[rescue] Career Rescue (was DEC Pro 350, or something)

[Fogg, James]

> I've always done better financially as a contractor than as
> an employee, simply because I get paid for all the overtime
> I work.  Even at straight time rates, this alone makes up
> for the bennies that I don't get by not being an employee.
> With contracting, I learn more, faster, and I get to move
> on to something new and exciting when the current contract

I have used contracting as a tool to gain valuable experience, but I have
found it to be demeaning and unfulfilling. My contracts tend to pay less and
the company doesn't place any value in you. The worst aspect is that other
employees look at you as "the scab", "the peon" and "the fast moving
competition".

I took a job at a major North East retail store HQ 9 years ago as a "desktop
support" worker. My job involved setting up and maintaining PC's on a
network. It was way below my skill level, but I needed the work. The
department consisted of me, 5 women and one guy. I called it the "coffee
club", since all they did every day was sit around planning their next break
and drinking coffee. I wasn't able to meet my job requirement of 3 new
installs/conversions per day since the user accounts were always late and
screwed up when I tried to set up a user. When I explained to the boss that
I wasn't able to meet the demand because of my cow-orkers, she said to "deal
with it". I spend more time admining their servers and fixing network issues
than doing my job. As the coffee club caught on, they were able to sit back
and lounge around all day. The killer was when I realized that the guy
before me had stripped about 30 new big-by-fast PC's of ram/disk/cpu (early
Plentiums). I left before the poo hit the ventilator. btw.. this retailer
(Bradlees) has been struggling for 12 years. No wonder, with staffing and
management like they have.

This experience is typical of the many I have had as an indentured slave. I
hope I never have to "temp" again.

Now... "consulting" is a whole different gig. I'll wipe proverbial asses for
$150.00/hr (my usual rate).