SPUG: recommendations for job sources?

Aaron Fossum fossumar at hotmail.com
Thu Jan 11 17:19:53 CST 2001


I've got to agree that contracting can be an excellent vehicle for increasing your wage while gaining experience.  I've been contracting through Compuware corporation for just under a year, and have been very happy with my experience with them.

After graduating from college in May 1999, I went to work for a .com as a full-time employee, for a wage that was good compared to what other college grads, but nowhere near what the market was bearing.  When the company was acquired, I went to work for Compuware and nearly doubled my wage.

Another tip if you're considering a contract position.  Most agencies offer finders fees for their employees who recommend a candidate who ends up working for the agency.  So if you've got any friends that are contractors, give them your resume so they can forward it to their agency and ca$h in.

Or, you could hook up with one of the kind folks on the SPUGlist here... ;)  Just kidding.



----- Original Message -----
From: Patterson, David S (Pat)
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 10:39 AM
To: spug-list at pm.org
Subject: RE: SPUG: recommendations for job sources?


I've got to chime in here.  When I got out of the military in 1992, I
contracted for projects thru 8 different agencies until mid-1999.  Each
time, I made a deal with the agency that I could live with.  Each time, I
worked hard on the client companies' projects.  Each time, I got a lot of
experience on diverse areas of software development and improved my skills
and beefed up my resume.  Each time, I made more money than I did on the
previous project.  I did not make the mistake of believing that the
consulting agencies were anything more than a job broker.  When I finally
decided to commit to full time employment at my present firm, they were
already familiar with me and my skills and made SEVERAL offers of employment
to me, eventually making me "an offer I could not refuse"...  I'm now making
3 X what I made in 1992, with full benefits and vacation to boot.

Bottom line.  There's nothing wrong with being a contractor.  There's
nothing wrong with working for an agency, as long as they live up to their
end of the agreements they make.  Don't begrudge them their cut if you can
make a deal with them that you can live with.  Contracting can be a vehicle
to gaining lots of variety and experience in your career.

FWIW,
> ---
"rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast..."

> D. S. "Pat" Patterson
> Software Engineer
> Avaya, Inc.
> 6464 185th Ave NE
> Redmond, WA  98052-6736
> 425-558-8672
> 888-501-4835 Pgr
> davidpa at avaya.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Slagel [SMTP:slagel at geospiza.com]
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 9:26 AM
> To: spug-list at pm.org
> Subject: Re: SPUG: recommendations for job sources?
>
> > If you go this route you want to be careful in selecting your agency,
> and
> > find one that will take the same care in selecting you. You want an
> agency
> > that takes the time to screen its applicants and find good fits for them
> as
> > opposed to someone whose primary interest is in finding warm bodies to
> fill
> > its job orders.
>
> Good point, I guess I should restate my eariler opinion, and say the you
> want
> to be *really* careful about what agency or agencies you choose to use.
> Most
> of them are good and can place someone at a good job, but there are ones
> out
> there that are very unreputable.  I think people looking for new positions
> are
> better off just doing a little bit of research and trying to contact
> companies
> directly.   Should a match occur, it's a win-win situtation for both the
> employer and job hunter because the employer doesn't have to pay a
> recruiting
> fee, and the job hunter is in more control of the terms and price.
>
> But then again, if you are in a hurry or looking for the quickest way to
> get a
> large number of offers, I guess a recruiting firm is the way to go.
>
> - Joe
>
> --
> Joe Slagel
> Geospiza, Inc.
> 3939 Leary Way NW, Seattle WA 98107
> (206) 633-4403
> slagel at geospiza.com
>
>
>
>
>  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>      POST TO: spug-list at pm.org       PROBLEMS: owner-spug-list at pm.org
>       Subscriptions; Email to majordomo at pm.org:  ACTION  LIST  EMAIL
>   Replace ACTION by subscribe or unsubscribe, EMAIL by your Email-address
>  For daily traffic, use spug-list for LIST ;  for weekly, spug-list-digest
>   Seattle Perl Users Group (SPUG) Home Page: http://www.halcyon.com/spug/
>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
     POST TO: spug-list at pm.org       PROBLEMS: owner-spug-list at pm.org
      Subscriptions; Email to majordomo at pm.org:  ACTION  LIST  EMAIL
  Replace ACTION by subscribe or unsubscribe, EMAIL by your Email-address
For daily traffic, use spug-list for LIST ;  for weekly, spug-list-digest
  Seattle Perl Users Group (SPUG) Home Page: http://www.halcyon.com/spug/<br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href="http://explorer.msn.com">http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.pm.org/archives/spug-list/attachments/20010111/a8c3f4fc/attachment.htm


More information about the spug-list mailing list