Recent Posts

1

Coffee Talk / Re: Interesting Social Psychology Experiment

« Last post by I D Shukhov on February 05, 2012, 05:20:07 pm »

This may explain why half the population seems to be on mood altering meds.  may be just to keep everyone from killing each other! Yikers!!!

It's just something to be mindful of, IMO.   The paying-somebody-back behavior is hardwired, but since we're humans we can choose to do things differently -- like getting away from the situation instead of lashing out or, if that's not possible, exercising.

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Coffee Talk / Re: Interesting Social Psychology Experiment

« Last post by DG9 on February 05, 2012, 04:35:10 pm »

This may explain why half the population seems to be on mood altering meds.  may be just to keep everyone from killing each other! Yikers!!!

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FTE, Contracting and Career Discussion / Re: Please forward your resume and hourly rate requirements

« Last post by ilconsiglliere on February 05, 2012, 01:42:45 pm »

Contracting isnt worth it today unless you are unemployed. The rates are not good unless you have a very specialized skill thats a niche. Outside of that the rates blow. There is just too many candidates for every job so companies can be picky and drive the rates down. All the big companies in NJ have driven the rates down.

Perm today pays BETTER than being a consultant when you factor in healthcare, vacation, holidays, 401K, etc.... I have a spreadsheet that I can send you if you like that compares them one for one. You just have to fill in the top 2 lines and it does the rest.

Take my last perm gig - I was doing about 100K in base with about a 7K bonus. On top of this I got 4 weeks vacation, holidays, pension, 401K contribution, medical, dental and vision. To make the equivalent as a contractor I need to make 75/hour. There is no way I am going to get 75/hour anywhere in NJ now (ground 0 of the Indian consulting companies). The most I am seeing for PM's is 65/hour and most are less than that.

Welcome to the race to the bottom.

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Coffee Talk / Interesting Social Psychology Experiment

« Last post by I D Shukhov on February 05, 2012, 01:38:13 pm »

A textbook I have shows the the following 2 pictures:

Picture 1) A raccoon and a rat are in box on an electrified grate.  Each animal is minding their own business as far away from each other as they can get.
Picture 2) A shock is applied to the grate and the raccoon is now seen savagely attacking the rat.

Caption:  "The pain-attack reaction:  Upon receiving a shock or other painful effect, many animals will automatically attack whatever animal is within reach."

A paragraph goes onto state:   "Do rats alone react this way?   The researchers wanted to know.  So next they found that with a wide variety of species, the cruelty the animals imposed upon each other matched zap for zap the cruelty imposed upon them."

Apparently we are wired at the limbic system level to kick the dog when we come home after a bad day at work.   Not that this excuses anything because we have a cerebral cortex, so we're responsible for our behavior.

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B2B, Direct Consulting, and Real Business / Re: bank accounts for small orgs

« Last post by The Gorn on February 05, 2012, 10:20:48 am »

I don't expect you guys to be able to tell me where that spot is, it's totally situation-dependent.  I'm just sort of blowing off steam about the way I handle things.  It seems like other people are always easier about taking things casually than I am, and I take things way too seriously.

"Other people" screw things up royally.

If things were decently and responsibly run already, you wouldn't be stressing. That is the parallel theme that runs through your examples in this paragraph.

This is what I don't like about "teamwork" and volunteer work in the real world. Almost no one else takes the work seriously.

Meh. Just be yourself.

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B2B, Direct Consulting, and Real Business / Re: bank accounts for small orgs

« Last post by Origisaurus on February 05, 2012, 09:49:04 am »

I'm just sort of blowing off steam about the way I handle things.  It seems like other people are always easier about taking things casually than I am, and I take things way too seriously.

Or, kinder and more gently, your need for excellence is higher than that of your peers.  It's hard to know "good enough".

