitioning from employed developer to contracted developer...

    You're making good coin right now in your 9-5 software gig as an employee, right? (If you're not, you're in the minority in the industry.)

    What I did was cut expenses and save up for six months or so, putting aside enough to get me through maybe two lean months of initial contracting. Then... break loose and have some faith. My god, it's not like we're in a tough job market -- you can always get rehired in a full-time software job that's not a perfect fit but pays the bills well.

    You didn't mention if you have dependents or other circumstances which could make the initial lean months of contracting extra stressful. If you do, I sympathize, but I've still seen colleagues pull that situation off without a hitch. Faith, faith, faith. You're a programmer, dammit! The world needs you! It took me seven years as an employee to finally make the leap, but I never for a single second regretted going indepedent as a contractor.

  84. Websites! by ZanshinWedge · · Score: 2
    I'm in exactly the same boat and it took me some time to figure out just what there was out there that was useful. First I made the rounds of all the well known job websites (monster, hotjobs, etc.) but none of them really suited what I was looking for so my hopes were pretty low. However, it just so happened that I got a few promotional emails (aka spam, but in this case it was very useful) about other job sites designed for freelance contract work.

    Check out allfreelance.com and especially eLance.com and guru.com. There is tons of contract programmer work out there.

    1. Re:Websites! by osgeek · · Score: 1

      Ugh, you gave known spammers your business?

      Too bad, I always hope that members of the /. crowd would avoid helping spammers, even for selfish reasons.

      --
      Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
  85. Re:Any custom advice for Canadians? by BluedemonX · · Score: 1

    Yes.

    Move to America.

    There's little work in Canada - it's underpaid, overtaxed, you have to pay all the EI benefits you'll never see, etc.

    --

    --- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
  86. YOU are the problem.... by GameGuy · · Score: 1

    You simply didn't pay attent to what you were hiring and you mis-managed the project. I have been contracting for over 10 years now and I have worked with both small and large companies. I have worked on contract teams. And I find it INSULTING that you would suggest that I would do anything but was best for my client. There are just as many STUPID SELF CENTERED full time coders as there are contract coders. You're a moron for suggesting that contract=bad code. A bad coder is a bad coder no matter how much you pay or don't pay. If you toss resumes that are contracters, well, again, you're a moron that needs to catch a clue. Do we expect to be paid for our talent? Of course. I promise you: you CANNOT hire three people that match my skill level for what I make contracting. No one with my skill level would TAKE a job for that amount of money.
    The real problem is managers like you that have decided that the word contracter is bad. Your loss and your competitions gain.
    NO SH$T - if you are a contracter you will be the first one to go in a bad time. You'll also be the first one to go when the project is over. Well, dummy, THAT'S what being a contracter is about. We are hired guns to come in, do a job very well and we get paid for it. If you kept coders that sucked - well, stupid for you - the whole point is a contracter is easy to get rid of - if they don't deliver, FLUSH THEM. While I will defend my skill to the end, I have NO use for pretend coders.
    Looks to me like you made some very bad decisions and now want to dump your mistakes on the contracters backs. Grow up.

    --
    The Game Guy
  87. ROFL by GameGuy · · Score: 1

    Ah, yes, obviously you have things under control - that why you immediately went for 'FUCK' and 'MORON'. Well, let me first point out, 'MORON' that you have no idea what my skill level is, so you're talking out your ass (bet your use to that) *yawn* YOU started the insulting by implying that all contracters suck. Why do YOU watch what your typing?

    And, 'MORON', if you'd bother to pay attention, I'm the first one to admit that there are bad contractors out there - and they aren't my cronies. Geeze, where did you learn to read? If you code like you read, I think I judge your programming skills pretty easily. I seriously doubt you approach my skill level, but that wasn't the point of the conversation was it?

    On the other hand, I did piss you off, so I accomplished my goal *smile*

    Next time, why don't you try being a little more accurate rather than seeing how many people you can insult at once?

    ROFL, das Game Guy

    --
    The Game Guy
  88. But posting to Dice is good because... by smagruder · · Score: 1

    those few inquiries that *are* genuinely helpful can work like serendipity in that they may not be positions you would target yourself for, but may end up being a good fit anyway. And it's pretty easy to sort the wheat (personally written inquiries) from the chaff (form letters).

    Steve Magruder

    --
    Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
  89. It depends on why you want to contract. by n7lyg · · Score: 3
    Contracting is definitely not for those who absolutely depend on a regular pay check. When you are exploring becoming an independent contractor, you have to take a lot of factors into account, such as building in overhead time to market yourself, time to take (unpaid) vacations, paying your own medical insurance, etc.

    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...

