Contracting/Temping – Is it in YOUR career future?
(a companion thread to Consulting – Is it in YOUR Career Future? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=24543))

Added in edit to bump this thread and add specific link to a chapter in Jim Ziegler's Contract Employee's Handbook
Resumes for Contract Workers (http://www.cehandbook.com/cehandbook/docs/cehandbook_chapter_05.pdf)
http://www.cehandbook.com/cehandbook/docs/cehandbook_chapter_05.pdf
(If you are contemplating Contract Work, at least READ THIS before you send out a resume. Note: The pages load slowly - be patient!)

I do not have permission to post a copy here in the Cove. The complete handbook can be found here:
http://www.cehandbook.com/
In my experience over the last forty years, every time there is a downturn in the economy and full-time jobs seem to become scarce, a lot of folks think they can easily join the ranks of those “high paid consultants” they hear about and occasionally see as shadowy figures talking and dealing with top managers at their organization. What if you, personally, are not at the level of "consultant" (yet?)

Reason for this thread:
As the economic noose tightens more and more in the USA and the dreaded "R" word (recession) rears its ugly head and the ripple effect expands across the globe, more and more organizations are loathe to hire full-time employees. However, they still need "warm bodies" to perform day-to-day tasks within the organization. To fulfill that need, they take one or both of two courses:


direct hire of temporary or part-time workers
contracting with an agency to provide workers for temporary or part-time employment.

As this thread progresses,


We'll talk about the pros and cons of both avenues and compare them against full-time employment.
We'll talk about the tips and traps BOTH employers and employees need to be aware of.
We'll talk about wage scales, hidden costs, benefits, risks, and many other things associated with "working without a net."

Background
(an excerpt from Consulting – Is it in YOUR Career Future? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=24543)) Many of my colleagues and associates around the world actually ARE those high paid consultants who deal with the top managers at organizations. When we talk and correspond, one of the main topics that comes up almost every time are the folks who hold themselves out to be “consultants,” but the only thing “consultant” about them is the title they put on a business card. Often we say, “What a shame this guy is so clueless about how to be a REAL consultant.” And then we jump to another topic and mentally dismiss the person from further consideration. On a few occasions, we say, “Wow! That guy is a menace to the profession. He’s so bad, his stink rubs off on the rest of us!” But again, we do nothing, because our “professional ethics” prevent us from bad mouthing a competitor in public, even a stumblebum who gives the word “consultant” a bad taste in anyone’s mouth who crosses his path.So, everybody isn't ready to step up and be one of those high paid [sometimes] consultants. What else can they do when jobs are tight?

Well, I can’t inject them with skill, experience, and a psychological attitude to become an instant consultant, but I can create a thread folks can read and do a little self-assessment and gap analysis to see where they stand on the road to getting gainful employment in ANY field, not just the Quality profession.

Basics
First, we need just a few important definitions. Many folks confuse the terms “consultant” and ”contractor” and often use them interchangeably. Most folks I consider “consultants” probably will agree on the following definitions (If you do NOT agree, feel free to write a post detailing your reasoning.):

Consultant: An independent business person (or member of a firm of such business persons) whose primary value given is ADVICE or EDUCATION. This would include, but not be limited to, folks who advise about mergers and acquisitions and whether to add or delete product lines or enter new markets. It would also include on-site and off-site trainers of employees of an organization who come in to teach something not readily available from experts within the organization (Hazmat processes and procedures, English as a second language, etc.)
Contractor. In the sense we use here, a contractor may be completely independent or work for an agency, but he is essentially a temporary worker performing a job which would be handled by a full-time employee at an organization, but for a number of reasons , the organization prefers the temporary status of the person fulfilling the function. Such temporary contractors include folks working as technical writers, inspectors, assemblers, internal auditors, statisticians, accountants, bookkeepers, typists, clerks, even at supervisor levels, like crew chiefs, quality managers, design engineers, process engineers, etc.

The primary difference for the purpose of this discussion is the contractor is bringing technical skill to the table, but rarely is he giving advice in planning or strategy or spending time training folks to do a task or learn a skill so he can move on to the next organization.

A secondary difference, but often blurred, is that most consultants get paid a fee for accomplishment that rarely has a direct connection to the number of hours worked or the number of pieces inspected or the number of documents written. Blurring may occur when trainers get paid according to the number of students who successfully pass a class. A consultant who comes in to help an organization achieve registration to ISO 9001:2000 may get a flat fee for educating and training the staff to be ready for a third party audit, with a bonus paid when the organization actually gets the certificate of registration. Such a consultant helps select the proper registrar, helps organization personnel write manuals and procedures, trains organization personnel to conduct a gap analysis and become internal auditors for continuing evaluation of the operations against the organization plan.

If the guy just comes in and grinds out a manual and a pile of procedures by himself in a little room, then turns them over to the organization without training the organization folks to do it themselves, the guy is really only a contractor – a technical writer for hire!

Who are these contractors and temporary employees?
Most often, these are folk who, as employees of various sized organizations were able to fulfill their tasks, but they didn’t have to worry about the business side of paying for everything like travel, business cards, phones, computers, temporary housing away from home, health insurance, next week’s or next month’s or next year’s assignment and income. Then, almost always for reasons that had nothing to do with their skill level, they find themselves laid off from a full-time job. Money is tight and they need some income while they look for another full-time job. They are not ready (by virtue of skills, experience, or psychological attitude) to take on the role of "consultant" as outlined above. Many really want full-time employment with all the security (less and less as time goes by) and the benefits (sick pay, medical insurance, 401k, etc., etc.) and some are content to take a less stressful path of working only a few months a year and pursuing other things when they aren't working.

Let’s summarize

A consultant gets paid for giving someone advice or showing him how to do something
A contractor gets paid for doing something or performing tasks which in some organizations are done by full-time employees
Just calling oneself a consultant does not make one a consultant – it requires running a BUSINESS of consulting.
Technical skill in a subject is not sufficient to be a successful consultant – one has to be able to transfer knowledge and skill or convince others to perform tasks based on that technical skill.
There are resources available to determine via “gap analysis” whether one has the “right stuff” to be an independent consultant.
Many folks do not aspire to be consultants; they prefer working for someone else so they can focus on the technical aspect and skill required for the task.


The primary choice - independent or work for an agency?
This is really a more difficult decision than most people may think. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that many folks have built up such good personal networks of people familiar with their skills and experience that those people come rushing with offers for temporary employment once word gets out the individual is available.

Sadly, the evidence is anecdotal, and most folks finding themselves unemployed don't have that kind of network. The remaining (and sometimes ONLY) choice is to find an agency which handles workers with similar skills and depend on that agency to find employers needing folks with those skills and do all the negotiating to obtain assignments for the contractors in the agency pool of workers.


TIPS, TRICKS, AND TRAPS OF TEMP AGENCIES
I could waste time and space recounting some of the horrors of dealing with BAD agencies. Further, I could list the detailed reasons for each of the trips and tricks agencies put up as roadblocks to contractors getting a fair percentage of the total compensation paid by the employer who uses the contractor's services. I am providing a link to a website of an old acquaintance (Jim Ziegler) who does the rant much better than I.
CAVEAT!:
Jim Ziegler has an ax to grind in that he operates a service for contractors who choose to deal "directly" with employers. It's not a bad deal, but if you reach the point you can deal directly with employers without an agency interceding, you really don't need Jim Ziegler's middleman service.

That said, Jim's website is The Contract Employee's Handbook (http://www.cehandbook.com) (http://www.cehandbook.com) - be sure to look over his Contract Employee's Bill of Rights.
From my own point of view, the most egregious part of dealing with any agency middleman is the contractor worker is often kept in the dark about the true value of the job he performs by not knowing the total fee paid to the agency by the employer, since some agencies siphon off 50% or more of the fee paid by the employer for performing these services:


Job matching.
Contract negotiation.
Invoicing, collections and payroll.
Accounts receivable factoring.
Employer of record.

