Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Mark Cowne One Orange Chip Points: 26952 More actions · Answer 1

dwain.c (3/20/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/20/2013)
I am really wondering how some people manage to get into contracting when they have no idea how to write good, performing code and expect a free forum staffed by volunteers to help him write code to meet the clients requirements.
I can think of two reasons:
1. Nobody knows they write poor performing code until their contract is up.
2. They get paid for the time they spend posting questions to the forum.
😛

I'm sure you've all seen this but anyway...

http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The_Brillant_Paula_Bean.aspx

____________________________________________________

Deja View - The strange feeling that somewhere, sometime you've optimised this query before

How to get the best help on a forum

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537

Sioban Krzywicki One Orange Chip Points: 27770 More actions · Answer 2

dwain.c (3/20/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/20/2013)
I am really wondering how some people manage to get into contracting when they have no idea how to write good, performing code and expect a free forum staffed by volunteers to help him write code to meet the clients requirements.
I can think of two reasons:
1. Nobody knows they write poor performing code until their contract is up.
2. They get paid for the time they spend posting questions to the forum.
😛

I have three stories of contractors I've worked with in the past who, when their contracts were nearly up and it was time to review their code (managers just let them go until then) they had nothing at all. One claimed her laptop broke, one claimed his laptop was stolen (naturally neither checked their code in or backed it up) and the third claimed his drive was corrupted. They then left the job, put it down as experience and got another contract.

--------------------------------------
When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
--------------------------------------
It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736270 More actions · Answer 3

WayneS (3/20/2013)
Can you tell what days Steve featured one of my blog posts in the newsletter? Thanks Steve!

You are welcome. But it's not just me, some of the excitement is good writing about interesting topics.

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 4

dwain.c (3/20/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/20/2013)
I am really wondering how some people manage to get into contracting when they have no idea how to write good, performing code and expect a free forum staffed by volunteers to help him write code to meet the clients requirements.
I can think of two reasons:
1. Nobody knows they write poor performing code until their contract is up.
2. They get paid for the time they spend posting questions to the forum.
😛

3. They quote far below what it would cost to do the job properly, so those who are both competent and honest are not competition.

4. Because they quote so low, the cost of writing off what they have been paid is not worth the hassle of suing them, so they get away with it.

5. their customers are managed by people who haven't a technological clue, so as long as they can create sensible-sounding waffle about "management" or "policy" it doesn't matter that there technological ability is zilch - firstly because to admit you hired people inferior to the internal people means accepting a loss of face and secondly because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence so they must be a better sort of grass than the company's employees.

edit: I omitted

6. because they haven't had to waste time acquiring competence in doing the job they've had plenty time to become expert at bullshit.

Tom

Sioban Krzywicki One Orange Chip Points: 27770 More actions · Answer 5

L' Eomot Inversé (3/21/2013)
dwain.c (3/20/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/20/2013)
I am really wondering how some people manage to get into contracting when they have no idea how to write good, performing code and expect a free forum staffed by volunteers to help him write code to meet the clients requirements.
I can think of two reasons:
1. Nobody knows they write poor performing code until their contract is up.
2. They get paid for the time they spend posting questions to the forum.
😛
3. They quote far below what it would cost to do the job properly, so those who are both competent and honest are not competition.
4. Because they quote so low, the cost of writing off what they have been paid is not worth the hassle of suing them, so they get away with it.
5. their customers are managed by people who haven't a technological clue, so as long as they can create sensible-sounding waffle about "management" or "policy" it doesn't matter that there technological ability is zilch - firstly because to admit you hired people inferior to the internal people means accepting a loss of face and secondly because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence so they must be a better sort of grass than the company's employees.
edit: I omitted
6. because they haven't had to waste time acquiring competence in doing the job they've had plenty time to become expert at bullshit.

All the ones I mentioned were getting the same rate as others on the job. They're just good at pretending they know what they're doing and the managers hiring aren't technical people who refused assistance in the interview process.

