Lazy Scrounger Contractors

[eek]

Nothing is more cathartic to an engineer than a good ol' pointless moan, you should try it



It's amazing what dumpster fires you can walk away from with a hefty number of gold coins in your pouch. I'm just the gaffer. I just do what I'm told.

I find contracting to be generally very stressful though.

may I suggest, having read your previous posts - that is because you aren’t very good at it.

[Whorty]

Nothing is more cathartic to an engineer than a good ol' pointless moan, you should try it

I find contracting to be generally very stressful though.

I try not to moan as I find it doesn't help. I try not to worry about anything I can't control, and if I can control something then I try to fix it so I don't need to whinge.

I don't find contracting any more stressful than perm, and in many ways it's less stressful as less tulip to deal with. I also know that there is an end to any role I'm in so if one contract is tulip I'll most likely be in another one within 12 months (I work on projects so not many of my contracts extend much past 12 months).

[BABABlackSheep]

It's amazing what dumpster fires you can walk away from with a hefty number of gold coins in your pouch. I'm just the gaffer. I just do what I'm told.

I find contracting to be generally very stressful though.

Gaffer is the boss, so a bit confused, anyway.

All I can say is that I was a consultant for many years. I worked where they told me to work, doing what they told me to do, and for how long they decided I should be there.

I doubled my take home overnight going contracting. I now work where I want to, doing what I want to, for as long as I want to.

There are no guarantees in life. People are extremely fortunate to be furloughed, as there have been many other people who have had bad accidents or other tragic life incidents that means they have had no little or no support from anyone, and no funds to help them out in life.

I’m grateful for every day I can contract.

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

may I suggest, having read your previous posts - that is because you aren’t very good at it.

You can, may I suggest, having read your post - that you kind **** off?

It's stressful for me because for the last couple of years contracts don't just fall into my lap, being able to pick and choose at least for a developer like me, is not a luxury I am granted. However until my last 2 contracts ended almost simultaneously I was able to just about secure continuous work.

The majority of work I do is for companies that are basically on fire and believe throwing a contractor at the problem will fix it. Or their dev team walked out because it's such a hostile environment.

I think I push myself too hard and that's why it's stressful. I find the expectations are much higher. But I'm not a permietractor so maybe that's why? Also a lot of people on here seem to be making £800+/day and probably have more specialised roles. Maybe those are more in demand (well, they must be given the cost) and maybe they're less stressful?

Often the projects I work on are beyond salvageable and should be canned but it's not my decision to make. I've been told a few times to mind my own business when I raise patently idiotic things in meetings, and have since learned to flag things once then keep quiet while they drive the project into the ground.

Only once did I have a nice easy greenfield project to work on, that contract was a breeze.

Permie life was a dream though I just showed up, did exactly what I wanted to do all day (pure architecture and dev work), had some junior devs to mentor and lots of office bants and drinks after work. Unfortunately it paid around half of what I make contracting

One way of dealing with the stress is the odd tulippost on the internet where I just vent and rant about it. Not like I can exactly go down the pub is it :P

[Whorty]

You can, may I suggest, having read your post - that you kind **** off?

It's stressful for me because for the last couple of years contracts don't just fall into my lap, being able to pick and choose at least for a developer like me, is not a luxury I am granted. However until my last 2 contracts ended almost simultaneously I was able to just about secure continuous work.

The majority of work I do is for companies that are basically on fire and believe throwing a contractor at the problem will fix it. Or their dev team walked out because it's such a hostile environment.

I think I push myself too hard and that's why it's stressful. I find the expectations are much higher. But I'm not a permietractor so maybe that's why? Also a lot of people on here seem to be making £800+/day and probably have more specialised roles. Maybe those are more in demand (well, they must be given the cost) and maybe they're less stressful?

Often the projects I work on are beyond salvageable and should be canned but it's not my decision to make. I've been told a few times to mind my own business when I raise patently idiotic things in meetings, and have since learned to flag things once then keep quiet while they drive the project into the ground.

