Hi
A few days ago I accepted an offer of a 3-6 month long contract. I had been on the bench since end of April 2007.
Well this is the life of a contractor. No ifs no buts.
1) TRUST NO ONE - Watch for those bay**tches that attempt to shoot arrows into the middle of your back! In this business no one really is your friend. But the truth of the matter is that you are in charge of your own body, mind and soul. You are in charge of you! No one can f**k for you. You have to do it yourself in order to experience an orgasm. So only you can get better at contracting (or f**king). Everyone, however, starts at the base camp and then they start climbing. Some people climb faster than others. Some never climb. Some even end up going all the way down. It is all to do with the learning. How hungry are you to learn? Information is a wealth. Information is a power. The two therefore are interlinked. Information is coveted by those who cherish it and understand it. Trust no one, means that just be aware others are chasing the same dream too. Some people are good and some people are bad. The bad ones have to watched. Trust no one, therefore. The good ones are those that have the attributes of mutual trust, honesty and ethical behaviour. These are thbe traits that make one a reputable contractor. Share your experiences with those people who are good people, but always be prepared to act like the Godfather, when the time comes ...
2) AGENCIES NEVER DELIVER ENOUGH FEEDBACK - If you know you failed an interview then trying to getting feedback is sometimes like getting blood from a stone. Its the old paradox. With no feedback at all how in the hell can you improve yourself? Agencies do not have to time give feedback to all 100 candidates chasing the one bay**tch-ass job. The answer is this. To analyse your performances at interviews. Get an honest appraisal of yourself by yourself. Ask other people (real friends). Practise, practise, practise in front of a mirror or with loved one little bits of script and technique at a time. Go and seek out an image consultant. Read books about body language. Pay real money to get training or from a group at workshop. Nothing is free in this world, really, but you know there are plenty of people out there that can help you improve your interpersonal skills. Or ask someone who you know personally that is already charming and has charisma. Of courses, there are lots of advice on the Internet about CVs and preparation techniques. You just have to seek it out.
3) PAST ACQUAINTANCES related to the item #1 can pretend to be lovey-dovey at first but also muck you around at the last minute. Acquaintances are not your friends because they won't tell you if you have an oily spot on your silk tie or a horribid brown stain on the side of your new business skirt. Acquaintances might even f**k you when your back is turned, because they have no loyalty to you. (Truthfully, so-called friends can also do this to you). Okay you might have worked in the same department, division, or company back in the day. Look hear! In this bay**tch ass please understand everyone is trying to get paid!
4) MONEY, MONEY, MONEY agencies are after the big dosh from the client ultimately. This business does not work like a celebrity agent or a personal agent. We are not David Beckham's so-to-speak, therefore agencies respect the business of their preferred client over you: priority given over the candidate (contractor). In your dealings with agency remember that feelings of the candidate are secondary. Although good agents will check in on you on the first day of a contract and even better ones will do this from time to time.
5) OFFERS know what you are worth before you actually accept an offer. Never rush to accept an offer if agency is trying to bully you into accepting a gig. Always be honest about offers. Never give out your emotions. If you have accepted an offer then be ethical about it. Never undo an offer unless you see that the terms of the contract were changed or in error or definitely there is a cause for breach of trust. Never accept an offer for a job that you have clearly have no attention of doing. You will just make it f**king hard for the rest of us out there struggling to live. (See #6 and #7) However check that the offer is acceptable against your ambitions for your career.
