Recruiters and contract jobs – part 2

Well, here I am 5.5 months into my 4-6 month contract.  I am still not permanent, but I met with my recruiter (and her boss) today.  The contractor has put my name into their contract (with the government) as a “mission essential” employee for my particular project.  This contracting company will be negotiating this contract with the government in the next few weeks. 

If my name is in the contract as “mission essential” and the government accepts the contract (which they are very likely to do, or they lose ALL the contractors at this location, which isn’t a low number or either people or projects), then for the contractor to be in compliance with the contract, they will need to be able to produce … well… me.  The only way they will be able to guarantee that they can have me on site is to hire me away from the recruiter.  If they don’t, I can call my recruiter at any time and say, “Okay, I finished my 6 month contract, I am tired of the commute.. or I am tired of the carpeting…or I am tired of the aftershave of the guy next to me…” or whatever I want to use as an excuse and my recruiter will find me a different contract somewhere else.  So, if they are negotiating this next month sometime, I expect that in the next 4-6 weeks, I will be seeing a contract float across my desk.  It looks like the 99% is really 100%.

Recruiters and contract jobs

For the last 18 months-22 months or so, I have been taking contract jobs. I left my past permanent job because it was with a non-profit organization, and the Program Director quit, and so the Board of Directors was running the program, and they didn’t write the necessary grant (and get it approved) to support my position. So, without funding, I decided that I didn’t want to continue doing the job. Mostly because I had become accustomed to being paid.

Anyway, so I have been dealing with recruiters for a while now. Some are obviously better than others. There is one who contacted me initially back in February – spent 45 minutes with me on the phone, wanted a copy of my resume, copies of code I had written, copies of business writing, etc. Since then, every 6weeks or so, I get an email “from” him. But to me, they look like carbon copy cookie cutter emails with generic information in them. “This is a great place to look for over 100k jobs!” Well, yeah, but I have never earned nearly that much because I have ALWAYS worked in non-profit and non-profit is notorious for paying coffee ground salaries. Why in the world would he think that anyone would hire me for a 100K job if I have never earned anything even close to that? All of his emails are like that, and he has never once even suggested a possible interview.

Other recruiters call me – a lot. Sometimes they have possible positions, sometimes not, but either way, they just want to stay in touch. Which I suppose is a good idea. I mean, there is one I am working with now. I went to see him, filled out all his paperwork, interviewed with him, but then took a contract that was found through another recruiter. I let him know that it was just for the summer, and that as the end of August came close, I would be available. Middle of August came, and he was on the phone to me to see what my availability was. Now, that is someone who is on the ball. And, he got me an interview, which has led to an offer, which I am 99% likely to take later on today.

Then there are the recruiters who will say anything to get you to go their way. One placed me with a fairly large media company. Swore that they had placed other people there that had loved working there, but I got on location and found the company to be bass akwards about nearly everything. Had that recruiter really placed other people there, they would have known this, so either they were lying about placing people, or were lying about how good the client was.

I have another one I am working with right now as well. She knows that I am very close to accepting the above offer, but her client is not likely to be able to make an offer for a week or so because they haven’t seen their last 2 interviewees. She keeps telling me that I should ignore the bird I have in my hand, because a 4-6 month contract with a 99% chance of permanency is not as good as a permanent hire. Well, I guess that is true, except that I have no guarantee that I will be offered that permanent hire. So, if I throw away this bird, I may have no birds at all next week.

So, are contract jobs good? It really depends on your personality and your needs. If you have a spouse with a permanent job with great benefits, then perhaps contracting is the way to go. It allows you to have something new and exciting every few months. It allows you to use different aspects of your skill set, so that you can grow into a very well-rounded computer scientist. It allows you to do some networking. You will meet a lot of different people in different areas of the computer science world if you do contract jobs. The final apple is that on a per hour basis, typically you will earn more as a contractor.

The bad side is that often times, there are no benefits (hence the reason you make more if you look at the rate as an hourly kind of thing). There is little job security. After all, 4-6 months is not the kind of job that supports buying a house or a car. You can’t as easily make friendships, because you are gone too quickly. You might as well not bother to decorate your “office” as you will just be carrying it back out again. And you probably have to deal with recruiters on a semi-permanent basis. Now, if you have a good recruiter, that may not be as bad as it seems.

