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Have I been stitched up or is it time to hang up the keyboard?

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    #31
    Are you hired as a Consultant? If yes you did everything wrong.

    Originally posted by Big Blue Plymouth View Post
    ...and it's getting embarassing now.

    Anyhow - tl;dr: shown the door.

    Started new gig yesterday - had a brief 20 minute meeting with the team & they told me what they had planned from a very big picture level.

    Basically they have a permie who has put all their web api projects together (learning it on the fly) & they wanted my input to bring them up to, as they called it, "industry standard cutting edge solutions".

    No laptop so I sat with the guy I'm working with & he has comms issues with a number of Web API Services. It took a while to get there but there were erroneous and missing host entries on various machines so none of it could have ever worked in those environments. Then I get called in to see the dev manager at the end of the day & he asks me what I've seen that needs attention; I mentioned a host of things - No DI (in fact no awareness of SOLID principles in the design), business logic in controllers, nothing being done asynchronously (they said they wanted asychronous). So he gets out a piece of paper & starts asking for a breakdown of what needs to be done & how long it will take.
    I told him roughly what sort of things needed to be done - e.g. probably having to get shot of the LinqToSql stuff & use EF if they want everything to be truly asychnronous as EF gives it to you out the box. As for timescales, what can you say after 1 day other than each task is going to be in the order of weeks of effort rather than days. Then he asks me what I can do about a problem they have where their Web APIs become unresponsive after periods of inactivity. I told him I could put a windows service together to call an API method to wake up all the stuff that needs waking up & it'd probably take a day.

    So, I come in today, I've got a machine & I build the service & it's ready after lunch. Still no TFS access so I put it all on a network location for them after which I'm pulled into the office & told that they're letting me go because they don't think I'm up to the job. I'm supposed to be "driving" the permie next to me apparently. Nobody gave me this brief - I was just brought in as a resource to do Web API stuff. The permie wasn't happy about some contractor being there to basically rewrite half the stuff he'd done & he told me there had been another contractor there at some point who told them there was nothing wrong with his stuff. Anyway, reading between the lines I think he fedback to them in a not particularly positive way.

    I really don't believe I'm that useless so I can only guess it was one of three things;

    1) The permie stitched me up
    2) Face didn't fit
    3) They got me in as a consultant for a couple of days to get what they wanted out of me & then let me go. That would be incredibly cynical but it does appear someone else has been in my shoes for a very short period too.

    Comment


      #32
      Originally posted by Lance View Post
      Spend 3 days in workshops getting them to describe the problem as they perceive it.
      Then another 2 days getting them to describe the solution as they see it.
      3 weeks later present them the problem and solution they already know, in a nice Word document, with a PPT slide deck.
      Present it to the most senior people you can find and thank the people who supplied you the information.

      Consulting 101
      I've heard this described from the permie point of view too:

      Say you're a permie, the technology is failing. You know exactly why, but management don't want to listen to you. Instead they want to bring in consultants. At first this may seem like a problem, but don't worry, because the first thing the consultants will do will be to ask the staff what they think the problem/solution is. So tell them, then management will ask you to implement these changes and the technology will be fine!

      Seriously, I can't see who loses in this scenario. The permie staff get to see their decisions implemented and spend less time dealing with crappy tech. We get paid for being the consultants. Management get to pat themselves on the back for making the right decision to bring in consultants, and they have happier staff and more productive technology! Result all round!

      Comment


        #33
        Originally posted by Lance View Post
        Spend 3 days in workshops getting them to describe the problem as they perceive it.
        Then another 2 days getting them to describe the solution as they see it.
        3 weeks later present them the problem and solution they already know, in a nice Word document, with a PPT slide deck.
        Present it to the most senior people you can find and thank the people who supplied you the information.

        Consulting 101


        This is a kind of crap of a consultant wannabe.

        Comment


          #34
          Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
          Not really gonna work when he gets walked on the first day again.
          if you don't listen that may happen.
          Nobody get's walked on the first day for listening politely.
          See You Next Tuesday

          Comment


            #35
            Originally posted by Bee View Post


            This is a kind of crap of a consultant wannabe.
            In English please?
            See You Next Tuesday

            Comment


              #36
              Originally posted by Lance View Post
              In English please?
              Don't be mean. She managed to use the quote function properly on that post at least.
              'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

              Comment


                #37
                Originally posted by Lance View Post
                Spend 3 days in workshops getting them to describe the problem as they perceive it.
                Then another 2 days getting them to describe the solution as they see it.
                3 weeks later present them the problem and solution they already know, in a nice Word document, with a PPT slide deck.
                Present it to the most senior people you can find and thank the people who supplied you the information.

                Consulting 101
                A consultant is a person who asks to borrow your watch so he can tell you the time.

                Comment


                  #38
                  FTFY

                  Originally posted by billybiro View Post
                  A consultant is a person who asks to borrow your watch, whist charging you £1200 per day, so he can tell you the time.

                  The Chunt of Chunts.

                  Comment


                    #39
                    Originally posted by Bee View Post
                    Are you hired as a Consultant? If yes you did everything wrong.
                    I was hired as a "Contract software developer".

                    That's what it said in my contract. Those were my expectations but it was only at the end of day 1 that I was made aware that the client expected something very different.

                    I only had a 30 minute phone interview for this one during which they gave the impression I was coming in as a developer but a developer with more knowledge of Web API than their permanent resource. Which is the case.

                    Anyhow, either way I still would have had to deal with a disgruntled permie so I can't help feeling the outcome would have been the same even if I'd taken a completely different approach.

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Relax OP, once is bad luck. Twice is a coincidence. You've got another shot before it's all your fault

                      It is tough, though. I had a bad back to back experience this year - I tried to do something nice for one client and it went horrendously wrong. Then I had weeks with a client where we just didn't see eye to eye on a professional level. They were nice enough, but had brought me in to consult and then argued with me every step of the way.

                      I don't really know whether it was luck, or if my head just wasn't in the right place for those projects. Dust yourself off and get back on the horse

                      Comment

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