--------------------------------------
When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
--------------------------------------
It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

ChrisM@Work SSC Guru Points: 186127 More actions · Answer 6

Stefan Krzywicki (3/21/2013)
L' Eomot Inversé (3/21/2013)
dwain.c (3/20/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/20/2013)
I am really wondering how some people manage to get into contracting when they have no idea how to write good, performing code and expect a free forum staffed by volunteers to help him write code to meet the clients requirements.
I can think of two reasons:
1. Nobody knows they write poor performing code until their contract is up.
2. They get paid for the time they spend posting questions to the forum.
😛
3. They quote far below what it would cost to do the job properly, so those who are both competent and honest are not competition.
4. Because they quote so low, the cost of writing off what they have been paid is not worth the hassle of suing them, so they get away with it.
5. their customers are managed by people who haven't a technological clue, so as long as they can create sensible-sounding waffle about "management" or "policy" it doesn't matter that there technological ability is zilch - firstly because to admit you hired people inferior to the internal people means accepting a loss of face and secondly because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence so they must be a better sort of grass than the company's employees.
edit: I omitted
6. because they haven't had to waste time acquiring competence in doing the job they've had plenty time to become expert at bullshit.
All the ones I mentioned were getting the same rate as others on the job. They're just good at pretending they know what they're doing and the managers hiring aren't technical people who refused assistance in the interview process.

Around 10 years ago whilst on contract for a telecomms company in Central London, I was introduced to a newly-hired DBA who wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and fiddling with our servers. Two surprises rapidly followed. Firstly, he was candid about his salary, £70. Very good money back then. I figured he must be pretty good. The next surprise turned everything on his head. He asked me for help with a UNION query which he couldn't get to work properly. I had a look at the code he was working with and couldn't make any sense of it at all, until he pointed out that UNION joined the tables not vertically as I'd always thought but side by side to generate extra columns.

Rotten contractors are nothing new - neither are rotten permies.

^{“Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail Shaw}

For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 7

ChrisM@Work (3/21/2013)
Around 10 years ago whilst on contract for a telecomms company in Central London, I was introduced to a newly-hired DBA who wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and fiddling with our servers. Two surprises rapidly followed. Firstly, he was candid about his salary, £70. Very good money back then. I figured he must be pretty good. The next surprise turned everything on his head. He asked me for help with a UNION query which he couldn't get to work properly. I had a look at the code he was working with and couldn't make any sense of it at all, until he pointed out that UNION joined the tables not vertically as I'd always thought but side by side to generate extra columns.
Rotten contractors are nothing new - neither are rotten permies.

Only twice in rather more than 40 years in the business did I actually have to fire someone (both were permies - contractors were always introduced by senior management so I couldn't fire them, until I became senior enough to refuse to use contractors at all). I reckon if I'd come acoss that guy that twice would have been thrice. But had I been able to do it I can think of a dozen or more bullshit spouting contractors who would have been looking for a new contract, and I've had far more dealings with permies than with contractors.

I think that a greater proportion of contractors than of permies are incompetent for one simple reason: when you come across a permie whose average length of employment is less than 6 months you need an awful lot of convincing before you will hire him - so those guys end up asking if you want chips and ketchup with it instead of scewing up your development schedule; a contractor can say he prefers short term contracts so that every four or five months he can take a couple of weeks off, and you generally don't have any valid reason to disbelieve him 9at least not in the UK, where he can sue you and/or the company if you are asked for a reference and deliver a bad one). So most of the incompetent permies don't survive, while most of the incompetent contractors do.