I, however, have pretty much had enough. If I take this 4-6 month contract, it is with the understanding that it will very likely go permanent. And regardless of what the one recruiter says, I don’t think it is just a marketing ploy to get me to sign on. I know enough about this particular contractor to believe that I have a good shot at being picked up. If I don’t, well, yeah, I will swallow my pride and tell her that she was right and ask her what she has available. But, somehow, I think this is my time to go back into the permanent work force.

Music and mood

Those of you who know me, know that you can tell my mood by the music that I am listening to. I usually leave MSN Live Messenger and other IM clients running in the background so that friends can contact me while I do what I do. Most of these clients will automatically put the name of songs from my music client under my name so that my music choice is announced to the world. Well, not to the world, as I don’t have my status world-readable. In fact, if you aren’t on my list, you will see me as offline all the time. It isn’t until I have approved you that you will see my actual status. Oh, and if you can’t convince me that I know you within 15 seconds of sending the first message, I will block you forever. So be ready to explain who you are.

Anyway, lately, with the crappy work situation, I have slowly been migrating back to my “moody” music. I am not quite back to the instrumentals, so I am not too far gone, but it isn’t too far away either. Pink Floyd and Don McLean usually indicate things aren’t going well. They usually indicate introspection. Paul Simon (including Garfunkel) is usually a good sign, as is Billy Joel. I may even be up and dancing. Sara Bareilles or Norah Jones will have me singing, but still in my chair. Queen, Bette Midler or the Eagles will have me singing the harmonies, same with any Motown. Il Divo will have me trying to sing in foreign languages (I am passable, but not great.) Silk or R. Kelly, well, you can imagine what’s on my mind. Let’s leave it at that.

You can also tell my mood by the way I am dressed. Jammies at noon, usually mean I am in a funk, but that is harder to tell via IM client. Usually even if I am working from home, I get up, bathe and get dressed in reasonable clothes (the type that if I needed to meet with a client, I wouldn’t be embarrassed.)

Blind Recruiting

Is that a real term? I don’t know, but here is how I define it, and you can decide for yourself. I had a lady contact me last night, late. She has an “end client” who is looking for a web developer. She described the job, and it sounds like a good fit. She wanted me to send her an updated copy of my resume (always in Word format), and she would send me the full job description in an email. She said she would call me in the morning to discuss it more, and then would send my resume to this “end client”. So, I got out my resume, made one or two small changes, saved it and emailed it to her in response to the email she sent (with the job description). She still had not said who “end client” was.

Two minutes later, I get another email from another recruiter, with the exact same job description and location. He also has an “end client” looking for a web developer. It is fairly obvious to me that they are both trying to fill the same job. I have had this happen many times. How am I to know who these people are showing my resume to? They won’t tell me who the “end client” is until the interview is set up, but unless the recruiter has sent me the untouched advertisement, I may end up having my resume put in front of the end client multiple times (which I bet ticks them off). I think I should be told up front who they intend to show my resume to. I should be able to say, “Yeah, well, I don’t want you to consider showing my resume to <insert company here> because I would never even consider interviewing with them regardless of how close they are or how much they pay.” (There are some such companies in my area.)

Why is it such a secret? Are they afraid that I will say I don’t want to be considered for the position? Do they think I have so little integrity that if they tell me the company’s name I will apply to the company on my own in order to bilk them out of the referral fee (which I don’t have to pay anyway?) What exactly is the problem?

And why do companies refuse to list their name in their ads? Is it part of the same fear of being ignored? Do they think that if I knew they were hiring I wouldn’t bother to apply? And they never list even a pay range. I find that to be very distasteful. I don’t want to apply to a company that isn’t going to be able to pay me what I need in order to accept the position. It is a waste of my time and theirs. It is like buying a house. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the house is, if it is outside my price range, I don’t bother to go inside. Same with cars. I can’t afford a Ferrari, so I don’t even go on the lot.

