Re: FWD: question about contracting w/o agencies

[Goober <techcommgoober -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

> After several years of working only in salaried
> positions as a fulltime
> employee, I've been approached about a possible
> opportunity at a company
> where they would start me out as a contractor, with
> a long-term goal of
> me becoming an employee in 6 months if things go
> well. 

6 months sounds pretty short-term to me. Make a damn
good impression in those 6 months, if you take it.

> The opportunity
> itself sounds good, and my current position is in
> jeopardy, so I'm ready
> to make a preemptive (or should I say pre-layoff?)
> move.

Sounds like a no-brainer. Might be a bartering tool to
look into the contract more closely. If your company
sees that you may be leaving, and if they DO want you
to stick around, they may make you a counter offer of
some sort (despite the layoffs).

> In my area, many contractors work with agencies, and
> are actually able to
> get nice benefit packages, which I assume are
> offered by the agencies
> themselves rather than the companies where they
> place their workers.

Yes and no. Depends on the agency.

> However, in this instance I've been contacted
> directly by a recruiter at
> the company where I'd be seeking employment. I've
> only had one
> conversation with the recruiter, and it was a brief
> and high-level chat,
> necessitated by the open cube in which I work. 

Dangerous move. Buy a cell phone and take a walk.

> So I was unable to ask
> some pertinent questions.

Sounds like you need to ask them then.

> So, pardon my ignorance, but I'd like to ask a few
> things from the
> contractors who populate this list:
> 
> Is it common to have some sort of benefit package
> with long-term
> contracts? (This one would be 6 months, with a very
> large and successful
> company) Or is that something peculiar to certain
> agencies or geographic
> areas?

Not common. Not uncommon. Depends on the contract and
the company. Do they want you as a 1090 or a W-2?

> Do most of you carry your own individual health
> insurance, or are you
> able to rely on a spouse or relative for that? How
> hard is it to find
> individual policies that are both affordable and
> actually useful?

I'm COBRAing it for now. Will ride the spouse soon
once her benefits kick in. (That sounded rude, sorry.)
For info on getting your own policies, contact the
various providers for info (which they will gladly
shove your way with a smile) and check out stc.org for
more info and ideas.

> Apologies for my naiveté, but I'd never really been
> interested in
> contracting, but this seems like one of very few
> options at the moment.

We've all been there. :)

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