[Cialug] Robert Half and/or local consulting company experiences.

[Morris Dovey]

On 1/17/2010 9:41 PM, Don Cady wrote:
> -snip-
>> IIRC, they also wanted me to accept a financial obligation that was to
>> persist beyond the time they paid me - and that (for me) was/is a
>> showstopper. I'd suggest looking elsewhere.
>
> Are you willing or able to elaborate?

I was invited to inflate my skills inventory to claim a level of 
expertise I didn't have, and in the same meeting I was presented with an 
contract which would allow them to make a claim against any possible 
future work done for any of their clients, without any time limit.

I've never been bashful about forthrightly telling clients about how my 
strengths and weaknesses might affect my work for them. Sometimes 
they've thanked me and continued their search, and sometimes they've 
decided they wanted me for my strengths sufficiently to pay me to learn 
enough to fill in the weak spots - but I firmly believe that the client 
is entitled to a solid, factual basis for decision-making.

As far as the contract was concerned, I decided that too many of my 
possible future clients might also be their clients - and I felt it 
inappropriate to obligate myself to them for work that I found without 
their involvement. It smelled like a bowl of pottage and I just wasn't 
that hungry.

The resume request, I suppose, I could chalk up to the person I was 
talking to being over-eager or desperate, but I felt the contract was 
the embodiment of an avaricious corporate policy.

 > Was this something that would apply to everyone, or just your specific
 > situation?

Both aspects deal with personal values - I have known people who 
admitted claiming expertise they didn't have and who shrugged that off 
as "something everybody does", and I wasn't in so desperate a situation 
that the bank was about to foreclose on my home mortgage. Everyone has 
to make their own call on this one.

Interestingly, my next prospect listened to me explain that I had no 
experience in n-tier networking, that I had no experience in multi-cast 
networking, that I had no experience in networking at all, and that I 
had no inkling whatever how a stock exchange processed trades - and then 
offered me double the amount to tackle a problem they hadn't been able 
to solve with people who were well-grounded in /all/ of the above. They 
thought I could overcome my "minor" weaknesses and were willing to see 
how much progress I might make in six months. I started work the day 
after Veterans' Day and had a clean solution (that exceeded their 
wildest hopes) vetted and installed before Christmas, so they were 
reasonably well-pleased.

[ There's a bit more detail at http://www.iedu.com/mrd/mrd_res1.html in 
the PHLX paragraph (3rd entry from top). To my amazement, I actually did 
learn how trades are processed in exchanges. As you might guess, it's 
both simpler and more complex than I'd expected. :) ]

-- 
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/