Bargaining positionI am a young electrical engineer currently working as a contract employee at a large Aerospace products company in Michigan. I graduated 1.5 years ago and have been at this position for 14 months. I currently am working on two projects that are very high priority. High enough to get my Technical Manager involved who overseas a couple hundred engineers and only gets involved in the important issues. I'm not expecting a company to offer me the world, but thus far I have had no raise, my benefits are all out of pocket, and I don't get so much as a "good job" from my bosses...which I can deal with for the right pay. I feel that I'm in a position to bargain for a permanent position with better pay. I've made my aspirations of becoming a perm hire very clear to my managers and have sent them my resume. Problem is, the manager in charge of hiring/firing has no clue what's going on and has to rely on second hand knowledge. I've also been applying around a little bit and have had an interview with a very appealing company. But, I would like to stay with my current company. They are hiring like crazy, so I know they need people. With all that background, somebody please tell me what I should do to get the job I want, realistically. Thanks for your help. I really don' t think most of this is under your control. First off, they may be quite happy having you as a contractor. Adding an FTE to the budget is a significant project and generally involves a lot of politics to accomplish. It is 50/50 as to whether they' re willing to put in that effort on your part, and 50/50 as to whether or not they' ll be successful. As a contract employee, you do not get your raises from the Aerospace company. You get them through the agency that you' re working for or if you' re working for yourself, they' re part of the contract you negotiated. Same with benefits. Contractors are not employees and most companies make a point to keep that relationship separate since there are huge penalties for crossing over. This is quite likely why you' re not hearing "good job" from the bosses. You' re just going to have to wait and see if an offer of a permanent position comes your way or not. If it does, you can expect that it could be as much as 30% LESS than what you' re currently making to account for the benefits you' d get as a "real" employee. You might get an offer of the same amount, you might get an offer of more, but it is more than likely you' ll get an offer that is actually less. I know you feel that you' re indispensable and have some sort of leverage here, but frankly I doubt that is so. Even though you' re doing a great job and working on two high priority projects, you' re still a new grad and lots of other people could do the same so you may not have a lot of negotiating room if it comes down to that. It may however, still be a great idea to take a permanent position if it comes your way to continue to build your experience, get your foot in the door and get benefits. I see what you' re saying and I do agree with you. This morning when I woke up I realized that I need to just stick it out there and get a couple years of experience on my resume. There is an open perm position doing what I' m doing now, so I may just get in contact with my line manager and, once again, express my interest. Aside from politely making it known to the proper people that you' d like to be considered for any appropriate full-time positions that come up, I think that' s about all you can do. I honestly don' t think you' re in a position to bargain for the full-time job, beyond letting the right people know that' s what you' d like to do. One way or the other, you' re a contract employee and the employer doesn' t HAVE to do anything more than honor the terms of that contract. | |
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