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Opinions sought: contracting / consulting

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Opinions sought: contracting / consulting

colubra
4/27/09 05:43 pm
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Mongo Hate Job
So the folks I consulted with, earlier this month, asked me for an invoice (d'oh!) and said they were talking to their attorney about a consulting agreement, today.

So... does that sound to anyone else like they're planning on having me back / putting my butt in their forthcoming SF office? It seems to me like closing the barn door after the cow's out, if it's to agree on what I'm helping them with for the you know. One day I already helped 'em. Anyone with experience as a consultant, I'd really appreciate your opinions on this, please.

Uhm. Whee? :D
  • Current Mood: cautiously optimistic
  • Current Music: 'Reading My Mind', John Cale
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  • tenzil
    4/28/09 01:16 am (UTC)
    It might not be an implicit request for you to return. It might just be dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Presumably they 1099'd you? They'll probably want some kind of contractual butt-covering regarding that, even if it is after the fact.

    That's not to say it isn't an implicit return request. It just doesn't have to be.

    • colubra
      4/28/09 01:38 am (UTC)
      At the rate we agreed on, the $ involved for a half-day's work was below the lower limit to require a 1099, so there's not one there at this juncture. I did go down there w/o a consultancy agreement, though, so I do think it COULD be gluteal coverage rather than an implicit request for more of my time. Heck, considering that my NDA is still a handshake...

      I'm just debating if the situation's most-likely A: probably future work with them, B: covering of backside, C: something else: as this is the first I've ever consulted, I'm sort of in virgin territory here.
      We shall wait and see, then.

      • andstillitmoves
        4/28/09 01:47 am (UTC)
        I would say: B, which then allows more likely A. As in 'okay, we need to cover our asses and hey, good to have this guy around for when/if we need him again, eh?'

        Also: mmm, gluteal coverage.

        • colubra
          4/28/09 01:56 am (UTC)
          and on the A-not-B side of the scales: if it's B, wouldn't they include giving me a real NDA in the mix? Because they're FAR more hosed if I decided to dishonor my word and just blather about their product than they could possibly be by anything I did without a consultant's agreement in hand.

          • andstillitmoves
            4/28/09 01:57 am (UTC)
            I have no idea how the corporate things work - if it is likely to be a more permanent consulting gig, does the lack of an NDA NOW mean they are going to roll one into your contract thing later when you get teh Real Consulting Job?

            • colubra
              4/28/09 02:01 am (UTC)
              My take: the lack of an NDA and of mention of me signing one means that they trust I won't blow my mouth off about things. But if they are willing to trust that, surely there's no need for a cover-your-ass contract, as anything I might do outside of the NDA is a far lower risk of damage to the company's capital and assets than not covering their ass with a written NDA.

              • andstillitmoves
                4/28/09 02:06 am (UTC)
                And the trust itself is a Good Sign.

                But I would chat to your friend.

                Also, yay, home soon to receive delivery of bed yay.

  • andstillitmoves
    4/28/09 01:39 am (UTC)
    Good lucks! You better love those dogs, buddy.

    • colubra
      4/28/09 01:51 am (UTC)
      I debate about calling their human and asking his opinion on this, as he's probably within no less than 100' of the person who emailed me, at the moment (as his favorite post-work bar is just downstairs in the building they're in).

      I have to admit- I'm pretty jazzed about the possibility of continuing to work with people who are this impassioned and this smart. After 8 years at Microshaft, I've had enough of people who are counting beans instead of considering that legumes might not be the right foodstuff, and what other foodstuffs would be better, and which foodstuff they actually like to deal with.

      • andstillitmoves
        4/28/09 01:54 am (UTC)
        Soylent Green is colubra?!!!

        ...I could not help myself.

        And I would suggest you call, as he has been Helpful through this. But really, it sounds like a great thing for you. :D

        • colubra
          4/28/09 02:06 am (UTC)
          hahaha. Ach, du.
          the point I was aiming at was that the microsofties I dealt with were, very much so, unable to put their minds upon the outside of the storied 'box' that we hear so much of in cultures that are attempting to be innovative~ and clever~. They would keep doing things the same way for no reason other than that having been the right way in 1990...
          ...despite the fact that 1990 to now has produced a few MAJOR changes in their business environment that they really should've been considering (hence, MSN being such a millstone on the company for most of its existence thus far despite including the biggest webmail service on the planet: hence, missing the boat with the iPod and clambering on 3 years later with a vastly inferior product named the Zune (and before anyone chimes in to correct that: I'm talking about the first generation, which was twice as thick, half the storage space of the smallest iPod Classic available, and about 1/4 as durable. I understand they've gotten better now, but you couldn't pay me enough $ to get me to buy one based on the terrible interface and dreadful durability issues I dealt with in the first generation ones I owned over the course of a month): hence, Windows Vista).

    • andstillitmoves
      4/28/09 02:09 am (UTC)
      But don't you know the code to Windows 7 is made of rainbows and puppies?!

      And yes, I do get your point, I just...couldn't help but making a joke or five.

    • motleypolitico
      4/28/09 04:33 pm (UTC)
      I protest mildly. At least some of us still at Microshaft were quite capable of thinking outside the box. Though given what you went through there, it was pretty clear that your department was of the 'etched into stone processes' type, rather than the 'how can we do this more efficiently' model.

      • colubra
        4/28/09 05:37 pm (UTC)
        Yeah: my experiences suggested that once you got to the director level, you had to not only abandon the concept of doing it innovatively or examining how you're doing it, but you had also to actively quash employees who examined the 'how' of the process.

        Only at Microsoft, for instance, could involvement in the 1st-gen Zune equal grounds for promotion...

  • sanat
    4/28/09 02:13 am (UTC)
    Fingers crossed!

    In other news, Prince Caspian has been cast as Dorian Gray in upcoming eponymous film. We are seeing, yes?

    • colubra
      4/28/09 02:20 am (UTC)
      Gay buttsexsubtext (sorry, I always misspell that word) and Ben Barnes? I'm so there.

      • andstillitmoves
        4/28/09 05:16 am (UTC)
        You were there months ago when I has told you about it. Plus he plays with - sorry, against - Colin Farrell. Hi, emotionally restrained slightly snarky British older man. Not that I'm thinking he could be a stand-in for an audience member. Nope.

  • flit
    4/28/09 02:31 pm (UTC)
    I have no useful advice, but I hope they're considering taking you on longer.
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