Day: November 2, 2016

People who want to switch from being a consultant or contractor to a full-time position experience challenges they need to address. Here, I point out a few of them and how to handle them.

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If you’re a consultant or a long-term temp or a contractor and trying to switch to full time work on the staff of the firm, rather than going as a nomad from place to place, how do you approach that?  What kind of challenges do you face?

Let me speak with you about a few major ones. You may run into.

1. Often your assignments are relatively short-term (3 months here, 6 months there) in your 1st contact may not be with the hiring manager.  You may apply to something through an applicant tracking system (by the way, never ever applied to a job through an applicant tracking system.  If you do, your resume will look like a job hopper to it).  The easiest way to address this is by having a category above all them, above all your consulting assignments that says, “Consultant” it has the aggregated dates off to the far right.  The word, “Consultant,” and the aggregated dates, should be in a larger font than the rest of the resume.  Let’s say you are consultant from May 2010 to present, what you are doing is letting them know that what they are seeing our consulting assignments or temp assignments, rather than you bouncing around from one full-time job to another.  The systems will pick up on that; the other dates will not be problematic because the system will pick up on the original dates as the system parses the resume.  So, again, aggregate all your consulting work into one category that says, “Consultant” so that you are not balanced out by systems or a busy HR person or hiring manager who resume resume and says to themselves, “This person has had a lot of jobs!”
2. Often, you are hired as a consultant to a “doer.”  Rather than manage people who do things.  Let’s say you’re a $70 per hour person, that translates into about $140,000 per year.  By that time at an institution, they expect that you’ve managed people, done budgeting and handle different resources and, generally, that isn’t the kind of work that you doing.  You’re doing the kind of work that staff does.  like your two weeks’ vacation which, at $70 per hour,  You need to learn to be a little flexible about compensation.  After all, they will be paying the lion’s share of your benefits, you’re getting paid vacation, you are more likely to be offered $115,00 to $125,000.Firms are going to try to chop you down to a price range that fits the work you do.  You need to start looking at the value of benefits you will receive–that is $2700 per week in money you are paid for not working times 2 or $5400.Then there is the value for them paying for your benefits or part of your benefits) and sick time . . . suddenly those amounts add up in value at the rate of $2700 per week. They start looking at those numbers and you need to start recognizing the value of those numbers as well. Learn what your baseline is for compensation. If you decide it is $135000, that’ OK just be prepared for a longer job search or look for that company that pays more for talent.
3. This is one that tends to only be done in person or at the time of the phone interview. I’m reminded of this because I have a friend who is moving from a role where he has been an executive chef for a number of year to something different but still in the food industry. The question invariably is asked, “Why would you want to do this?” That’s the big question that, even if they don’t ask, you have to answer. If they ask you, you need to drop your voice and slow your speech. Interviewing involves a certain amount of acting and this is an example of it. It isn’t just a “spelling bee,” (They ask you a question and you crank out the answer instantly) and show how smart you are. This is the emotional intelligence part of the interview. They want to know whether you are sure you want to be an employee and stop being a consultant or you can’t speak quickly or nervously. temp where you make “all that money” and come on to staff. “The fact is it’s tie for me to settle down. I’ve got family and responsibilities and I’ve decided that joining an organization where I can put down roots and become a contributor to a firm makes a lot more sense for me than being a contractor.” You have to look them in the eye as you say that; you can’t sound insincere. Don’t rush your speech; it doesn’t sound sincere.

Recognize the difference in your cadence, note your normal speaking voice, slow down and answer the question directly. Consultants change to fill time work all the time.

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

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