A Letter to the contractor employment "Industry"

[Mich the Tester]

...I terminated one BA, didn't renew another and about to not renew the Analyst. Only the SQL developer is left and whereas she has some skills they still need hand holding, but theyre foreign and cheaper than the onshore equivalent and that's why theyre still used.

I've worked with hardly any decent contractors in my time & the best ones I do know are all ones I've initially mentored ...

I don't want to sound nasty, but who's the common denominator in all of your disappointments?

[MarillionFan]

I don't want to sound nasty, but who's the common denominator in all of your disappointments?

I never rated any other contractors I worked with when I was contracting. The majority of contractors are mediocre and the rare few are outstanding, so by default I'm bound to be disappointed most of the time.

[MarillionFan]

I never rated any other contractors I worked with when I was contracting. The majority of contractors are mediocre and the rare few are outstanding, so by default I'm bound to be disappointed most of the time.

Contractors are a resource. They're bought in to do a specific function and you expect them to be an expert within the area you bring them in for. As a lot of contractors like to try and blag it, then there's no hiding if the person who hired you is more of an expert in the area than you are. For perms it's different, in that case you want to bring their skills up and so spending time for mentoring is time well spent. The contractor I terminated expressly asked why I hadn't taken more time mentoring them and that four months was not long enough to learn the job. $110 an hour for someone who is supposed to be better at the function than me says different.

[Contractoid]

While I agree with a lot of that, the industry as a whole has allowed this status quo to develop.

When I was permanent, contractors were seen as the cream of the crop and we're brought in by clients for specific tasks they couldn't do in house.

This has slowly changed to them not wanting to take the risk on recruiting permanent people and getting in contractors to 'do work' (which is not to criticise the people doing it, it had paid my mortgage for several years).

Throw in the influx of foreign talent and the days where agents developed relationships are long gone (less some niche areas).

Yep agree with that. I remember the days when Agents actually practiced the hype on their websites about "high standards of client and consultant ethics". But now that's a distant memory.

And the excuse for this? - too many bodies fighting for dwindling number of slots. Oh I see, so acting with integrity is based purely on this ratio then rather than it being about treating people with a bit of respect / dignity regardless of the market conditions.

Brilliant.

[kal]

I've employed 4 contractors in the last year, 2 UK and 2 US.
In each case every one has been bought in to do one of the core skills that I used to contract in (2xBA/ 1xSQL Developer / 1xSenior Data Analyst). I terminated one BA, didn't renew another and about to not renew the Analyst. Only the SQL developer is left and whereas she has some skills they still need hand holding, but theyre foreign and cheaper than the onshore equivalent and that's why theyre still used.

I've worked with hardly any decent contractors in my time & the best ones I do know are all ones I've initially mentored and who have gone on to do way better than I ever did.

Decent contractors are hard to find.

I think that says just as much about your interviewing and selection ability...

[minestrone]

Technical contractors rarely get given enough time to take on board the business knowledge required for the job, pile on learning the usual archaic internal processes of organisations and really most of the time you are on the back foot. Contractors and permies should have different management with different expectations, it never happens.

[SussexSeagull]

I do think at times agents fall down in their primary task of bringing good candidates to clients. In my last two major contracts I was way down the list of people considered and went on to sail the interview and do well in the contract.

Don't know if this is caused by Agents just not finding qualified people or only putting forward people they think they will make a larger margin on but you do hear a lot of clients being unable to find good people, which sounds wrong in the buyers market of the last few years.

[MarillionFan]

Technical contractors rarely get given enough time to take on board the business knowledge required for the job, pile on learning the usual archaic internal processes of organisations and really most of the time you are on the back foot. Contractors and permies should have different management with different expectations, it never happens.

I would agree in the case of technical contractors. With business analysts you hire someone with domain / industry knowledge and the skills to capture requirements from the business. I keep finding the combination lacking.

[Mich the Tester]

...time to take on board the business knowledge required for the job, pile on learning the usual archaic internal processes of organisations and really most of the time you are on the back foot...

This.

Right here the systems we're building/testing are pretty complicated (for a thicko like me), but you can't even start learning them without battling your way through the plethora of 'processes' and 'work instructions' and seeking basic information in the clunky and over the top tools clientco has bought. Finding out which xml messages, with which format, are sent between two components requires detective work in about 4 different systems that are filled with designs that point to each other, sometimes pointing around in circles; then you have to use the clunky test tooling and the clunky process of first writing tests in word and then the tool, so they can be reviewed. It takes days to write a test that could be done in minutes.

[sirja]

Contractors are a resource. They're bought in to do a specific function and you expect them to be an expert within the area you bring them in for. As a lot of contractors like to try and blag it, then there's no hiding if the person who hired you is more of an expert in the area than you are. For perms it's different, in that case you want to bring their skills up and so spending time for mentoring is time well spent. The contractor I terminated expressly asked why I hadn't taken more time mentoring them and that four months was not long enough to learn the job. $110 an hour for someone who is supposed to be better at the function than me says different.

It’s your responsibility to ensure your contractor recruitment process is sufficiently rigorous to eliminate those candidates who don’t have the skills your project requires. If you don’t have such a process in place than that’s your fault.