Know What an Employer is Looking For

Being effective at your tasks increases the chances that you’ll be retained or referred, and makes the job more enjoyable, because you’ll be getting things done. Contractors are hired by clients for a number of reasons, but there are three broad categories. Knowing why you were hired lets you focus on what the client wants, and can let you know if the contract is going to be a good fit for both of you. The three broad categories are: hired hand, hired gun, or country doctor.

When an organization is understaffed, ofttimes hired hands are brought in. Hiring contractors allows for temporary staff-up without long-term payroll liability. You just do what you’re told with a minimum of fuss. In a well organized company, you’ll be handed a requirements or design document when you start. In other organizations, you might have to do some hunting to find the work for which you were hired. Either way, you are not going to have a long term effect on the corporation–you’re being hired for the hours of work you can provide. For that reason, these types of contracts tend to want you full time.

Hired guns, on the other hand, are contracted solely for specialized knowledge. For example, an Oracle expert might be hired to tune a database for performance. These jobs will typically not be forty plus hour a week positions. The client will expect you to transfer skills to employees; be sure to provide plenty of documentation and be a willing resource.

Back in the day, country doctors were the only medical resource for miles around; they had to do everything, including communicate effectively with people who had no medical background. Small companies and startups often hire people in such roles. The organization typically has little or no technical experience and is looking for help with minimal payroll liability. They’ll expect some attributes of employees, such as loyalty, even though both parties still have the understanding that you could be gone tomorrow. In this situation, try to view problems through the lense of the company, especially in terms of money. The clients are typically small and have less money, so do what you can to save money. This includes documenting possible corners that could be cut during requirements gathering. Communicate loudly about both present and future costs. It is far better to have this type of client know about the costs and choose not to spend the money than for you to spend the time without their buy in. (See the money section for more about getting paid.)

How do you know in which role you are being placed? Be aware of clues: ask about other technical resources; if they don’t have any, you’re probably a country doctor. If the client drops written requirements documents on your desk on your first day, you’re probably a hired hand. Knowing when you’re a hired gun is easy: did they have certain, drop dead, esoteric requirements for the job; “talk to us about an instance when you troubleshot Weblogic 8.1 while using SSL and Weblogic Portal Server.”

On the other hand, always be willing to offer advice. Even in the ‘hired hand’ role, you are still being paid for your ability to deliver software, and that means you’re still being paid to think. Offer advice humbly and know that some things may not make sense from your limited viewpoint. Some technology decisions may have political, legacy or technical justifications that you’ll not understand, and that the employer may not want to take the time to explain to you.

In general, larger organizations are more capable of handling contractors. They tend to be more used to contractors, have more team members to get you up to speed, and desire longer contracts. They also are slower to engage with you, and typically have large amounts of existing infrastructure that your code will have to leverage and fit into. Typically, you’ll be in the ‘hired hand’ or ‘hired gun’ role.

Small organizations, on the other hand, tend to be looking for individual contributors. There is little support infrastructure, and you might be the first contractor they have ever used; ‘country doctor’ is a typical role. There may be software already present, but it’s likely to be less extensive.

Either one of these situations can lead to a nightmare contract or a great experience. When you’re headed into a contract, the most important thing is to get to know the client’s expectations, which are shaped but in no way completely determined by the size of the company.