Reply to: Junior PM Interview

[TheFaQQer]

I think that by turning up, it's assumed that both parties have accepted the contract, whether it is signed or not.

Not sure - if you are a PCG member, ring their legal helpline and see where you stand legally.

I'd send an invoice in anyway, so that if necessary you can charge them interest and penalties for non / late payment.

[oraclesmith]

Send them an invoice. What have you got to lose ? You might get paid and if you don't get money within (say) 6 weeks you can enjoy sending them threatening letters for a couple of months.

Oh my gosh..please help advise. I came off the agency books on the 6th. The client was supposed to take me on directly. They were supposed to provide me with a contract on the 7th. But the contract was basically bullsh*t.

As they were so desperate to keep me on (because I have been doing a great job working my a** off for the past 2 months), they said they would rewrite it. They re-wrote it, I still wasn't happy with it but carried on going into work. Eventually due to apalling work conditions I said I would do a handover with someone on Friday. I went in to do the handover (they said to) and they basically said get out. They have treated me disgustingly but because I had no contract signed (I went in out of goodwill) technically they do not have to pay me. They owe me 35 hrs worth of pay.

They verbally said they would pay and to send an invoice. Should I just write this amount off and expect them not to pay? I can't believe (well I can actually) that client can behave like this.

[malvolio]

malvioli - thanks for the encouragement. i feel kind of deflated by it all. worked crazy hours on their project for the last 2 months only to be defeated by this assistant. they don't care about risk logs and issues, or about highlight reports. they are all a bit mad. unrealistic combination of timescale, scope, quality and resource. but they just don't want to know. they say they can't replace the assistant or shuffle the structure to get another one. they don't want to admit they got someone unqualified for the admin position. she doesnt even have basic IT skills. instead they are proposing shuffling two senior managers (me and someone else) begging me to stay, told them i will do a handover with someone else then I'm out of there. i am not there to discipline or take sh*t from their their staff. think i should write them a letter?

If they dont know how to manage programmes and you genuinely can't do anything about it directly, then leave. Or get them to let you hire another "specialist" (someone with specific skills in MSProject 2007 .NET or something... ) and get your own assistant instead and leave theirs on the periphery - that's the only way you can make it work. Sounds like it's only worth being there if you can deliver the project to completion and get recognition for doing so, otherwise it ain't worth the grief; that's not why you joined up as a contractor, after all.

[wantacontract]

walk

walk away mate, sounds like u're quite unhappy by it.....life is too short to be constantly stressed out.....if your finances are OK, then I would start looking for another job and give the one you're at notice....


totally understand the stressed out thing, I was really stressed out back in Jan/Feb this year...

One thing that helped me was to all my friends..so I was a real moaner... made me feel better afterwards anyway...

also reading

http://www.allpm.com/modules.php?op=...rticle&sid=341

All the best..

or walk away....

[oraclesmith]

So you're a senior manager and this admin is giving you problems, so you need to start writing letters to the bosses. Hmm....

malvioli - thanks for the encouragement. i feel kind of deflated by it all. worked crazy hours on their project for the last 2 months only to be defeated by this assistant. they don't care about risk logs and issues, or about highlight reports. they are all a bit mad. unrealistic combination of timescale, scope, quality and resource. but they just don't want to know. they say they can't replace the assistant or shuffle the structure to get another one. they don't want to admit they got someone unqualified for the admin position. she doesnt even have basic IT skills. instead they are proposing shuffling two senior managers (me and someone else) begging me to stay, told them i will do a handover with someone else then I'm out of there. i am not there to discipline or take sh*t from their their staff. think i should write them a letter?

[Peter Loew]

Nope, Programme or Project Management with the occasional foray into pure consultancy. Way more important then PMO, honest!

Since you recruit PMs etc., do you have anything going? I have transition / technical PM (Java, J2EE) and a lot of team leading experience all from a client facing / consultancy background.

If so please PM me (no pun intended ) for a quick exchange.

P

[malvolio]

If that's the case, it's not actually your problem. Your "assistant" goes on the risk log as High Impact / High Probabiltiy and you tell your client he is failing to do his job and so screwing your project. You aren't there to discipline their staff, you are there to deliver a project, and if their people are stopping you doing it, you get them moved out of the way.

I will manage client staff quite happily, but I will not get involved in permie staff career-limiting activities, that's not in my (or your) remit. Hand it off to the client, and tell them why.

Geeeeezzz - don't argue on my account please everyone!! No, I'm not in IT. The company were desperate for a PM, I didn't actually know it was a PM job when I went for the interview, so all this happened kind of by accident. Yes, you do have a point about learning about people management but when they give you an administrator who refuses to do scanning and other simple tasks, and has a serious attitude because you are a consultant telling them what to do, you really wonder if it is worth trying to be a PM.

[malvolio]

Nope, Programme or Project Management with the occasional foray into pure consultancy. Way more important then PMO, honest!

[Peter Loew]

For the record I did answer the questions, but didn't get much back after that!

Malvolio do you work in a PMO?

[malvolio]

is it me or are most people just arrogant on this board. The guy has asked a question and you give this cocky answer..............or dont you know is probably the real answer....tit

What Aredesco said. In spades.

Put it this way, I recruit PMs fairly regularly, and I have a bit of a clue as to what I want to see in one. Any nerd can learn the books, doesn't mean they understand risk or conflict management, does it? We always give advice, but it helps to know what kind of advice would actually help.

[Ardesco]

is it me or are most people just arrogant on this board. The guy has asked a question and you give this cocky answer..............or dont you know is probably the real answer....tit

It's not a cocky answer, it is entirely relevant to answering the question. If the guy knows nothing about being a PM throwing a load of acronyms and PM speak that he won't understand at him is not going to be at all helpful. Secondly if he is a very experianced PM spoon feeding him the basics will again be unhelpful because he will have heard it all before.

Just because you don't like the question, it doesn't make it an arrogant one and if you are really going to get upset over such a little thing you rea.lly need to grow some thicker skin to survive in the contracting world....