manager has no need for my skills after hiring me???

[John Ranaudo]

Perhaps some of you consultants out there can explain this to me.

I get hired for a long term contract gig..after spending 5 weeks without a machine, I put together some documentation and some POC's. I never see my so called "reporting manager" and he seems like he knows nothing.

So I sent a pretty heavy handed email to my manager(consulting co) explaining me wasting my time and lack of information,etc. Now the money is great but I was figuring it was at a turning point anyway.

My manager (con. co.) has a status meeting. The client manager says he is going in a different direction and does not need me. Long to story short, I ended up on another project. I think the guy is actually confusing an adapter product with a broker product! Each has similar capabilites but are two different products.

I am trying to figure out the cause of this. Could I have done something wrong? Does the manager just not have any work yet? or is he just clueless?

Anyone have similar experiences?

[Mark Herschberg]

It happens.

Sometimes new information comes up that changes the direction of the product. We'd like to think that thngs are carefully planned, but often left curves come from out of no where. Some things that can cause it include: signed contract (e.g. major new client), lawsuit (files, settled), patents filed/expired, resignation/firing, new hire at a senior level, unexpected product failure, customer rejection (either in market research or at a particular client).

But more common than any of that is a casual conversation in which someone ways, "oh really? I didn't know that" and suddenly sees everything differently. This could be anything from, "the demand for that type of product is that large?" to "so we should go with phython instead of VB?"

Welcome to the real world. Don't take it personally.

--Mark

[Homer Phillips]

Long to story short, I ended up on another project.

Lucky you. Don't you wish you'd have gotten let go after thirty days and had to convince the market you're not tainted goods.

[John Ranaudo]

I think I let it get to me on the personal level. I know it can't be that because I hardly even spoke to the guy.

Most I did was put together a very generic high level overview of implementing and 'enterprise service bus' and description on some of the components that would be used.

I am happy to be on the other project however.

Thanks.

[Jeroen Wenting]

Had it happen once. Got hired on 27 December for my Delphi skills to be put to work on a contract that was set to start on 2 January.
29 December the project was cancelled by the customer.

Took the company 3 weeks to find me another project, I ended up being crosstrained for CoBOL.

[John Ranaudo]

I could understand something being cancelled but it simply cannot be the case here. The reason is because they are implementing oracle e-business suite and a large number of integrations with legacy will need to be done to support the business running on oracle.

I think I may have come in too early in the game. He does not even have a list of high level use cases that I could view. Not even one sentence.

[Mark Wuest]

After many years of working directly for employers, I took my first consulting gig last year since it was an opportunity to break into some different technologies.

I spent the first month reading. I actually read "The C++ Programming Language", both "Effective C++" books, *and* "C++ Templates" cover to cover those first two months! The first project they had assigned me to ended up, after I reviewed all of the requirements, not requiring any work at all. I.e.: my "output" consisted of, "you don't need to do anything." They had nothing for me to do and I never saw my supervisor.

I continued to write my recruiter and let him know what was going on. He insisted that they told him they were very happy with me. I kept saying, "happy with *what*? I haven't *done* anything." I did eventually do several projects for them and they remained happy. They eventually offered me a permanent position (which I turned down - it was away from my family and I had never had any intention of relocating). Go figure.

I think you're doing the best you can - keep up with your recruiter and make sure he continues to be aware of what you're doing. Even if the contract fizzles and they say they didn't need you, I'm sure he'll appreciate having known all along that they weren't using you effectively.

Mark

[D'Angelis Grant]

The first project they had assigned me to ended up, after I reviewed all of the requirements, not requiring any work at all. I.e.: my "output" consisted of, "you don't need to do anything."

That "output" alone may have saved them more money than they were paying to cover your contract

[Don Stadler]

The first project they had assigned me to ended up, after I reviewed all of the requirements, not requiring any work at all. I.e.: my "output" consisted of, "you don't need to do anything." They had nothing for me to do and I never saw my supervisor.

Second the comment above. I had a gig some time ago where I spent the first month reviewing the architecture of 4 subsystems of a Video on Demand system. The conclusion was utterly obvious. Two systems could be done manually if need be, one was slightly more demanding, and the last one was going to the far edges of the possible based on my guesstimate of peak demand.

Usually you don't get this kind of job without a track record. I'd been to this place a year before that and delivered a significant subsystem on time and under budget - apparently a completely new thing for them. They kept waiting for me to come and ask for more time or more people. Instead - I delivered.

By the time I returned the two managers I'd worked for had been promoted. Which led to a kind of interesting situation, because there were managers underneath them I wasn't directly accountable to. So for the next year or so we played a little game with the project lead(s) trying to dump me and the director replying "He's good - work with him". This happened every time a crisis hit that year. Worked my heinie off - but rewarding.

[Billy Tsai]

if they wanna fire you right now would you get any compensations?
did you specify any on the contract