Some folks are content to be exploited by the middleman agency, reasoning, "it's just until I get a full-time job." That's a personal choice!
The second most egregious factor is a "non-compete" clause between agency and contractor which requires contractor to pay a humongous fee to the agency if the contractor is offered and accepts a full-time job with the employer. Alternately, the contractor is barred from working directly for the employer (as employee or contractor) for periods up to one year after the last contract with that employee to that employer handled through the agency.

My advice: consider Deming's theory "the System of Profound Knowledge" (SoPK) in everything you do. Knowledge is power! Try to know as much about the entire relationship between agency, employer, and contractor as possible BEFORE entering into a binding contract.

This is all for now. Future posts will discuss finding an agency with which to work and positioning yourself to earn the highest possible contract fees or temporary hourly wages..

Questions or comments so far?
Are you currently working for an agency as a contract worker?
If yes, what do you like/not like about the arrangement?
How's your net annual income compared to your last full-time job?
If not currently working as an "agency contractor," did you ever work as one?
For all who ever worked as an "agency contractor," what did you like best about the arrangement? Least?
Most importantly, what do you hope to learn from reading this thread as we continue to add to it?

A disgruntled 'Cover' from Singapore started this thread recently: Can an unsatisfied client withhold the consultant's fee?

To me, this post is closely connected to this subject because the business model of many Consultants (especially the big ones with hundreds of clients) over this region is based on the 'Agency' model. The marketing team of the 'Consultant' goes around soliciting for jobs with an impressive list of projects completed and when a job is landed, they engaged a 'Contractor' to implement it and get a cut of up to 40%-50% of the already low fees due to fierce competition.

With such a meager fee, it is without doubt that the Contractor will try to be 'skimpy' in their service and time. The 'Client' suffers, the 'Contractor' barely survives and the 'agent' is still smiling - and growing from strength to strength because uninformed end users are every where.

I tried going this route when my SCI plant closed in 2001, and I found the going exceedingly difficult. I gained a new respect for consultants who can make a go of it. I was asked to write a quality manual for a government contractor that clearly had no real intention of using it, and I did a USDA SBIR research study to project the wider economic benefits of improving QMS consulting and making it widely available in rural areas. The idea was to improve the consulting model (too often the consultants are inept and there is too much variation in the application of quality tools) to the point where it could be...franchised, for the lack of a better term. The project did not make it to Phase II, so I was not able to launch the model. I think the idea was before its time.

I did write a book (not published) titled Herding Squirrels, as well as an accompanying workbook of simplified Seven Management Tools (designed for laymen). I developed my Master Scorekeeper I and II tool kit (I believe you have seen them Wes) and received mixed reviews about them.

I remain open to the idea that these products might yet get published and distributed, but I am once again happily employed with a good benefits plan (phew), so the sense of urgency has cooled.

For all who ever worked as an "agency contractor," what did you like best about the arrangement? Least?


I actually started with my current employer as a "temp" (as we call them). This arrangement worked nicely for me at the time. I did not need benefits, and with 2 small children - I felt no guilt when I took time off to care for the fever or runny nose.

I was a "temp" for almost 2 years - the only thing I didn't like was the constant battle for my holiday pay (a benefit that became available thru the temp agency after 6 months).

I took a six-month contract position that turned into eight years. It was unusual nopt only in duration but also in the fact that most contract arrangments that don't include benefits, but I was considered a full-time employee of the agency I worked for, so I did get good benefits. All in all it was a pretty good arrangement. The reasons that I wasn't ever directly hired are complicated, but suffice it to say that I was happy with the situation and was glad in the end that I had remained independent.

The disparity between Harry's post and Jim's reflect my experience and that of my fellow executives as we talk about the pros and cons of hiring temporary workers either directly or through agencies.

Even Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, visits the topic of contract workers from time to time, pointing out the ironies inherent in the system.

The plain fact is the bad agencies which exist are able to stay in business only because so many employers are ignorant about what they really need for the best value to their organizations. Worse, there are large numbers of people in the position of contracting temp agencies who are downright greedy and on the take for personal enrichment, fed by unscrupulous agencies who provide dinners, vacations, luxury gifts, and cash to those greedy folks and provide substandard workers in return to afford the under the table payments to the employer. This kind of sums up Harry's post.

The good agencies, exemplified, perhaps, by the one in Jim Wynne's experience, look to the long term view and try to excel by providing top notch workers who can fulfill an employer's requirements, avoiding the costly process (for both employer and agency) of continually cycling in new workers who have unproductive time getting oriented to the employer's systems.

When a good agency finds a good worker (skilled, talented, and stable [willing to work for extended periods at the same employer]), it recognizes a valuable asset and will find ways to keep such an asset, paying the worker a greater percentage of the employer fee and including the "stable" ones in its own employee benefit plans. In fact, many contract workers are happy with the golden handcuff aspect of remaining with a good agency rather than seeking full-time employment with a direct employer.

In other threads we discuss the turmoil when an employee is saddled at a boring or dead-end job. It is a major disruption to go through the job hunt all over again to find a better work environment. Contract workers for a good agency, however, usually have much less muss and fuss in asking for a different assignment, knowing that "someone" in the agency worker pool would be willing to fill in the gap, causing relatively little disruption at agency or employer and almost zero disruption for the exiting and incoming agency workers.

In other posts, we'll explore the VALID and INVALID reasons many employers turn to temp agencies. The hallmark of a good agency is being able to recognize both valid and invalid reasons and provide appropriate staff for either. We also explore how those valid and invalid reasons for hiring temp workers affects the individual temp worker, why the worker should be aware of which situation he's entering, and how the worker can survive for the duration of the assignment.

This topic is a great idea. I have been a "professional contractor" or hired gun :) for most of my career. I am noiw working for a consulting firm (BearingPoint) and I guess that makes me now a consultant. A great reference for those interested in contract emploiyment is the magazine CE Weekly, to which I still keep an electronic subscription. They have a number of very good services for seeking contract employment, and at what I believe are reasonable rates. Of course the rates are reasonable because the contract agencies ads pay most of the cost, and Jerry Erickson makes no bones about needing to keep both the contractors and the agencies happy. His article on contracting, available here http://www.cjhunter.com/contracting_intro.html
covers most of the ground clearly and fairly, I think. If you are serious about seeking contract employment, you could do a lot worse than trying his $30 12 week subscription. I have no financial interest in CEWeekly.

Geoff Withnell

Questions or comments so far?

No.

Are you currently working for an agency as a contract worker?

No.

If yes, what do you like/not like about the arrangement?

No comment, since my answer was no.

How's your net annual income compared to your last full-time job?

Equal to.

[ If not currently working as an "agency contractor," did you ever work as one?

No.

[ For all who ever worked as an "agency contractor," what did you like best about the arrangement? Least?[/LIST]

N/A

[Most importantly, what do you hope to learn from reading this thread as we continue to add to it?


Is it really worth it. :notme:

This topic is a great idea. I have been a "professional contractor" or hired gun :) for most of my career. I am noiw working for a consulting firm (BearingPoint) and I guess that makes me now a consultant. A great reference for those interested in contract emploiyment is the magazine CE Weekly, to which I still keep an electronic subscription. They have a number of very good services for seeking contract employment, and at what I believe are reasonable rates. Of course the rates are reasonable because the contract agencies ads pay most of the cost, and Jerry Erickson makes no bones about needing to keep both the contractors and the agencies happy. His article on contracting, available here http://www.cjhunter.com/contracting_intro.html
covers most of the ground clearly and fairly, I think. If you are serious about seeking contract employment, you could do a lot worse than trying his $30 12 week subscription. I have no financial interest in CEWeekly.

Geoff WithnellExcellent reference! Thanks, Geoff. I have very few quibbles with Hunter's description of contract work. His listing of VALID reasons for organizations to hire temps through an agency is excellent. His description of the problems associated with being a completely independent contractor is muddled (perhaps because of bias for the temp agencies that provide HIS revenue?)