Tom

Revenant SSC-Forever Points: 42467 More actions · Answer 8

L' Eomot Inversé (3/21/2013)
ChrisM@Work (3/21/2013)
Around 10 years ago whilst on contract for a telecomms company in Central London, I was introduced to a newly-hired DBA who wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and fiddling with our servers. Two surprises rapidly followed. Firstly, he was candid about his salary, £70. Very good money back then. I figured he must be pretty good. The next surprise turned everything on his head. He asked me for help with a UNION query which he couldn't get to work properly. I had a look at the code he was working with and couldn't make any sense of it at all, until he pointed out that UNION joined the tables not vertically as I'd always thought but side by side to generate extra columns.
Rotten contractors are nothing new - neither are rotten permies.
Only twice in rather more than 40 years in the business did I actually have to fire someone (both were permies - contractors were always introduced by senior management so I couldn't fire them, until I became senior enough to refuse to use contractors at all). I reckon if I'd come acoss that guy that twice would have been thrice. But had I been able to do it I can think of a dozen or more bullshit spouting contractors who would have been looking for a new contract, and I've had far more dealings with permies than with contractors.
I think that a greater proportion of contractors than of permies are incompetent for one simple reason: when you come across a permie whose average length of employment is less than 6 months you need an awful lot of convincing before you will hire him - so those guys end up asking if you want chips and ketchup with it instead of scewing up your development schedule; a contractor can say he prefers short term contracts so that every four or five months he can take a couple of weeks off, and you generally don't have any valid reason to disbelieve him 9at least not in the UK, where he can sue you and/or the company if you are asked for a reference and deliver a bad one). So most of the incompetent permies don't survive, while most of the incompetent contractors do.

The problem with "permies," as you call them, is that they spend considerable part of their time thinking about the next empowering move and playing politics to make it possible, at least at big companies. Contractor is only as good as his last contract and that keeps them on their tiptoes.

Sioban Krzywicki One Orange Chip Points: 27770 More actions · Answer 9

Revenant (3/21/2013)
L' Eomot Inversé (3/21/2013)
ChrisM@Work (3/21/2013)
Around 10 years ago whilst on contract for a telecomms company in Central London, I was introduced to a newly-hired DBA who wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and fiddling with our servers. Two surprises rapidly followed. Firstly, he was candid about his salary, £70. Very good money back then. I figured he must be pretty good. The next surprise turned everything on his head. He asked me for help with a UNION query which he couldn't get to work properly. I had a look at the code he was working with and couldn't make any sense of it at all, until he pointed out that UNION joined the tables not vertically as I'd always thought but side by side to generate extra columns.
Rotten contractors are nothing new - neither are rotten permies.
Only twice in rather more than 40 years in the business did I actually have to fire someone (both were permies - contractors were always introduced by senior management so I couldn't fire them, until I became senior enough to refuse to use contractors at all). I reckon if I'd come acoss that guy that twice would have been thrice. But had I been able to do it I can think of a dozen or more bullshit spouting contractors who would have been looking for a new contract, and I've had far more dealings with permies than with contractors.
I think that a greater proportion of contractors than of permies are incompetent for one simple reason: when you come across a permie whose average length of employment is less than 6 months you need an awful lot of convincing before you will hire him - so those guys end up asking if you want chips and ketchup with it instead of scewing up your development schedule; a contractor can say he prefers short term contracts so that every four or five months he can take a couple of weeks off, and you generally don't have any valid reason to disbelieve him 9at least not in the UK, where he can sue you and/or the company if you are asked for a reference and deliver a bad one). So most of the incompetent permies don't survive, while most of the incompetent contractors do.
The problem with "permies," as you call them, is that they spend considerable part of their time thinking about the next empowering move and playing politics to make it possible, at least at big companies. Contractor is only as good as his last contract and that keeps them on their tiptoes.

There are many reasons I've stayed a contractor over the years. In general, I find that a person's status as perm or contractor has little bearing on their ability or work ethic. A compliment to the contractor nightmares I mentioned above are the many perm nightmares I've worked wiith. One guy had 10 years to go to retirement and it was his goal to just make it there while doing as little work as possible. I've had managers who were completely "upward facing" and as long as their boss was happy, they didn't know or care what the people reporting to them were doing. One project I inherited from a "permie" dropped and re-created every index in the database every time the product was started. He also had indexes on just about every column because he'd heard they were good once and he'd lecture non-tech people about this for hours, given the chance.

How you're employed has little bearing on what you do.

