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Consulting Assignment from ****!

By Why Me Worry? ·
1. Spent first month without a PC to use, and I couldn't use my own laptop because of their "corporate policy".

2. To use my own laptop, they would require me to have it "sanitized" by their "security team" and install God only knows what on it. No thanks! My laptop does not leave my posession.

3. Meetings every other day to discuss the same project plan and status update. There was nothing to report because I didn't have a PC to use, and the client was late in ordering the server hardware to move forward with their systems upgrade project, and didn't have the electrical or storage facilities to accomodate any of it.

4. Was asked to "document new features" and "pros' and cons'" of the new version of the product. If they don't know why the **** they are upgrading and what they gain from doing it (not that they have a choice in the matter because the vendor is dropping support for older version), then why am I doing this job? I'm not a salesman for the product or there to market it. I'm there to install the damned thing.

4. Didn't even have the proper facilities or resources to setup a staging/lab environment before the system went live.

5. Was hired to "consolidate their email system to a clustered environment and upgrade to latest version", but ended up supplementing their email administrator instead because the guy was clueless

6. Vendor was involved in the project and basically restated the obvious, offering little to no usefull information about how the client needs to implement the product.

After about 1.5 months, I got out of there because it was a dead end project that was being dragged out with no end in sight.

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Unfortunately this is not too uncommon

by w2ktechman In reply to Consulting Assignment fro ...

I have heard many tales like yours. I have been in a similar situation 1 time, and I agree, it is not worth the headache unless the pay is really, really good.

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Wow...that is a total waste of time

by jmgarvin In reply to Consulting Assignment fro ...

I think as a consultant we've all been through #1 and #2. I've always wondered why someone would bring on a consultant and not provide them with the equipment to do work.

I've been through #3, but not as a consultant. I was asked why we should go from WebCT 3.8 to 4.0...my answer was always, "there is no support for the features (we needed a number of single sign on things to happen that 3.8 didn't support along with some security stuff) we need in 3.8 and 3.8 is reaching EOL, we need to move on." That was alway met with, "but it costs so much and we already have a copy of it..."

#4 sounds like the ultimate in ****. I would have run screaming from the place.

The rest just seem like a company that is about to die. There is no way they could continue on with such morons running the show. What industry were they in? Souns like an airline.

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They are not going out of business anytime soon (CableTV Operator)

by Why Me Worry? In reply to Wow...that is a total was ...

Without mentioning who they are specifically, they are far from going out of business and have a monopoly on the cable TV market in almost all 5 boroughs of NYC (except Manhattan), Long Island, and some parts of CT, and NJ. What sucked is that I was working as an independent contractor (corp to corp 1099) and was being paid by a company that supplies the cableTV operator with IT staff, primarily desktop support. First, they screwed me by initially offering $55/hr, only to tell me later after I signed the contract that they will pay me $50/hr and if I stay until the end of the project (yeah right!), they will pay the other $5/hr for all of the invoiced hours I submit. I was required by contract to take 1/2 hour lunches and not bill for the time, even if I worked through lunches by eating at my desk. I was never paid on time, had to deal with a buggy timeslip entry system that constantly crashed and lost the input time I put it (I kept my own personal records just in case), and had to commute almost 120 miles round trip every day, costing me in gas and tolls for a project that sucked from the start. The second week I was there, I had known I made a big mistake by involving myself in it, but how was I to have known? At the interview, they gave me the impression that all of the equipment was ready and they are ready to steamroll forward. When I actually started working there, I realized that they were months behind even being prepared for such a major project.

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Not a surprise

by jmgarvin In reply to They are not going out of ...

The cable companies are in a world of hurt. Not only are they at total mess, but this stuff seems to be par for the course. I'm honestly not surprised that so many of the cable companies (or other monopolies) operate like that...

At least it's over for ya ;-) I hope your next contract is a better go!!

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