Why must everything be like pulling teeth and voodoo? Just be honest and upfront. I am. On my resume, I put how many years I have worked with a skill, and I list how well I feel I do with that skill. Expert means that you can call me while I am driving in traffic, and I can walk you through what you need to do. Intermediate means that I will have to open the application and be looking at it to help you with it; I can’t see it all in my mind. Beginner means everything else: from I need to use the in program help, to I need to trace through the code a bit, to I may need to look up a function, to I need to read the comments, to I need to play with it for a minute. I think that is fairly upfront and easy to understand. I am not trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes. I am not saying I am an expert when I am not.

Maybe though, some other people use another scale to describe their prowess, but that is the scale I use, and I will explain it to anyone who asks.

I am tired of job hunting. I am tired of resumes and cover letters. I am tired of recruiters most of all. To all the recruiters out there – I am sorry, but your job really sucks. All I want right now is to win the lottery, and move to the islands.

Contracting

I took a contracting job starting June 8. Tier 2 Tech Support for a fairly large national company based here locally. A lot of their software is third party proprietary. The documentation is poor to none. The other employees, while some of them are helpful, others tend to spend most of their time goofing off so that their calls come to my desk (Front line, “So and so is busy, but I have one of his customers on the line, would you take the call?”

While I know I am there to help ease the load on the regular staff, I have been given 33 newspaper clients of my own (as a way of easing their burden), so I don’t need to be taking their calls too. I don’t need to be given a hard time when I still need to ask for help because the documentation sucks. I also don’t understand why 6 weeks in, I am still finding that I don’t have the right credentials to log into machines that are essential for me to complete my work. One would think that there would be a list somewhere of what credentials are needed for all new Tier 2 Techs when they are hired so that they can do their job. Make a list, damn it, and then use it each time you hire someone!

This job is frustrating not because of the work, but because of the environment. The recruiter said that this company often hires its contractors as permanent employees at the end of the contract period. I certainly don’t want that. I can barely force myself to go in to work each day as it is. My supervisor is on vacation so I can’t ask for help from him. Plus, if he hasn’t figured out I am not happy from me asking for passwords every third day for 6 weeks, then he doesn’t really deserve to be a supervisor. That should be a big clue to him that he isn’t doing his job. Not to mention he ought to be seeing his regular employees spending most of their time on their cell phones out in the hallway doing personal business.

I don’t think this job will last. I have a very low patience level for complete and utter incompetence. While these guys do their job well (when they do it), it isn’t because they understand what they are doing. It is because they have memorized a bunch of key strokes. That can be dangerous. I am not sure I want to be there when they do that Cascade on the database (yes, I mentioned it one day as a possible solution to an issue, and one of them was asking me today as I was walking out about “that locking thing” and meaning cascade, which has nothing to do with locking”. I can just see one of them deleting whole sets of data by using Cascade and not knowing they are doing it until it is too late. All because they don’t have a degree and they have no real clue what they are doing.

Too long

I have waited too long, I suppose. Waited too long in many areas of my life. I waited too long to divorce my first husband. I waited until he had shredded every last bit of dignity and self-respect I had. I waited too long to get my Bachelor’s degree. I set it aside to marry my first husband, and then his influence encouraged me to set it aside nearly permanently. I waited too long to reach my middle daughter, and she ended up choosing to go to live with my abusive ex-husband. I waited too long to start my web development company. I waited too long to recommend to the board of directors that they needed to secure funding to support the salary for my position as the Assistant Program Director of REACH. I waited too long to tell the recruiting company that the temporary job to which they had assigned me was toxic and that I could not put up with it any longer. I waited too long to live my life.

I find myself feeling that I am too old to be where I am in my life. I don’t have a steady job. I don’t have steady finances. I feel like a college kid just starting out, with iffy experiences on my resume, but I am not college aged. I have a college aged son.

When I was young, I expected that by the time I was in my 40s, I would be settled down, married (which I am), with children (which I have), but that I would either be well established in my job or I would be established in a well-placed volunteer position (because I didn’t need to work). I expected that I would be well on my way to a secure retirement. I expected that I would be starting to take vacations to exotic places instead of to visit family members. I expected to be in the last 7 or 8 years of my mortgage. I expected to be driving a nicer car, not a 12 year old van with a bad engine. I expected that my furniture would match, not be pieces I have scrounged or bought at the Salvation Army. I expected I would have made something of myself.

