Are the posted questions getting worse?
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Evil Kraig F (3/21/2013)
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.
If blackballing actually does operate here in the UK, I'd be very surprised as I've heard no evidence to support it and know from involvement in contractor recruitment that there are some truly awful folk masquerading as competents. One would hope that a blackballing movement would filter some of them out.
Blackballing could apply to companies too. Last time I worked here (this is my second gig with the same company) there was a chap I had competed with for a gig in Swindon some months before. He beat me to it, and I'm quite relieved he did. At face to face time the atmosphere in the offices seemed unnaturally strained and the interview was odd too, with an emphasis on developer discipline. Such as, head honcho briefs me to stick to plan A while he's away for a couple of days. While he's away and not contactable, underhoncho(?) insists on a switch to a different project to cover a dire emergency. What should I do, switch or stick?
Anyways, Mike got the gig and was on top of it for three or four weeks before being given a week's notice - because head honcho hadn't completed the project plan before hiring, and the project was scrapped by the board. Meh.
“Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail ShawFor fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
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ChrisM@Work (3/22/2013)
Evil Kraig F (3/21/2013)
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.
If blackballing actually does operate here in the UK, I'd be very surprised as I've heard no evidence to support it and know from involvement in contractor recruitment that there are some truly awful folk masquerading as competents. One would hope that a blackballing movement would filter some of them out.
Blackballing could apply to companies too. Last time I worked here (this is my second gig with the same company) there was a chap I had competed with for a gig in Swindon some months before. He beat me to it, and I'm quite relieved he did. At face to face time the atmosphere in the offices seemed unnaturally strained and the interview was odd too, with an emphasis on developer discipline. Such as, head honcho briefs me to stick to plan A while he's away for a couple of days. While he's away and not contactable, underhoncho(?) insists on a switch to a different project to cover a dire emergency. What should I do, switch or stick?
Anyways, Mike got the gig and was on top of it for three or four weeks before being given a week's notice - because head honcho hadn't completed the project plan before hiring, and the project was scrapped by the board. Meh.
Yeah, I've worked for some truly horrible companies. One didn't actually want anything fixed. They just wanted to be told everything was fine the way it was, but improve the performace 100%, but don't change anything. They fired their head of IT because he told them the truth. Then there was the company I worked for that hired me solely as a scapegoat. I was told 2 month contract, no chance of extension. Got the initial work done in a few weeks, then was asked to do a bigger job with the time I had left. I told them up front that I didn't have the time needed to do the job, but they insisted and then never gave me access to the servers. A week to go in the job and they fired me because I hadn't made any progress. There's all kinds out there.
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When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
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It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams -
I don't like the idea of blackballing. We all screw up, we all get second chances in different parts of our lives.
I do like disclosure, and the idea of laying out the good and bad of someone's work history. They can work to improve it or not, and companies can hire them, knowing the possibilities, perhaps keeping them on a shorter leash w/ regards to management.
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I agree, Steve; however, it usually costs lots of effort to get back the reputation one had before s/he/they screwed up, much more effort than the first time when they started fresh. This is just my observation, fortunately I never was in that predicament.
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Here is one of my experiences as a contractor...
I was told to do a job in FoxPro 2.6 (for Windows). I requested that we use a later version of FoxPro, since it would resolve certain issues with that version (I think that version 4 or 5 was out at that time, but I know version 3 was available). They declined and wanted to use the 2.6 version. So I wrote the application in 2.6.
About 6 months later, I was called by this agency to help resolve a memory issue with the application I had written there. So I was in effect paid to come back and try to resolve it. But, as it turns out, FoxPro 2.6 had a memory leak issue, which was resolved with versions 3 and later. The sad part was, I was unable to easily resolve it (without, say, upgrading to a later version of FoxPro, and that would be a project).
So I bet it looked, to outsiders, that I had done a bad job and been rewarded for it, but that's not really what happened.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
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Evil Kraig F (3/21/2013)
I can't speak for the UK but a single bad reference can kill a contracting career.There are two problems in the UK: (i) it's extremely dangerous to give anyone a bad reference, whether for a contractor or for someone who was on the staff, because anything nasty you say has to be provable (the law here is sometimes crazy) and (ii) the dead-beats (whether contractors or people wanting permanent jobs) rely on greedy recruitment companies who don't care whether the people they place are capable of doing the job or not.
I'm sorry Tom that you feel consultants are so bad that you would never hire one again.
That's not quite what I said - there are plenty of people I would have taken on as contractors if they were available; if I came across someone who was recommended by some (but perhaps not by others :angry:) of my former colleagues I would certainly talk to them and very possibly take them on on a contract. The main problem is someone you can trust. My problem used to be idiots who thought they could hire people for me basd on their own judgement of qualifications even when they were completely incapable of evaluating those qualifications - and this tended, for I never understood, to happen much more often with contractors than with permanent staff.
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.
Unfortunately that doesn't work in the UK. A code monkey will not pass the Inland Revenue's test to be considered as a consultant/contractor as opposed to as an employee, and you will end up in trouble if you try it; the "contactor" will be in some trouble too.
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.
I'm inclined to agree there.
Tom
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Anyone got the time to help here. Seems to be going down the route of loops and NOLOCK.
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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
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Don't you just love when BOL is showing two ways of doing something, but includes subtle errors and inconsistencies?
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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 -
What to make of this?
May not be what I was thinking. Good.
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Stefan Krzywicki (3/27/2013)
Don't you just love when BOL is showing two ways of doing something, but includes subtle errors and inconsistencies?Seems almost expected with BOL
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events -
Lynn Pettis (3/27/2013)
What to make of this?May not be what I was thinking. Good.
looks like Gail took care of it. Wish I had seen it sooner.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events -
BrainDonor (3/28/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/27/2013)
What to make of this?May not be what I was thinking. Good.
"I'm a DBA, it turns out"
How do you suddenly discover that you're a DBA?
Maybe just found out that their user account belongs to the SysAdmin role?
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BrainDonor (3/28/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/27/2013)
What to make of this?May not be what I was thinking. Good.
"I'm a DBA, it turns out"
How do you suddenly discover that you're a DBA?
it's like puberty. you feel weird for a while, then all of the sudden you want to JOIN everything together. it's an instinct.
Lowell
--help us help you! If you post a question, make sure you include a CREATE TABLE... statement and INSERT INTO... statement into that table to give the volunteers here representative data. with your description of the problem, we can provide a tested, verifiable solution to your question! asking the question the right way gets you a tested answer the fastest way possible! -
BrainDonor (3/28/2013)
Lynn Pettis (3/27/2013)
What to make of this?May not be what I was thinking. Good.
"I'm a DBA, it turns out"
How do you suddenly discover that you're a DBA?
It's easy. For the past 30 years I have been a developer/programmer. I've been working in SQL Server for the past 7 years along with my programming duties. The other day someone called me a DBA. Who knew? 😎
I guess I am what some call an "accidental DBA". And, I'm trying to get things right accidentally. :hehe:
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