...has come up, but I’m not real happy with it. One of the contract houses I’ve been talking to called me up yesterday about another travel position that’s definitely not technical. What they’re looking for is team leaders for doing computer equipment inventories at various places in different cities. Basically you fly out with a bunch of printed barcodes and a scanner and work with the local techs to get all the equipment scanned and barcoded at a site and then move on to the next city. One fellow currently working this job just got back from being on the road for three weeks straight. Because it’s not overly technical it only pays $20 an hour, but it averages about 60 hours a week. Not real exciting, but not bad all things considered.
Here’s what I don’t like about it: While the company does cover travel costs and car rental ahead of time, I’d be required to pay for my hotel arrangements myself and then expense it back to the company in addition to a $35 a day meal stipend. Now the meal stipend is pretty standard practice and I don’t have a problem with it, but expensing hotel accommodations is an entirely different question. Again I’d have to get myself a credit card, something I’ve been happily living without for the past several years in an attempt to pay off past debts. The company says it’s because I’d be a contractor—if I were a full-time employee they’d cover the hotel as well—but I’ve had previous travel jobs as a contractor where the hotel was covered ahead of time (Y2K upgrades for GMAC and GM) so I know this isn’t necessarily a standard practice. The other thing I don’t like about this position is that they’re only guaranteeing 7 weeks of work, most of which will be spent away from home from the sounds of it. That comes out to about $8,400 total before taxes assuming I work 60 hours for all 7 weeks. If any better opportunities do come up I won’t be around to apply for them.
So I’m not sure if I want to apply for it or not. I have a day or so to think about it before they plan to start interviewing folks so I’m taking the opportunity to kick it around a bit. Anne thinks any work is better than no work, but I’m really not happy about the extra demands this position would put on me for only 7 weeks worth of work. If it were for a longer period or if I knew I’d get bench time with the company after it was over with then I might be a bit more enthusiastic. Still, it’s the first call I’ve had in a couple of weeks. Yep, I’ll be agonizing over this one for a couple of days.
Posted on 05/26/2005 at 10:31 AM 
Posted on 05/26/2005 at 12:18 PM 
That’s a tough one. Maybe this will help: Would you have to reapply to unemployment if the job only lasted 7 weeks? And if so, would you have the same waiting time again? For that kind of travel they should pay more than that.