Reply to: Whats the deal with month long contracts?

[Bunk]

I've done several one monthers and I love them as a change mixed in, go in no worries, in, done and out and bank account topped up! A job I had last year started as just a month and ended up being 4 in the end so you never know where they may lead.

I would never turn down a month job if I was out of work just as its just a month or anything seen as very short term. Work is work in my book and a month is a months worth of money in my pocket. I do tend to try and make it obvious on my CV why it was short as normally its to cover some specific issue or reason, that's to cover against stupid agents/clients that see these as an issue or problem in some way.

WHS

I usually explain them as "brought in as a senior developer to help with a project in its final stages", which usually means fixing all the bugs that the permies have created before go-live, but you can jazz it up a bit.

[psychocandy]

And of course, currently, you've got a lot of clients who seem to want to extend for one month only. Really annoying.

Seems to be a mixture of not wanting to commit to all their money in one go, and delusion that things are going to get completed in that month.

[curtis]

I've done several one monthers and I love them as a change mixed in, go in no worries, in, done and out and bank account topped up! A job I had last year started as just a month and ended up being 4 in the end so you never know where they may lead.

I would never turn down a month job if I was out of work just as its just a month or anything seen as very short term. Work is work in my book and a month is a months worth of money in my pocket. I do tend to try and make it obvious on my CV why it was short as normally its to cover some specific issue or reason, that's to cover against stupid agents/clients that see these as an issue or problem in some way.

[DaveB]

I've done a few one month gigs, usually in an interim Security Manager role or similar. No specific work to do, but they need someone there for compliance if the tulip hits the fan and security decisions need to be made, or to provide security input into project planning, dealing with specific issues etc.


Others have involved one off pieces of work around auditing specific systems or services.

[Halo Jones]

What is the point, I know as a contractor we are supposed to be able to hit the ground running, but realistically what can be achieved in a month?

Well you can have a nice new wife, age & legality not an issue

[Sysman]

Did a 2 day contract once.

Finished it in one day & did myself out of a day's pay.

Did a half day contract once.

Which took about 5 hours to get there, and 5 hours back.

Client went bust so I saw about 25 quid three years later.

By which time I wasn't trading under the name the cheque came for so it was useless.

That was a waste of time.

[Bunk]

Very true, but surely every contract is like this?

Well, yes, but I mean a longer contract is more useful from an earning perspective whereas the short contracts' value is in the networking opportunity they provide rather than the cash they bring in.

[billybiro]

I always look at these sort of contracts as a chance to get my name known at a client. Go in, do a good job, leave your contact details with the PM/hiring manager, then next time they have a chunk of work they might give you a call. Can lead to something much longer in the future or the chance to go direct.

Very true, but surely every contract is like this?

[NickFitz]

23 months and 29 days.

WFH after the first eight months, so I didn't have to worry about the 24 month rule on my very occasional jaunts to ClientCo HQ

[doodab]

What is the point, I know as a contractor we are supposed to be able to hit the ground running, but realistically what can be achieved in a month?

I've had a few two week gigs where I've undertaken remedial performance tuning or one off data archiving or other solving of specific operational problems. They are usually pretty good fun.

[d000hg]

I think if there is a distinct and defined work package then a month contract is fine.

whs

[proggy]

What is the point, I know as a contractor we are supposed to be able to hit the ground running, but realistically what can be achieved in a month?

A months worth of work?

If you hired a plumber for a few days you would expect him to do 2 days worth of work, why would you think any different for a contractor?

[NickFitz]

Did a 3 monther that got extended monthly for a year.

The resulting paperwork nearly borked the filing cabinet.

This, but it turned into two years

[Bunk]

I always look at these sort of contracts as a chance to get my name known at a client. Go in, do a good job, leave your contact details with the PM/hiring manager, then next time they have a chunk of work they might give you a call. Can lead to something much longer in the future or the chance to go direct.

[Sysman]

I have done one monthers, but they tended to fall into two distinct categories:

• Installing new systems
• Performing major OS upgrades

I also did quite a bit of X days at a time, off purchase orders rather than continuous contracts. This was mainly bug fixing and enhancement requests.

Like original PM said, well defined work.