Many in IT would share your interpretation, and in fact consider themselves contractors. It is a rather loose use of the term; in most fields, working for a temp agency on a hourly basis, under someone else's direction, would be considered temp work, not contracting. "Temp work" is not necessarily bad--there is often a trade-off of higher salary for less fringes. Whatever it is called, it is still a temp job.
"Contracting" implies a negotiation for a fixed price for specific deliverables; if those deliverables are X warm bodies at Y dollars per hour apiece, the agency is a contractor, but the temps it employs are salaried employees, not contractors. If you negotiate a contract to complete a specific bit of work for a specific price, and your only responsibility to the client is delivery of the end product, not how that end product is produced, you are a contractor. Why does all this matter, and why is it not just quibbling over trifles? Because experience as a salaried temp does not equate to experience as a contractor; the latter implies an entire range of skills that are necessary in some positions, and sadly lacking in many IT workers who call themselves contractors. > If I work for an agency and report to a third party, to me that is a> > contractor. Is that not interpretted as a contractor?> > I always made the > determination that I would not discuss gigs that> were planned for less than > six months and several gigs went close to> two years. It was almost normal > that my contract was extended> multiple > times.http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and > Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites _________________________________________________________________ Peek-a-boo FREE Tricks & Treats for You! http://www.reallivemoms.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM&loc=us
