Welcome to Excell.com

Jodi -
Software Project Manager
"Contracting allows me to focus on building my skills and maximizing my income instead of trying to get ahead by staying with one employer for a long time…"

How did you get into contract consulting?
I've been in this industry for over 15 years. Throughout my career I have seen and been personally impacted by lots of changes - mergers, layoffs, you name it. Nothing is constant and the only thing you can count on in the New Economy are your skills. I decided to focus on building my skills and maximizing my income instead of trying to get ahead by staying with one employer for a long period of time. I've mainly been doing six-month assignments. The nice thing about working through a consulting firm is that it gives you comfort that somebody else is hustling business so you don't have to lag behind engagements. I've had little or no down time between assignments. Although I could have had time off, I didn't want it.

Tell me what this past year has been like with Excell
Well, I'm involved in very interesting work right now in which I am doing Total Cost of Ownership calculations for a very sophisticated IT organization that uses state-of-the-art technology everywhere. During my previous assignment I worked as a hybrid Project Manager/Systems Analyst on a six-month assignment enhancing a mission-critical system in a government environment. This was a really cool project that involved developing an emergency resource center which was deployed throughout several government organizations to supplement the regular emergency operations center when there is an overflow of emergency calls. It gave citizens a place to call and it involved integrating their GIS database together with the web. In an emergency situation, you may not see the full extent of a particular situation as it unfolds unless you are able to bring together information from multiple sources and view it visually in combination with the GIS data. I had a lot of fun with that project.

What sets Excell apart from other contract consulting firms you have worked with in the past?
You are a hired gun and this comes with unique challenges. Thank heavens my Excell Resource Manager was able to provide guidance for me when I came to this environment. They really made the difference in terms of giving me direction on how to be successful and how to work with different personality types within these different organizations. Excell's Resource Managers don't leave you feeling stranded - it's great to know that there is somebody who is concerned about you and will go to bat for you. My Resource Manager and the recruiters I have worked with have been wonderful. The issues are more prevalent in a constantly changing organization like the one I am in right now.

How would you compare your income and skills growth in consulting as opposed to working as a full time direct employee?
I would say my skills growth as a consultant has been 50% faster. I have learned to adapt to a number of different environments. It's quite lucrative - I'm definitely being paid well above my peers. In fact I would consider myself quite spoiled - I would need to take a $15,000 salary cut if I were to go elsewhere. My people skills have grown 100% because I've now been exposed to so many different environments. My planning skills have also improved quite a bit. I'm much more confident now taking on a wider variety of complex projects.

You indicated that you had some challenging experiences with other consulting firms you had worked with in the past...
There are always issues and that is why it is so important to have a really great consulting firm behind you. OK, here is a horror story - the last consulting firm that I worked for before Excell assigned punitive measures for turning in timesheets late. If you turned your timesheet in late twice they took away your direct deposit privileges. With Excell, my assignments have been seamless from one to another, but you definitely cannot count on that with other firms - most of them tend to forget about you once they have placed you on assignment. Excell is like the Nordstrom of the contract consulting business - they provide an exceptionally high level of service and support to their consultants. It's been a really great experience overall.

Where would you like to be two years from now?
Sometime down the road I'll definitely consider a full time employment again, but what's great about contracting is it gives me the opportunity to try out a lot of different environments. I'm really happy where I'm at right now and I hope to continue enhancing my skills, my income and add significantly more experience on my resume.