DP Organizational charts ... ooh, ooh

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>>>>> "Tyler" == Tyler Nally <tnally@iquest.net> writes:

    Tyler>  1.  Contract Programmer: A Contract Programmer doesn't
    Tyler> have to wear a nice suit.  Or go to meetings.  Or fill out
    Tyler> time cards.  Or keep complaints to himself.  He can make
    Tyler> all the mistakes he wants.  He doesn't get benefits.  He
    Tyler> doesn't get training.  He doesn't get respect.
 
    Tyler>  But after years in the trenches, the Contract Programmer
    Tyler> will finally achieve the ultimate goal in the profession:
    Tyler> He will be able to make impossible deadlines with
    Tyler> inadequate resources for desperate managers by putting in
    Tyler> all kinds of extra hours... and will be paid overtime for
    Tyler> every one of them.

I have been programming for a little over 30 years now, professionally
for 25 of them.  You may read the whole gory story at
http://www.elilabs.com/~rj/resume if you have enough coffee to keep
yourself awake that long.  :-)

I don't call myself a "contract programmer"; I am a "consulting
computer scientist".  I have listed my occupation as "computer
scientist" on my tax returns since 1973.

I always wear a nice suit whenever I am at a customer's site.  I go to
meetings, in fact I am holding one later this week for 2 departments
at a client of mine to present a new multi-target build system I
developed for them.  I do not fill out time cards; I generate
invoices.  I do keep complaints to myself.  I buy my own benefits with
some of the money I carge my clients.  That way, I get the benefits I
want, not the ones their personel department wants.  I consider my
training my own responsibility.  If I do not keep up with the industry
and technology, I do not get clients.  I most definately do get
respect.

I get paid (or at least invoice -- collection is another issue) for
every hour I work.  Lawyers and accountants, also professionals like
myself, get paid for every hour they work.  I do not charge a
different rate after I have worked 40 hours in one week.  An hour is
an hour, and they all cost they same price.  I can take a vacation any 
time I feel like not getting paid.

-- 
--------  "And there came a writing to him from Elijah"  [2Ch 21:12]  --------
Robert Jay Brown III rj@eli.elilabs.com  http://www.elilabs.com 1 847 705-0424
Elijah Laboratories Inc.;  37 South Greenwood Avenue;  Palatine, IL 60067-6328
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