Thanks, An Update, and Musings

First for those of you leaving comments in my last posting thanks.

Secondly, some of you may think my prior post and the preceding posts are at odds with each other.

They are not. The economy is full of short term winners and short term losers. Today's winner can be knocked down to being a loser and yesterday's loser can find themselves on top. That is why I never criticize those who keep fighting and struggling to make a buck even though they may have millions of them. When looking at death & ruin, always keep in mind "objects are closer than they appear". However, if we don't restore sanity to the fundamental store of value in our nation no one's credit is going to be worth much.

I have come to a couple of conclusions and made some observations. One, my industry is not doing as badly as others, there is a fair amount of hiring going on and going on locally. The positions do not appear to be junk ones either, they look to be good solid positions I can jockey into good long term situations.

I keep in mind the reviews my employer gave, the feedback my clients would give, and the fact a number of them invited me back on multiple occasions (one had specifically asked another consulting firm to go out and get me -- that is work out a deal with my employer to bring me in). My understanding is I earned about half of what my former employer billed me out at. This is not to gripe about my former employer, I had benefits, vacation, and at least up until this last stint a bench to sit on between assignments. This gives me a good idea that I can expect more from a permanent hire, maybe not what my bill rate was, but certainly more than what I received.

Despite all of that I still feel kinda PO'ed about the deal. Walking out is one thing, being kicked off is another. I feel PO'ed my former organization could not me any more placements up here in my area -- despite the fact a number of other consulting firms seem to be quite busy up here. I feel PO'ed they hired a high profile felon last week. My former organization worked in this part of the state and in another part (I had a gig up in that part) and in those two part's my former outfit's name was not too great. A number of fights with clients can do wonders for an outfit's reputation.

Just to let you all know I have six active job files (indicating serious interest on my part) of which three have led to contact from the hiring outfit. Of course, I have put out a lot more applications than that, and I have even received a couple of FOs.