There is one thing I want to point out about the sample resume Hunter provides: It is different in style and scope from a resume focused on generating a PERMANENT full-time job! The sample Hunter provides is exactly aimed at satisfying the "gatekeeper" humans or software who will scan the resumes looking for candidates to fill specific tasks on a specialized program. It does (and should) have lots of buzzwords, specific skills, and experience, but does not have much, if anything, about how those skills and experience will benefit the employer.

As an employer, I often drew an analogy between temp workers in a manufacturing or office situation and skilled tradesmen I might hire to repair a plumbing or electrical problem. Because I was focused on accomplishing a specific task (repairing a leak, running electrical power to a new machine, grinding out word processing, or operating a production machine for a rush order during a vacation period when full-time staff were in short supply), I knew exactly what I wanted the worker to do in the short term and had no regard for any future long term value, I was ONLY interested in the skills and didn't care much about the personality or initiative of the worker in adding value to my operation.

Because of that short-sighted focus, I was willing to trust a reputable agency to "guarantee" the skill of the temp worker (some give agency contractors practical exams to "certify" them to work specific tasks.) With such guarantee, I didn't expend much energy interviewing the temp workers. The guarantee, of course, was merely that the agency would instantly replace a worker who was incapable of performing the task as agreed and continue doing so until we got one that could perform the task. Obviously, a good agency protects its reputation by providing only competent workers, however it makes that determination or selection.

No.

No.

No comment, since my answer was no.

Equal to.

No.

N/A
Is it really worth it. :notme:
Obviously, many folks have never worked as agency contractors and have no present intention of working as one. For them, reading this thread may be a waste of time and energy.

For many others, though, the realization that "Knowledge is Power!" keeps them reading because employment is so uncertain in these economic times, we never know when we may NEED that temp job to keep making mortgage and car payments and putting food on the table. Better to learn about it now in an unharried, unstressed atmosphere than when one's whole life is collapsing following a job loss because some factory six states away found a way to do your factory's production at half the cost.

Many consultants (my definition above in post #1) find that they have to eke out income between consulting jobs by working as a contractor for an agency. That doesn't make them bad consultants, it makes them practical. In my world, I've never found a way to eat pride. Money seems to be as necessary as oxygen for survival.

There is no shame, either, in filling in gaps between full-time employment on one's resume with stints of agency contract work.

One benefit Hunter (from Geoff's post) points out for the contractor worker is the opportunity to hone skills and garner experience in different work environments - all of which may add value to that worker when considered by a full-time employer.

FULL-TIME VERSUS PART-TIME OR TEMPORARY:
I want to clarify I see no stigma to being a contract worker, part-timer, or temporary worker versus being a full-time worker. It is important, though, that someone switching from contract work to full-time work be able to connect the dots for a prospective full-time employer just how the contract work enhanced one's value for the prospective full-time employer if he hires the former contract worker.

One benefit Hunter (from Geoff's post) points out for the contractor worker is the opportunity to hone skills and garner experience in different work environments - all of which may add value to that worker when considered by a full-time employer.

FULL-TIME VERSUS PART-TIME OR TEMPORARY:
I want to clarify I see no stigma to being a contract worker, part-timer, or temporary worker versus being a full-time worker. It is important, though, that someone switching from contract work to full-time work be able to connect the dots for a prospective full-time employer just how the contract work enhanced one's value for the prospective full-time employer if he hires the former contract worker.

Wes,
Hunter did hit the nail on the head with his remak on the experience providing value. I found it so when I decided to leave contracting. You do have to be ready to answer the the questions about why you left so many jobs. however. My answer (sounds like a wiseaxx remark but it's not) was "I worked myself out of a job."

Geoff Withnell

Obviously, many folks have never worked as agency contractors and have no present intention of working as one. For them, reading this thread may be a waste of time and energy.

For many others, though, the realization that "Knowledge is Power!" keeps them reading because employment is so uncertain in these economic times, we never know when we may NEED that temp job to keep making mortgage and car payments and putting food on the table. Better to learn about it now in an unharried, unstressed atmosphere than when one's whole life is collapsing following a job loss because some factory six states away found a way to do your factory's production at half the cost.

Many consultants (my definition above in post #1) find that they have to eke out income between consulting jobs by working as a contractor for an agency. That doesn't make them bad consultants, it makes them practical. In my world, I've never found a way to eat pride. Money seems to be as necessary as oxygen for survival.

There is no shame, either, in filling in gaps between full-time employment on one's resume with stints of agency contract work.

One benefit Hunter (from Geoff's post) points out for the contractor worker is the opportunity to hone skills and garner experience in different work environments - all of which may add value to that worker when considered by a full-time employer.

FULL-TIME VERSUS PART-TIME OR TEMPORARY:
I want to clarify I see no stigma to being a contract worker, part-timer, or temporary worker versus being a full-time worker. It is important, though, that someone switching from contract work to full-time work be able to connect the dots for a prospective full-time employer just how the contract work enhanced one's value for the prospective full-time employer if he hires the former contract worker.

These are viable answers and questions. You are right the some people prefer not to do the Temp/Consultant thing, but on the other hand, some people prefer the Temp/Consultant thing, because it gives them the opportunity to see how other companies (Corporations, Incorporations, LLC and so forth) work and they are not committed to a specific company, or like to move about.... Just :notme:

It definitely would help in honing skills and knowledge. To gain direct experience with other companies will only help their desire to gain knowledge.

Contract/Temp/Consultant, does has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage: To see the company's philosophies, beliefs, style (both management and fellow workers), growth potential and a few more.

Disadvantage: Benefits are limited (through the agency) or nonexistent. Lack of stability and a few others.

<snip>
Contract/Temp/Consultant, does has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage: To see the company's philosophies, beliefs, style (both management and fellow workers), growth potential and a few more.

Disadvantage: Benefits are limited (through the agency) or nonexistent. Lack of stability and a few others.
Lack of benefits may NOT be a problem for folks who have a spouse working a job with benefits. Many folks are part of "multiple income households."
Another thing to consider is that many professional societies and associations have group policies available for medical and life insurance coverage at rates lower than individual policies.

Even ASQ has an option as a member benefit
Life, Disability, Medical, and Supplemental Insurance MARSH Affinity Services offers health insurance plans and services through top industry carriers. Current offerings include Major Medical, Term Life, Cancer Expense, Catastrophe Major Medical, Elder Care, Lifeline Screening, Comprehensive Health, Dental, High Limit Accident and Medicare Supplement. (Availability and costs vary according to state regulations.)
Visit their Web site (http://www.insurancetrustsite.com/ASQ/) for more information or call 800-424-9883.
MARSH Affinity Services products are available to ASQ regular, senior, fellow and honorary members.
In point of fact, many folks are so distraught when they lose a job, they simply forget to look for all the opportunities they may have available to get discounts on goods and services through affinity programs sponsored by different groups and associations they may belong to.

Some schools even have low cost insurance programs for part-time students as well as full-time ones. Folks can upgrade their skills and credentials when out of work and still have coverage, especially if taking advantage of Pell Grants and education loan programs.

Only a few organizations have outplacement counseling which informs departing workers about these options. If a displaced worker isn't getting that counseling, he should at least be aware some programs exist to ease the transition so he can investigate on his own.

It's either work as a temp or be homeless (literally in my case). One does gain expertise from being a contractor. Always something new and exciting. Right now, the company that I am doing the contracting work does not have the $ to make my job permanant. In fact, they initially posted my job as permanant, I applied, but later was told the bad news. Soon, I'll be out of work...

However, my case is probably not the norm, but the exception to the rule.

So, when I wrote this first post early in 2008, I received some private mail telling me I was spreading fear and panic when there was no threat.

I've witnessed (and survived!) some pretty bad downturns over the last forty years - this is the worst! The job cuts go across many more industries than in the past. No geographic area seems to be immune. As Weiner Dog writes: It's either work as a temp or be homeless (literally in my case).there are some very tough choices to make in this kind of economic climate.

Despite that, there is still paid work available, but those employers are not spending a lot of money to advertise the fact because they feel they can hire who and what they need from the pool of folks savvy enough to find and apply to the employer.