6) LEARN THE ART OF HOW TO SAY NO MEANS NO Some assertive females will probably have an easy time of saying this. Agents sometimes do not want to take NO for answer, and basically want their pound of flesh (the recruiting or finders fee) at your f**king expensive. If the offer is too low and the contract terms keep changing over the time, then it is a sure sign that you are being done, gee. Tell the agent to f**k off and make you an offer that you cannot refuse. (see item #7)
7) PLAN OF ACTION know where you want to be in 6 months time. That olde chestnut, "Where do you see yourself in five years?". WTF man, in this era of Al Quaeda and global terrorism, do any of us f**king know if we will be alive in f**king five years? In seriousness though, please make a 6-12 month plan of action about how you are going gain the knowledge that you need to survive in this tough market. For instance recognise those important industry trends. (Should I stick with C++? Will Java die? Or will Ruby take over? Will Sybase make a come back? Do you need mobile computing skills? Or do you finally need to go into management that you have been avoiding all this time? Do you need more businessskills and marketing knowledge? Do you need certification to make progress?)
8) CLIENT ACTING THE FOOL sometimes you have call time on an offer, or possible prospect of an offer being made. You might have an interview with a client and the feedback from the agent is a very positive. You might think you are getting to the offer today, but then you don't receive a call by the end-of-play. On the next day you might find yourself still waiting for the offer or phone call. Potentially an offer may also arrive on the next day. Or worst still you have knocked back an offer in order to see how this current situation might play out. Here is a brazil nut, f**ker. The client is playing you and interviewing another candidate in the mean time ... Yeah you were good, but you were not great. tulip!!! If that is the case then you can play the game too and therefore find an alternative offer of contract from someone else.
9) KEEP ON KEEPING ON I will say this once and once only. The Mother****er will land on your you at an unexpected moment, I guarantee it, sometime in your career and/or life. (For some people it will land quite a few times, but everyone will have a bad situation, because no one can actually avoid it, not even singletons) Have a plan to get out when the going gets tough. Be the tough prize-guy (or gal) and get going. Keep that CV up to date and out there, because you just never know ...
10) MAKE CHANGE YOUR NEW PHILOSOPHY. Contracting is about continual change. It is about being flexible. It is about knowing when that tree could fall on you. Get a book on the subject of "Change in the organisation" and read it.
"Mama didn't raise no fool. Put me anywhere on God's green earth, 'Ill triple my worth."
A few days ago I accepted an offer of a 3-6 month long contract. I had been on the bench since end of April 2007.
Well this is the life of a contractor. No ifs no buts.
1) TRUST NO ONE - Watch for those bay**tches that attempt to shoot arrows into the middle of your back! In this business no one really is your friend. But the truth of the matter is that you are in charge of your own body, mind and soul. You are in charge of you! No one can f**k for you. You have to do it yourself in order to experience an orgasm. So only you can get better at contracting (or f**king). Everyone, however, starts at the base camp and then they start climbing. Some people climb faster than others. Some never climb. Some even end up going all the way down. It is all to do with the learning. How hungry are you to learn? Information is a wealth. Information is a power. The two therefore are interlinked. Information is coveted by those who cherish it and understand it. Trust no one, means that just be aware others are chasing the same dream too. Some people are good and some people are bad. The bad ones have to watched. Trust no one, therefore. The good ones are those that have the attributes of mutual trust, honesty and ethical behaviour. These are thbe traits that make one a reputable contractor. Share your experiences with those people who are good people, but always be prepared to act like the Godfather, when the time comes ...
2) AGENCIES NEVER DELIVER ENOUGH FEEDBACK - If you know you failed an interview then trying to getting feedback is sometimes like getting blood from a stone. Its the old paradox. With no feedback at all how in the hell can you improve yourself? Agencies do not have to time give feedback to all 100 candidates chasing the one bay**tch-ass job. The answer is this. To analyse your performances at interviews. Get an honest appraisal of yourself by yourself. Ask other people (real friends). Practise, practise, practise in front of a mirror or with loved one little bits of script and technique at a time. Go and seek out an image consultant. Read books about body language. Pay real money to get training or from a group at workshop. Nothing is free in this world, really, but you know there are plenty of people out there that can help you improve your interpersonal skills. Or ask someone who you know personally that is already charming and has charisma. Of courses, there are lots of advice on the Internet about CVs and preparation techniques. You just have to seek it out.
