Life as an IT consultant

[sullyguy]

I find working as a consultant to be highly satisfying both because of the higher pay (spouse provides bennies) and the ability to start new work regularly - not stuck in a boring position for very long.

It is easily possible in this area to be a consultant and to NOT travel, so 'family life" pretty much stays exactly as with regular employees.

[sportsterjohn]

Update time.

Monday rolls around so I talk to the company with the 5-6week contract. I ask if they have a definate start date in Atl. The girl from th consulting company thinks it will be next Mon but she won't confirm. In the mean time, I do 2 interviews for the company with the Gov't contract that promises me I can telecommute and relocate after 6 months. I also do a panel interview with the aerospace company in Colorado. I tell the headhunter with the Gov't job that I will take that job if they can hold off on my start date until I do the atlanta gig (I feel obligated since I already signed the agreement) He calls me back an hour later and says that he can get an offer letter today but I would have to start on Monday. I then get an e-mail from the company with the Atl gig inviting me to the project kick off meeting which is tomorrow at 11. I accept the meeting since I don't have anything in writing yet from the gov't contract. I call the gov't contract guy and tell him that the project kick off in Atl is scheduled for tomorrow. If he wants me, he will have to give me an offer letter. He tells me he should be able to. Meanwhile I get a call from the aerospace company in Co. I left it go to voice mail. 4:30 rolls around and the Gov't guy says that the hr people are busy but wants to know if I would go meet the project manager at Ft Meade tomorrow morning. I say ok. I then get the meeting invite and I notice it say's interview and bring 4 copies of my resume. I am thinking WTF, I don't want another interview, I was promised an offer letter. So I call the headhunter and tell them I am not going unless I have an offer letter first. I then listen to my VM and call the headhunter in Co. She wants to know if I would would fly to Denver (snow?) on thursday for a Face to Face with the aerospace. (video con is also an option). She is aware that I have the short term gig in atlanta. I tell her I will call her tomorrow after the kickoff meeting with the Atl people. So after all of this, what is my status? Unsure. (technically unemployed) I know I turned down the gov't gig ( I didn't really trust the recuriter as he had an answer to all of my issues but I never head any of that from the actual end client). I have a project kick off meeting tomorrow but I still don't have a definate start date for the atlanta gig. And, I am still going to have to try to fit in a face to face or video interview with the areospace people. So for all of you future independant consultants, this is what it is like!

[sullyguy]

Originally Posted by sportsterjohn

So for all of you future independant consultants, this is what it is like!

Reading between the lines (and that read is of bright bold neon-colored text) it appears this actually is what it is like for someone with rather high security clearances.

[sportsterjohn]

Reading between the lines (and that read is of bright bold neon-colored text) it appears this actually is what it is like for someone with rather high security clearances.

actually not. I have had a few interem clearances for shorter gov'tcontracts. The Ft Meade job requires a secret, the aerospace and the atlanta gig are not gov't. The aerospace is partnered with the gov't but they didn't mention clearences but from talking to them, they follow some DOD type it security guidelines.

[sportsterjohn]

Atlanta is a go. Just got confirmation that we do indeed start the Atlanta job on monday. This will keep me tied up for a month or two. Let's see if the process gets any easier after this contract. I am hoping that eithor I roll straight into another contract with this company; ( It is one of the top 5 companies that specialize in the software I work with) or I go straight to Colorado to start the perm job at the Aerospace company.

[sportsterjohn]

The account manager for the aerospace contract just called at 8:30. they are flying me to Co for a face to face on thurs. So I will be home friday then on the road to atlanta on sat. can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.

[rsh56]

Best of luck to you sportsterjohn and thanks for the advice from other posts.

[sportsterjohn]

Well 2 months have passed. Alot has happened. I ended up going to Atlanta for the short term contract. I left after 2 days as the client was impossible to work with and the work they wanted was not what the contract stipulated. I had to fight with the consulting company to get paid for my 2 days + travel expenses. I was all set to take the Denver job but one of the managers in the panel interview slipped out the fact that Sr management was not committed to the project. I told the head hunter that there had to be something in the contract to provide severence if the the project was cancelled (only because I was taking the risk of relocating for this). That put things on hold. Per the head hunter, they needed to have a bunch of internal discussions regarding the commitment level to the project.

I ended up taking the DOD gig at Ft Meade. The deal was, I worked for a 3rd party consulting firm until the end of Jan. I would then convert to a perm employee of the prime. The timing on this was because the main contract was set to renew Feb 1. What I didn't know is that the system I was hired to implement was a "Unfunded initiative". What that means is that they want the system but no one knows who will "own" it or pay for it. So the prime gets the new contract and there is no funding for my system for this year. The gov't assures them that they are working on funding and it will come but right now, the branch chiefs need to have a pissing contest to figure out who owns it. Bottom line for me, my last day is Friday unless by some miracle a peeing contest winner is declared.

Luckily since I was just job hunting 7 weeks ago and jobs tend to take along time to get filled for my speciality (there are only a few of us out there) I was able to reach out to a bunch of people who I had talked to back in November and December. So just between last night and today, I restarted the application / interview process for jobs that I origionally were contacted about back then. Also, a few new things have popped up. Like before though, many of them are out of state (yes both denver and jax are in play again!!), so I have no idea where I will end up. So the never ending saga of an IT consultant continues.

PS if you see a middle aged chubby squeegie guy in fairfax county, give him some money!