Getting paid work depends more than ever upon convincing a prospective employer you can deliver value he NEEDS (even if he wasn't really aware he needed it until you came and made it clear you could be his savior.)

We have several sticky threads (in the Forum Occupation Discussions (http://elsmar.com/Forums/forumdisplay.php?f=30)) which have tips on how to find those unadvertised jobs. It takes time, effort, and skill to ferret those jobs and employers out and even more skill to present your case to put you ahead of other job seekers. Sometimes, you may have to "settle" for temp or contract work when you really want a nice, cushy, full-time job with great benefits. That "settling" doesn't mean you have to stop looking for the full-time work you want. In this economic climate, neither employer nor employee can afford to put "loyalty and gratitude" above self-preservation.

Good luck in your search and be especially careful of scams - job scams seem to really pick up steam when times are tough and folks are desperate.

This is a thread bump! Some folks have configured their Cove threads to show the latest post first so I am repeating some new material I added in edit to the first post. I highly recommend folks seriously considering working as a temp or contract worker read through this thread in chronological order - from post 1 to the last.

Here's the copied material added to post 1:
Contracting/Temping – Is it in YOUR career future?
(a companion thread to Consulting – Is it in YOUR Career Future? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=24543))

Added in edit to bump this thread and add specific link to a chapter in Jim Ziegler's Contract Employee's Handbook
Resumes for Contract Workers (http://www.cehandbook.com/cehandbook/docs/cehandbook_chapter_05.pdf)
http://www.cehandbook.com/cehandbook/docs/cehandbook_chapter_05.pdf
(If you are contemplating Contract Work, at least READ THIS before you send out a resume. Note: The pages load slowly - be patient!)

I do not have permission to post a copy here in the Cove. The complete handbook can be found here:
http://www.cehandbook.com/
In my experience over the last forty years, every time there is a downturn in the economy and full-time jobs seem to become scarce, a lot of folks think they can easily join the ranks of those “high paid consultants” they hear about and occasionally see as shadowy figures talking and dealing with top managers at their organization. What if you, personally, are not at the level of "consultant" (yet?)

Reason for this thread:
As the economic noose tightens more and more in the USA and the dreaded "R" word (recession) rears its ugly head and the ripple effect expands across the globe, more and more organizations are loathe to hire full-time employees. However, they still need "warm bodies" to perform day-to-day tasks within the organization. To fulfill that need, they take one or both of two courses:


direct hire of temporary or part-time workers
contracting with an agency to provide workers for temporary or part-time employment.

Let me emphasize - there is no shame in taking temporary work to keep yourself and family fed and a roof over your heads.

Some things you have to keep in mind:


The contract job is TEMPORARY! (always be aware ANY day may be the last - for reasons that have nothing to do with you or the quality of your work)
Find a way to keep up health insurance - the vast majority of personal bankruptcies are triggered by outsized medical bills
You may not qualify for unemployment compensation when the contract job disappears
Be aware you may have to work a long distance from home - too far to commute - keep in mind you may have to support your family from a distance and won't be around to help out your spouse or play with the kids.
Don't stop researching and looking for a permanent job if that is your ultimate goal.
Continually update your resume as you gain new skills and experience pertinent to your long term employment goal.
You may require two different resumes - one for getting contract work and one for getting interviews for full-time employment - don't mix them up!
If you don't have a close friend you can trust to gve you an honest appraisal of your resume and cover letter, consider finding an employment club or community-based counselor to find one or more QUALIFIED folks to assure you are not your own worst enemy by sending out resumes that don't adequately reflect the value you can offer to an employer. (To do an adequate review, a professional who doesn't have personal knowledge of your skills may have to interview you for an hour or more before looking at the resume so he can get a feel for whether your resume adequately does a true job of describing your value.)
Find a way to rehearse and practice interviewing so you can do the best possible job of marketing your value when face to face with someone who can hire you.

Thanks for the bump!

The material is generally very good, and I have an OFI :p

Looking at cpt. 5 of the book you posted, I believe that this is no longer applicable (p. 5-15):
In general, do not send your resume as an e-mail attachment. If you do send it as an attachment send it as plain (ASCII) text, and give it a file name like lastname_firstname_resume.txt. (Please note the book is dated 2001).

PDFs are great if your resume gets re-formatted every time a different printer is used, and a resume in ASCII text says to me that I can't employ/recommend you based on your computer skills.

Thanks for the bump!

The material is generally very good, and I have an OFI :p

Looking at cpt. 5 of the book you posted, I believe that this is no longer applicable (p. 5-15):
(Please note the book is dated 2001).

PDFs are great if your resume gets re-formatted every time a different printer is used, and a resume in ASCII text says to me that I can't employ/recommend you based on your computer skills.
Good point!

Actually, Jim has been updating this a lot since his original writing.

I agree folks receiving a resume can read it in its original typography if it is formatted in pdf, BUT, and this is the big BUT (which I am pretty sure Jim does NOT address) many organizations are now scanning the incoming resumes with software to parse out key words - a lot of folks create pdf files which are merely "pictures" of the text and, although VERY legible when printed out, are difficult for many software programs to penetrate for key words. You just have to know what the receiving entity will be doing.

Personally, if I had ANY question, I'd send BOTH pdf and ASCII copies with an explanation in my cover letter (which should ALWAYS be personalized to each recipient, not generic.)

Just a clarification... CJHunter is not a person, but a website, cjhunter.com (ContractJobHunter). I have been a subscriber to their publication, CEWeekly, and found it to be invaluable when looking for temporary employment (which sometimes turned into direct employment).

Just a clarification... CJHunter is not a person, but a website, cjhunter.com (ContractJobHunter). I have been a subscriber to their publication, CEWeekly, and found it to be invaluable when looking for temporary employment (which sometimes turned into direct employment).Thanks for making a clarification. In the rush of writing posts PLUS living our regular lives, Geoff and I were careless in the pronoun references. The author of the description I referred to was Jerry Erickson, Publisher [of the website.]

Definitely send 'search-friendly' resumes in Word format. PDFs are not (they treat text as graphics in a sense). If you don't make your resume search-friendly you might as well not bother, because yours won't come up when recruiters search. And they all use searching all the time.

This is a thread bump! Some folks have configured their Cove threads to show the latest post first so I am repeating some new material I added in edit to the first post. I highly recommend folks seriously considering working as a temp or contract worker read through this thread in chronological order - from post 1 to the last.

Here's the copied material added to post 1:
Let me emphasize - there is no shame in taking temporary work to keep yourself and family fed and a roof over your heads.

Some things you have to keep in mind:


The contract job is TEMPORARY! (always be aware ANY day may be the last - for reasons that have nothing to do with you or the quality of your work)
Find a way to keep up health insurance - the vast majority of personal bankruptcies are triggered by outsized medical bills
You may not qualify for unemployment compensation when the contract job disappears
Be aware you may have to work a long distance from home - too far to commute - keep in mind you may have to support your family from a distance and won't be around to help out your spouse or play with the kids.
Don't stop researching and looking for a permanent job if that is your ultimate goal.
Continually update your resume as you gain new skills and experience pertinent to your long term employment goal.
You may require two different resumes - one for getting contract work and one for getting interviews for full-time employment - don't mix them up!
If you don't have a close friend you can trust to gve you an honest appraisal of your resume and cover letter, consider finding an employment club or community-based counselor to find one or more QUALIFIED folks to assure you are not your own worst enemy by sending out resumes that don't adequately reflect the value you can offer to an employer. (To do an adequate review, a professional who doesn't have personal knowledge of your skills may have to interview you for an hour or more before looking at the resume so he can get a feel for whether your resume adequately does a true job of describing your value.)
Find a way to rehearse and practice interviewing so you can do the best possible job of marketing your value when face to face with someone who can hire you.


All good advice, but a few comments:

ALL jobs are temporary! The only permanent jobs are King, Pope and Court Justice. "Permanent" jobs are merely jobs where the employer does not have a specific end in sight for the position at this time. The end may come into sight tomorrow, or even this afternoon. And when it does, the "permanent" employee is just as gone as the contractor.

