Telecommute Contracting

I'm curious - is this even a viable option these days?

I'm looking to supplement my income (and solidy the kids' education
funds, etc) with some additional work. Is it a pipe dream to imagine
there are companies out there that are willing to pay a reduced rate
for "off-hour" telecommute contracts?

Any assistance or pointers in this area are greatly appreciated, as to
this point in my career I've always been a "company man". I've got over
10 years of experience in various languages, with COBOL (MF
particularly) and UNIX shell being the strongest - so I'm wondering
what the market is like for people in my position.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Chris

In article <1122478620.350536.108340@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
Chris <ctaliercio@yahoo.com> wrote:

[snip]

>Is it a pipe dream to imagine
>there are companies out there that are willing to pay a reduced rate
>for "off-hour" telecommute contracts?

In my experience, yes, it is a pipe dream.  In the experiences I have read
here, no, it is not... but it seems to be that most of those sorts of
contracts are awarded to people who have already put in some goodly
on-site time.

DD

On 27-Jul-2005, docdwarf@panix.com wrote:
 
>
> In my experience, yes, it is a pipe dream.  In the experiences I have read
> here, no, it is not... but it seems to be that most of those sorts of
> contracts are awarded to people who have already put in some goodly
> on-site time.

In my experience, it's not uncommon at all to retain people who have already
worked on site for years, although half of these don't stick for long.

Thanks Doc - you're input is most valued.

I know there is a long running debate/discussion concerning contract
vs. permanent employment among the members of this group. For me,
permanent employment is the only way to go, as I need to have
guaranteed benefits for the family at a reasonable price - and I find
that obtaining those benefits as individual is extremely cost
prohibitive.

I was curious as to what "part/spare-time" opportunities may be out
there. I had the chance to pursue one such opportunity myself a few
years back when I lived in Atlanta, and it worked out well. Fortunately
I've been lucky enough to not have to pursue anything of late - but now
that I find myself with a lot of free time again it'd be nice to earn
some spare $$$ to secure the future.

Who knows - maybe somebody reads this in the group and I'll get lucky.
Otherwise I'll check with the local headhunter folks and see if they
are aware of anything.

Thanks again,
Chris

In article <1122484690.360253.226630@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
Chris <ctaliercio@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Thanks Doc - you're input is most valued.

Shucks... you'se jes' easily pleased.

[snip]

>Who knows - maybe somebody reads this in the group and I'll get lucky.

... and I am the King of England.  God Save the Me!

Bona fortuna.

DD

Howard,

Thanks for the feedback. I can see where someone who has previously
worked with a company could be more easily afforded the opportunity to
do part/spare-time work for them once their original contract expires;
familiarity with the environment, known quality of work, known
dependability. That is almost a no-brainer.

I am looking for an opportunity to jump in and help out on a part-time
basis. I had one such opportunity in Atlanta. The company was under
such a heavy workload, they outsourced the non-critical items (screen
changes, file maintenance utilities, etc) to independent contractors at
a significant savings; at the time between 1/2 and 2/3 of what the
standard contracting rate was (depending on experience). I suspect this
practice is fairly uncommon nowadays, but I can still see the practical
nature of it. Instead of burdening you internal application development
team with cumbersome tasks like these, let them focus on the core needs
while outsourcing at a significant savings over putting another body
on-site. It allowed this company to keep their user community happy
(since the screen changes were the items most visible to them) while
also staying on or ahead of schedule on the changes to core application
logic and technology.

I knew it was a long shot when I threw it out to the group, but I
wanted to see if anyone here knows of any company still employing this
methodology.

Thanks,
Chris