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.
