Reply to: first day questions

[NickFitz]

Oh an i sit opposite marketing with all the totty!!!!!!!!!

Result!

By the way, and I

[poser]

Hi All,

thanks for the advice.. this is how it went....

got there was met by Pm who had a 2 hour meeting planned but hooked me up with a really cool other PM - they had my laptop, login, desk, even car park pass and all project material ready for me!!!!

Done some swattin up prepared a list of questions - PM who has alot on at mo took time out to give me full background and history to programme and all the ins an outs.

Thay took me for lunch!!!


Spent the rest of the afternoon with another PM goin over scope of my role and planned next week.


Overall was a really good first day an cant complain.

Oh an i sit opposite marketing with all the totty!!!!!!!!!

[FarmerPalmer]

"Death March" by Edward Yourdon is a good read, from what I can remember there is a two page list of what to lookout for at the beginning, and his advise was "Get out now" as contractors we can't be so picky.

funilly enough the last project I worked on before going contracting ticked all the boxes and was a classic death march. I'm so glad I got VR.

[thunderlizard]

Prepare an introduction to use when you meet people, e.g. "I'm Poser from Poser Solutions, and I'm a project consultant who'll be working on your Exchange migration". The last thing you want is to be dragged around the building with somebody going "Hey everybody this is Poser. He's a temp email support monkey".

[bored]

Be prepared for a lot of waiting around while other people don't deliver.

Indeed I'm enjoying plenty of that right now

[darmstadt]

Well and good - however here is real life story to illustrate the dangers of connecting your Laptop/thingy to a corporate network.

On site for a large organisation when up turns a pre-sales chap from a consultancy who wants to sell a Security Solution - he arrives and as there are not any meeting rooms available he sits near me inthe office and connects to the WAN - after an hour a network bod comes out raging and after checking the pre-sales IP address uncermoniously rips his machine from the Network - his machine had been infected by a nasty worm-virus which had now spread its way into the organisations network.

He had managed to infect the network with a rather nasty worm from his laptop - and remember this guy is trying to sell a security solution !

Yeah, I stuck my one into a LAN in Israel and ended up rebuilding the damn thing after it go so badly infected with a trojan (even with anti virus and firewalls running.)

Ah, but what type of security solution? I could understand it being something like RACF or ACF2 where these things don't occur but then again a Windows bod probably doesn't think anything can hurt his little system

My first day here was good, got an office, a desk, a chair, a laptop, all my accounts for various networks connectivity things but no actual look at the software for a few weeks.

[alreadypacked]

Any tell tale signs the project is going to flop??

"Death March" by Edward Yourdon is a good read, from what I can remember there is a two page list of what to lookout for at the beginning, and his advise was "Get out now" as contractors we can't be so picky.

Use it as a learning experience, identify where the problems are, look for solutions, put forward recommendations in a report.

Last but not least: Work out when is the next good time to find a new role and put in your notice.

HTH

[ThomasSoerensen]

example the next holiday id October 3rd (Day of German Reunification) which just happens to fall on a Tuesday, so, do I take Monday off and go in on Wednesday or go to work on Monday and lounge around Stuttgart and the surrounding environs on Tuesday or drive home (220km)? Decisions, decisions...

No need to break your head, it is a Wednesday.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Tutting loudly when been asked to do something goes down well, belittiling the IT system that you are working in can be advantageous eg 'I didnt know any company was still running SysX nowadays ... ' having loud discussions with your agent on the phone in full earshot of the perms bitterly complaining that 500 quid a day is an insult - that should do the trick.

[Lucy]

I only ever seem to attract bimbo nymphomaniac women with cracking norks, who have no interest in .NET whatsoever.

And you are complaining?

Sounds like your perfect match prawn.

[Churchill]

Back to first day questions:

I always find it is helpful to go home and write down my very first impressions of people, especially what they say to me about others. Almost certainly there is one or more lunatics who everyone else has learned to avoid who gravitate toward the new person, or is it just me?

Nope, you're the only lunatic that gravitates towards the new person.

[DimPrawn]

Back to first day questions:

I always find it is helpful to go home and write down my very first impressions of people, especially what they say to me about others. Almost certainly there is one or more lunatics who everyone else has learned to avoid who gravitate toward the new person, or is it just me?

I only ever seem to attract bimbo nymphomaniac women with cracking norks, who have no interest in .NET whatsoever.

[Lucy]

Back to first day questions:

I always find it is helpful to go home and write down my very first impressions of people, especially what they say to me about others. Almost certainly there is one or more lunatics who everyone else has learned to avoid who gravitate toward the new person, or is it just me?

[Xenophon]

TLG's tried and tested 'be friends with the little people' approach there.

[The Lone Gunman]

Passing on the knowledge:
As I am in a good mood. I have given this advice before.

You should get to know the key staff.

Security. They will let you in or not throw you out when you should not realy be there if you are friendly with them. Helps with th ehours etc.
They usualy know when the place will have problems.

The Secretary. She runs the show. She will make sure your time sheet is signed and invoice is chased should the need arrise. She knows who is who. She will make things happen if you need it.

The cleaners. Nobody wants a dirty desk. More importantly they get to go everywhere and hear and see things others dont. Brilliant for gossip. As they are normaly outside contractors they usualy know when the place is being downsized.

Your team including PM and managers are secondary to the above and are only important to the immediate work.

HTH. Anybody want to add to or modify that list.