IT Employment

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Project Managers/CIOs/Lead Developers

0 helpful
3 replies

by anthony

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Here is some advice to technology decision makers from a consultant.

I am an independent consultant that does business under an incorporated company.

I recently got a call from a 'headhunter' about a position for a .NET developer that I was well qualified for. In these slow economic times the 3 month - $30 - $40 / hr. project was welcomed. Even better was the possibility to go full time at the end of the project for somewhere around $65,000 / yr. I had a short phone interview with thedevelopment manager and everything seemed to go fine. That same day I got a call from the headhunter saying that the guy had decided to go with other developers that he had openly admitted were not as qualified to do the job because he had been burned ONCE before by a contractor. This person was willing to sacrifice time and possibly the success of the project just because he had one bad experience with a contractor. His comment was that the sub contractor was doing other projects at the same time as his. Though I agree that this would be aggravating, why wouldn't you learn from a past mistake and write a better contract. All you would need to do is have a clause that says that the contractor can't take on any other projects while they're working on yours: PROBLEM SOLVED.

If you're going to be at the management level you need to have a broad view of what needs to get done and not get hung up on mistakes of individuals that you've worked with in the past. I could understand ifeven twice he had been burned or had been told by several other peers that contracting was a bad idea but he was basing the entire decision on one bad experience.

I hope this helps someone's project. I stress keeping an open mind and putting theoverall project at the forefront of all decisions.

Anthony Stark
AnthonyStark.com, Inc.

Internet & Microsoft Windows Application Development and Consulting.

3 replies

by sullyman

Some of the blame falls on the recruiter/headhunter. The 'headhunter' obviously didn't understand the clients requirments fully, and a 'bomb' of this sort should have been discovered much earlier. If the headhunter had met with the client to fullyunderstand their needs, the client could have been educated on the benenfits of having a B2B relationship.

by Former member

Sadly I agree with the employer on this one. I have hired contractors before but to be honest it is the last thing taht I would do now. A contractor has no commitment to the company - they are employed to complete a task and then they leave to do the same for another company. The problem comes when you have to support the Contractors code - as the contractor is rarely available to fix any problems.

Meanwhile Project management is about Team management - it is all about getting the team tobuy into a project - when a contractor is on board everyone knows that he is being paid - not for his achievements but by the hour. This leads to resentfulness by the other employees - and in my experience demotivates the team. This means that theteam is not as productive as it could be - and the lost productivity is all that teh contractor makes up for.

When I need to get an extra task that the team simply can not take on I prefer to contract out the development of a module - this can becarried out off site to a strict specification - Payment is made at the end of the project based on the delivery of "working" software. Support is written into the contract.

This method is far better for the employer as I have seen so many contract extension techniques that it is unreal. For example - never quite finishing so that the contract has to be extended, or writing the code in such a way that it needs the contractor to maintain it etc.

I am sorry that I do not agree with your point of view on this topic.

This discussion is closed to new replies.