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B2B, Direct Consulting, and Real Business / Re: bank accounts for small orgs

« Last post by Carrie Cobol on February 05, 2012, 08:48:03 am »

I'm starting to think I have a personality defect.  That's too strongly negative, but let me explain what I mean.  When I get interested in something, I go crazy researching and learning all about it.  When I felt I'd learned all I could about software engineering and wanted to bump my career up a ladder rung, I started learning about project management.  I read books and studied for the PMP certification.  As I did so, I realized that the PM I worked for (this was a couple jobs ago) did everything the PMI said NOT to do.  He pretty much used all *worst* practices.  Since he was mentoring me at the time, teaching me on the job how to be a project manager, I felt this was a huge conflict.  It made me very disgruntled and discouraged.  (Partly because I realized that all of the worst practices he was teaching me wouldn't be applicable to the experience requirement for the PMP certification.)

Similar thing with learning the business analysis best practices.  Software engineering best practices as well.  And now with the non profit, I'm learning about governance and accounting and as you can see I'm going into the same conflict between what we currently do and what we should do.  I know there are gray areas and ranges of when best practices apply and when they don't.  But I don't know how to estimate how much best practices should apply to any given situation.  I do know that at some point best practices just get too process-intensive and bureaucratic and that's when you've gone way too far.  But identifying the sweet spot of knowing "this is right for this situation and if we do more then we've gone too far" - THAT's what I have a problem knowing.

I don't expect you guys to be able to tell me where that spot is, it's totally situation-dependent.  I'm just sort of blowing off steam about the way I handle things.  It seems like other people are always easier about taking things casually than I am, and I take things way too seriously.

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B2B, Direct Consulting, and Real Business / Re: bank accounts for small orgs

« Last post by Origisaurus on February 05, 2012, 07:00:01 am »

Since our revenues are below 25k/year, maybe I worry too much about this stuff.

Yup, that's small potatoes.

It only leaves the personality issues.  I say, if doing good stops feeling good, stop.

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B2B, Direct Consulting, and Real Business / Re: bank accounts for small orgs

« Last post by The Gorn on February 04, 2012, 07:44:13 pm »

Gorn - What does your lawyer or accountant say.  It sounds like the kind of commingling of funds that could pierce the corporate shield.   You must already have a business bank account(s), just attach a paypal account to an isolated one of these. 

*** Not a lawyer, no legal advise intended.  ***

I have separate business bank accounts (I have to - I have an S-Corp.)

One of these business accounts (in the name of the corp) is a checking account that is dedicated to electronic payments like Paypal. It is the business account attached to Paypal.

I also have a personal checking account that is dedicated to Paypal also and is also attached to Paypal.

Within Paypal incoming or outgoing funds can be commingled. But I transfer any business related income out of Paypal directly to the business checking account.

It's up to me to see to it that this transfer of business related income to a business account takes place. 

Like I said earlier,  I have a paper trail of all such activity: I invoice the client in a certain amount, he pays via Paypal, and Paypal has a log of all incoming payments. I transfer that sum directly to my business account. The money is accounted for.

If I receive personal funds through Paypal (IE, donations toward this board), proceeds are deposited to my attached personal checking account; or I just leave the money in Paypal and I spend the money on something for myself. And I have a business credit card, as well as a couple of personal credit cards, attached to the Paypal account for the purpose of making business or personal purchases.

I see it kind of like a business owner who operates on a cash basis. Someone hands him payment for something from his business and he rings it up and deposits the cash in the bank account for the business (such as a store).  Someone else, perhaps a family member, gives him a cash gift, or he receives cash in return for selling some personal item in the classifieds. He sticks that money in his wallet and he spends it directly on himself.

I see the way I am using Paypal like that.

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B2B, Direct Consulting, and Real Business / Re: bank accounts for small orgs

« Last post by Carrie Cobol on February 04, 2012, 07:38:58 pm »

Yay, homework!   

Well, I did a bit of googling, and it seems that our gross revenues are too small for a formal audit.  One site I found said that audits are required if you have more than 100k revenue from federal grants, to make sure that the guv money is used as promised.  We don't get any grants right now.  I know that's just one site, but others implied. The same thing about the revenue level.

Another thing I found was that it's recommended that the person doing the books is not the same person doing cash handling.  So actually I'm good there.  I felt like I was only doing half the job, but I'm doing the right job as bookkeeper.

Since our revenues are below 25k/year, maybe I worry too much about this stuff.