[TheForge] OT Union Rant (Was Re: concrete)

[Andy Vida]

Connsmith722@aol.com wrote:
> 
> So in a complete aside here... I am preparing to go off on the horrid
> adventure of self employment.(Gov't downsizing coming) I have been a computer
> admin/tech for 14 years for the govt and am going off into consulting...any good
> advice?????

	Hooboy... consulting, like anything else, has its advantages
	and its disadvantages.  

	Advantages: usually far better money, though in recent years this
	has been significantly less so.  You are no longer part of the
	ladder climbing.  You no longer have to become emotionally vested
	in the outcome of a project and in fact are strongly advised
	against doing so.  You get to watch in detached amusement just
	how unfathomably stupidly most businesses are run, especially
	in IT and telecom.  When work is plentiful you can live a far more
	flexible lifestyle, taking almost any amount of vacation you wish.
	You're your own boss.

	Disadvantages: you are always to blame for failures and never get
	credit for success.  If this bothers you, get over it or find 
	another 9 to 5.  You have to provide your own health benefits
	and may have to obtain liability and workers comp insurance if
	you operate on a corp to corp basis, which you may have to because
	some gigs will not hire on a 1099 basis.  The money isn't as good
	as it used to be.  Jobs for which I'd once get $200/hour are now at
	perhaps $70... $90 if you're really lucky.  The mystique of
	development is broken; there are any number of trained hominids
	that can bang VB, Java, C#, etc code well enough to make the
	business think they have good software.

	You're in a relatively good position because decent and
	experienced ADMs are always in demand.  I don't know what the
	going rates are, but I would not do the job for less than $40/hr.
	I know I've seen some gigs with significantly higher rates.

	Consulting is more good for me than bad.  How you come to regard it
	will depend upon your personality, mainly how you deal with 
	uncertainty.  Though there is no such thing as a secure job, 
	most people seem to have a hard time dealing with the absence 
	of that particular illusion from their working lives.