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I have used spiceworks from time to time, but I'm not familiar with the points system. Will he get a prize or something?

I have 1,385 points. It may be a while before I get to triple PC.

I dunno, I thought it would be something more exciting. Like @scottalanmiller flying to the moon or something. I'm not really familiar with the workings of Spiceworks. Is triple-PC good?

Oh, I see. I have to say, this thread has turned into something of an anticlimax for me.

Erm, I still have no idea what you are talking about.

Erm, I have no idea what you are all talking about. What is the Countdown?

You're the best @Joyfano

If I understand you correctly:

From rules wizard select 'start from a blank rule'. Then tick 'with specific words in the sender's address'. So it looks like:

*Apply this rule after the message arrives with wave.com in the sender's address move it to the **wave *folder

@DenisKelley said:

@Minion-Queen said:
To do a flat rate to cover for actual cost of work you have to over charge a client to cover for those things you just can't predict.

-Amen. Customers never really understood that.

That's not strictly true. If you think a job will take 20 hours, unpredictability means it might take 24 or it might take 16. So the client might gain four hours or you might gain hours. On average, neither party will be out of pocket, so it is not necessary to charge for 24 hours, only 20.

Now the customer may not be happy if you get the work done in 16 hours when you've charged him for 20, and so he may feel ripped off. But that's because the client is an idiot. I'll happily send a consultant home if they unexpectedly finish a job early since I'm paying for the job to be completed and therefore don't care how long it actually takes. Mind you, I once paid over a grand for a job on the premise that it would take a day and the consultant finished it in under an hour. I raised my eyebrows, but still paid up without complaint.

I prefer to pay for time and materials rather than a flat rate, but some of my consultants actually prefer a flat rate. It's the same with support & maintenance contracts - I'd prefer to only pay for the hours I use, rather than a flat "unlimited support" type of contract. But not everyone offers that. ERP vendors, for example, typically charge 10% of the licence fee per annum for support, and after a few years when the ERP system is stable and no-one has any issues, they make a very good living off these support fees. ERP profit is all in the tail.

Do you mean actual productive hours or hours we are physically in the office? Consultants tend to do less chatting and general messing around, so are here for fewer hours but get more work done than normal office workers. Their days are normally fairly intense. Most of the ones I know work weekends as well, so very little downtime.

For general office workers, in the UK we're in the office for longer than the French and Germans, but spend more time in the office on Facebook (or in my case, MangloLassi). I'm not into socialising with colleagues, but some of my colleagues chat for at least an hour a day, sometimes two. Plus time spent making endless cups of tea!

@Dashrender said:

Wow, you guys only work 7 hours a day? I sincerely wonder how European countries are able to compete when the work shifts appear to be so much shorter than the US.

It's a good question. Although I don't know how you guys stay productive and don't burnout working 12 hour shifts. After a few 12 hour days I'm always knackered and need a rest!

All the consultants we use are less than 3 hours drive away from here. It's a small country and we're located in the middle of it.

12 hours?! Is that normal in the US? I'm in the UK, and I'd say 7 hours is the norm, or even less. They normally arrive around 9.30, 30 minutes for lunch (though the majority will skip lunch and survive on a diet of coffee and chocolate), and then leave around 4.30. Things sometimes take longer than planned and I'd expect them to stay, but it's rare anyone will stay past 6.

On a Friday, if its a simple job, I'll often finish it for them and let them leave at 4 or even earlier to avoid the traffic. I may be a soft touch.

@ajstringham said:

I had watched his house for him while he was out-of-state

@scottalanmiller said:

Single spacing just seems sloppy, still.

Double spacing just seems weird.

Apart from anything, consider the wasted time. You've written over 2.8 million words on your blog, right? Let's say an average of 10 words per sentence. That's 280k extra spaces you've typed. Let's say an average of 120 spaces per minute and that's almost 40 hours of your life that you've wasted. 40 hours hitting the space bar, for no reason at all.

Life's too short!

@DenisKelley said:

I understand what you are saying, but it is not uncommon.

I know. I realise I may be being unreasonable. It just bugs me. I had a meeting with someone I'd never done business with before who was quoting 70 days of consultancy at $1500 per pay plus expenses. Half-an-hour into the meeting and he was discussing what kind of hotel they like to stay at. Their office is 58 miles away. It just annoyed me. OK, they're unlikely to actually stay over anyway (who would when you're less than 60 miles from home?), but then why did he mention it? And the mileage is only 50 bucks, but it's the principle of the thing.

I have more sympathy for a one-man band consultant charging $1000 a day. He's trying to keep his overheads low, and to a degree he's passing those cost savings on to me. But this was for a massive organisation employing hundreds of people. I don't think it would be unreasonable to assume they can absorb a few nights in a hotel.

I hope I don't sound too harsh. I've been told by a few different consultants that I'm one of the kindest people to work for. I've heard stories of consultants being treated like servants, and it's far from that when you work here.

Do you charge your clients for them?

It's something of a bugbear of mine, I don't know why. I get a quote for some consultancy off someone and it's "$1500 a day plus mileage and expenses". I kind of feel if someone charges $1500 a day they can buy their own dinner. I feel I should pay for someone to work here for 8 hours, but what do they after they leave here shouldn't be my concern - drive home, stay in a hotel, whatever - I'm not interested and I don't like footing the bill.

It's not because I'm tight, it just seems weird to me. Maybe I should just get over it, right?

Just interested in what you pros do and how you feel about it.

Ashamed of that My Little Pony game you bought?

@ajstringham said:

I never claimed to be some master. I was just sharing what I've done and what has worked well for me. Notice the opening lines of the article.

No worries. I don't think the opening lines make this clear. Also, how do you know you didn't get jobs despite your resume? You could have a rubbish resume but be so awesome people offer you work anyway? See SAM's "well it worked for me" thread.

I'm not having a go. I just find the art of resumes to be so difficult. I really haven't a clue, despite having a fairly varied 20 year career as both an employer and an employee. One thing I would note is that when everyone follows an accepted "best practice", resumes become bland and derivative. It's a bit like modern websites - they all start to look the same (same colour scheme, same fonts, same layout, same bland statements). A resume that breaks all the rules could be the one that stands out and attracts the right kind of attention. Maybe.

Yeah? Looks crap to me. My lad uses Lego for the physical world and Minecraft for the virtual world. Trying to combine the two looks a bad idea to me - you just end up with a really crap (and no doubt expensive) version of Minecraft. It looks like the models have to be really, really simple which would frustrate the hell out my lad who would try and build complex structures and get totally frustrated.