Only once did I have a nice easy greenfield project to work on, that contract was a breeze.

Permie life was a dream though I just showed up, did exactly what I wanted to do all day (pure architecture and dev work), had some junior devs to mentor and lots of office bants and drinks after work. Unfortunately it paid around half of what I make contracting

One way of dealing with the stress is the odd tulippost on the internet where I just vent and rant about it. Not like I can exactly go down the pub is it :P

Thanks for the extra info, this is interesting and I see where you're coming from now. With pubs shut and hard to see mates then I get that this is your outlet now - can I apologise as this wasn't what I read it as at first but that's my bad

Regarding day rates that others post on here, I'd take it with a pinch of salt as my guess is most don't earn anywhere near £800 pd. I've always been 500-550 when working as day rate which I've personally found sufficient and I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable earning more (as a Big 4 consultant I was charged out at £2000 p/day and that had it's own stresses I was always trying to justify that rate and I was working 16+ hours per day frequently).

Your projects sound very similar to mine. I'm often brought in only when things have gone t1ts up already. I'm a PM with a reputation in my field for being comfortable* clearing out teams if required and kick-starting projects. I rarely get greenfield projects, but actually I quite like picking up bad projects - let's face it, if things can't get any worse then the only way is up

I think this is quite common though - contractors are more expensive and we're often the last resort. I assume any role I'm going for is in trouble else they wouldn't be asking to interview me Maybe with a few more projects under your belt you could start to harness the reputation as someone who turns around projects?

* I'm not that comfortable to be honest and hate sacking people so always provide the sitting team the chance to turn things around first and work with me. Still usually ends up with a few key people having to be shown the door though.

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

Thx and I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong foot, I do like to rant and rave more than I should

What stresses me out is unclear direction. I don't mind deadlines, high workloads etc provided I know which way I'm supposed to be pointing.

Too often I get hired, plonked in a bad situation, and then the management bugger off and I have no machine/account/door pass/etc. and no instructions of precisely what they want me to do. I hold myself to a very high standard so if I'm not kicking ass I start to feel like I'm going to get fired any second.

Have worked with companies perm and contract that really really needed to fire people sooner. I respected one job that fired a guy on day one because he was garbage. It sucks but some people you can immediately see are a liability.

[eek]

You can, may I suggest, having read your post - that you kind **** off?

It's stressful for me because for the last couple of years contracts don't just fall into my lap, being able to pick and choose at least for a developer like me, is not a luxury I am granted. However until my last 2 contracts ended almost simultaneously I was able to just about secure continuous work.

The majority of work I do is for companies that are basically on fire and believe throwing a contractor at the problem will fix it. Or their dev team walked out because it's such a hostile environment.

I think I push myself too hard and that's why it's stressful. I find the expectations are much higher. But I'm not a permietractor so maybe that's why? Also a lot of people on here seem to be making £800+/day and probably have more specialised roles. Maybe those are more in demand (well, they must be given the cost) and maybe they're less stressful?

Often the projects I work on are beyond salvageable and should be canned but it's not my decision to make. I've been told a few times to mind my own business when I raise patently idiotic things in meetings, and have since learned to flag things once then keep quiet while they drive the project into the ground.

Only once did I have a nice easy greenfield project to work on, that contract was a breeze.

Permie life was a dream though I just showed up, did exactly what I wanted to do all day (pure architecture and dev work), had some junior devs to mentor and lots of office bants and drinks after work. Unfortunately it paid around half of what I make contracting

One way of dealing with the stress is the odd tulippost on the internet where I just vent and rant about it. Not like I can exactly go down the pub is it :P

So you were running 2 contracts at the same time and found it stressful. Self inflicted no sympathy..

As for your other post - if you turned up with the attitude you have on this forum - I would be binning you immediately...

[BABABlackSheep]

So you were running 2 contracts at the same time and found it stressful. Self inflicted no sympathy..

As for your other post - if you turned up with the attitude you have on this forum - I would be binning you immediately...

Maybe cut the guy some slack.

Some people deal with stress better than others.

Read through his posts again.