Thanks, but I *have* a job.

Sara made a good point about being out of work for so long

But you have to understand that I am in Canada. I am a Canadian. I am not an American. I don’t live or work in the States.

In Canada, our job market is not as dynamic or as strong as the States for IT. Point blank, it isn’t.

I have seen plenty of jobs and contracts for what I do. I’ve had calls from brokers asking me if I could come and work… but they are all for the States.

I am Canadian. I can’t go over unless I go on a TN visa which will then switch to a H1B if I want to stay as a permanent employee of the company.

I also looked into going over as a corporation, but I’d have to set up a U.S. holding in the States, and/or other really long-winded, full-of-legal-mumbo-jumbo things that aren’t worth it.

My taxes also become really stupid, as I have to make sure to stay a Canadian in all sense of the word so that the States doesn’t start taxing me as a citizen there and making me pay for Social Security when I don’t even have access to any of those services.

And the companies in the States don’t want to deal with the paperwork right now because they think they can find an American.

So really.. it is the Americans who won’t let me in, a specialized IT worker, to fill the glut in the IT market that they are currently experiencing, because of the super high unemployment rate and the lack of IT professionals IN my “specialized” area.

I don’t want to go into more details, but I am not as specialized as what you’re imagining, and there are a LOT of jobs and contracts for my skill set in the States. I am just not able to take them right now.

To be frank, not anyone can just enter my specialized field as a citizen wanting work, unless they want to lie about what they know on their resume.

Someone who was an IT professional in another area for many years, can’t just learn what I do overnight. It takes about 3-5 years, with solid projects to really understand the job.

They also need to be on projects to learn what I do, and unless they join a consulting firm and re-learn a whole other area, they can’t do my job.

So that’s sad that everyone is in an unemployment glut right now, but in what areas? In what industries? Not in mine, for sure.

All the professionals I know in my area in the States are busy as heck and some are trying to take on two projects at a time, which is suicide.

And a lot of fake professionals who pretend they know what they’re doing in my area, tend to f*ck up everything because they’re lying and don’t know what to do.

I’m getting screwed by liars because they get on a project and don’t know what they’re doing. Which causes companies to now mistrust anyone who says they’re an IT professional.

I also don’t see how you can berate me for writing about what I’ve learned on my best job, just because I am currently not on contract.

I can still write about my experiences and what I’ve done, without having a contract, and I find your comment kind of narrow-minded.

It’s also all right, and even expected that freelancing IT professionals don’t have a “job” as you put it every single day.

There are lean years and there are fat years. Everyone knows this. If they don’t like that, they work for a corporation who makes them come into the office and sit in a cubicle for 8 hours, doing nothing, just because they want to see them there.

I prefer to work for myself, and have lean years so I don’t deal with their bullshit.

I HAVE a job.

If someone was with a corporation but not on a project, would you think that they didn’t have a job?

Of course not.

I am working for a corporation now. It’s just MY corporation and I am not on a project at the moment.

I am still getting paid and I am still making my bills, just like they are.

I just get my entire paycheque for the year, at the start of the year, which to some, might count only as “savings”, but that’s my entire livelihood and my cash for the year.

I just get it up front all at once for a year or however long I need to use the money for, rather than spread out over the year, doled out by a company.

The corporation doesn’t manage my money indirectly by giving me paycheques every 2 weeks.

I have manage my money by getting all the cheques at once and being judicial in how I spend it on bills or save it.

The company you work for, can also lay you off once you aren’t on contract any longer and they need to save money to pay for everyone else — accountants, HR folk, salespeople who have traditional “jobs”.

I won’t ever lay myself off from my corporation, I just have to manage the money better.

I also run my own corporation as a freelancer, and day-to-day, I do other jobs in my company such as file my own taxes which I’d have to normally pay an accountant for, do my own books and basically prospect for jobs as a sales person.

In doing so, I save myself $4000 a year (with BF’s help on the French forms) by doing it all by myself.

So if I sound defensive in this post, it’s because I am.

I do get annoyed (not at you specifically, but in general) when I’m being asked if I am working or if I have a job.

I AM working. I HAVE a job. I just own the company and do other functions that would normally be done by other employees.

It doesn’t mean I don’t have a job when I don’t have a contract. It is the life of a consultant.