State of the Market

[sreed]

My aim, always, is to do the minimum amount of work needed to keep the client happy and get paid as much as I can. And once I'm settled in to a new PM role, that usually involves (on average) about 2-4 hours a day of focused work at most, less on Fridays.

As someone mentioned above, in a fixed-income role, the reward for being more efficient than expected is more work, nothing else. Some might find fulfilment in doing that, I don't. And I think that's even more true for permies than it is for contractors passing through.

If I was running my own business, then yes there is a benefit to doing more or improved efficiency as I could expect proportionate rewards.

I've done multiple contracts concurrently one 5 days a week and the other outside with variable billing of 2-3 days, also done fixed price consulting gigs alongside full-time contracts. It was all fine.

As a PM, I couldn't do 2 full time contracts simultaneously because of practical considerations (regular standups, calls, etc.) but not because of the time I'd need to put in.

[GJABS]

Why does your work take the full time? Do you make it better than it needs to be? Is it pride that stops you delivering something that isn't the absolute best you can do? Is it fear that you are defrauding the company by not working the full hours?

Thanks.
No I'm sure it is inefficiency on my part.
Yes I can get hung up on the details at times. Leaving loose ends does make me feel uncomfortable because it represents (in my mind) a risk of a thing going wrong, a feeling of not being in control.

At the same time I do have a tendency to daydream/ruminate. Always have had. And when I realise I'm doing it, there I've lost 5 minutes here, 2 minutes there etc, which yes does make me feel I have defrauded the company as they are not paying me for my mind to wonder.

This is the subject of a change I've decided to make over the past few weeks. I suspect this lack of attention is caused because I don't have a passion for the work.
So I have decided to go back to basics.
When I was at school I was really motivated to study. I worked very hard, and this got me into Cambridge University.
Which in turn was too difficult for me, and broke the spell. I have never been as motivated since, and my career has been so-so.

So what I have decided to do is try and emulate that period of study but with IT skills instead of the science that I did back then. Re-focus my energy and motivation away from the job of working for the client, and instead direct it to studying IT skills for their own sake, as an academic discipline, at a heavy pace but (crucially) under my control.
If I can engender the same amount of focus and ambition today as I was able to do when I was a teenager, then I should do really well at it.

The idea is that the increased level of motivation should hopefully result in an unintended side effect of improving my performance at the day job. I'm not certain this will be the case, so it is a risk. I've got a hunch it will work though.

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

I've decided that if I don't get a contract by the end of November I'm going to go for a perm role instead. Been contracting since around 2014.

[GJABS]

I've decided that if I don't get a contract by the end of November I'm going to go for a perm role instead. Been contracting since around 2014.

Go for it - park your tank on their lawn.

[JustKeepSwimming]

Didn't think the difference was that bad.

[sreed]

Didn't think the difference was that bad.

That's a surprise.

However, given the staggering amount of debt that Americans often take on for mind-bogglingly expensive university education, they'd better hope there's a premium for all that financial pain! It's a bonkers system across the pond, student loans don't get wiped out even in bankruptcy.

[JustKeepSwimming]

That's a surprise.

However, given the staggering amount of debt that Americans often take on for mind-bogglingly expensive university education, they'd better hope there's a premium for all that financial pain! It's a bonkers system across the pond, student loans don't get wiped out even in bankruptcy.

I wouldn't be so sure of that! Some degrees for some universities are absurd, but AFAIK the average student debt in the US is lower than the average student debt in the UK. Our payment terms are better though.

UK students loans don't get wiped out in bankruptcy either.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...bernie-sanders

At an average of $37,000, student debt in America is high, but it is higher in the UK where the average is $55,o00, according to analysis by YaleGlobal.

In-state vs out-state, public v private, real scholarships etc all make US student costs more complicated and varied.

What's interesting is that at least with the democrats it's a key policy issue. Whereas it's no even remotely on anyone's radar here.

[TheGreenBastard]

Edited: I don't think you are saying anything substantive here. The definition of "mediocre" is "average" (if that is what you mean by the word "mediocre"). So you are saying that people on average are average.
If you are using the word "mediocre" to mean "below average", then the statement is false - because "average" people cannot be by definition "below average".

See, you're right! You're smarter than me, so why not get more than one gig under your belt?

It makes sense because doing two jobs at the same time is going to be impossible with compromising. If you're doing a standard 7 hour day job and then want to insert another job on top of that, you're going to have clashes with meetings and demanding workloads.

You're a contractor remember, you're not a typical business. If you want to do three jobs then you need to change your business to be a consultancy, and have a consultancy relationship with your end clients, which is that you will assign someone to work on the project, you'll get a fee up front, with milestone payments, and if there are problems you will assign new resource.

The point of a junior role is that you can probably squeeze it in alongside your current contracting gig without it interfering in your work.

If you think acting like a business is taking on three jobs simultaneously and having to trying and schedule them in such a way that none of them find out that they're only getting 1/3rd of the working day they're paying you for, then I think you are mistaken.

Nothing you said is spoken from experience, I'm telling you how it is as a contractor with 3 clients currently. Even being "scared" they will find out is pure permie mentality.

Interesting, they pay you to sit there versus what you deliver? I mean if you're a permietractor that's cool, but don't assume a monopoly on how us outside contractors operate.

[Fraidycat]

Didn't think the difference was that bad.

The minimum wage in the UK has tripled since year 2000 but skilled pay hasn't even doubled.

A skilled worker on £50K only takes home just 2x what someone on minimum wage does. And the MW worker will get paid for any overtime, closing the gap even more.

A permie on £120K only makes 4x minimum wage after tax. Inside IR35 contractors billing £120K fare even worse, taking home just 3.5 time minimum wage.

The UK is high tax low pay for highly skilled people.

[GJABS]

See, you're right! You're smarter than me, so why not get more than one gig under your belt?

Well that's kind of you to suggest this but I think there is more to being "smart" than just making an accurate but pedantic point, so you might turn out to be the smarter one.
Anyway, as I said in a post yesterday, I've decided now to put super focus on learning tech skills. So I won't (yet) be thinking about doing the multiple gigs thing.

But this time next year Rodney...