10 things you do not want to find when starting an IT contract

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10 things you do not want to find when starting an IT contract

Ten Factors

You’ve been eagerly awaiting to start your new IT contract, but unable to fight off a certain bit of trepidation when the day arrives. Here are 10 factors you’d rather not discover on the first day.

1. You’re the first IT Contractor ever to be at the site or department. You’re expected to fit into a whole gamut of roles - a guru, a whiz, and possibly be several shades better than any of them to justify all that money they are paying you. You can’t even hope to be as good as they expect.

2. A ‘Strictly No Talking’ rule has to be observed during work hours

3. There is no company restaurant, or if there is, you’re not allowed to use it. So warm up to the idea of eating every day at a ‘greasy spoon, or at an expensive crowded restaurant.’

4. Although you were told that you’ll be put on to a development work Project that uses C##, the Project hasn’t started yet. Your assignment ‘in the meantime’ is some Cobol maintenance work.

5. The guy sitting next to you is a dull bore, a real pain especially when he is so charged about subjects you have no interest in.

6. You get sat next to someone who doesn’t like contractors, thinks you shouldn’t have been employed, and ignores any attempt on your part to strike a conversation with him.

7. Your boss tells you on the first day (though not at the interview) that you are replacing someone who’ll be handed the pink slip, so you should get as much info out of him or her as possible before the news is broken to them.

8. Alternatively, the guy you are replacing may happen to be a much loved member of the permanent staff, and has been told that he has to stay on for a month to pass his work and knowledge over to the contractor. You’ll suffer the wrath of all the permies for usurping the position of one of their friends.

9. Your Project Manager is extremely youthful but doesn’t appreciate any help or advice from an experienced contractor. It can be very de-motivating, not being listened to and knowing that the project is going to go belly up soon.

10. You turn up on the first day and no one knew you were coming. The guy who interviewed you the month before is on holiday, or worse still, was seen off the premises the week before, without telling people that he had hired you. The embarrassment is magnified if this happens away from home, or worse still, in a foreign country.

I must admit that all of these have happened to me or have happened to a contractor that I know. I wonder if they have happened to any of our readers, or even more can be added to the list.

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