Contracting rates really stink

[unix]

Got a minor flood of borker emails / calls, the W2 rates cluster around 45 / hour, the highest I saw was 50 and the lowest 25 for some Java position.

One joker sent me 45 as C2C rate.

Basically dead market. No advantages over an FTE, just disadvantages.  I didn't even try to negotiate. Just the same BS as in late 90's except x10.

[The Original Henry]

Got a minor flood of borker emails / calls  .......  Basically dead market.

Using a borker as your only source of market data is like looking at the market through shit-covered glasses. You absolutely have to go around them if you want anything respectable in this industry.

[unix]

Yeah, that was true 10 years ago and now is more true than ever.

[The Gorn]

Unix, the real point was, why do you use brokers? If they're this bad? They are always a large margin below what you could charge clients directly. And the work is usually no good.

You had these same complaints about borks on Realrates 10+ years ago. If you want a better than commodity situation, then you have to explore the non commodity markets for your services.

[unix]

Well yes. I try to get to the hiring managers. It's not easy and involves a lot of phone calls and building relationships. Going through dice and other popular forums leads to 45/hour nonsense. I don't know how others do it but I haven't found any shortcuts and haven't been all that successful either. I don't know what obvious steps I am missing.

But I can tell you this - this ongoing marketing campaign is tough in a recessionary climate like hours.  This ongoing search for new gigs is difficult when nobody is hiring. It's easier to find an FTE job as a temporary shelter, which is what I have done.
Been here for 4 years now but looking to move on when I find something juicy.

I am thinking of moving to Seattle, lived there and loved it and why oh why did I ever leave. Have a former client there I want to talk to.

[The Gorn]

Well yes. I try to get to the hiring managers. It's not easy and involves a lot of phone calls and building relationships. Going through dice and other popular forums leads to 45/hour nonsense. I don't know how others do it but I haven't found any shortcuts and haven't been all that successful other. I don't know what obvious steps I am missing.

Occasionally I have found potentially paying stuff through Craigslist and on forums like this one. A lot of one-off needs will advertise cheaply and in funky places.

A few thoughts:

What kinds of companies have you looked at? Smaller companies may be more haphazard (treat people badly, etc) but they don't  have the degree of hurdles to getting hired that are found at larger places.

Get a resume online on a web site. It will get indexed. I have gotten several paying gigs through mine when someone Googled it. You have to offer something unique.

Do you have a certain specific product, or technical specialization? Suppose I know about low level VOIP implementation and networking implementation. I will probably try contacting equipment vendors and companies that have products that use this technology as an embedded piece.

Hell, I have no idea why you are so commoditized. Do you? Do you have any suspicions why you may look to employers a whole lot like a bunch of other developers?

If I think for one second that I closely resemble some unwashed bunch of yahoos, I get really angry.. with myself, with the others, and with whoever is saying that I am just like everyone else. And I do something to change things.

Do you have good social skills (seriously)? Do others like to talk to you? It really helps. People like to talk to me. Maybe not here very much....  kidding.

In general, for me this is like trying to tell someone else how to ride a bike. I don't know, you just ride. You don't ask questions beyond "how do I get on"? You don't look to others to show you. You figure it out on your own. You wobble. Eventually it works.

Sorry, maybe this isn't helping. Applying across the country as you're thinking sounds extremely risky, stressful, high stakes, and like trying to escape reality. Frankly.

(Even though I'm probably coming off as a complete pr!ck, I am really trying to give you feedback that I would give a friend who is astray.)

[unix]

Good points and food for thought. . .

[I D Shukhov]

Well yes. I try to get to the hiring managers. It's not easy and involves a lot of phone calls and building relationships

I just had an ironic thought about this.   There was a presentation at work about some of the latest IT security threats that face the company.  Apparently, hackers these days are getting really good at contacting anyone in a company, and I suppose that would include hiring managers.   The level of social engineering is getting good enough to really convince people that email is coming from contacts whom they know or might have met.  PDF files were singled out as being particularly malware-prone.

The hackers find anything publicly available:  conference attendee lists, presenters, social network info, job postings, googling, calls to the company, company org charts, probably other stuff.  In other words, a similar approach that a job seeker should take.  Amusingly, I suppose one could go to a hacker site and find the social engineering section for more tips 

GB wrote:

Get a resume online on a web site. It will get indexed. I have gotten several paying gigs through mine when someone Googled it. You have to offer something unique

It makes sense, and I should have known this, but I read recently that you should not put anything personally identifiable on the resume.  I.e. no company names, just generic descriptions and a throwaway email address, I suppose.   The reason is identity theft and social engineering. 

http://www.rileyguide.com/eresume.html   (See:  "Staying Cyber-Safe")

[unix]

Interesting.

[Richardk]

I don't know what to think of this. I thought the point was to be findable and present enough information to be creditable.

The author's points about privacy make sense but it seems to go against a FaceBook 'free for all' type of mindset that currently prevails.

[The Gorn]

Warning someone who has no collateral at all on the internet that they need to be cyber-safe is counterproductive.

Essentially, just reveal as little about your personal life publicly on a web site as possible, because many individual fact items such as high school mascot, birthday, family names, etc. are used by many web sites in order to reset or reveal stored passwords.

Your name, your locality, your technical specialty, a resume in synopsis form, a cell number and a throwaway email account address are all generally quite safe to publicize (assuming no conflict with a current employer or contract.)

Facebook is evil because it aggregates your personal relationships and your personal data in one database. In the future I could see people being placed on terrorist watch lists based on their FB affiliations or "like" lists.

[Richardk]

(assuming no conflict with a current employer or contract.)

I never really considered that since I'm "always" available. Would a current employer really go looking for your online resume and go nuts if it was still up?

[The Gorn]

(assuming no conflict with a current employer or contract.)

I never really considered that since I'm "always" available. Would a current employer really go looking for your online resume and go nuts if it was still up?

What if some brown nose in the company found it and "reported" it? Google's pretty damned easy to use. All it requires is someone to notice something.

I have never heard of anyone being canned because their resume is in current circulation nor have I heard of anyone being canned because they maintain an online resume. I was just saying, if it's important to not appear to be looking, you probably don't want to put up an online resume.

[Richardk]

I was just saying, if it's important to not appear to be looking, you probably don't want to put up an online resume.

I'll give you that. I agree that it would be an issue if the company made a big deal about it.

One or two companies have asked about my corporation when I accepted a 'FTE' position. I told them that it would simply be 'inactive' and that made them happy. Needless to say no FTE job is ever permanent, especially when it's a small company, so going back to an 'active' status is easy.

[The Original Henry]

Would a current employer really go looking for your online resume and go nuts if it was still up?

Oh yes. I saw this happen first-hand to the company DBA many years ago. The CTO found his resume on Monster and by the end of the week he was no longer employed at the company.