Re: Contracting Experiences

[Kevin McLauchlan <KMcLauchlan -at- CHRYSALIS-ITS -dot- COM>]

Tom Campbell said:

        Security and benefits are rarely good reasons to remain a full-time
employee.  Job security is an illusion, and as a contractor you can usually
get benefits for less than a full-time employer will charge you, when you
take into account the higher pay rate.

Um, I'm here in Canada (eh?), where we have socialized
medicine.  This means that we still have health-related
benefits packages at work, but that the bulk of our so-called
health-insurance dollar gets siphoned into goobermint pockets
(the company-handled insurance is for "extras", not for the
basics).

That's bad enough at the outset (and is a worthy topic on
a political forum/list), but of course the system is showing
the signs of its impending failure, meaning we may find
ourselves, in just a few years, flailing in the unfamiliar waters
of health insurance.

Anyway, the point is that here, north of your border, we
have almost no practice paying the real shot for our
medical care, AND the goobermint takes the money we
would have used -- no opting out.  That doesn't change
if you are self-employed.

        Things I like best about being a contract technical writer:
        [snip]
        - good pay

I'd like to hear from some Canadians if the differential is
as great, given the stranglehold of taxes and Medicare

(which in Canada applies to everybody, not just the elderly
or the poor).

        [snip]
        - varied technolgies & work environments
        [snip]

I'd wondered about that -- especially in light of claims from
SOME people on this list, that they get paid for EVERY hour
they work.  If you've come out of the sheltered environment
of "permanent" full-time, where necessarily you did not have
exposure to most of the tools and technologies extant, then
how does the chicken get before the egg?  How do you
apply to a job that needs you to have experience with
tools and technologies you've never had an opportunity
to touch, let alone master?

What?  You don't.... LIE.... ?  No!        :-)

Oh, you buy the tools, with your own money and teach
yourself... on whose hours?  What?  You mean you
fudge the books so that you can charge general learning
time to some poor company's project?

What?  You mean you DON'T fudge the billable hours,
so you AREN'T actually getting paid for every hour you
work?

Can't have it both ways.  By the way, as a salaried workie,
I do SOME of my own training/upgrading on my own time,
with my own money, but the company pays me and pays
for the course if I need something new that's directly
related to the job.

I certainly don't use up my meagre paid vacation to
travel to foreign lands (ok, at least distant cities),
pay hotel and restaurant costs and pay for course or
seminar fees.  Does this short-sighted mindset imply
that I'll never make it as a real contractor?

By the way, I find that invariably, any course I take
that I can't soon use... was a waste of my time and
the company's money... like that SQL-server course
I took in 1997, then they delayed two years in
implementing SQL-server... but never mind, the point
is I spent a week "learning" something, that has since
totally evaporated.  How then, to prepare for a
marketplace that demands all tools, when I've only
mastered (only even *met*) a subset, and have no
opportunity to practice, here.

Chicken? (yes I am... :-)  or egg?

[snip]

About your other points:

Well, I'll probably be "performance review[ed]" when
the boss finds one of those "round tuits" that are so
hard to come by.
I *did* go to the company christmas party -- and
regretted it, and left early, but that was partly because
the table wine was homemade and... never mind --
but I also went to the wife's company party and it was
well done.  Go figure.
If I dressed down any more than I do, I'd be in my
PJs...  I once attended a project meeting in my
cycling shorts... at least I had time to remove the
helmet.
How much politicking can you *have* in a 55-person
company? (But yes, there was a little -- not much --
at Ericsson in Montreal, and a LOTtle at Philips,
before that... yuch!)

I dunno.  Maybe if I were to move to the USofA,
the line would be more clear-cut.  How hard is it
to get a green card, if you are not an employee?
Do "dang furriners" still *need* green cards?

Kevin McLauchlan
kmclauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com    (aka  kevinmcl -at- netrover -dot- com)
Journeyman techy writer, duffer skydiver, full-time unrepentent chocoholic


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