Anybody else just sick of contracting?

[m0n1k3r]

No need to apologise.

The problem is end clients want the flexibility and expertise of contractors but want to treat them like permanent employees. Sadly most contractors seem to be happy with that arrangement.

As I have often been told by contractors when I've been on the buying side:

"I just want a job."

It still baffles me. Then they should get a job, not being a contractor.

[m0n1k3r]

I've never taken to 'Agile' over the last 18 months of being force fed it. Every project appears to take 4 times as long, is not incrementally delivered, and has a fixed end date which flies in the face of everything the 'manifesto' seeks to rectify.

The only people I know who are big on agile, are those doing the 'management' sides of it (scrum master, product owner ... yes i know it's supposed to be a flat hierarchy but it never seems to be) who are imposing it on the worker ants, and love new ways of imposing patterns and practices on others.

That's what happens when agile is poorly implemented. The Agile manifesto is deceptively simple, but very hard to get right. Agile is first and foremost a mindset, but people tend to bring their own prejudices and old habits and impose them in an environment that operates very differently, and it all just falls apart. Organisations often think they can read a book and take one training course and whinge it alone, or get a cheap contractor in to guide them for a few months (obviously without the contractor actually being empowered to do so).

Such organisations and people, and there are many of them, are giving agile a bad name.

[KentDogWalker]

Agile consulting:

get paid for being told what the client wants to do and then repeating back to them the same thing.

[WTFH]

Agile consulting:

get paid for being told what the client wants to do and then repeating back to them the same thing.

You want to walk a dog.

That'll be £850 please.

[KentDogWalker]

You want to walk a dog.

That'll be £850 please.

exactly

[oliverson]

Didn't you leave the Real World (tm) behind and retreat back to Mordor (Yorkshire)?

No wonder you are sick of coding - those old Z80s can't be fun.

Come back to the real world, we miss you (and your silly foreign accent. )

* I'm working on the assumption you haven't already got bored of the 11.9 month long Northern Winter and moved back Darn Sarf to the Sunshine State already..

Oh, and why are you coding at someone else's desk? Use your own.

Seems like I just follow the money!

[nucastle]

That's what happens when agile is poorly implemented. The Agile manifesto is deceptively simple, but very hard to get right. Agile is first and foremost a mindset, but people tend to bring their own prejudices and old habits and impose them in an environment that operates very differently, and it all just falls apart. Organisations often think they can read a book and take one training course and whinge it alone, or get a cheap contractor in to guide them for a few months (obviously without the contractor actually being empowered to do so).

Such organisations and people, and there are many of them, are giving agile a bad name.

I've worked places where they have spent vast sums of money implementing it (or trying to) and it's still reduced output massively over a classic 'get sh1t done' scenario where the team figures out its own way to deliver.

It's not the panacea it's made out to be, and that is NOT in defense of Waterfall which i'm not a fan of either.

If something is so hard to get done correctly as you say, then it should be looked at as an approach in a toolkit which can be evaluated on its own merits, rather than some kind of dogma that nobody dare question, and must be applied to any given thing, in any scenario.

Then again, the millennials seem to love it.

[WTFH]

exactly

So, I've provided you with my report, you are 100% happy with it, now I'd like payment please.

[SimonMac]

Thought not.

After 13 years I've just really had enough. Day-in, day-out sat at somebody else's desk cranking out code. Money alone is not enough anymore. There has to be more to life than this.

I got bored of the hands on techie stuff so decided to change and do something a bit more "consultant" rather than "bums on seat", seems to be going ok so far but still early days

[northernladuk]

I'm not sick of contracting on the whole. It's the perfect way to me to work. I like starting new, smashing it and getting to a point where it's complete or settled and then can move on. I'm results driven so suits me down to the ground. The worst gigs I have had are the longer ones oddly.

That said I've been working away from home for over 2 years now which is OK'ish. We can manage it without it being too detrimental. Every new move is quite exciting for awhile but over all it's a bit of pain in the bum after awhile. It will get too much pretty soon so expect some bench time while looking for only local stuff. I'd be a lot happier with contracting if there was more available locally or the industry was a bit smarter. I know full well there are guys travelling up to do a similar role in Manchester and we probably pass each other on the M1 on Sundays and Fridays. Bit daft really but it's how it is.