I have not gone to my class reunions. Mostly because I haven’t been invited. I did sort of make part of my 5th year reunion, because a friend called me from the reunion to ask me to swing by on my way home from visiting my parents. My (now) ex-husband wouldn’t stop to let our son use the restroom, so he soiled his underpants.  He was only 18 months old and was just starting potty training (his choice, not mine). So his dad threw his underwear away. I was pregnant with his sister. I did see some of my old friends. They were all holding down interesting jobs. I was a stay at home mom (which I enjoyed being), but I didn’t dare share with them that I was being abused and had no way out.

Now, looking back, I know that if I had told them, they would have found a way to rescue me from him. None of them liked him anyway. But, what future would that have given me? A pregnant woman with an 18 month old son, with no degree and no real skills other than the ability to write wonderful essays about Nathanial Hawthorne. Great future in that.

I have been approached by a friend and asked whether I would be willing to write fiction. I suppose I could. I have the time, I have the equipment. What I don’t have is the audience. While I know there are plenty of people who are willing to read blogs that are free, I don’t know that there are many who would pay.

I have two books in the works now. One is into the 4th chapter, one to the third. They are very different stories. One is fantasy, set in a magical world. The other is set in current times, in Hampton Roads Virginia, and tells the fictional story of a young girl starting her career working for an international company.

This friend of mine thinks that I could make a business writing stories for people. Stories based on a one line subject that the person would give me. The customer would tell me what they would like to read about, and then I would create a story about that subject. I suppose the customer could also tell me approximately how long a story they would like to have as well. The longer the story, the more research I would have to do to make it a believable story. It may be a workable concept though. Throughout the ages, people have valued story-tellers. They have yearned to hear good stories. Good story tellers have been revered as valuable members of the society. Could this be my niche in the world?

Fantasy Writing

Okay, I have taken that step.  In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was thinking about writing a novel.  Well, today I started it in earnest.  Yeah, I had the outline done several weeks ago, but I didn’t even have characters, just events that would happen, but no idea to whom.

Today, characters came to life.  It started with one, Steve.  But, poor Steve, he died.  Pretty quickly, actually.  It turned out, this story just really isn’t about him.  My daughter had come up with him and named him on Sunday.  I had asked her to come up with a name for my main character and to draw a picture of him, and some of the other characters that might be in the story.  I had thought that seeing them on paper would help me start thinking of the story for them.  But, as I sat here today, and I started working on the story line, it just didn’t seem to work with Steve, even if I changed his name to something else, something more “fantasy story-like”.  Instead, the story seemed to be about someone else.  Someone completely different.  From somewhere, I heard her begin to whisper her story to me.

Once I heard those first few little whispers from that new main character, the story just started to flow.  She told me the main story line for the protagonist.  She told me about her relationship with the antagonist.  She hinted at relationships with other characters that I hadn’t met yet, but would meet soon.  She giggled, and stepped back.  Then the antagonist stepped forward.  He was quick to point out how much more important *his* storyline was than hers.  He qualified some of the information she had given me, and gave me background information – justifying his actions.  Soon, the secondary characters were lining up, eager to put in their two cents.  I got the main lines for about 6 or 7 secondary characters.  I got some unexpected turns, some unexpected alliances, some well hidden secrets. 

Suddenly, this story doesn’t feel like it is going to be such a difficult job to write.  Sure, I still have the background and setting to write – you know the description of the land, the countryside, etc., but with the characters fleshed out and their motivations and points of view done already, they are practically fighting to tell me their story.  They all want to be center stage. 

Maybe I won’t bother to “get a job”.  Maybe I will just “write the great American novel” and forget about a “normal” job.  With these guys doing all the work for me, it just sort of makes sense to ride the wave.

Another rejection

Another first interview that went great (the person basically said I was the first choice), and then the second interview apparently went poorly.  I got the generic, “even though you were qualified, someone else was more qualified than you”.  Somehow, I find that hard to believe.  Especially for this particular position.  The recruiter told me the company had been trying to fill that position for over 8 months, and that I was the only person he had ever found that was even close to the skillset (because it was a very unusual and varied skillset.)  So where did this other person suddenly come from?

