Toolie advocates for contract and permanent workers alike. Here's a recent article on the value of contractors. 

https://toolie.medium.com/why-you-want-a-skilled-contractor-for-that-permanent-role-93b0866fd797

If you cannot see it on Medium, you can read it below.

An Open Letter to HR and Hiring Managers

I was completing an application for a permanent job I knew I could do when I saw a statement in the job description that stopped me in my tracks. It's what I've always suspected, but this was the first time I'd seen it in print.

"No typical contractor with short term [applicable experience] will be considered."

(I substituted the text in the square brackets [ ] to protect the identity of the company.)

I am a contract worker by choice. I've been contracting in my chosen profession (tech) for about 13 years. I like the variety, and frankly, I like the challenge of walking into a job situation cold, figuring it out, and making good things happen in a very short period of time.

So, what does that have to do with applying for a permanent job? Well, it is my conclusion that the people screening applications for permanent roles really don't understand what contractors do, and how a contractor's skill set can jumpstart improvements in their situation. So let me establish a few ideas before proceeding.

• Contractors are not second-rate workers. They don't move from job to job because they cannot accomplish the work. (Sometimes that's the case, but that's no different from a bad hire of a permanent worker.) More often, the contracts are structured to only last a specific period of time. That can be because of budgets or deadlines, or a whole host of other reasons.
• Contractors are frequently hired to solve a short-term problem, and they do. Thus, they work themselves out of a job.
• Contractors don't have a lot of time to on-board; they must get to work immediately. This means they develop a lot of important practical skills to help them be successful, such as:
  • Knowing a variety of industry tools.
  • Regularly adding to their skill set to improve their odds of getting hired.
  • Accumulating experience over multiple roles, refining their skills and problem-solving abilities as they go.
  • Getting certifications to validate that they have the skills a prospective employer wants.
  • Volunteering to take on tasks outside their statement of work so they can add them to their resume.

In other words, most contractors are MORE motivated to learn new skills and stay current with them than candidates who've been in the same job for several years.

Skill-building is an essential activity if you want to keep working.

But there's more to the situation than just practical skills. To be a successful contractor, you also need emotional intelligence. Walking into a job on short notice means:

• Learning the power dynamics of a group very quickly. As a contractor you develop a sixth sense about who's in charge vs. who has the title.
• Discerning whether your experience and maturity is going to be regarded as an asset or a threat.
• Accomplishing quality work under significant time pressure and still delivering on time.
• Coping with the day-to-day uncertainty of how long your job will last (despite what the contract says), and continuing to work with the same dedication regardless of the outcome.

Building relationships is just as important as delivering quality work.

So, what does this mean to an employer with a permanent role? It means that if companies hire a contractor with lengthy experience, they are more likely to get a highly-skilled, highly-motivated candidate who knows how to arrive on the job and confidently get to work. The contractor-candidate is going to be savvier than your average candidate when it comes to onboarding, establishing relationships, and getting up to speed. Why? Because these contractor-candidates have done it over and over and over, successfully.

And even better, these contractor-candidates bring with them a host of ideas they know have worked at other companies, because they've had 3 to 5 times more opportunities to test them than your average candidate. They've already seen what works and what doesn't. They're in a position to save you a lot of heartache if you bring them in to address your situation.

So now you know.

How are your candidates pre-selected?

If you or your resume-filtering software are tossing aside resumes of contractor-candidates with multiple employers, you're missing out on some of the candidates with the vital skills you probably actually need. And probably wish your permanent employees had.

As of this writing, I'm still applying for jobs. But somewhere out there, a savvy hiring manager is looking for me and wants to hire me because of my vast and varied experience.

Will that be you?