Reply to: Any agencies doing part-time or remote contracts?

[evilagent]

I don't believe agencies specialise in part-time contracts, as I suspect they are few and far between.
Generally, if you are lucky to be offered work from home, etc, you are likely to have built up some credibility as a full-time contractor, and proved your worth already.

I have known a couple of part-time projects, but still the contractor is needed in the office a couple of days a week, and maybe 2-3 days at home.
It's easier for software projects, as you can be given a tech-spec and told to get on with it.
But you still need to touch base, etc.

I think it may be unlikely a client will offer remote-projects as an option unless their permie staff are already geared up to work from home.
(I know one lovely company where the BA finishes early each day at 3pm to pick up her kid from school, and does the remaining couple of hours from home.)

But you would find out about remote working in the first couple of conversations with agent.

[NickNick]

At least you will have a raft of great jokes to impress the ladies on a night out...

Are you married?
No but I have 200 kids
Really?
Yeah I am a goat-heard..

I can hear the knicker elastic snapping from here....

One of my first jobs as a younger man* was as a goat herder. I managed to do it right up until the first time I had to kill one (for dinner) and that was the end of that.


* - I was going to say "kid" but couldn't bring myself to do it.

[aoxomoxoa]

What, every bloody Tues/Wed/Thurs?

No, as agreed with the client on a week-by-week basis. So last week it was Mon, Tue, Thu and Fri (four days as it was Week 1 of the contract and there was extra mobilisation work to do).

It's working quite well with trying to get the outside of the house painted on days when it's not pissing down, and will soon be in parallel with another p/t contract for a different client (fingers crossed etc)

[Antman]

What, every bloody Tues/Wed/Thurs?

[aoxomoxoa]

Always felt the perfect contract would be a well paid one that was 3 days a week (and then 4 days off).

Started one like this last week . And it's mostly working from home

This week it's Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

[psychocandy]

Always felt the perfect contract would be a well paid one that was 3 days a week (and then 4 days off).
Maybe I'm just a lazy dog though. :-)

Personally, I would travel anywhere and spent two nights away and do three days work. Its just early monday morning and then getting home late friday night doesnt seem like much of a life to me.

[Old Greg]

Really? My spell checker offered that one and it's not a word I can remember using before although I wouldn't be surprised if it had brought up goatse thanks to some threads on here in the past

... but you are right... you goddam pedant kill joy

goddamn
killjoy

[socialworker]

Really? My spell checker offered that one and it's not a word I can remember using before although I wouldn't be surprised if it had brought up goatse thanks to some threads on here in the past

... but you are right... you goddam pedant kill joy

Are you sure you are cut out to be a comedian?

[northernladuk]

goatherd

Really? My spell checker offered that one and it's not a word I can remember using before although I wouldn't be surprised if it had brought up goatse thanks to some threads on here in the past

... but you are right... you goddam pedant kill joy

[socialworker]

goatherd

[northernladuk]

I'm doomed. I'll start considering the goats business.

At least you will have a raft of great jokes to impress the ladies on a night out...

Are you married?
No but I have 200 kids
Really?
Yeah I am a goat-heard..

I can hear the knicker elastic snapping from here....

[aoxomoxoa]

I'm doomed. I'll start considering the goats business.

Hopefully the goat's business will have been cleared up before someone steps in it

[quackhandle]

Got a days consultancy tomorrow, working remotely.

It may be just a day or longer, who knows, but all down to networking (ie - being nosey) and linkedin.

qh

[tdm]

Could you not whore your skills out to some of these online sites like payperhour and contractor.net or something similar?

Actually, I've been looking into a couple of those sites (specifically, oDesk and elance), but you really have the feeling of touching the bottom of the barrel. You find yourself competing with people from bangladesh or the likes who bid on jobs which rates are between 5$ and 10$ (USD) an hour. It's basically a rat race, and people submitting jobs there doesen't seem to know what they are doing most of the time. And to be honest, the type of work you find there doesen't really fit my skills, I've been working with enterprise software, business intelligence, and complex data mining, I don't really feel at home writing wordpress plugins.

I'm doomed. I'll start considering the goats business.

[tdm]

How remote are you? There must be some good stuff going on in Milan surely? And the rail connections from the north (Varese, Como etc) are usually OK if you don't want to commute by car.

I live near Venice, which let's say isn't renown for its cutting edge IT industry. Commuting to Milan, even via bullet train, would take 2 hours, which seems okay, but the job market is almost dead there as well and even if I were getting a job in Milan, the average salary would be less than one-third of what I can get in northen europe. So it still makes more sense to fly in places such as London if you're planning to stay away for the whole week or more.