Adventures in IT contracting

[mekender]

Or how very, very much I hate my job...

So I have talked a bit about the amazing lack of security that exists at my company... But wait, there's more!!!

So two weeks or so ago, they brought a new IT guy on, he was an internal transfer and has been with the company for a while but he was the guy that made the ID badges... Well guess what, I got to train him (for about 2 hours)... The FIRST... FIRST... time he opened a PC and looked inside, was with me there showing him what to do...

Oh but it gets better... Another guy was brought in about a month ago. Nice guy, he and I have become friends and I really do think he has a solid bit of potential as a technical guy. He has done some desktop support and deployment in the past but nothing really serious. Anyways, we are in the middle of an AD migration, merging two .com domains due to a company merger. And he was tasked with going around to the machines that had failed the migration to see if the had the right .msi file on the machine. So once again, I get to step in... I got to show him how to use the highly complex and newfangled "dir /s /p" command.

Bitch about it is, these two are both full time, with benefits and making about 2x what I am making as a contractor. I really hate this place...

[skb12172]

Time to move on and let Rome burn.

[308Mike]

Who are you contracted to, and are they hiring??? I can cure many of your headaches RIGHT NOW (we can talk technical stuff and guns while waiting for the machines to finish migrating!!)

[MarkD]

Oh, I could tell stories about IT contracting. In fact, I have.

But I'm not bitter.

[Denis]

I got to show him how to use the highly complex and newfangled "dir /s /p" command.

LMAO!

[Weetabix]

So once again, I get to step in... I got to show him how to use the highly complex and newfangled "dir /s /p" command.

To be fair, people think I'm magic when I do that one. It's sad, really, how far away DOS is.

[Greg]

That's just weird. They seem to have you over a barrel, and they know it.

Traditionally IT contractors make quite a bit more per hour than full-time employees, for several reasons. You often pick up a contractor just for a specific skill they have, which is valuable.

Or if you're hiring contractors in place of employees, the friction and overhead are much lower saving you (as an employer) a great deal of money, at least some of which you will he forced (because they know this) to pass on to the contractors in hourly rate.

As a worker, with a choice between a contract position and an otherwise equivalent fulltime position, the contract position had better pay more to compensate for lack of benefits, possible tax disadvantages, etc.

[Cobar]

I got to show him how to use the highly complex and newfangled "dir /s /p" command.

Now I know that I am getting old and forgetting things. I cannot remember the last time I used dir. I also had to look up /s. Back in the day I actually read the DOS 5.0 manual cover to cover multiple times so that I knew what I was doing. DOS is far away unless you're the kind of person digging in the guts of things. Windows has made me weak.

[mekender]

So the reason I took this gig was that after being unemployed for almost 4 months, I was basically out of money and this kept me from having to have my parents and in-laws pay my bills. The problem is, this gig is so low paying that I still cant survive... But no one is interviewing/hiring me... I really have just come to HATE recruiters, they all seem totally worthless to me and have done jack shit for me. So, I get up every day and drudge through the bullshit once more, hoping like hell they don't cut me loose as companies are known to do to contractors. If they do, I will be flat broke and have utility bills start getting shut off within a week or two...

[mekender]

That's just weird. They seem to have you over a barrel, and they know it.

Traditionally IT contractors make quite a bit more per hour than full-time employees, for several reasons. You often pick up a contractor just for a specific skill they have, which is valuable.

Or if you're hiring contractors in place of employees, the friction and overhead are much lower saving you (as an employer) a great deal of money, at least some of which you will he forced (because they know this) to pass on to the contractors in hourly rate.

As a worker, with a choice between a contract position and an otherwise equivalent fulltime position, the contract position had better pay more to compensate for lack of benefits, possible tax disadvantages, etc.

Yea but this is a contract for a Windows 7 deployment... They needed people that could carry desktop towers and follow printed directions, I could teach a high school kid to do my job in a day.

Course I am doing far more than just that, but that is what I was hired to do.