Re: Downside of contracting

[Bill Brucksch <bbruck -at- HALCYON -dot- COM>]

In my opinion, feast or famine is an unavoidable sidebar of contracting.
And with feast or famine goes the issue of making choices based on how
empty your stomach is.

I have nothing against the baser more common elements of life, such as
eating. To me it is acceptable to trade the security of full-time
employment for the flexibility and freedom of contracting; if at times I
take work just to put blueberries on the table, so be it. Hopefully, I can
keep those times few and far between; so far I have.

One thing that helps me in this area is believing that part of my job as a
contractor is looking for work every week. That includes having my own
protocol and procedure for finding work while I have work: how much time I
spend at it, what I do, where I look, what I'll consider, etc. I'm willing
to work two jobs at a time to help me transition out of a
just-to-feed-myself job. I have two or three places I look for work when I
have work, without taking away from the quality of my
working-for-blueberries job. I use the newsgroups (seattle.jobs.offered and
misc.jobs.contract) and  the National Writers Union as an ongoing sources
of work. In a typical week, the process takes no more than 3-4 hours.

I won't go back to being an employee, even under the worst imaginable
conditions.  Contracting offers me the conditions I want, downside and all.

Bill Brucksch
----------
> From: Tony G. Rocco <trocco -at- NAVIS -dot- COM>
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Re: Downside of contracting
> Date: Friday, September 19, 1997 1:56 PM
>
> One thing that concerns me is these feast or famine cycles, although I
have
> heard some contract tech writers say that they turn away as much work as
> they take. I guess mileage can vary depending on your skills and where
you
> work.
>
> But another concern is having the choice to take jobs that you are really
> interested in rather than just to feed your face. I am afraid that as a
> contractor I will be forced to take anything that comes along just to be
> working rather than being able to pick and choose the companies and
> technologies that I am interested in.
>
> An feedback on this issue?
>
> - tgr
>
> At 1:51 PM -0700 9/19/97, Dave Whelan wrote:
>
>
> >I am a freelancer working from a home-based office,  telecommuting
whenever
> >possible.  I like everything about contracting apart from the uneven
work
> >flow. As it is, I am prepared to put up with the feast and famine cycles
> >common in this kind of working arrangement because of all the other
benefits.
> >
> >Regards,
> >
> >Dave.
> >
> >***************************************************
> >Dave Whelan, Technical Writer
> >Whelan Technical Services (204) 334-1339
> > mailto:agi259 -at- freenet -dot- mb -dot- ca
> > http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~agi259
> >***************************************************
>
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