3) PAST ACQUAINTANCES related to the item #1 can pretend to be lovey-dovey at first but also muck you around at the last minute. Acquaintances are not your friends because they won't tell you if you have an oily spot on your silk tie or a horribid brown stain on the side of your new business skirt. Acquaintances might even f**k you when your back is turned, because they have no loyalty to you. (Truthfully, so-called friends can also do this to you). Okay you might have worked in the same department, division, or company back in the day. Look hear! In this bay**tch ass please understand everyone is trying to get paid!
4) MONEY, MONEY, MONEY agencies are after the big dosh from the client ultimately. This business does not work like a celebrity agent or a personal agent. We are not David Beckham's so-to-speak, therefore agencies respect the business of their preferred client over you: priority given over the candidate (contractor). In your dealings with agency remember that feelings of the candidate are secondary. Although good agents will check in on you on the first day of a contract and even better ones will do this from time to time.
5) OFFERS know what you are worth before you actually accept an offer. Never rush to accept an offer if agency is trying to bully you into accepting a gig. Always be honest about offers. Never give out your emotions. If you have accepted an offer then be ethical about it. Never undo an offer unless you see that the terms of the contract were changed or in error or definitely there is a cause for breach of trust. Never accept an offer for a job that you have clearly have no attention of doing. You will just make it f**king hard for the rest of us out there struggling to live. (See #6 and #7) However check that the offer is acceptable against your ambitions for your career.
6) LEARN THE ART OF HOW TO SAY NO MEANS NO Some assertive females will probably have an easy time of saying this. Agents sometimes do not want to take NO for answer, and basically want their pound of flesh (the recruiting or finders fee) at your f**king expensive. If the offer is too low and the contract terms keep changing over the time, then it is a sure sign that you are being done, gee. Tell the agent to f**k off and make you an offer that you cannot refuse. (see item #7)
7) PLAN OF ACTION know where you want to be in 6 months time. That olde chestnut, "Where do you see yourself in five years?". WTF man, in this era of Al Quaeda and global terrorism, do any of us f**king know if we will be alive in f**king five years? In seriousness though, please make a 6-12 month plan of action about how you are going gain the knowledge that you need to survive in this tough market. For instance recognise those important industry trends. (Should I stick with C++? Will Java die? Or will Ruby take over? Will Sybase make a come back? Do you need mobile computing skills? Or do you finally need to go into management that you have been avoiding all this time? Do you need more businessskills and marketing knowledge? Do you need certification to make progress?)
8) CLIENT ACTING THE FOOL sometimes you have call time on an offer, or possible prospect of an offer being made. You might have an interview with a client and the feedback from the agent is a very positive. You might think you are getting to the offer today, but then you don't receive a call by the end-of-play. On the next day you might find yourself still waiting for the offer or phone call. Potentially an offer may also arrive on the next day. Or worst still you have knocked back an offer in order to see how this current situation might play out. Here is a brazil nut, f**ker. The client is playing you and interviewing another candidate in the mean time ... Yeah you were good, but you were not great. tulip!!! If that is the case then you can play the game too and therefore find an alternative offer of contract from someone else.
9) KEEP ON KEEPING ON I will say this once and once only. The Mother****er will land on your you at an unexpected moment, I guarantee it, sometime in your career and/or life. (For some people it will land quite a few times, but everyone will have a bad situation, because no one can actually avoid it, not even singletons) Have a plan to get out when the going gets tough. Be the tough prize-guy (or gal) and get going. Keep that CV up to date and out there, because you just never know ...
10) MAKE CHANGE YOUR NEW PHILOSOPHY. Contracting is about continual change. It is about being flexible. It is about knowing when that tree could fall on you. Get a book on the subject of "Change in the organisation" and read it.
"Mama didn't raise no fool. Put me anywhere on God's green earth, 'Ill triple my worth."
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