  90. contract work by dxnxax · · Score: 1

    List your resume on http://mojolin.com. I was constantly bothered by companies looking for contract workers.

  91. In Australia by animallogic · · Score: 1
    I personally use Seek recruitment.

    They allow me to search for contract, part time, full time or casual work contracts. They always have heaps of all types.

    I've personally gotten a contract and a fulltime job out of them.

  92. contract work is hard..... by canning · · Score: 2
    but it's easier to get placements though an agency. The only problem here is that they skim your check. The good thing is that you get to experience a variety of work environment. It all depends what your looking for.

    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.

    --
    I love the smell of Karma in the morning
    1. Re:contract work is hard..... by canning · · Score: 3
      The loss benefits isn't worth it for me, I earn the equivalant of %30 of my salary in benefits, plus over a month in holidays a year, paid sick days (10) and paid float days.

      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.

      --
      I love the smell of Karma in the morning
  93. Would I Hire You as a Contractor? by johndiii · · Score: 1
    There have been quite a few comments on the contracting business in this thread, but my take on this is somewhat different. I am partially responsible for hiring both contract and employee developers. In this capacity, I would have to say that you would probably have a better chance of getting a full-time job.

    I've done a few networking/Sys Admin jobs, but no programming jobs. This is a bit of a problem. You may have "great programming skills," but where have you demonstrated this? Note the distinction between a programmer and a developer. You can code (I assume), but can you take a project from requirements to delivery? That is what I am looking for from a contractor. I have to be sure that you can do the job before you come in, because the (nearly inevitable) time that you spend learning while doing the job is wasted for me - you will be leaving when the job is done. In addition to the fact that you will cost me a bit more, relative to an employee. My expectations are higher for a contractor, because I'm not developing a long-term employee.

    You should also consider the development role that you want. I would hire contract developers for detailed design and implementation, but architecture decisions are made (in general) by employees. This is biased by the fact that I work for a software company, meaning that I am hiring developers for the company's main product (read: revenue stream), rather than hiring for a project that is a cost item. There is a huge cost when the developers that best know the product leave the company.

    There are several pieces of advice the I would offer. First, do something to establish a track record. You will need some working experience developing software before anyone that you want to work for will hire you as a contractor. Second, be very careful who you work for at first. There are many companies who will be looking to exploit you in return for that first entry of programming experience on your resume. I would advise a smaller company, but (more importantly) try and find one where you know a working developer. Third, try and find an agency that will help you get placed. A good agency can be very helpful to both you and the employer. Again, knowing someone who has dealt with the agency is very helpful (what agency or agencies does your current employer use?). Fourth, consider your current employer. Do they do development work? They might be willing to have you do development work, and they get bargain while you get much-needed work experience. Of course, you may not want to work for this company. Fifth, be careful about how you state your experience. From my point of view, you don't have

    any

    development experience (note that I don't know how you acquired your "programming experience" - I would consider work on an open source project to be good experience).

    From what I can see, your biggest priority at this point is resume building. A contracting Web site might help; there will be more emphasis on how you present yourself in terms of information content. An open source development project would also help.

    Good luck!
    --
    Floating face-down in a river of regret...and thoughts of you...
    1. Re:Would I Hire You as a Contractor? by johndiii · · Score: 1

      Oops - wrong tag. Consider the "any" bolded. Consider me embarassed.

      Could we have the "Submit" button further away from the "Preview" button?

      --
      Floating face-down in a river of regret...and thoughts of you...
  94. realrates.com by 0WaitState · · Score: 1

    First, make certain your employment agreement doesn't prohibit freelancing. If it does, maybe you should lose the salary gig.

    Before you get started take a look at http://www.realrates.com--among all the excellent articles on the negotiations, non-completes, and getting started are reader-supplied aggregated rates sorted by tech specialty and region. This will give a good idea of what your skills are worth.

    --

    Remain calm! All is well!
  95. Small company contracting by nixon78 · · Score: 1
    There are many small companies who look for programmers on a contract / project basis but do not openly advertise positions because of money / lack of resources, etc. Quick google searches reveal many of these opportunities. One such example:

    HealthCare Systems Contracted c / unix programming in Indianapolis

  96. Re:Alive and well for those who know how by daceaser · · Score: 1

    The contract market is perfectly healthy. The IR35 legislation clamps down on people who should be employees but are contracted by their employers so that the employers are obliged to pay the same benefits. If you are a true contract developer (short-mid term) there's no problem. Set up a limited company, make you and your wife/account directors, and then set up a website and sell little bits and bobs on your website (even if you don't make any money off of it.) There's no problem.

