Question re: Contracting Experiences

[Rebecca Merck <Rebecca -dot- Merck -at- ONESOFT -dot- COM>]

I'm curious -- one of the things that worried me about going contract was
the issue of staying up to date with subject matter technology.  I knew I'd
learn a lot about my chosen field, and that becoming effective and efficient
and learning to set myself apart in matters of document design, layout,
graphic look, readability, usability, all that good stuff would come
naturally as part of the effort.

On the other hand, I was deeply concerned that by really only "dropping in"
on a project for the documentation phase, that by not being actively
involved in the lifecycle development of a system or a software package or
things of that nature, that I could fall behind in terms of subject matter
knowledge.  I'm working for a company now where I'm learning a huge amount
about a very interesting (to me) technology, and I feel confident that if I
had been brought in on a contract basis, I wouldn't be getting this much
exposure.

Do those of you who are happy with your contracting careers ever feel like
you are losing the chance to get involved in the product development end of
things?

I applaud those of you who see contracting as a chance to take control of
your careers.  Our culture is simply no longer one in which we can ally
ourselves with a company and assume we're going to retire from it and it
will take care of us.  Much moreso now, even as a full-time employee of a
company, I still feel that this is a contractual arrangement -- our
arrangement is that I work for a firm fixed price (sometimes that works out
well, other times not as well!) and they provide me with tax services and
benefits -- and I am still largely responsible for my own career growth, my
own training, and my own decisions about where I want to go next.  I think
it's important that we all recognize that whether we're employees or
contractors, we are definitely holding the reins of our careers and our
growth, and there's no sitting back and waiting for someone to do what's
right for us.  We have to take ownership of our own success.  It's just all
the more apparent when there's no temptation to rely on the "big daddy"
company for our success, instead, because there is no "big daddy" there for
the contractors.

This has been a very interesting conversation to watch!

-Rebecca

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