--------------------------------------
When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
--------------------------------------
It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

Revenant SSC-Forever Points: 42467 More actions · Answer 10

Stefan Krzywicki (3/21/2013)
Revenant (3/21/2013)
L' Eomot Inversé (3/21/2013)
ChrisM@Work (3/21/2013)
Around 10 years ago whilst on contract for a telecomms company in Central London, I was introduced to a newly-hired DBA who wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and fiddling with our servers. Two surprises rapidly followed. Firstly, he was candid about his salary, £70. Very good money back then. I figured he must be pretty good. The next surprise turned everything on his head. He asked me for help with a UNION query which he couldn't get to work properly. I had a look at the code he was working with and couldn't make any sense of it at all, until he pointed out that UNION joined the tables not vertically as I'd always thought but side by side to generate extra columns.
Rotten contractors are nothing new - neither are rotten permies.
Only twice in rather more than 40 years in the business did I actually have to fire someone (both were permies - contractors were always introduced by senior management so I couldn't fire them, until I became senior enough to refuse to use contractors at all). I reckon if I'd come acoss that guy that twice would have been thrice. But had I been able to do it I can think of a dozen or more bullshit spouting contractors who would have been looking for a new contract, and I've had far more dealings with permies than with contractors.
I think that a greater proportion of contractors than of permies are incompetent for one simple reason: when you come across a permie whose average length of employment is less than 6 months you need an awful lot of convincing before you will hire him - so those guys end up asking if you want chips and ketchup with it instead of scewing up your development schedule; a contractor can say he prefers short term contracts so that every four or five months he can take a couple of weeks off, and you generally don't have any valid reason to disbelieve him 9at least not in the UK, where he can sue you and/or the company if you are asked for a reference and deliver a bad one). So most of the incompetent permies don't survive, while most of the incompetent contractors do.
The problem with "permies," as you call them, is that they spend considerable part of their time thinking about the next empowering move and playing politics to make it possible, at least at big companies. Contractor is only as good as his last contract and that keeps them on their tiptoes.
There are many reasons I've stayed a contractor over the years. In general, I find that a person's status as perm or contractor has little bearing on their ability or work ethic. A compliment to the contractor nightmares I mentioned above are the many perm nightmares I've worked wiith. One guy had 10 years to go to retirement and it was his goal to just make it there while doing as little work as possible. I've had managers who were completely "upward facing" and as long as their boss was happy, they didn't know or care what the people reporting to them were doing. One project I inherited from a "permie" dropped and re-created every index in the database every time the product was started. He also had indexes on just about every column because he'd heard they were good once and he'd lecture non-tech people about this for hours, given the chance.
How you're employed has little bearing on what you do.

Gee, Stefan, I wish I could have slacked when I had 10 years to retirement. I am retirement age and I still have to work my *** off, 6 days a week.

