Just overheard two permies

[TheLordDave]

Going through contractor cvs for a test position. Binning anyone who doesn't have consistent contracts of over 12 months per client.

Sigh....

In the 5 years I have been contracting I have only been at the same client for over 12 months once and I'm pretty awesome!

[d000hg]

Not by their metric you're not.

[BrilloPad]

I remember interviewing for someone 15 years ago. There were similar CVs of over 12 months. The guy I interviewed had been at clientco for 2 years. But had 4 separate teams of 6 months each.

I could see why each team wanted rid of him....

[Unix]

Going through contractor cvs for a test position. Binning anyone who doesn't have consistent contracts of over 12 months per client.

Sigh....

In the 5 years I have been contracting I have only been at the same client for over 12 months once and I'm pretty awesome!

Unusual not to be extended at least once or twice in 5 years, you must be "awesome" right enough.......NOT!

[vwdan]

Unusual not to be extended at least once or twice in 5 years, you must be "awesome" right enough.......NOT!

What's staying over 12 months got to do with being extended?

[Ticktock]

What's staying anywhere over 12 months got to do with being awesome? Sounds more like bums-on-seats.

I go in, do my job and get out. 3 months is a fairly normal contract for me, sometimes 6 if it's a multi-stage project. One contract was 18 month plus a call back for an additional 2 months, as they were doing a phased roll-out, country by country. I don't stay on for longer as my work is completed.

[PurpleGorilla]

Going through contractor cvs for a test position. Binning anyone who doesn't have consistent contracts of over 12 months

Crazy!

[eek]

Crazy!

To them its perfectly rational, there is a long term contract available so they are looking for people who have previously done long term contracts...

And for me while I work on a tool that should be short term contracts they all seem to last at least a year...

[PurpleGorilla]

If you can do 3-6 months, wtf can't you do 12?

[Ticktock]

If you can do 3-6 months, wtf can't you do 12?

I can't because I have specific deliverables.

Generally there's no point in me getting involved earlier than about 2-3 months before a deployment.
The majority of my work must be completed by deployment, with the potential for small amounts to be done 1-2 weeks past go live.

If I started earlier in the process I'd be sitting around picking my nose for a month or so, getting involved in things that I am not engaged for, or generally wasting time. If I'm around for longer it's either because deployment was delayed, or something has gone wrong, or they've added additional project stages with separate deployments.