Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Roedy Green Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Should I take a contract position? Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:01:22 -0700 Organization: Canadian Mind Products Lines: 35 Message-ID: References: <3beece65-8860-4386-aa2a-61b7e1d025d9@px4g2000pbc.googlegroups.com> Reply-To: Roedy Green NNTP-Posting-Host: Z2l1DcCELS0rATq8NqV4Sw.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 6.00/32.1186 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:13385 On Tue, 3 Apr 2012 16:21:47 -0700 (PDT), kramer31 wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said : >I haven't really worked in a contract position before, so before I >spend a lot of time interviewing, etc. I have some questions: >1) Do contracts usually stipulate a minimum amount of time that a dev >will work at a position? Are there penalties for leaving early (in >case I find something more to my taste) >2) Do these contract positions provide insurance usually? >2) Any other sage words from people who have done contract work? You have much more independence about when and how you work. You usually bill by the hour. The contract is whatever you agree to. The contractor usually deals with you at arms length. Insurance, medical care, income tax .. are all your responsibility. I doubt you will be locked in by either party unless some move was involved. You have to provide your own computer, books, tools, Internet connection. As it working as an employee, managing to work with the other people on the project is even more important than your personal programming skill. The most important thing is a standard code formatter that everyone uses before checkin. Without that, people quickly come to blows. -- Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products http://mindprod.com When you were a child, if you did your own experiment to see if it was better to put to cocoa into your cup first or the hot milk first, then you likely have the programmer gene..