Sioban Krzywicki One Orange Chip Points: 27770 More actions · Answer 11

Revenant (3/21/2013)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/21/2013)
Revenant (3/21/2013)
L' Eomot Inversé (3/21/2013)
ChrisM@Work (3/21/2013)
Around 10 years ago whilst on contract for a telecomms company in Central London, I was introduced to a newly-hired DBA who wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and fiddling with our servers. Two surprises rapidly followed. Firstly, he was candid about his salary, £70. Very good money back then. I figured he must be pretty good. The next surprise turned everything on his head. He asked me for help with a UNION query which he couldn't get to work properly. I had a look at the code he was working with and couldn't make any sense of it at all, until he pointed out that UNION joined the tables not vertically as I'd always thought but side by side to generate extra columns.
Rotten contractors are nothing new - neither are rotten permies.
Only twice in rather more than 40 years in the business did I actually have to fire someone (both were permies - contractors were always introduced by senior management so I couldn't fire them, until I became senior enough to refuse to use contractors at all). I reckon if I'd come acoss that guy that twice would have been thrice. But had I been able to do it I can think of a dozen or more bullshit spouting contractors who would have been looking for a new contract, and I've had far more dealings with permies than with contractors.
I think that a greater proportion of contractors than of permies are incompetent for one simple reason: when you come across a permie whose average length of employment is less than 6 months you need an awful lot of convincing before you will hire him - so those guys end up asking if you want chips and ketchup with it instead of scewing up your development schedule; a contractor can say he prefers short term contracts so that every four or five months he can take a couple of weeks off, and you generally don't have any valid reason to disbelieve him 9at least not in the UK, where he can sue you and/or the company if you are asked for a reference and deliver a bad one). So most of the incompetent permies don't survive, while most of the incompetent contractors do.
The problem with "permies," as you call them, is that they spend considerable part of their time thinking about the next empowering move and playing politics to make it possible, at least at big companies. Contractor is only as good as his last contract and that keeps them on their tiptoes.
There are many reasons I've stayed a contractor over the years. In general, I find that a person's status as perm or contractor has little bearing on their ability or work ethic. A compliment to the contractor nightmares I mentioned above are the many perm nightmares I've worked wiith. One guy had 10 years to go to retirement and it was his goal to just make it there while doing as little work as possible. I've had managers who were completely "upward facing" and as long as their boss was happy, they didn't know or care what the people reporting to them were doing. One project I inherited from a "permie" dropped and re-created every index in the database every time the product was started. He also had indexes on just about every column because he'd heard they were good once and he'd lecture non-tech people about this for hours, given the chance.
How you're employed has little bearing on what you do.
Gee, Stefan, I wish I could have slacked when I had 10 years to retirement. I am retirement age and I still have to work my *** off, 6 days a week.

LOL, he was an IBMer, does that help?

--------------------------------------
When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
--------------------------------------
It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

Revenant SSC-Forever Points: 42467 More actions · Answer 12

Stefan Krzywicki (3/21/2013)
Revenant (3/21/2013)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/21/2013)
Revenant (3/21/2013)
L' Eomot Inversé (3/21/2013)
ChrisM@Work (3/21/2013)
Around 10 years ago whilst on contract for a telecomms company in Central London, I was introduced to a newly-hired DBA who wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and fiddling with our servers. Two surprises rapidly followed. Firstly, he was candid about his salary, £70. Very good money back then. I figured he must be pretty good. The next surprise turned everything on his head. He asked me for help with a UNION query which he couldn't get to work properly. I had a look at the code he was working with and couldn't make any sense of it at all, until he pointed out that UNION joined the tables not vertically as I'd always thought but side by side to generate extra columns.
Rotten contractors are nothing new - neither are rotten permies.
Only twice in rather more than 40 years in the business did I actually have to fire someone (both were permies - contractors were always introduced by senior management so I couldn't fire them, until I became senior enough to refuse to use contractors at all). I reckon if I'd come acoss that guy that twice would have been thrice. But had I been able to do it I can think of a dozen or more bullshit spouting contractors who would have been looking for a new contract, and I've had far more dealings with permies than with contractors.
I think that a greater proportion of contractors than of permies are incompetent for one simple reason: when you come across a permie whose average length of employment is less than 6 months you need an awful lot of convincing before you will hire him - so those guys end up asking if you want chips and ketchup with it instead of scewing up your development schedule; a contractor can say he prefers short term contracts so that every four or five months he can take a couple of weeks off, and you generally don't have any valid reason to disbelieve him 9at least not in the UK, where he can sue you and/or the company if you are asked for a reference and deliver a bad one). So most of the incompetent permies don't survive, while most of the incompetent contractors do.
The problem with "permies," as you call them, is that they spend considerable part of their time thinking about the next empowering move and playing politics to make it possible, at least at big companies. Contractor is only as good as his last contract and that keeps them on their tiptoes.
There are many reasons I've stayed a contractor over the years. In general, I find that a person's status as perm or contractor has little bearing on their ability or work ethic. A compliment to the contractor nightmares I mentioned above are the many perm nightmares I've worked wiith. One guy had 10 years to go to retirement and it was his goal to just make it there while doing as little work as possible. I've had managers who were completely "upward facing" and as long as their boss was happy, they didn't know or care what the people reporting to them were doing. One project I inherited from a "permie" dropped and re-created every index in the database every time the product was started. He also had indexes on just about every column because he'd heard they were good once and he'd lecture non-tech people about this for hours, given the chance.
How you're employed has little bearing on what you do.
Gee, Stefan, I wish I could have slacked when I had 10 years to retirement. I am retirement age and I still have to work my *** off, 6 days a week.
LOL, he was an IBMer, does that help?

