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Why Quit? Why Not????
by "Joe Contractor"
After more than a quarter-century, I am strongly considering walking away from information systems despite finding good-paying contracts with relative ease (as long as I am willing to travel coast-to-coast). Some of you will question my judgement, if not my sanity, but I know others of you (especially in the Silicon Valley) will find many of your own (unspoken?) thoughts in the reasons that I outline here.
The money is not really what some think it is.
I keep hearing about how legacy programmers are making a killing (three-figure hourly rates) on Y2K projects. I regularly check the Web and other resources and I have yet to hear of an actual COBOL contract assignment paying $100/hour. However, I have recently seen several ads offering $25-$40/hr rates; one was a Project Lead position in Memphis. To the best of my knowledge, the going rate (for the contractor, not what the client is paying) is $55-60/hr in the Silicon Valley, maybe $65 if you are lucky. The Boston area is about the same; New York City may be a little higher. The Delaware Valley (including Phillie) is around $50/hr.; I was told that $55 would probably be out of the question. The rest of the country seems to be in that wide range of $25-45/hr.
Let's compare that to making $32/hr in 1985, which I was. It is obvious that a $65/hr rate today does not compare favorably (and most contractors are in the $40-50/hr. range.) If you prefer a salary comparison, I knew mid-career Sr. Programmer/Analysts earning salaries of $40,000 then (the range for the Commonwealth of Virginia -- and since when are government agencies known for paying well? -- went into the fifties.) Despite the recent articles about the incredible starting salaries being paid to I.S. graduates, the average Sr. P/A today is probably getting a salary of $55-65K. I think it is a safe bet that the cost of living has more than doubled in the last 12-15 years, so even with the salary and contract rate increases of the last 2 years, IT compensation has not kept up with inflation; the concept of overpaid developers is a myth. Moreover, as recently as 1995 I was making $3/hr. more that I made in 1985. In the late eighties to early nineties (last recession), it was difficult to find work even in the San Francisco Bay area. In a way, today's market is payback time for those of us who have been around a while. The only way anyone could get a decent raise in the eighties was to change jobs; then with the recession and the downsizing craze, there were no jobs to change to. People were wearing two or three hats and damn glad to be doing it because they at least had jobs. With the improving economy came more opportunity -- but not for everyone. People with SAP or similar backgrounds, C++ programmers, and others were in good shape then and still are today. Legacy programmers (which might even include some client/server developers at this point) may not have much of a future past the Y2K and Euro projects. I suggest that those in this group resist the temptation of easy Y2K money and make the transition NOW to whatever you plan on doing the next 10 years or face making the transition in competition with thousands of others. I read somewhere (Computerworld probably) that the unemployment rate of over-50 computer professionals is around 20%. Statistical unemployment rates are always lower than reality, so maybe half of our most experienced professionals have either given up on finding information systems positions and are doing something else (smart if it were planned) or cannot find work despite the supposed abundance of Y2K projects. There are people (I have worked with many of them!) who should not be working; but not 20% of any demographic group.
Attitude of many companies toward their contract employees
No contractor expects to be treated exactly the same as a direct employee. For example, few of us mind when we are not allowed access to on-site health clubs or day care; we realize those are perqs rightfully reserved for the full-time people building sweat-equity. However, we do mind when we have to answer the phones "Joe/Joan Contractor, consultant" and our email address states "J.Contractor, non-(company name)." This makes people feel like they are second-class (these companies ever hear of industrial or organizational psychology?). Strangely enough, this happens the most at companies that emphasize teamwork ("We want our contract employees to feel that they are as much a part of our team as anyone else.").
We also mind when we are crammed elbow-to-elbow in cubicles resulting in almost no work space, constant noise, no room for manuals, no room to look at test results, code and documentation at the same time (yes, we do that). I mentioned industrial psychology; do some research sometimes on the effect on productivity of giving people a decent-sized working area instead of one-half to one-third what the company gives full-time employees. Use expensive real estate to justify what is being done today if you must, but maybe (please?) just think about it the next time a project is late. If your developer's would have been even a little more productive, would it have made the difference? If you do not have the space, how about telecommuting as an option? How can Mr./Ms. Client justify the money spent on contractors while impeding their productivity in so many ways?
There are a lot of "soft" issues that are hard to explain. For example, I had paid about $300 for a Thursday night national opening of a major theatrical production (now on Broadway.) I did not get to go because one of those rare circumstances when a client wanted me to stay late -- even though all I could do about the situation was to wait for it's resolution. I guarantee if it had been one of the full-time employees with tickets (I have seen similar circumstances many times), they would have been off to the theater and project be damned, it could wait until morning. A similar area is vacations. I find that I can only take vacations in between jobs because clients expect contractors to be chained to their desks. BUT do not complain about two-week unpaid shutdowns. Meanwhile, client employees with a similar amount of experience take 4 weeks or more vacation a year. (If you call taking a laptop along and checking voice and email daily a vacation.)
On my favorite projects, I have been treated with respect as a valued team member. I get to work closely with the end users and have significant input into what is being done. Even if the working conditions were not all that great, I appreciated that treatment and often had "comeback" assignments at thos clients. When you treat people as interchangeable bricks in the wall (attention Silicon Valley, I am especially talking to you), they will find somewhere else to work if at all possible. And that applies to contractors and employees.
