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A comment on Ask HN: Why do you hire engineering contractors for mid-term job?.

Re:Ask HN: Why do you hire engineering contractors for mid-t... by giantg2 on Thursday March 11, 2021 @01:09PM (#26427066)
At my company, we hire contractors usually as a way of staffing at least 30% of the resources in a flexible way. Meaning we keep them for about 3 years, let them go for about 18 months, and they are free to come back for another 3 years. This way the company can just cut them loose if we see a market downturn without having to fire a regular employee.
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Re:Ask HN: Why do you hire engineering contractors for mid-t... by JohanCutych on Thursday March 11, 2021 @01:24PM (#26427235)
That's interesting way of keeping to company flexible for market downturns. But do you hire contractors for even shorter terms? If not, I am curious to hear why. Is it because 3 months are not enough to get them up to speed? Thanks for jumping in!
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Re:Ask HN: Why do you hire engineering contractors for mid-t... by giantg2 on Thursday March 11, 2021 @02:07PM (#26427731)
This seems fairly typical for large non-tech companies. They all seem to flirt with the line when it come to shadow employees.

We usually don't do less than 3 months for a contractor. If it's that short of a time, we are usually looking for a consultant/vendor just to get the system or new technology set up correctly for regular teams to take advantage of.

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