    --
    -- There are three kinds of mathematicians: those who can add and those who can't.
  97. Re:Of course there's work by smassey · · Score: 1

    But that will make u an a^&Hole !!!

  98. Use your social contacts...and find a lawyer by lwollstadt76 · · Score: 5
    In my experience, the easiest way to find good programming contacting jobs is to ask around with your group of geek friends and see if any of their companies have short-term programming needs. This only works, of course, if you have a group of geek friends who work for different companies -- but it can be a good deal if that's the case. Even if your friends' companies think they're only interested in hiring full-time employees, you may be able to convince them otherwise.

    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

    1. Re:Use your social contacts...and find a lawyer by The+NT+Christ · · Score: 1

      Some states (e.g. CA) prohibit ownership of IP which is done off-site and off-hours.

      --

      I didn't pay for my operating system either

    2. Re:Use your social contacts...and find a lawyer by The+NT+Christ · · Score: 1
      As always, take glib generalizations of law with a grain of salt.

      Whatever.

      --

      I didn't pay for my operating system either

  99. Contract Programming by NeutrinoBoy · · Score: 1

    Get your re'sume' to any of the professional placement firms that also works with contract programmers. The best way to find them in your area is to buy the Sunday papers and peruse the ads and more importantly the contact information. Even though a company may not have an exact fit you need to start the networking process. I do nothing but contract programming but I can tell you this is full time work and then some. If your simply contemplating trying to secure a little side work while keeping your current full time job your going to find it a little harder to find work. Most small jobs that I do are word of mouth from people I've done bigger projects for. Good luck!

  100. It's been done, but go prepared by Gruneun · · Score: 3

    Do what a friend of mine did. Find a company that wants developers badly (there are plenty). In the interview, be very firm with your wish to telecommute. If the company doesn't bite immediately, offer to work a couple days in the office so they can see you work. Set a date, before you start working, that you will be converted to full telecommute status. It's very, very important to set the date early or it will never get settled. The company gets to evaluate your work ethic beforehand and you get an idea how the company really works.

    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.

  101. Of course there's work by Chuck+Flynn · · Score: 4
    To make an omelette, you have to break some eggs. To become a successful self-employed contract worker, you have to take a few risks with your livelihood. But risk-taking is what life's all about. My advice:
    1. Quit your existing job now. They're just draining your time and energy, and you obviously don't like them if you're considering starting out on your own.
    2. Get some business cards. I don't know how many people fail to recognize the most rudimentary of marketing skills like presenting your product (yourself) in its best light. If it's not worth summarizing in three lines on a piece of index paper, then it's not worth saying.
    3. Call in all your favors. If you've been a good employee in the industry, then you've met lots of other programmers at conventions and parties. Chances are you've caught some of them in compromising situations. Blackmail isn't always pretty, but it's a surefire way to get people's attention.
    4. Post flyers on lampposts and traffic signs. Common leafleting is not just for garage sales anymore; legitimate businesses are using the plebeian means of advertising to their own advantage, and so should you.
    5. Keep in touch with your parents. Even the best laid plans are laid to waste every now and then, and it's important to keep a lifeline with people who have deep pockets. If your parents don't have any money, then I suggest exchanging them for a different pair at the local shelter.
    6. Pray. A lot. It's a tough time, and it takes tough people to make it through. Don't do it alone.

    I haven't been on salary for almost thirty years now, and I'm doing quite alright. I wish you the best of luck.
    --

    Read the rest of this comment...

  102. Lessons To Learn From by leabre · · Score: 4

    I have done contract programming in the past, mainly, I put some LA Police Depts. evidence (paper trails) room on an automated, barcode, account required, blockbuster type of system. I've written other things for them.

    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

  103. Find a consulting firm by bytor4232 · · Score: 1

    I work for a consulting firm in Ann Arbor Michigan. We officially do all things linux including service, support, and custom solutions but we also do some coding. Call around to the various consulting companies and inquire about what you are looking for. The smaller shops will probably surprise ya.

    --
    -- 4 8 15 16 23 42
  104. Contracting by Geeko+Roman · · Score: 1

    Hey I might need some work...(*maybe*).
    Give me an email, and tell me what you know and how much you want an hour.
    jeff@graniteprecision.com

  105. finding the job by neuroslime · · Score: 5

    How I did it was to find a company I liked, with a product that I was interested in. I then made myself well known on the mailing list (no, not with spam, but by actually helping. :) When this co. announced a job opening, I let them know that I was interested, but that I'd have to telecommute, and the hired me anyway. I think the key is that you have an interest in their company, and the product that they offer, and in the future of that product. You may not get full time work that way, but if you can get a few job, you'll do just fine.

