little confused about contract work

You get hired by a company by contract, or are you getting hired through a temp type agency as a contract that then places you?

There have been a few places I am not sure if I want to apply to or not. (eg randstad tech, the judge group) talk of recruiters, them providing IT solutions etc. Just trying to wrap my head around who and where I would be working. If it might be a scam or recruiter crap or what.

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networker050184

It could be either. Some companies higher independent contractors directly and some go thorough agencies.

TheFORCE

We have a lot of contractors that we hire from the judge group. This is how it works. Company Y contacts Judge group and say i need X employees with X qualifications, you go through some interview, you pass and you start working for Company Y. You have the same manager as a Full time employee and same access depending on the job as a full time employee has. Company Y pays Judge group X amount of money and Judge group pays you what you negotiated. Company Y has no say on what you make. 6 months pass or 1 year passes and company Y says to Judge group "i like to hire this person full time" Judge group removes you from their contractor list and you get converted to full time employee of Company Y with all the benefits and a salary that you negotiate with Company Y.

Chitownjedi

This has been summed up pretty much by the above post, just to add a little more:

Your "recruiter" usually has an account manager that has the direct relationships with the folks that can hire at the Company Y, so you can correspond with your recruiter or account manager about certain things while you are on the job, however any many cases those recruiters/account managers disappear once you are in. The good ones will send emails or call you, or even take you out to lunch every month or so to make sure everything is fine.

Once you are on the job, you will report to your management, supervisors, team lead at the company just like you would if you were a full-time employee. Your pay schedule may be different than the FTE staff. Some staffing agencies pay weekly, while FTE may get paid every two weeks or semi monthly.

While a contractor, you are according to most of your paper work an "employee" of the staffing agency, who is then contracted out to the company Y. So you may be able to apply for benefits and even get PTO based on the staffing agencies policies... that varies by agency of course, and in most cases needs to be negotiated.

fmitawaps

As a contract IT person, you are often recruited for the job by a temp agency that handles tech work, although the recruiters frequently have no IT background and are completely clueless about it, they are just reading a job description from a paper.

Then once on a job, you are treated as a disposable employee. No benefits or paid holidays. You sometimes don't even attend meetings, those are only for FULL TIME people.

Then, once the job has largely been finished, or at the time some middle manager wants to try and trim some cost from the budget, they'll come around talking to the contractors, and on a Friday they will say something like "okay, see you on Monday".

20 minutes after leaving work on that Friday, you get a call from your temp agency saying the assignment is over and you are no longer needed there, do not go back on Monday.

Okay, no problem, I will just suddenly live with no paycheck. No pressure at all. I think evil, violent thoughts about the manager who just a half hour ago implied I'd be there on Monday, just to get me out the door peacefully that Friday. I have even taken to not answering my phone on Friday Saturday Sunday if it is a number I don't know, or if it is a number I know is from the temp agency. And I do not check the email account that the temp agency has for me. Hey, if I never was notified about the job ending, it's not abnormal for me to show up on Monday, right? Then I can have the satisfaction of the management being all nervous, wondering if I have a gun or will flip out in some way. Then around 10 am the temp agency gets through to me at the job and tells me to leave, the job is over.

Then, when applying for the next contract assignment, the person giving the interview comments on how I have lots of short term jobs on my resume. Yes, because I keep getting contract jobs, instead of being hired in straight to full time, like how it used to be, and ought to be now!

The life of a contract IT employee.

Techytach

Thanks for the replies and experiences! This has made it much clearer!

Feel free to share or rant if anyone wants, as it only gives me a clearer picture of what to expect/manage expectations.

fmitawaps, that really gives a clear picture. But ya gotta take what work we can I guess.

Trucido

I currently work for Randstad. I am trying to get certifications in order to step away from the bs of contract work. Being able to get fired for sneezing the wrong way is a bit silly. I am from Ohio, the only beefs I have with Randstad is the contract was not negotiable, I do not get paid holidays, I do not get vacation.

