Progress Report

Last time I posted, I wrote that my first task at my new job was to get up to speed as quickly as possible, the idea being that, as a contractor, you want to establish some value before the client has second thoughts. I have not had this happen yet, but you can't take it for granted that they will keep a contract going once they start it. For example, they terminated the person before me.

Well mission accomplished, the client seems to like me, and I am getting up to speed fairly quickly. I'm pretty sure I am there until the work ends.

In some ways this is an ideal job. Don't tell Jackie that I like the hours, but it's supposed to be 15-20 hours a week, so my days are short and I get some days off. The hourly pay is really good though.  Up front I am working a little extra to get up to speed and to do some catch-up, but still, 5-hour days. I go in about 9:00 and leave at 2:30, in time to make an early dinner. Five hours is short enough that I never get worn out or start wishing that the day would end.

The client is a recently-purchased start-up, fun to work with. Lots of young software developers, stand-up cubicles, people using cell phones for their work phones, loosely-assigned work spaces. Being the old fogey, I get an office, a phone, a chair, a mouse. To give you some idea, they told me that if I wanted to know the number of the phone in my office, I should call my cell phone from the office and get the number that way. Also, they have sodas and snacks, lots of snacks, and they bring in lunch three days a week -- so far Hawaaian, Greek, Mexican, pulled pork, barbecue. I like it.

My role ends when the client finishes a project, maybe as soon as September 1, although that date may be more aspiration than reality, so it could easily go longer. It seems unlikely that this will result in anything permanent, but working now makes it much more likely that I can find the next job when this one ends.