Job Hunting Tips Part 1

It’s been a while since I’ve posted (not that anybody probably noticed) because I’ve been very, very busy. I’ve recently learned that some colleagues in the UA biz are back on the job market so I am blogging some of the tips I’ve learned over the past couple of years as a contractor. The more info we all share, the better market it is for all of us. I’ll chop my tips up into a few posts: it’s a blog,  not a blovel. (I just made that word up.)

Note: I know there are plenty of folks out there who love contracting for multiple clients, but this article is for people who are basically refugeeing out of “permanent” jobs. I would love comments from happy contractors to help explain the good aspects of contracting. I can think of many reasons I am enjoying contracting: learning new things, meeting a lot of great people (bigger network!), generally having some flexibility in hours and location, and many more. On the other hand, there are business issues to handle that you never deal with as a “permanent” employee.

First off, for those coming away from a full-time, “permanent” job, you may well be able to get more of the same! In the last couple of months, I’ve been hearing of more full-time, perm slots. This is quite different than the landscape for the past couple of years, especially in industries that are comprised of a lot of startups, like infosec (my area of expertise) and other tech sectors.

I was told by someone who would be in a position to know, that in the Fall of ’08, when the financial collapse was becoming obvious, virtually every CEO who was living off venture capital got a call from their VCs saying, “the money you thought needed to last you until the summer now needs to last you until next year.” I’m not as sure about what was happening in non-vc-reliant businesses, but essentially every open requisition suddenly became contractor budget instead. And it’s stayed that way until recently. Hopefully this is turning around, and anecdotal evidence says it is.

So for the time being, you may be a contractor! But here’s more news: for the most part, you’ll be looking at either short contracts or part-time contracts. That’s extremely scary unless you have a rich mom or significant other. However, I have absolutely found that it is not all that difficult to cobble two or more contracts together to maintain full-time hours, or more. In fact, I have “given” more than one of my contracts to colleagues because I have had too much work. I have also been turning things down, because there’s too much work. In another post, I’ll blog about where all this work is coming from.

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