Then again I am a lowly Help Desk with no Certs, so it may just be the fact im not making them as much money as a Network Engineer would, so I get nothing.

I haven't had problems with them. But yeah contracting work suuuucks. Nobody wants to pay us or give us health care...

ITSpectre

Techytach wrote: »

You get hired by a company by contract, or are you getting hired through a temp type agency as a contract that then places you?

There have been a few places I am not sure if I want to apply to or not. (eg randstad tech, the judge group) talk of recruiters, them providing IT solutions etc. Just trying to wrap my head around who and where I would be working. If it might be a scam or recruiter crap or what.

This is contracting in a nutshell...... (I have been a contractor since I started in IT)

YOU - Person who needs a job
Recruiter - Person used by a company to find employees for them
Company - Place of employment

So a company needs to hire say 4 people... they then contact a recruiter. The recruiter then FLOODS the job sites aka careerbuilder, craigslist, monster with job offers and descriptions. You then apply to that job and get called by a recruiter... The recruiter tells you about the job and then sends your resume to the company. The company then decides to call the recruiter and set up a interview. You do the interview and land the job....

Who are you working for????

Depending on the contract either you will be a temp to perm or just a regular contractor. Here is the difference, a contractor works for the contracting agency that hires them... Meaning if you are hired by say insight global then you work with them for the duration of the contract... Now if you are temp to perm that means you work for the contractor for a short amnt of time THEN you become a FTE and work with the company that you are working within.

ITSpectre

I just hate that a FT job in IT is a rarity, but contract work is abundant.... I dislike being a contractor and its scary not knowing if you will be employed or not... but hey it sure beats retail work and standing around doing nothing all day... Now I can get paid to watch youtube and twitch all day...

Trucido

ITSpectre wrote: »

Now I can get paid to watch youtube and twitch all day...

What do you do? :P

beads

In support of contracting and not sitting in the same dingy battleship gray walled cubical for years contracting at least gives me a bit more freedom or landscape to look at from time to time. At the senior level pay far exceeds what I would be offered for full time employment. I may or may not be able to negotiate time off but never go without 401k. The exposure to different tools, techniques and procedures makes my consulting practice a huge plus when it comes to advising clients as to what does and does not work from past experience. Finally people who have worked for the same company for decades tend to be of great value, knowing the organization inside and out. On the other hand those same people tend to have limited or outdated technical resources and are generally quite happy to stay that way.

A more senior person can generally work as much or as little as they wish, provided you live in a major metropolitan area. I may run 1-3 projects at a time and feel bored doing it. Hence posting too often on tech-exams. Billing out at 50-60 hours a week would put most consultants and contractors well above most CIO and CSO level executives. Of course it also puts you in favor with the current administration's tax policies but I digress. (*snicker*)

So it depends. If your the sole breadwinner of the household and need the benefits than consulting is not for you. If you have the flexibility of schedule and can learn to not only save money but save for retirement separately then you golden. Starting off? No I do not recommend contracting as your basically going to be used as fodder. Here today, gone tomorrow. That's why temp agencies exist. The term 'Body Shop' easily comes to mind for a reason. Avoid these people if you can.

Otherwise.

Build your technical skills first.
Build your communications skills next as I dislike people who cannot read, write or say what it is they have to communicate.
Build your contacts and relationships one a time. Be honest and forthright. You'll find too many people in IT are really questionable on a number of fronts. It will serve you well later in your career.

- b/eads

ITSpectre

Trucido wrote: »

What do you do? :P

Currently I do windows admin work. And mainly just monitor servers and if they go down I gotta notify the managers. Other then that Its a fun easy job.... and plenty of study time in between calls

TLeTourneau

I've done it both ways but I always do it as a Corp to Corp for several reasons including tax and liability.

anhtran35

Temp to Contracting Company example:

TekSystems hire you to work for Lockheed Martin on a DOD Contract( AirForce ). Lockheed Martin manager likes you after 3 to 6 months and hires you on. Worse case scenario: You don't fit in and Lockheed manager says to let you go after a few months.