Reply to: Should I walk away from this one?

[Worcsman]

I am in the same boat

I'm 2 weeks into a 3 month contract that is looking like something of a poisoned chalice. I'm contracted with a consultancy to provide services on their client's site. I was interviewed by the consultancy, and never met the client before the first day of the contract. ....... there's a significant financial risk to trying to blag it.

Any other thoughts?

As above, our situations are similar. My approach has been to find a new contract and give a legit sounding reason for needing to return to the UK. Its not a 100% BS reason but certainly with enough truth around it for it to be a valid reason. I will have been in project for 2 months when I come to leave. I will have done my notice period, so all payment due to me will come. I came and met the client before taking the post. The position I was interviewed for is well within my skill set. The tasks I have been given are not. I haven't protested though, just gone down the line of subterfuge, wanted to be sure I got paid! This isn't my fault and has cost me in terms of flights, housing etc. But I will fix it, already have. Anyway good luck

[curtis]

A few years ago a company had a project running they had an idea of who they wanted but it was clear not really. I got told by the agent they thought my CV suited what they wanted.

After quizzing the agent re the role it became clear he had no clue what exactly the role was either. After the interview i still could not exactly say what i would exactly be doing and this was the case when i walked though the doors on my first day.

I was in 2 minds to take it as it made me uneasy but it was the best rate i had ever had and it was only for 3 months so took the gamble, in the end for me it eneded up being straight forward but I don't think I would take any job now without a much better idea of exactly what I would be doing.

As the contract is for 3 months can you try and bluff it/ride it out? I suppose its all down to how to feel you can handle it and how extreme the other way it is to what you do?

[Tasslehoff]

Dune... Arakkis.. Desert Planet..

[FatLazyContractor]

@Sardaukar - Probably depends on how good your warchest is. I, personally, would walk!

Here's a link to all those posting links - link

[NotAllThere]

Are you opted in or opted out?

[tarbera]

What's the product you don't know? We can help you blag it

[jmo21]

You do realise that those two elements are mutually exclusive don't you?

If they're on a fixed price contract, then it doesn't matter a damn to the customer who they blame, the customer will expect the deliverables they agreed at the price they agreed. No deliverable, no money for the consultancy.

The consultancy has no real need for a fall guy and I'd be a bit surprised if they want one.

I think he means the tech lead needs a fall guy to his boss at the consultancy as he has made a mistake.

[TykeMerc]

I think what's really happened is the consultancy technical lead has dropped the ball and failed to identify the implications of this particular requirement until after they'd quoted a fixed price for the work, and now he has a convenient contractor to take the blame.

You do realise that those two elements are mutually exclusive don't you?

If they're on a fixed price contract, then it doesn't matter a damn to the customer who they blame, the customer will expect the deliverables they agreed at the price they agreed. No deliverable, no money for the consultancy.

The consultancy has no real need for a fall guy and I'd be a bit surprised if they want one.

[BlasterBates]

Take a couple of deep breaths, what might appear impossible sometimes becomes relatively straightforward.

Firstly you have to understand the requirements, which has nothing to do with the "third party thing". So you should be spending the first phase just understanding and analysing these requirements. Secondly ask yourself is this "Third party thing" something which a huge number of contractors know about? There are lots of third party products which no-one knows about. In the past I've been sent to customers with a "weeks training" in some product, knowledge which I could have fathomed out by running through the getting started manual. I would therefore spend a few days to go through the "Getting Started Manual" . There's no harm in popping your head round the door and mentioning that you are analysing their requirements and that your next step would be to familiarise with the "third party thing" because you haven't worked with it before. Once you've done that just come up with a concept document, i.e. how is this third party thing going to fulfill the requirements. Third party products usually come with worked examples which you use to implement your solution.

If an Electrician spent an afternoon on the Internet, he would probably fairly quickly gain the knowledge on how to clear drains.

If you go step by step sometimes things become clearer. Focus on a requirements doc and technical concept doc.

Other than that throw in the towel. Good luck

[SQLSwerver]

Reminds me of the recession, I walked off one gig and fired from another as they wanted 400 lines of code rewritten in a couple of days and thought a DBA would do the job as fast as a Programmer.

Desperate times put desperate men together.

That said your discussion may have some unforeseen outcomes of its own; not impossible that the client may quietly say, "Actually, I know full well you are a long way from being a match but lets just say recruitment had to be best effort, sooooo...how's your Google Fu?"

[cojak]

For a realistic assessment of your situation, read this Death March (Yourdon Press Series): Amazon.co.uk: Edward Yourdon: Books

If you are a hopeless optimist and decide to stay, read this » “I Don’t Know” * G. Jason Head

[Sardaukar]

Can you put pressure on the consultancy? They must have subject experts who might be able to offer remote support.

No unfortunately not - and I think that's the root of the problem. They don't have these particular skills in house, and they didn't even know enough to identify how difficult and specialised a task this is.

Did you not ask for a job spec / role outline before going on client site, even if through a consultancy, to see what you were going to be doing and especially if it requires you to be paying additional hotel / travel costs ?

Oh yes. I discussed the project in detail with both the consultancy technical lead and the client's account manager, and the client's non-negotiable requirement to fulfil a specific piece of functionality using a certain third party software package was never mentioned. They explicitly told me how good a match my CV was for their technology choices.

I think what's really happened is the consultancy technical lead has dropped the ball and failed to identify the implications of this particular requirement until after they'd quoted a fixed price for the work, and now he has a convenient contractor to take the blame.

The more I think about this, it's harder to think of a scenario where it ends well for me. The best possible outcome is I spend three months doing a mediocre job at something that looks extremely out of place on my CV and won't do me any favours when I start looking for my next contract. And the other outcomes are much worse than that.

So on that basis, I think I'll have 'a discussion' on Monday...

[kaiser78]

I'm 2 weeks into a 3 month contract that is looking like something of a poisoned chalice. I'm contracted with a consultancy to provide services on their client's site. I was interviewed by the consultancy, and never met the client before the first day of the contract.

It has now become obvious that the consultancy have massively misrepresented my area of expertise to the end client, and I'm being asked to work on things which are completely irrelevant to my skillset and experience (it's almost on par with hiring an electrician to unblock your drains...).

I've never walked away from a contract before, but I'm starting to think it's the best option.

The only thing keeping me there is that I genuinely don't like to let people down after I've made a commitment. But the other side of that coin is that as I'm on monthly invoicing on 30 day payment terms, if the client do decide they're not getting what they're paying for and pull the plug within the next 6 weeks, then, realistically, I'm not getting paid for any work I've already done. As the location requires a 5 night stay away from home (costing me £500 a week), there's a significant financial risk to trying to blag it.

Any other thoughts?

Did you not ask for a job spec / role outline before going on client site, even if through a consultancy, to see what you were going to be doing and especially if it requires you to be paying additional hotel / travel costs ?

[TheFaQQer]

Should I walk away from this one?

Yes

[I just need to test it]

Thanks to Imposter Syndrome I spend most of my working life in this situation.

I'd keep going. I'd build relationships with the client. I'd seek to add value wherever I could.

In time I'd let it be known that I don't have an in depth knowledge of the particular subject area and hope that they had seen enough of you to realise your dilemma rather than them assume you are incompetent.

Can you put pressure on the consultancy? They must have subject experts who might be able to offer remote support. Or are you really too far out of your depth?

I'd have thought that regardless of the outcome re: termination and invoice payment your expenses will be covered.

Good luck. It's a tough, lonely situation to be in.