There are an amazing number of people in this field who are borderline to grossly incompetent.
Many of them get by on personality (the "nice guy" syndrome) and other people's talents. They can barely complete the easiest tasks on their own and must be spoonfed technical knowledge that you would expect a junior developer to have or application knowledge that really is not that difficult to grasp. These individuals serve as standout examples of one reason why the Brooks' maxim of adding people to a project often adds to its delay is so true. (If you still haven't read The Mythical Man-Month, do so!) A concrete example of what I am talking about would be someone who has sold themselves as an experienced legacy IBM mainframe person and they don't know IMS or CICS. And everytime they have a question about something they should have to know to get in the door they are taking up someone else's time.
A lot of these alleged programmers and analysts are RIf'ed ex-middle managers who can't find a job in today's flat organizations and are passing themselves off as developers after doing everything they could during their careers to avoid hands-on development. Unfortunately, this group is mostly members of the over-fifty crowd mentioned earlier and perhaps their lack of actual development experience is one reason for their high unemployment rate.
To make top dollar, or often just to keep working, as a contractor you have to relocate.
If you've got the hot skills, this may not apply to you -- yet. And if you are willing to work for $10 or more per hour less than you can get somewhere else, then you can "subway shop," as it's called, in the major areas. But if a contractor goes somewhere like Phillie or Research Triangle Park, NC, for a contract, they should be prepared to move again when it's over.
Employers often expect 50+ hour weeks of their employees.
People deserve to have a life outside the office, and you can't do it putting in 50-60 hour weeks plus commute time (which is pushing or exceeding 3 hours a day in many metropolitan areas.) I spend about 10 hours per week outside the office just trying to keep current with the industry and add to or acquire new skills. Employees cannot do this on their own time when they are consistently working overtime. Long-term, the employer suffers also and might even complain that the employee has let his/her skillset deteriorate.
This is a "mind-numbingly boring" way to make a living.
The above is a quote from Eric Roberts of Stanford, in a New York times article on the difficulty of attracting young people to the computer profession. When I read this excellent article, I could not believe that I had finally seen the truth in print; I never thought that anyone would actually mention this unspoken truth outside of the profession. I second his sentiment and so do dozens of other contractor's I know who are only doing this for the money while dreaming, and in many cases taking steps toward, another career.
No matter how much experience I have, or how much the client is paying for me, they almost never take my advice (or that of other contractors.)
This is very frustrating, especially considering client's often state the opposite at interviews: that they are interested in a fresh view point from someone that has been in a lot of different environments. When a suggestion is made, they reply "That won't work here" or something similar. We contractors call it the Not Invented Here Syndrome and it is pervasive in our industry -- the hubris of thinking "Nobody else runs their shop as well as we run ours!"
I am tired of dealing with the "games" that come with the contracting business.
I have had bounced checks, my name spelled wrong (or the wrong name entirely) on checks, unsigned checks, and just about every other "inconvenience" imaginable happen on payday.
Contract extensions are very one-way in attitude. A lot of companies are starting out with three-month contracts knowing that the project will take longer. The contract is not renewed if the person is not what they want, but no actual "firing" takes place. But, if the contractor wants to leave (more money, didn't like the environment, whatever) the client AND the agency get upset. A contract is a two-way agreement; if either party wants to go their own way at the end, there should be no hard feelings. If the contractor gave 8 hpurs a day for 8 hours pay until the end of the agreed-upon period, the client has no grounds for complaint. For the agency and client to expect the unhappy contractor to stay as long as the client wants is simply unfair and unreasonable. One of our most basic freedoms is economic freedom. Some of us learned how to exercise that freedom before the downsizing/recession, some of us heard that wake-up call (you and only you are responsible for your staying employed), and some of us still haven't.
I could write a book on this subject alone, but let me close with a warning about what I call the "hourly rate gambit." In brief, the agency and the contractor will agree to a rate prior to the contractor agreeing to a client submittal. The contractor will go through the interview process and be offered the position BUT the agency will say that they can actually only pay a lesser amount than agreed to. I always end the conversation right there -- many agencies will do anything to add to their piece of the pie (and often bonuses and commissions are based on profitability, so the recruiter is not on the contractor's side). They do NOT get to try it on me but once; there are agencies out there that deal fairly.
The above list of reasons is by no means exhaustive. I coul;d get into Section 1706, immigration issues, offshore software development, etc. but that has been done elsewhere. Perhaps this list will give some of you who are employees second thoughts about considering contracting. If so, good; I am not saying don't do it, but go in with full knowledge of what you are getting into.
Those of you who are sticking with this, good luck. As for me, I may quit at the end of my current contract or work one more short-term contract but I am either going to make it as a writer or try selling VCR's at a Wal-Mart.
References / Resources
Hourly rate information is based on my own exhaustive Web and paper publications research.
"Software Jobs Go Begging and Threaten Technology Boom," Amy Harmon, New York Times, January 13, 1998
"Year 2000 Coders Face 'Bloodbath,'" Hoffman & Cole-Gomolski, Computerworld, June 1, 1998
"IT Labor Boom a Mirage to Some," Cole-Gomolski, Computerworld, August 10, 1998
"No Shortage of Talent in the Silicon Valley," C. Giovanni Enrico, San Francisco Chronicle, January 18, 1998