If you are working through an agency, you are probably legally the agency's employee. If they are taking Social Security out of your check, and you are going to get a W-2 not a 1099 as a tax statement of wages, you are an employee. In this case, contract employment should provide you with unemployment and worker's comp benefits justas any other employer. Some fly-by-night agencies will not pay the unemployment insurance and worker's comp insurance, hoping for no claims. If this happens, talk to the state employment folks and get a court case started.

Figure in what you need to buy your own benefits when deciding what your rate will be. Start with what the average worker in your field would get as an hourly equivalent and then go UP based on cost of benefits the agency is not providing. Contractors cost MORE per hour than direct employees, not less. And you don't want to establish a low price point for yourself when looking at either a direct position or your next contract.

Have multiple resumes. If an agency calls with a specific requirement, be willing to email a "targeted" resume withing the day which highlights your experience in the area. Don't lie, the worst thing you can do is have your last reference be a bad one, but no one resume can highlight everything.

Protect your references. Many low end agencies require references MUCH too early in the process. They are not using them to screen applicants, but as leads for new business. Check with your references, make sure this isn't happening and make sure you are getting good words.

Geoff Withnell

Geoff makes some points worth emphasizing.
First point:
A temporary worker is working for the entity that signs his/her check.

If an agency is signing your check, it is making a healthy profit on the labor you provide, whether you are a computer maven or a ditch digger. Consider it this way - the agency is renting you out like a special tool with the added advantage for the agency that it doesn't have to pay your full purchase price up front. If you do NOT aspire to a fulltime job with an organization, then you should probably think about the advantage of becoming the agency yourself - create a corporation and contract directly with the organization for whom you will work and keep that agency profit in your own pocket. The time other folks spend researching and looking for fulltime jobs can be spent researching and looking for contract opportunities. Perhaps you can even hire other contract workers to help you fill a contract with the organization needing work accomplished.
(I told a story in another thread about a neighbor who got laid off from a high-paying executive job and took a temporary job driving an airport limosine. Within a month, he realized the profit to be made in OWNING a limo service and convinced friends and relatives to help him put together start-up capital to start one. After the first 18 months, he was netting MORE than he was in the executive job. He still drives one of the limos himself if a temporary doesn't show!)

Second point:
Tailor the resume to fit the position - do not try a "one size fits all" solution or you will be doomed to be the "last kid chosen for the team." If the team needs a pitcher, they aren't ready to settle for a "utility infielder."

One way to do this is to create a grid of your characteristics and attributes. When a position comes up, create a similar grid of the characteristics and attributes for that SPECIFIC position, then match them with your personal grid and let your "tailor made" resume emphasize those points of congruence. If the job is a telecommuting one, there is little reason to emphasize how well you work in face-to-face customer relations, but lots of reason to emphasize your computer savvy. Obviously, if a company wants a Customer Relations Representative, "working and playing well with others" is probably a desirable attribute.

Geoff makes some points worth emphasizing.
First point:
A temporary worker is working for the entity that signs his/her check.

If an agency is signing your check, it is making a healthy profit on the labor you provide, whether you are a computer maven or a ditch digger. Consider it this way - the agency is renting you out like a special tool with the added advantage for the agency that it doesn't have to pay your full purchase price up front. If you do NOT aspire to a fulltime job with an organization, then you should probably think about the advantage of becoming the agency yourself - create a corporation and contract directly with the organization for whom you will work and keep that agency profit in your own pocket. The time other folks spend researching and looking for fulltime jobs can be spent researching and looking for contract opportunities. Perhaps you can even hire other contract workers to help you fill a contract with the organization needing work accomplished.

Wes,
While this sounds tempting, there is a lot more involved than most people realize. Because of a lawsuit involving some Microsoft contractors, most major companies will not use individuals as contractors. You must either be an employee of the client, or an employee of an agency. So to do this you would need to incorporate. Then there is worker's comp, liability, and unemployment insurance. State, federal and SS witholding must be handled. Since you are not an employee of the client, you must submit invoices, and payment may well not be prompt, and almost certainly will be once a month, with some lag after the end of each month. Can you afford to wait for you pay? Agencies have a significant markup, but a lot less of it is profit than you would think. I have worked both ways, and when I can work through a good, ethical agency, I prefer it. They earn their cut.

Geoff Withnell

Wes,
While this sounds tempting, there is a lot more involved than most people realize. Because of a lawsuit involving some Microsoft contractors, most major companies will not use individuals as contractors. You must either be an employee of the client, or an employee of an agency. So to do this you would need to incorporate. Then there is worker's comp, liability, and unemployment insurance. State, federal and SS witholding must be handled. Since you are not an employee of the client, you must submit invoices, and payment may well not be prompt, and almost certainly will be once a month, with some lag after the end of each month. Can you afford to wait for you pay? Agencies have a significant markup, but a lot less of it is profit than you would think. I have worked both ways, and when I can work through a good, ethical agency, I prefer it. They earn their cut.

Geoff WithnellAs I have written before about my acquaintance with Jim Ziegler (post #1) - I am VERY familiar with the business of contracting through a corporation. Most states have a plateau on employee count before the organization must pay into the unemployment compensation pool. Even so, it's just a cost of doing business like printing business cards and buying health insurance or car insurance.

It is not easy to get into an organization and persuade them to hire contractors from YOUR organization, but then neither is it easy to get a full-time job with an organization nor get them to add you as a supplier to their supply chain, whether you provide talent, labor, or "things."

However hard it is, it is still easier [and better] than sitting home, feeling sorry for yourself and waiting for the sheriff to come and haul your furniture to the curb.

Many of the tips we give in the job threads are equally applicable whether you are trying to get a full-time job, a part-time job, or to get an organization to hire you or your employees as contractors - you must research target organizations to see what they need and then craft your approach to show YOU meet that need.

The problem for me is an ethical one. I would rather choose contract work over perm work because for a lot of FDA regulated companies, internal business goals (such as time + quantity not quality) trump quality compliance. I refuse to play internal company politics so that some mid-level manager can get a bonus.

The problem for me is an ethical one. I would rather choose contract work over perm work because for a lot of FDA regulated companies, internal business goals (such as time + quantity not quality) trump quality compliance. I refuse to play internal company politics so that some mid-level manager can get a bonus.OK. I can see part of your reasoning, but I am at a loss as to how being a contractor in such an organization insulates you from the mid-level manager who directs the work of the contractors in his department. Perhaps you could explain?

In 90% to 95% of the organizations which hire temps and contractors (whether direct hire or through an agency which is the technical employer of the worker), it is virtually impossible for the casual visitor to tell a contractor, temp, or part-timer from the full-time employee.

I once visited one of those organizations where all the staff, even the executives, wore a "uniform" of khaki slacks (or skirts) plus a company-supplied logo polo shirt. I knew for a fact there were at least 100 temps from an outside agency during the shift I visited, but there was absolutely no way to pick them out visually.

Often, in larger organizations, managers one or two steps up the hierarchy from the temp know there are temps on the job, but don't have an intimate knowledge of the permanent work force to be able to pick out who is who when they visit the workplace.

In this day where many workers get direct deposit of their paychecks, workers at the next work station may not know which workers are temps or full-time (especially where on-the-job chit chat between workers is discouraged), because they don't see the department supervisor or his aide passing out paychecks.

The problem for me is an ethical one. I would rather choose contract work over perm work because for a lot of FDA regulated companies, internal business goals (such as time + quantity not quality) trump quality compliance. I refuse to play internal company politics so that some mid-level manager can get a bonus.

I completely agree with your point. The two - compliance needs and business needs - need to be balanced, and that's really the hard part. I don't think it's really about ethics, though. These functions just typically have two very different viewpoints and philosophies. I'm sure you've probably sat in meetings with senior staff, presenting a problem and a costly solution, and the first question the president asks is, "what are our chances of getting a Warning Letter?". He completely understands the severity of a Warning Letter, but he's thinking about the financial impact to the company. And that's a good thing, frankly. It's just very difficult to deal with on a day to day basis.

