Re: Contract Work or No Contract Work?

[Rose Wilcox <RWILC -at- FAST -dot- DOT -dot- STATE -dot- AZ -dot- US>]

John Cady wrote:
>What have been your experiences with contract or freelance work?
>Is it plentiful?

I've managed to stay gainfully employed for 12 years (with a few years here
and there spent in "captive" jobs :-))

>Does it ever lead to fulltime work?

All too often ;-)

>Do you have to go through an agency to get work?

Not necessarily, but it is less effort than marketing yourself.

>I've heard a rumor or two that working with the agencies is risky. Are
>they generally reliable, trustworthy, reverent and all that?

I haven't had any bad experiences with them.... No, let me rephrase that...
 They have been reliable, not trustworthy, and never reverent.... except to
their own pocketbooks.... luckily I make them money, so they like me....
 Stick to well-established agencies.  Sometimes startup agencies go bankrupt
and don't pay you, or so I have heard.  Talk to other job-shoppers in your
area.  Check out the client list, the office, the years in business, etc.,
if you are concerned.

>I've done some freelance user documentation work with a company, and I'm
>doing an internship now with the university's computing center. I've got
>html and DTP experience. Would I have enough experience to get contract
work?

Yeah, HTML is hot.  DTP and word processing tools are always helpful.   What
do you mean DTP experience?  Layout, graphics, large books, Macs, PCs?  Feel
you can learn new software easily?  Ever created a master doc with chapters,
TOC, index, etc.?

Re DTP and word processing tools, look at the ads and see what's being
advertised for in your area.

>Thanks, you all have been very informative as I've looked in periodically
>this last year. If this subject has already been dealt with ad nauseum,
>feel free to whip me with a semi-colon.

Nah, you would *like* it!

Rosie A. (the A is for ad nauseam) Wilcox
rwilc -at- fast -dot- dot -dot- state -dot- az -dot- us
ncrowe -at- primenet -dot- com
"Like Blake, John Betjeman feared both pretension and learning (as opposed
to knowledge), seeing them both as destructive of feeling, as substitutes
for the eye, the ear, and the heart."
Myfanwy Piper