  106. Re:Degrees of independence by The+NT+Christ · · Score: 1

    I know this is going to sound like a really stupid question, but what exactly does it mean to say you "have a strong work ethic"? Does it mean any more than just to say "I don't mind working long hours if there's a big deadline ahead"? Who isn't going to say that at interview? What kind of indications is a potential employer looking for that you have a strong work ethic?

    --

    I didn't pay for my operating system either

  107. dice.com by malachid69 · · Score: 2

    I am currently working a full-time year-contract. There were others I turned down before that were part-time, or shorter duration. What do you program? How strong are your skills? Do you have references?

    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.

    --
    http://www.google.com/profiles/malachid
  108. A Community of Independents Helps by 32U · · Score: 1

    In Colorado we've set up a community of affiliated independents to discuss just your issue. (That's what some of us do with our bench time.) Check it out at http://www.coloradoindependents.com. To be featured in Contract Professional in March 2001.

    --
    -32U.com
  109. Degrees of independence by kelek · · Score: 2
    Unfortunately, "strong programming skills, a strong work ethic, the ability to work from home effectively" are not always enough to become a freelance programmer.

    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. 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. 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, might be a good place to get started.

  110. Contracting for over 6 years by ashrubbery · · Score: 1
    I have been contracting in 4 different countries for 6 years or more. My average contract length is about 9 months, my rate ranges from $80 to $180ph. I have rarely been without work- if one economy is slow, another may not be- move!

    I sometimes work through agencies and get referrals from many sources (UK/Europe=jobserve,US=monster, etc), but the bigest rates are through referrals and personal contacts met along the way. Really enjoying contracting is a lifestyle issue. You either love or hate it IMO. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me and my family. ...and I am sooo glad I did not fall into the permanent employment trap (small salary + large options) that was so attractive during the dotcom boom.

  111. Contracting Assignments by NMadson · · Score: 1

    My experience seems to differ from many of the posters here. Since my last permanent job in '95, I've basically worked as a 'permatemp' for three companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. All of them I found through dice.com. The assignments haven't been that hard to get, but as my rate increases, I am finding it harder to get people interested in me without having improved my skills.

    As far as telecommuting is concerned, if the job could be done completely by telecommuting, companies would find offshore resources that would charge pennies to the dollars you'd probably like to see. (Have you looked at eLance.com? There are Indian and Russian programmers there who will do projects for hundreds of dollars, where a US-based programmer would have to charge thousands to stay alive.)

    My client (employers) have allowed me to telecommute as a perk only after I've demonstrated my effectiveness and value to them.

  112. Time is Money - Money is Time by ajlb · · Score: 1
    I've been doing contract work for several years now and the most important thing that I've learned is the truth of the adage that "Time is Money".

    Time is money in the sense that you'll find yourself saying 'if I take the toll highway that costs $5 it'll save me $35 in billable time - so it's worth it!'. Your time is directly related to your income. Your time becomes a commodity as much as your skill and the actual software that you produce, and that takes some getting used to (Marx would probably have some interesting things to say on that topic, too!).

    But the reverse is true as well - money is time. As a contractor the truth you have to face every day is that you can never guarantee when the next paycheck will arrive - even if you're currently doing work, clients may have a 120-day pay period or may decide not to pay you.

    When you get that first big cheque for $5000 or $10,000, the temptation is to blow it all on fancy equipment and exotic trips - remember that you're probably not going to be getting one of these cheques every week. Consider pacing yourself with a monthly 'salary' based on reasonable expectations of a decent standard of living. That way you can plan ahead more effetively. If your rent and living expenses add up to $3000/month (say), then look at $12,000 in the bank not as $12,000 now, but 4 months' worth of living. Actually, with taxes and expenses and 'putting 10% away for later' (which you do already, right?), it's probably more like 2 months' worth. I had a good year last year, and that doesn't mean 'I'm going to buy a dual-processor G4 with a 22" flat-panel LCD display, and put a downpayment on a BMW!', but rather 'I can live without work for 6 months!'

    On a related note, remember that the most valuable (and expensive) gift you can give yourself as a contractor is time off. Considering money in the bank as time instead of as stuff you can buy means that the more money you have, the more free you are to explore new technologies, do some hobby-based things (that could turn into further money-makers), get a *life*, and generally rest up for the next busy period. In this way the slow times between jobs are actually useful instead of stressful.

    Also, if you can find a good client with good people and that pays punctually and well, don't jump ship for other clients just because you feel you ought to run around more. Good clients are *golden* and worth hanging on to.

    -ajlb
    I say the future is a serious matter

    --
    I say the future is a serious matter
    And so for god's sake - hock and soda water!