In the end, they decide to do nothing, because the chance of receiving a Warning Letter is remote, and they don't want to incur the cost. We (compliance people) walk away feeling that the management disregarded the regulations and is unethical.

I long aspired to become an executive. But, the further I moved along in my career, more often was I faced with those situations. It just becomes daunting, and eventually I just burnt out on it. I developed a reputation along the way for being a compliance "fix-it guy", and as the result I was always hired by companies because their quality systems were a mess, and they were about to be inspected by FDA. So, I've torn down systems and rebuilt them in more company cultures than I can even count, and I came to realize that no matter how "supportive" the executive staff is toward compliance, their top objective is the financial stability or impact of liability to the company. And like I said before, that's a good thing. It's a pressure cooker, though.

As a consultant, I'm brought in under a completely different set of circumstances. First, management is receptive and open to input at this point, otherwise they'd still be arguing internally with their quality guy. I can influence, persuade, educate, and help them to implement systems without dealing with the daily pressure cooker.

I completely agree with your point. The two - compliance needs and business needs - need to be balanced, and that's really the hard part. I don't think it's really about ethics, though.
<SNIP>

As a consultant, I'm brought in under a completely different set of circumstances. First, management is receptive and open to input at this point, otherwise they'd still be arguing internally with their quality guy. I can influence, persuade, educate, and help them to implement systems without dealing with the daily pressure cooker.The point is, though, Chris, you are brought in to change something or fix something broken as a consultant (see my definition above), not as a contractor to fulfill a task. Consultants, by definition, are almost always brought in as part of a change, whereas contractors are pretty much just one financial route (versus hiring full-timers) to maintaining status quo.

Although Weiner Dog has used the term "contract work," it isn't perfectly clear whether he means as a consultant to bring in advice as well as expertise or simply as a contractor to supply expertise at a pre-designated task.

Let’s summarize

A consultant gets paid for giving someone advice or showing him how to do something
A contractor gets paid for doing something or performing tasks which in some organizations are done by full-time employees
Just calling oneself a consultant does not make one a consultant – it requires running a BUSINESS of consulting.
Technical skill in a subject is not sufficient to be a successful consultant – one has to be able to transfer knowledge and skill or convince others to perform tasks based on that technical skill.
There are resources available to determine via “gap analysis” whether one has the “right stuff” to be an independent consultant.
Many folks do not aspire to be consultants; they prefer working for someone else so they can focus on the technical aspect and skill required for the task.


:topic:The toughest pill for some consultants to swallow is to provide meaningful, workable advice to a paying client, only to have the advice completely ignored while the organization continues a downward spiral to doom.

Wes,
Thank you for keeping this thread alive. This is a very important dialog in this economy.

After being one of 150 souls rightsized last November it took until the end of March to get a 6 week assignment. I had to rethink my strategy and "lower" myself to take a contract job. I was glad I did. I have now worked 6 weeks in the past seven months and have a niche that I beleive needs to be filled.

I am an ASQ CQT with a BA in Business in the Milwaukee area and the thought came to me "Why don't I become a PPAP consultant (contractor)?" Oddly enough, I enjoy doing TS16949 related PPAP's!?!

In searching high and low however, I cannot seem to find a company or a temp service that has a clue how to help me. The site, cjhunter, came up empty along with the ASQ job board along with boards like Indeed et.al.

With so many small companies around that can't afford to hire a full time PPAP person one would think that helping small businesses complete PPAP's would be a needed thing. Might some co's not know that my type of service is available? What different, non-budget busting, way's can I use to get the word out?

If I do get a position on my own, self-employed, how do I set that business up? LLC or D/B/A filing schedule C?

Many of us have families to feed and time is of the essence. I can cold call all day for weeks on end, there's no shortage of companies. What do I charge? How should I structure contract, Pay wise?

This will not be a permanent deal but something has to work out for the next six months to one year before companies start to hire Professional CQT's again.

I have read all of the posts and looked at the chapter in the contractors book. Can you and the other moderators here offer further advice and direction?

Mark

Wes,
Thank you for keeping this thread alive. This is a very important dialog in this economy.

After being one of 150 souls rightsized last November it took until the end of March to get a 6 week assignment. I had to rethink my strategy and "lower" myself to take a contract job. I was glad I did. I have now worked 6 weeks in the past seven months and have a niche that I beleive needs to be filled.

I am an ASQ CQT with a BA in Business in the Milwaukee area and the thought came to me "Why don't I become a PPAP consultant (contractor)?" Oddly enough, I enjoy doing TS16949 related PPAP's!?!

In searching high and low however, I cannot seem to find a company or a temp service that has a clue how to help me. The site, cjhunter, came up empty along with the ASQ job board along with boards like Indeed et.al.

With so many small companies around that can't afford to hire a full time PPAP person one would think that helping small businesses complete PPAP's would be a needed thing. Might some co's not know that my type of service is available? What different, non-budget busting, way's can I use to get the word out?

If I do get a position on my own, self-employed, how do I set that business up? LLC or D/B/A filing schedule C?

Many of us have families to feed and time is of the essence. I can cold call all day for weeks on end, there's no shortage of companies. What do I charge? How should I structure contract, Pay wise?

This will not be a permanent deal but something has to work out for the next six months to one year before companies start to hire Professional CQT's again.

I have read all of the posts and looked at the chapter in the contractors book. Can you and the other moderators here offer further advice and direction?

MarkI read your resume in the employment wanted forum. If you want to limit yourself to a very narrow niche of PPAP, you probably also need to limit the stuff you put in your resume to emphasize PPAP.

Take some time and read through these other threads again to get some more tips on focusing on specific targets - it may mean having multiple resumes to fit several niches if you decide to broaden your search.

In any event, you'll always want to make sure your cover letter and resume clarify how your skills and experience will actually help the prospective employer not merely list them and leave him to struggle drawing a conclusion.

I wouldn't hang my hat on regional demand for CQT returning at any specific time. Events have a way of not following our preconceived notions.


Candidates:
Thinking about a New Job for New Year? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=19619)
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=19619

Resume and cover letter - How good are yours? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=10169)
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=10169

The Job Hunt - Care and feeding of references (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=19094)
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=19094

Tips to get past the "gatekeeper" when job hunting (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=9325)
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=9325

Consulting – Is it in YOUR Career Future? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=24543)
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=24543

You may be correct that the need for a Professional CQT may not return anytime soon. I feel the need to be employed using what I know. (PPAP)

Until I retrain myself in another career there are those pesky bills to pay...

Do you or anyone else have a basic contract that I could adapt to contract myself to small comanies as a self-employed PPAP technician?

You may be correct that the need for a Professional CQT may not return anytime soon. I feel the need to be employed using what I know. (PPAP)

Until I retrain myself in another career there are those pesky bills to pay...

Do you or anyone else have a basic contract that I could adapt to contract myself to small comanies as a self-employed PPAP technician?
Even if you do receive a blank contract form from some source (checking the internet for "temporary employment contract" is one way), I urge you not to attempt to adapt or modify it yourself, but to consult with an attorney with some experience with such contracts in your state [or states] where you want to work. Often, free or very low cost legal advice is available for unemployed folks through legal clinics, bar associations, and law schools. At law schools, typically, senior students perform the grunt work which is then reviewed by an experienced professor before you are told to step outside and implement such advice.

I could provide some horror tales to reinforce my suggestion, but suffice to say I would have an attorney double check my own contracts to ensure they applied to me and my situation and were enforceable.

Wes

Looking at the state of the economy, federal projections for additional job losses and the fact that quality is viewed as a non value added function by most companies what method would you suggest for identifying which temporary employment agencies have specialized in placement of contract workers?

Wes

Looking at the state of the economy, federal projections for additional job losses and the fact that quality is viewed as a non value added function by most companies what method would you suggest for identifying which temporary employment agencies have specialized in placement of contract workers?
First of all - there is no essential difference between "temporary employee" and "contract worker" regardless whether the jobs they perform are skilled or menial.

