On US Contract Rate Escalation

The key in dealing with marginal/offshored agencies is patience and persistence.

The verbatim jd in question [which appears to me as a Sr. position] was this:

Title: Linux Embedded Software Developer
Duration: Long Term Contract

Overview:
- Experince in Linux Embedded Software Developer
- EXPERIENCE WITH 16/32 BIT CONTROLLERS.
- EXPERIENCE IN LINUX KERNEL LEVEL PROGRAMMING.
- EXPERIENCE IN KERNEL CUSTOMIZATION, GRAPHICS
  LIBRARY USAGE/PORTING  &  SW ARCHITECTURE DESIGN.
- EXPERIENCE IN  TOUCH PANEL LCD, NAND MEMORY,
  RAM MEMORY, USB, MMC CARD & PROTOCOL DEFINITION
  OVER UART
- experience coding in C/C++.
- Agile project experience.
- Knowledge of wireless network protocols (Wi-Fi,
  BLE, ZigBee, IPv4, IPv6, etc.)
- Develop and design software that will interface
  with various embedded stacks (BLE, Thread, ZigBee)

Secondary Skills:
- GOOD WRITTEN AND VERBAL COMMUNICATION
- Experience with the spectrum tools used for
  source code management and development/test
  environments: VS, TFS, GIT, SVN, Bit Bucket,JIRA etc.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
  capable of writing appropriate documentation,
  and interacting with other engineering disciplines.
- Strong ability to communicate deep analytical
  results in forms that resonate with scientific and/or business collaborators, highlighting actionable insights.

Here's the rate escalation e-mail exchange I've had with this drone:

ulianov: What's the W-2 rate? Split per-diem offered?
Recruiter: Duration is long term & rate $45/hr on W2.
Commentary: This is the bare minimum ($90k/year) which
an H1-B is allowed by law.
ulianov: [Not replying for 3 hours.]
Recruiter: Duration is long term & rate $58/hr on W2
without benefits or $65/hr on 1099.
ulianov: Thank you for the rate adjustment. However
my customary W2 rate for outside California is $NN/h.
Recruiter: Please make it $70/hr on 1099
Commentary: This is less than I charge on W-2.
Also 1099 is unsuitable for me as it does not provide
per-diem.

Mind you most of these bottom of the barrel agencies do not want to provide split per-diem as they labour under the impression this is extra money they have to pay me... it's not. It's an IRS untaxed allowance for people working 60mi+ from their place of abode.

Educating them in the ways of the per-diem is painful so my advice is this (should you qualify for per-diem): if a recruiter is clueless about the per-diem then hang up.

-ulianov

On J0bDïva's Email Traffic

I've blocked them in my in-app firewall for the past 5 years but I was getting 1000's of hits a month which made me curious so I changed my mail server tarpit logic to collect (but reject) samples of their wares.

I noticed that the following agencies use this spamhouse:

artechïnfo
cõmpnova
damcõsoft
enterprïsesolutioninc
eteamïnc
fïrst-tek
hanstaffïng
ïttblazers
lancesõft
mr-hadlïkon
pyramïdci
shorewïseconsulting
systelïnc
usgrpïnc
vegåzva

These agencies are mostly lowballers, based in 1ndia and cater to the H¦-B crowd via low-low hourly rates.

More random H¦-B lowball specials:

cynêtsystems
expedïteinc
mïndlance
pinakïtech
sageïtinc

-ulianov

"New Jersey" Recruiter Strikes Back

Some recruiter apparently calling from NJ [favourite DID termination for offshored agencies] calls my Canadian recruiter line [not protected with the usual anti-recruiter spells & enchantments] and says that he's got an opportunity [they always call it that] in San Diego, CA with Q*alcomm.

So I started to reel the usual info out of the dunderhead: salary? "80 thousand a year is the budget". Status? "f/t".

Right after my name the masthead of my Resume has spelled in big bold block red letters in the language known as English the warning "only call for contracts". I tried to keep it as simple as messages found in airplanes or subway carriages. Also my Resume on Monster.ca carries in the masthead the message "do not call for US jobs". Hmm.

I should have cursed the heaten at this point but I just hanged up. Must apply enchantments to my Canadian line if calls come from outside Canada but my VoIP provider is too thick to provide such a filter.

-ulianov