 |
|
Featured Product:
|
|
|
|
|
Career
|
On the Job Hunt is a web log for IT professionals looking for work. Our current job hunter is Chuck Drobny, an IT consultant seeking a new fulltime job. Two other people are contributing to On the Job Hunt, an executive recruiter and career coach and the owner of a consulting firm, who will provide advice from the perspective of a hiring manager. TechRepublic career editor Judy Mottl will also provide links to TechRepublic articles on job hunting. Get your free TechRepublic membership here. E-mail the web loggers here.
Note: Unless you specifically request otherwise, all e-mail received will be considered eligible for publication in all or part on the web blog.
|
|
Great news on the consulting engagement, Chuck!
New clients will often only purchase a week or two worth of time in order to get to know you better. It is a great opportunity to prove yourself and your value to that company, to look for other opportunities (without being a sales person), and to hopefully secure more work.
Regarding pricing, there are things that we IT people can learn from attorneys. For years they have not just billed hourly, but also by the task. They do this for things that they know they can complete quickly (e.g., an agreement that is similar in nature to others that they have done in the past) and charge based on the deliverable rather than time. It is a
fair approach, but it needs to be positioned correctly or else you risk frustrating your customer.
Offshore outsourcing is an interesting (and often emotional) topic. I had my first experience with it 12 years ago while working for a small software company. It was a fairly painful and expensive learning experience (although I did get to spend two weeks in Bangalore, India, which was interesting). We learned quite a few lessons that made things easier as time went on. My experience seems pretty common based on discussions with
others.
A big company like Microsoft who can afford to have a team onsite to manage the process can do well with outsourcing. Most companies are not prepared for the level of involvement that will be required for success.
Gartner has an interesting report on Outsourcing (IGG-06042003-04) that asserts the reason to do this is to improve quality, not reduce costs. While not specifically addressing offshore outsourcing, it raises many interesting points.
Regarding the small software company, remember that size is not an indication of potential or stability. A smaller company can actually provide more stability during a poor economy because of its ability to quickly adapt to change. That assumes that the people in charge "have a clue" and are closely managing the business.
The biggest risk with a small company is that the customer base may be small, with a majority of the revenue coming from one to three companies. Financial problems with their large customers can translate into big problems for the small company.
I would recommend purchasing a Dun & Bradstreet report on the company and looking at things like annual sales (often incorrect) and payment history (generally correct). Do they pay their bills on time? Is business growing? Has it been declining? Are there any "public filings"? This will give you a reasonable overview of the company from a financial perspective.
Study the company's website. Perform a "Google" search on the company (internet and groups) and see if you can find anything. Look for anything negative. This is often a case of "no news is good news." You can always give them a call, acting like an interested potential customer, and see how you are treated. These are all good indications of what you could expect.
Compare that information what you are told during the interview and work from there. Good luck.
|
|
|
|
