Pros
As a contractor, I was given great benefits and a steady pay. At first, never working an inbound phone job before, you can be a little antsy when the phone rings and you have no idea what this new (or even old) client will need, but after a while you settle down with all of the tools and work becomes pretty easy, outside of the few odd / high severity calls. I gained a lot of experience that would otherwise had not been given to me, just getting out of school. There is a very diverse mix of propriety and open software used depending on the client you work with. Depending on your position, you may be working full time with one client (high call volume) or with many clients. The people I worked with were very nice and fun to talk to for the most part, on the phone and around my cubicle. There will always be angry users and you have to understand that they are angry at the software, not at *you* unless you give them a reason to be.
Cons
Very little to no training. When I first started my manager briefly introduced me to various ticketing systems, and after two weeks of listening to calls I was given a desk and a few clients. I mentioned before that there can be some anxiety when answering calls for a client you have no idea about, and before you ease into the client it can be very stressful when you don't know what you are doing. With my position, it was understood that I would be working with a lot of accounts. Toward the end of my resignation, we had gone from at least six or seven accounts to twelve or thirteen. There has to be a limit as to how many accounts you can throw at a technician, especially with the lack of training. Especially when it was a client that hardly called in, the anxiety would go through the roof as you asked yourself if you even had that Helpfile open when the phone rang. As a contractor, you are not given very much room for time off while employees signed onto the company can work up a week, two week vacation, etc. While I lasted as long as I could, I noticed that with a majority of technicians there was a negative viewpoint on contractors. Some would even use the word "contractor" as some sort of slander. It got to the point that, unless I knew the coworker well enough, I would never bring up the fact I was a contractor even if they asked me. My main concern with contracting is a loophole within the contract. I was given a three month contract, as in after three months of work I would be evaluated and be either let go or hired onto the company. I do not know how the in house hiring process goes, and I can't blame my manager directly as I believed him when he told me he was trying. The problem was that there is a loophole that allows senior management to renew my contract as many times as they see fit (if this is a loophole I'm not sure, but it sure feels like it). After nine months of being told "we are working on it" and seeing my coworkers getting better pay with new accounts, bonus packages I'd miss out on, denial of vital security protocol/software because of the contract status, and lack of time off, I eventually had to make my leave.