The method for identifying any agency which handles the skill sets you offer is exactly the same method as identifying ANY employer as a target - RESEARCH!

Read newspapers, especially business sections and commercial real estate sections to see who is leasing additional space or hiring additional executives - handling more temps usually also means adding more inside administrative help to service them and the clients.

Does your research for a permanent employer show a potential target is currently hiring only temps? Do they use an agency? Who?

I've used stealth marketing by calling up human resources at a company and holding myself out as an agency for temp workers - with a smooth enough pitch, I can find out if they use an agency or several, what fields they hire in, and approximately how many manhours a year they buy. (This is me, though, I know the jargon and can charm and flatter birds out of trees when I want to.)

The direct approach to agencies is always the first avenue to try - simply call and ask if they have experience placing folks with the kind of skills and experience you have already put in your personal grid. If they say yes, ask about how many different clients they have that have a need for such temps and how many manhours total the agency fills in that field each year. Ask how the agency gets its employer clients, whether they are exclusive with any employers, do the agency executives specialize by field of employee or simply by employer, regardless of what kind of employee [research scientist to janitor], do they have a lot of open positions in your field now?

Obviously, you have to get to someone in the agency who can answer those questions (getting past the gatekeeper is important here, too.)

If they don't want to answer your simple questions, why on earth would you want to work for them? The deal is you have a product you are offering to let them rent to their client base and collect a commission. Why should you let them shop your product if none of their clients rents that kind of product? Think of it like a consignment shop. If you have specialized model making tools, are you going to leave them at a consignment shop that specializes in vintage clothing? (What? - and wait for some funky Goth teen looking for a Dracula cape to walk in and say, "Wow! Just what I need - a $2,000 miniature machine shop!")

Only after you narrow down your list of temp agencies (don't ever, ever limit yourself to just one!), then, and only then, should you start to narrow down the specs of what they offer (some, to their credit have deals where you can get relatively low cost medical insurance for you and family members.)

I would not hesitate to ask what they expect to provide for their share of the dollar each employer pays. Then, I'd ask, "Roughly, how does that work out? Do you take a fixed percentage, regardless of how many dollars per hour it pays or do you stop at a maximum and let the worker get a larger benefit?" Some will scream that's private, but persistence will get you pretty close to an answer of what you can expect.

Remember, an employer often pays an agency as much as 200% of what the actual full-time employee gets as a gross paycheck (for reasons I will be happy to elaborate in a new thread if anyone is interested enough to start one.) The employee's task is to negotiate for as big a portion of that as he can. It all depends on how desperate the employer is for someone to fill that spot and whether the agent fears a competitor will get a candidate in the door before he does. (For example, a while back, I was aware a PhD pharmacologist working as a temp for one of the big firms in my area was collecting $4,000 a week through an agency while working on a rush project to reopen a plant shuttered by the FDA. His coworkers [similar degrees and experience] were full-timers pulled in from other company plants and were only earning $2,500 to $3,000 a week plus housing allowance. The difference - the job lasted only 5 weeks and the guy didn't connect with another one for two months - at a much lower salary.)

If they say they can't give you any information without seeing your resume, respond, "Isn't that a coincidence? I don't want to waste your time or storage space with my resume if you don't handle my skill set!"

:topic:but pertinent to the theme of talking about occupations
Lots of folks are out of work. Even more are grossly under-employed. The older you are, the more likely the next job you get if you have been laid off will be at a breath-taking drop from your previous income. Defense attorneys and job counselors have much the same mantra for their clients to repeat:
"Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!"

In practical terms, this means do not hide the fact you are unemployed. Do not be the fool who is embarrassed to tell his wife and goes off each morning dressed for work, but just sits in a park or coffee shop, or worse, a saloon, all day and maxes out his credit cards to maintain the facade of employment. Get to work! Learn how to do an efficient, effective job hunt. Do not commit suicide if you can't find one that pays as much as you made before - learn to adjust to changed circumstances. Forget about keeping up with the Jones family, concentrate on keeping a roof over your head and food on your table.

You are not alone! There is help available if you are truly desperate, but you have to know enough to ask for it, because the folks who do the helping are too busy helping to come and look for you!

Good luck!

Wes,

In searching high and low however, I cannot seem to find a company or a temp service that has a clue how to help me. The site, cjhunter, came up empty along with the ASQ job board along with boards like Indeed et.al.

With so many small companies around that can't afford to hire a full time PPAP person one would think that helping small businesses complete PPAP's would be a needed thing. Might some co's not know that my type of service is available? What different, non-budget busting, way's can I use to get the word out?

If I do get a position on my own, self-employed, how do I set that business up? LLC or D/B/A filing schedule C?

Many of us have families to feed and time is of the essence. I can cold call all day for weeks on end, there's no shortage of companies. What do I charge? How should I structure contract, Pay wise?

This will not be a permanent deal but something has to work out for the next six months to one year before companies start to hire Professional CQT's again.

I have read all of the posts and looked at the chapter in the contractors book. Can you and the other moderators here offer further advice and direction?

Mark

If you're serious abut contract employment look at CEWeekly. Most of the contract engineering firms advertise in this publication. I worked as a contractor from 1980 until 1994 and found it invaluable.

In order to stay employed in an economic down turn you may need to seriously consider working out of state.

Wes,
Thank you for keeping this thread alive. This is a very important dialog in this economy.

After being one of 150 souls rightsized last November it took until the end of March to get a 6 week assignment. I had to rethink my strategy and "lower" myself to take a contract job. I was glad I did. I have now worked 6 weeks in the past seven months and have a niche that I beleive needs to be filled.

I am an ASQ CQT with a BA in Business in the Milwaukee area and the thought came to me "Why don't I become a PPAP consultant (contractor)?" Oddly enough, I enjoy doing TS16949 related PPAP's!?!

In searching high and low however, I cannot seem to find a company or a temp service that has a clue how to help me. The site, cjhunter, came up empty along with the ASQ job board along with boards like Indeed et.al.

With so many small companies around that can't afford to hire a full time PPAP person one would think that helping small businesses complete PPAP's would be a needed thing. Might some co's not know that my type of service is available? What different, non-budget busting, way's can I use to get the word out?

If I do get a position on my own, self-employed, how do I set that business up? LLC or D/B/A filing schedule C?

Many of us have families to feed and time is of the essence. I can cold call all day for weeks on end, there's no shortage of companies. What do I charge? How should I structure contract, Pay wise?

This will not be a permanent deal but something has to work out for the next six months to one year before companies start to hire Professional CQT's again.

I have read all of the posts and looked at the chapter in the contractors book. Can you and the other moderators here offer further advice and direction?

MarkEver since you wrote this post, something has been nagging at me, but I just couldn't seem to rid myself of distractions to focus on WHY I was disturbed.

It turns out THIS sentence/paragraph was the culprit:
In searching high and low however, I cannot seem to find a company or a temp service that has a clue how to help me. The site, cjhunter, came up empty along with the ASQ job board along with boards like Indeed et.al.
It now occurs to me to ask: "Just how did you go about researching a list of agencies who employ workers on temporary contracts?"

When I ran a google query for "temporary employment agencies" +"Milwaukee, WI" I didn't see CJ Hunter in the first ten results . What about Manpower? Kelly? etc.? Who did you talk to? What, specifically, did you ask? What was the exact reply? If you weren't satisfied, did you ask for a referral to someone else?

In every Cove job thread we've referenced, we always stress the theme that:
The job hunt is a job in and of itself. You have to become proficient in it if you want to succeed. Remember - job hunting is straight commission work - you don't get paid until you close the deal!

Like a door-to-door-sales agent, you will get a lot of rejections. Don't be discouraged; it's part of the job!

When I ran a google query for "temporary employment agencies" +"Milwaukee, WI" I didn't see CJ Hunter in the first ten results . What about Manpower? Kelly? etc.? Who did you talk to? What, specifically, did you ask? What was the exact reply? If you weren't satisfied, did you ask for a referral to someone else?

