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I did this for 4 years and went back to full-time management. Even in NYC, I struggled as I (as a DevOps guy) never had the latest tech. If they needed AWS, I

I did this for 4 years and went back to full-time management. Even in NYC, I struggled as I (as a DevOps guy) never had the latest tech. If they needed AWS, I got AWS (experience and certs) but then they wanted Docker. Now Kubernetes. Despite years of programming experience in three languages, I still get whiteboarded. The point is, I was being treated like a full-time employee in consultant interviews. A few smaller clients I picked up were miniscule hours, we're talking 8 hours a month at most of work. Here on HN, these startup types wanted me to work for 50 pct less my rate. I'd love to consult one day, but I haven't cracked that code. I have 18 years of systems automation, operations, and now management experience. Something isn't good enough.

m0zg 7y ago
What "interviews" are you talking about? Your track record is supposed to speak for itself. The interview boils down to sitting down with a client and figuring out what they need and whether you can do it. Because you're a contractor you can be fired effortlessly, so there's very little risk for the client. You can also fire the client, so there's little risk for you. I think you either don't have the right track record, or you're selling yourself incorrectly, by which I mean you're charging too little. Whiteboard interviews are out of the question as a contractor: I simply don't have time for this circus. One thing that helps with such things is pricing your services right. And that means charging more than you think is reasonable. The more you can charge, ironically, the easier these discussions get. The effect compounds further if you have several satisfied former clients who can give references. My selling point is really simple, too: you've tried and you've failed, now let me show you what's possible.
- izacus 7y ago
  So how do you get the "right track record" if you can't be employed?
  - m0zg 7y ago
    That's highly individual. I did it by leading several fairly involved projects at Google over the course of nearly a decade, and then building two high performance engineering teams from scratch outside Google. I also built a bit of a rare talent stack, which happens to be in heavy demand right now. If you do a good job, people want to work with you again, and don't mind paying pretty penny.
- mancerayder 7y ago
  Well it's partially a marketing issue, to answer your question of why interviews. It's recruiters who find me, and they present me as a contractor (when I signal I'm searching for this). The people I used to work with tend to ping me for full-time roles only, unfortunately, and word-of-mouth seems to be a common contractor route. Finding clients outside of that requires what I expect is a social media presence, possibly publications and talks. None of which I've undertaken. No one trusts the "resume/CV" track record, not in contracting and not in full-time roles. It's either word-of-mouth or some other method of trust, if it isn't a set of interviews. I've picked up a decent full-time role to refurnish my image, as running an infrastructure with staff, you'd expect, should be impressive. I'm skeptical of the contract market. And to go back to the original thread, I found myself getting spurned due to age for any role which wasn't technical/managerial in the world of full-time work once I went back to it.
  - m0zg 7y ago
    Fascinating. It's as though we operate in entirely different worlds. I have much more work available to me than I can handle.
    - mancerayder 7y ago
      Where are you operating and what exactly is your skillset that money is raining down so readily?
  - ska 7y ago
    Working as a contractor and working as consultant are really different things.

m0zg 7y ago

What "interviews" are you talking about? Your track record is supposed to speak for itself. The interview boils down to sitting down with a client and figuring out what they need and whether you can do it. Because you're a contractor you can be fired effortlessly, so there's very little risk for the client. You can also fire the client, so there's little risk for you. I think you either don't have the right track record, or you're selling yourself incorrectly, by which I mean you're charging too little. Whiteboard interviews are out of the question as a contractor: I simply don't have time for this circus. One thing that helps with such things is pricing your services right. And that means charging more than you think is reasonable. The more you can charge, ironically, the easier these discussions get. The effect compounds further if you have several satisfied former clients who can give references. My selling point is really simple, too: you've tried and you've failed, now let me show you what's possible.

izacus 7y ago
So how do you get the "right track record" if you can't be employed?
- m0zg 7y ago
  That's highly individual. I did it by leading several fairly involved projects at Google over the course of nearly a decade, and then building two high performance engineering teams from scratch outside Google. I also built a bit of a rare talent stack, which happens to be in heavy demand right now. If you do a good job, people want to work with you again, and don't mind paying pretty penny.
mancerayder 7y ago
Well it's partially a marketing issue, to answer your question of why interviews. It's recruiters who find me, and they present me as a contractor (when I signal I'm searching for this). The people I used to work with tend to ping me for full-time roles only, unfortunately, and word-of-mouth seems to be a common contractor route. Finding clients outside of that requires what I expect is a social media presence, possibly publications and talks. None of which I've undertaken. No one trusts the "resume/CV" track record, not in contracting and not in full-time roles. It's either word-of-mouth or some other method of trust, if it isn't a set of interviews. I've picked up a decent full-time role to refurnish my image, as running an infrastructure with staff, you'd expect, should be impressive. I'm skeptical of the contract market. And to go back to the original thread, I found myself getting spurned due to age for any role which wasn't technical/managerial in the world of full-time work once I went back to it.
- m0zg 7y ago
  Fascinating. It's as though we operate in entirely different worlds. I have much more work available to me than I can handle.
  - mancerayder 7y ago
    Where are you operating and what exactly is your skillset that money is raining down so readily?
- ska 7y ago
  Working as a contractor and working as consultant are really different things.