Yes, that explains it. 😉

Stuart Davies SSCoach Points: 19505 More actions · Answer 13

Slight change of topic (if there ever was one here). Over the past few weeks I have been trying to help out more with the questions posted here.

All I can say is I have massive admiration for the patience, knowledge and patience of the main contributors here. I'll spare your blushes by naming any individuals.

Hopefully I will get to meet some of you at SQL in the city (London) in June.

-------------------------------Posting Data Etiquette - Jeff Moden [/url]Smart way to ask a question
There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand (the world). There is no such thing as a dumb question. ― Carl Sagan
I would never join a club that would allow me as a member - Groucho Marx

Dwain Camps SSC Guru Points: 86948 More actions · Answer 14

L' Eomot Inversé (3/21/2013)
dwain.c (3/20/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/20/2013)
I am really wondering how some people manage to get into contracting when they have no idea how to write good, performing code and expect a free forum staffed by volunteers to help him write code to meet the clients requirements.
I can think of two reasons:
1. Nobody knows they write poor performing code until their contract is up.
2. They get paid for the time they spend posting questions to the forum.
😛
3. They quote far below what it would cost to do the job properly, so those who are both competent and honest are not competition.
4. Because they quote so low, the cost of writing off what they have been paid is not worth the hassle of suing them, so they get away with it.
5. their customers are managed by people who haven't a technological clue, so as long as they can create sensible-sounding waffle about "management" or "policy" it doesn't matter that there technological ability is zilch - firstly because to admit you hired people inferior to the internal people means accepting a loss of face and secondly because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence so they must be a better sort of grass than the company's employees.
edit: I omitted
6. because they haven't had to waste time acquiring competence in doing the job they've had plenty time to become expert at bullshit.

I forgot one:

7. If perchance their contract doesn't expire and their code is found to be poor performing, they're paid to correct it.

My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
[url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St

Evil Kraig F SSC Guru Points: 100851 More actions · Answer 15

I am well aware of the bad contractors out there... I'm a contractor myself. I've actually called back to the home company and told them to pull bad contractors who were gold bricking. A lot of folks keep their heads down though and just ignore the moron next to them. To make waves makes you look bad. I refuse to not risk looking bad sometimes.

Sometimes it's just noone's taught them. They're the clay you've got to work with, particularly when they're permies. Permies don't have consulting firms that can nearly blackball them from an industry if they make them look bad enough, they just punch out and move to the next spot. That's both good and bad... some consulting firms just want to fill headcount.

I can't speak for the UK but a single bad reference can kill a contracting career. Being able to go in, call it true, and make it WORK the way you said it could gets you some glowing reviews. Screw that up though? Oh yeah. Make sure you know you're right before you fall down that trap door.

and I... err... crap, I'm soapboxing.

I'm sorry Tom that you feel consultants are so bad that you would never hire one again. Sometimes you need exactly what a good one can offer. Someone who can come in with a fresh perspective, crush out the problem without all the overhead, and hand you a recommendation for a result... and can implement it if your staff is overwhelmed. Sometimes you just need some code monkey to knock out the SQL for a bunch of reports so your main staff can stay on target with other tasks.

However, if your code monkey/gunslinger hasn't produced ANYTHING that you can physically test inside of a month... I'm not entirely sure that it's just the consultant at fault there.

- Craig Farrell

Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.

For better assistance in answering your questions[/url] | Forum Netiquette
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