You Googled backwards. The "CJ" in CJ Hunter (http://www.cjhunter.com/) stands for "Contract Job."

You Googled backwards. The "CJ" in CJ Hunter (http://www.cjhunter.com/) stands for "Contract Job."I'm not sure WHO missed the point, here. The idea I proposed was to FIRST identify temporary employment agencies which handled the type of jobs a candidate felt qualified to fill (regardless of whether they were currently posting any jobs) by calling each agency directly and posing the question.

My continual theme in these job forum threads has been to get one's candidacy in front of decision makers BEFORE the rest of the herd. The mere fact zero jobs are listed on a web site does not mean there are zero openings.

Similarly, if one is seeking full-time employment, the candidate can increase the likelihood of triggering a decision maker to create a job opening if he can lay out his proposal to the decision maker at the point the decision maker is still strategizing on how to solve his current problem.

In the case of a PPAP specialist, the plain fact is many suppliers may need the temporary and occasional services of a PPAP specialist, but not know enough to ask for one at a temp agency or even to list the skill/experience as "nice to have" when seeking any employee. Interviewing the people at a temp agency who actually have the contact with employer clients may just leave that particular theme in their minds so they can offer/inquire about the client's current or future need for such skill. A temporary worker increases his chances of being on the "first to call" list when he networks and lobbies the agency personnel to keep the candidate's list of skill sets continually updated. The trick is to network and lobby effectively without becoming a pest agency employees see as a liability when in place at a clent employer.

We have a long-running thread, Is QA in your Job Title? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=9639&highlight=job+title), which addresses the issue that job titles and even job descriptions are often vague and do not necessarily list the specialized buzz words of quality which many of us have become familiar with, especially acronyms like PPAP, FMEA, SQA, etc. which are often just as meaningful as a spilled bowl of alphabet soup to the hapless soul who actually writes the copy for a job placement ad.

My thesis has been and remains:
"Be efficient and effective in the job hunt."

When a candidate neglects an element of a job hunt, he cripples his chances for success.
Reviewing:
Here are the minimum first steps:


Understand and practice Deming's theory of the System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK.) If you don't have the big picture of your present organization firmly in your grasp, you won't recognize the clues that tell you it's time to ramp up your game to remain a survivor or to start looking for a new ship because your current one is about to sink and take you with it.
Know and understand your own skill set and experience and what makes them valuable or worthless to your present employer or the next one. Some folks find it helpful to create a grid with columns with these minimum fields:
Column 1: Skill or experience
Column 2: level of the skill (fair, good, excellent)
Column 3: valuable to present [or most recent] employer (Yes or No)
Column 4: Why?
Column 5: Type of employer or industry that might value this skill
Column 6: Why?
Column 7:
Armed with this grid, you can begin to determine if your present skill sets are valuable to your current employer. (If they are not, based on your SoPK, you can either upgrade your skill set because you fall short of what he needs or start looking for an employer who can value your skill set because it is far beyond what your current employer needs or wants.)
If column 3 is mostly “no” you can pretty much guess you are a round peg in a square hole. If this is the case, you have to determine (by looking at columns 5 and 6) whether you are looking at merely changing employers in the same industry or whether you need to explore other industries.
If your personal grid tells you to look for a new employer in the same or different industry, it’s time to gear up your research tools to identify some specific targets for your hunt. Here are some factors that can affect your choice of targets:



Geographic location – can you just pick up and relocate or do you have family or citizenship factors to limit your choices? Climate? Educational and recreational opportunity?
Personal likes and dislikes for industries or specific companies (are these really valid?)
General economic outlook for industries or specific companies (are they growing or shrinking? Here’s where the concept of SoPK comes into play – your research should include an exploration of target companies or industries in terms of macroeconomics, customer base, competition, employee relations, government regulation. Check for recent news stories for expansion, contraction. If they are public companies, look up their 10Q and 10K filings (not just the annual report) and make sure you have a good overall picture of each target on your ilst. (One of the saddest tales we hear is for a candidate to land a job only to learn scant weeks later the site or entire company is shutting down.) The last concern at this point is whether they are actually advertising for help.)

Once you have the list of target companies, prepare a campaign to learn what specific help each may need. (e.g. Preparing to get ISO 13485 registration? What in your skill set will provide value?) Do this by reading, cold calls, checking with friends at the company or in the industry – if they are following SoPK, they’ll know.

Keep searching until you have the list of values the target needs, keep searching until you determine who the decision maker is for hiring someone to provide that value. Find out what you can about the decision maker. (Who knows him? Old employees? Current employees? Customers? Competitors? Association members?)

Prepare a narrowly-focused approach to that individual, showing how your past experience and current skills can provide value for what your research shows the organization needs. Depending on you, the target, and what you’ve learned, and whether you have any referrals to that person, the approach should be as personal as circumstances allow, beginning with a simple phone call to confirm your research.
(“Hello, John Doe. I’m Jack Smith. I’m an experienced expert in ____________. I’ve been researching companies similar to yours and I have some ideas on how to help you and your organization achieve ___________________ efficiently and effectively, avoiding the costly blind alleys some organizations have followed trying to achieve ______________. Do you have time to talk now or would you like to set an appointment where we can met face to face to explore how I can add value to your operation?”)

Note we haven’t asked whether there’s an opening or whether they were thinking about an opening – our goal is to create an opening and avoid the hassle of dealing with competing candidates and gatekeepers who can only say no.

Ever since you wrote this post, something has been nagging at me, but I just couldn't seem to rid myself of distractions to focus on WHY I was disturbed.

It turns out THIS sentence/paragraph was the culprit:
In searching high and low however, I cannot seem to find a company or a temp service that has a clue how to help me. The site, cjhunter, came up empty along with the ASQ job board along with boards like Indeed et.al.
It now occurs to me to ask: "Just how did you go about researching a list of agencies who employ workers on temporary contracts?"

Wes,
In the red print above I was not clear. I had several months of outplacement assistance from Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH). This company is among the worlds largest outplacement firms. Companies such as Rockwell International, to name one, use their services. They gave us downsized folks a set of proprietatry tools and taught us how to use them. Let me clear my statement up please.

The statement above was refering to search engines used within MOST sites coming up empty. I found out how to remedy that - "QA 'Quality+Technician' -hospital -nursing". That was one. I found several like it that worked. "quality lean" will return many supervisory jobs as well. In the end I found that Linkedin had the right set of modifiers in MY case.

As to HOW I am still conducting my search.... tenaciously; with tools that have large downloadable databases such as Hoovers to give me names and titles, I call every pertinent person at each company (and always add a few digits to the main # and ask around until I find that person) that might remotely know what a PPAP is and ask them who they know that may be in need of such services. If or when they say something negative I ask them "who would you go to if you were looking for a PPAP technician?" Some have given referals and others...well...you know.

Between networking and three month call backs and cold calling, it's been more of finding the right person at many employment agencies vs. the generalist at the agency itself. BTW, it's the third quarter and I have had multiple interviews. Things are looking up and the direct hire companies are back out there. Thanks and keep teaching. I do enjoy the knowledge that you and others have offered.

Mark,

Also buy the Sunday newspaper and look for job announcements/adds. I just joined a company this month by answering a three-line advertisement after spending countless hours on the web and working with placement services.

Two things got me the job. I tailored my resume to cover the company’s wants and I sent a follow email after about a week, which got me the interview and offer.

Good Luck

Jeff

Mark,

Also buy the Sunday newspaper and look for job announcements/adds. I just joined a company this month by answering a three-line advertisement after spending countless hours on the web and working with placement services.

Two things got me the job. I tailored my resume to cover the company’s wants and I sent a follow email after about a week, which got me the interview and offer.

Good Luck

JeffCongratulations!:applause:

Being a student can be tough to one's pocket wallet. But being web-savvy made me enjoy being not 'too broke' - I do freelance data entry work and other mundane tasks. Not easy but it pays the bills.