From: bill@chaos.cs.umn.edu ()
Subject: Re: Earning a living in the country
Organization: University of Minnesota
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 00:15:06 GMT

In <1639@sousa.ltn.dec.com> paradis@sousa.ltn.dec.com (Jim Paradis) writes:


>>oh and it do help a BIG bunch when the sw skills are in demand (this year
>>they are and i am in fat city. the past 3 they wern't and i suffered. 
>>cash wise that is)

>OK, Bill, riddle me this (and maybe this should go to misc.jobs.misc?)
>Even if your software skills ARE in demand, how do you go about finding
>employers or contracts that will let you work remotely?  Especially in

well... partly due to the background i have. joat, manfg, hw design, sw,
systems, etc. and partly due to the fact that i usually charge enough
that they just assume i know what the h* i'm talking about 8-O

>these recessionary times, there are *tons* of software folks, many with
>high-demand skills, who are willing to relocate or commute.  I've run

ahhh but here again i can find sw specialists, and hw engineers, etc, etc.
and i can find unix experts, and mac gurus, and dos power users. and many
of these people can do their! job much better than i. but the mac people
don't know squat from dos, and the dos folks can't get over not having
batch files, and the unix folks don't want to play with the toy os's, 
and the sw types don't really understand hw and the hw eng want to 
program with a soldering iron and debug with a logic analyser, and, and, and.
but i've done many of those jobs (yea so brag you stupid, conceted, twit!)
in the past 2-3 years i've done oracle work on three different unix's, two
major mainframes, mac's and pc's. plus embedded hw/sw projects, training,
etc, etc, etc ho-hum! it is not my intent to try and impress anyone ('cept
those who have some $$$ they want to surrender to me:-) but i read 20-30
periodicals/month in many fields, trying to keep up with whats happening.
and quite frankly i do believe that i'm ahead of most of the competition.
not my peers mind you as they are doing the same as i. but we typically
don't compete 'cuase there is plenty of work for us all... or there is no work
for any of us. and yes i still do manage to keep up with the chores (barely)
when i get really busy, but then i'm usually up @0600 and don't go to bed
till 2400-0200. weekends up @0800-0900 bed @2400-0300. so you see to keep up
with me, there just is not a lot of competition for the jobs i go after.
i bill myself as a senior systems analyst and i don't restrict myself
to only computer systems, i do mfg systems, research systems, control
systems, etc, etc, etc. {systems are not only computer programs} i usually 
tell people that if they really only want a programmer they can buy 2-3 of
them for what i'm gona charge. and if thats what they want then either they
do, or they hire me. i try to be honest and i have (finally, whew) a 13 year
resume (in systems) to back up my claim that there is not much i can't tackle.
oh and believe it or not sometimes i get hired to be the resedent sonofabitch
when projects get behind schedule (you probably won't believe this but i can
be a noncompliant subcontractors worse nightmare when it comes to schedule 
adherance / contract compliance O:-)

>into a brick wall every time I've brought up the subject of telecommuting.
>The only approach I've found that works is to commute for a year, make
>loads of contributions, become highly valued to the group or company and
>then say "Let me work from home or I'll walk"  (I haven't done this, but

you have to really believe that you will (and can afford to) do this or
they'll know every time. and yes you sometimes have to really do it.

>I've seen others who have).

>Is there any less confrontational method of making it work?  I've found 
>that I can expound on the benefits of telecommuting until I'm blue in
>the face, and I get agreeable nods in return, along with "Yes, but we

sorry but this does not work unless they really believe it (usually they're
jelious (sp) 'cause they can't do it with their job)

>don't work that way here" or something like that...

>Any more ideas?

either specialize (and be really, really, really good) or be a great generalist
not a wimpy one, they try and compete with me, hah. like trying to race a hemi
'cuda with a chevette. it just won't do it (hey gene hows that for sneeking
a mopar thread in?:-)

bill pociengel

now if i could get someone to pay me to NOT work .... :-)
--
bill@chaos.cs.umn.edu