Contractor / Consultant Comments and Questions?

Ashenwelt

I have been noticing some contract and consulting questions being tossed out. Well, there are a lot of areas that get touched by each of those kinds of workers. How many here are bonified conultants (ie- company name, have an insurance broker, etc.)? How many are starting out as consultants? Same questions for contractors.

Just wondering. It might be nice to have a thread people can find us all and ask questions.

Anyone like to join me in this?

About me:

I became a consultant a second time in 2000. I am Windows centric and have 17 years of IT exp. My company became an LLC in 2005. My company became a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner... this month.

pipemajor

I've just suffered my 4th layoff in the last 20 years. I have 30+ years in IT with 17 of those at the supervisory, manager or director level. BBA and MBA business degrees from AACSB accredited universities and was a commissioned officer in the USAF for 5 years. Fairly solid hands-on techie skills but few certs.

That said, my previous layoff in 2003 hit us hard with family medical issues compounding the situation. So, I had to look at taking some contracting positions. Most were network admin stuff and a couple weren't even IT related. Longest was 12 months with a couple which ran 4-6 months and several were simply a few weeks or even days.

Pay really sucked as none offered any benefits. Most were W-2 which they do withhold your taxes. One was a 1099 Independent Contractor and I had to pay full SSA taxes. I hated that company as they simply stopped paying me at all for nearly 7 weeks. I had to march into their local office and make a rather unpleasant scene with other prospective consultants in view. They claimed they couldn't pay me until the client had paid them. I went to the accounts payable manager at the client and got all the warrant numbers they issued to the vendor. I never worked for that vendor again but they never got another job with that client either.

It's difficult to put 100% into your job at a client if you're constantly worrying where your next job will be or if you actively have to conduct a job search.

If you're starving, take a contract job. Otherwise, I'd avoid these bloodsuckers. There *is* a reason whey new ones pop up then disappear after a few years. Some are honest, others are not.