Contractor of 5 years, a couple of years ago I was potted from a large organisation who were having redundancies, so subbies were first out the door. Fair enough, I was looking at my skillset and realised it was about as portable as a second hand vintage safe. Anyway at the time my confidence took a knock, I was faced with the grim thought of 'going permie', here are my experiences of the time:
1) All day interviews, with a schedule, 3 different interrogations/tests. Grilled by the Vice President at the last one.
2) Having to take a 'competancy based interview' with questions like 'Describe a situation where you resolved a conflict with a coworker' - I just made something up, but it was not fun at all. (I can't really recall any work-related conflict in my dev career)
3) Having to take online tests, not peer reviewed and 'regulated'/standardised, just developed by some 'professor of, I dunno stuff..' I thought mine went OK till the interviewer phoned back. Went something like this:
Interviewer: Hi, interview went well, how did you think the online test went?
Me: I thought I did OK..
I: Problem is you got an extremely low score on team leadership.. the lowest in fact..
M: I answered all those questions as middle of the road, I was careful to..
I: Well computer says you got 1%.
M: Well I know how I answered.
I: Strange thing is, you got 99% on technical test, one of the highest ever..
M: Well what does that tell you? Do you trust the software program?
I: I'll have a word with HR, but it's HR policy..
[at that point my interest in the job/company/being a permie had evaporated.
4) "A competitive salary of " + Vars.UncompetitiveSalary + ", and 20 days holiday per year.."
So to cut a long story short, I downloaded some new software to practice with a view to moving into it, went for a contractor interview, got it, 3 years later with no time forcefully on the bench and life's good. Current gig was a phone interview (from the canteen in last week at last gig) got it and started the next Monday.
"..and that's why I Contract.."
1) All day interviews, with a schedule, 3 different interrogations/tests. Grilled by the Vice President at the last one.
2) Having to take a 'competancy based interview' with questions like 'Describe a situation where you resolved a conflict with a coworker' - I just made something up, but it was not fun at all. (I can't really recall any work-related conflict in my dev career)
3) Having to take online tests, not peer reviewed and 'regulated'/standardised, just developed by some 'professor of, I dunno stuff..' I thought mine went OK till the interviewer phoned back. Went something like this:
Interviewer: Hi, interview went well, how did you think the online test went?
Me: I thought I did OK..
I: Problem is you got an extremely low score on team leadership.. the lowest in fact..
M: I answered all those questions as middle of the road, I was careful to..
I: Well computer says you got 1%.
M: Well I know how I answered.
I: Strange thing is, you got 99% on technical test, one of the highest ever..
M: Well what does that tell you? Do you trust the software program?
I: I'll have a word with HR, but it's HR policy..
[at that point my interest in the job/company/being a permie had evaporated.
4) "A competitive salary of " + Vars.UncompetitiveSalary + ", and 20 days holiday per year.."
So to cut a long story short, I downloaded some new software to practice with a view to moving into it, went for a contractor interview, got it, 3 years later with no time forcefully on the bench and life's good. Current gig was a phone interview (from the canteen in last week at last gig) got it and started the next Monday.
"..and that's why I Contract.."
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