Honestly, I think the problem is my age.  At 42, no one wants to hire me because I am not the typical fresh out of college 20-something.  I don’t look bad for my age.  I don’t overdo the make-up.  I have an up-to-date hairstyle.  I have up-to-date, but still conservative clothing (suits, but they are in style suits).  I don’t wear inappropriate jewelry.  I don’t have huge tatoos or piercings everywhere (I do have one set of earrings in the standard location and only wear studs.)

There is no way to prove age discrimination though.  After having this happen the same way so many times, I am getting very frustrated and I am losing my interest in doing this anymore.  I am tired of researching companies (so I can “talk” about them in the interview), when they are just going to dismiss me off-hand anyway.  Why bother?  They aren’t using that as the determining factor.  They are using my age to determine whether or not to hire me.  No they don’t ask my age, but they ask the date of my high school graduation on the application.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how old I am (within a year or two) if one has my graduation date.

I know that if I keep trying, somewhere, sometime, I will find the perfect job.  One that suits me, and one where I suit them, but it is hard to stay positive.  Perhaps, I need to go back to looking in the non-profit, administrative assistant roles.  Maybe computer science is just not the field for me right now.  The field may just be oversaturated in this area (a lot of military in this area, so a lot of retiring  military who have experience and security clearances and training). 

My ex always wins

Today I had the pleasure of going to court with my ex.  We have been apart for a long time, and according to the divorce papers, he got to claim our son on his taxes (even though our son lived with me) and I was supposed to get to claim our daughter (who also lived with me).  Well, in 2006, our daughter went to live with him.  Today, the judge agreed with my ex that he should get to claim her on taxes solely on the basis that “she lives with him”.  So, he will be claiming both of them for 2008, and until both of them are out of college. 

The judge also decided that even though my ex refused to allow me to count the cost of the health insurance I am paying on the two children of my first marriage, I have to give him the insurance card and let him make claims against the insurance account.  The problem is that I can’t remove her from that account unless there is a life changing event in our lives (a death, birth, adoption, marriage or divorce).  Well, none of those things have happened since 2006.  Or, if she exceeds the age, which as a full-time student (and when she is in college) can be as long as 25, I believe.

He also decided that I should pay child support.  Well, I never disputed that.  Now that my son has gone to college, it makes sense that I should support her until she turns 18.  The judge wants to impute my income though.  I am unemployed, though.  I have no income.  So, he is going to base my income as if I had a job at minimum wage.  I guess it could have been worse.  He could have imputed it as if I still had my former job (the one that would have been 43K a year had they not kicked me out after only 10 weeks). 

I spent the entire time I was married to him being abused and literally raped by him.  I have spent the last 12.5 years being abused and metaphorically raped by this man.  When will I be freed of this power-monger’s grasp?  When will karma balance things out?

Take home test

I had an interview on Thursday that included an “on your honor” take home test.  The interviewer said one hour, and there were two sheets.  I thought he meant one hour for both sheets.  Once I got home and actually got to the point that I thought I would have an undisturbed hour to devote to the test, I sat down and took a look at what was there.  I could tell I wouldn’t be able to finish in an hour. 

I took a stab anyway.  I had one page nearly done in the hour, but the other was barely started.  And not started well.  I knew what I was doing wasn’t in the way he meant for it to be done.  After all, there are many ways to program that will have the same outcome, but the directions specified a particular style, and that wasn’t what I was doing.  I wasn’t even sure that it could be done that way in PHP.

Well, when the hour was up, I sent back an email to the guy and told him I was sorry, but it appeared that my skills just weren’t up to his needs as I was unable to complete the two tasks in the alloted time.  I was really disappointed, because I thought the interview had gone well, even though I had been hesitant to go in the first place.  Something had told me that it was just not a good idea to go.  Maybe I knew that it would be a bust? 

Well, yesterday, I got an email back from him saying that the take home test wasn’t as important as the interview, and that he would rather that I take a little longer on the test (which was an hour per page), than not turn it in.  So, I fished it out of the recycle bin, spent some more time on it, and sent it back.  Here’s hoping it is what he wanted.