Straight answers to your questions

The IT Job Market

  1. What is the outlook for IT projects?
  2. In this expanding IT market, why should I consider joining Ferguson Consulting?
  3. Are there advantages to being an IT consultant compared with taking a corporate IT position?
  4. What advice can you give me for when I resign my current position to join Ferguson Consulting?

Working at Ferguson

  1. What types of positions are staffed by Ferguson Consulting employees?
  2. What skills do you look for in hiring an IT professional to become a Ferguson consultant?
  3. Why do you require a face-to-face interview?
  4. What is the difference between salaried and billable-hours employees?
  5. Will Ferguson tell me my bill rate? How and when do I get a bill rate increase?
  6. How do you market me – and re-market me once I have an out date?
  7. What is the average duration of a project or assignment?
  8. Who pays costs associated with out-of-town assignments?
  9. If I join Ferguson Consulting, can I commute from my home in another city?
  10. Will Ferguson work with H-1B and other foreign workers?

The Ferguson Difference

  1. Do consulting positions through Ferguson lead to full-time job offers from clients?
  2. Does Ferguson offer any sort of training and/or training allowance? How do I use the allowance?
  3. How does Ferguson stay connected with consultants when they’re working on clients’ premises for extended periods?
  4. How does being a Ferguson consultant compare with full-time corporate employment?

  1. What is the outlook for IT projects?
    As the economy shows signs of recovery, many companies that trimmed operations during the recession find themselves scrambling to satisfy emerging customer requests in addition to supporting mission-critical systems and technologies. Because practically every corporate function depends on or benefits from IT applications, the pick-up in business activity points to accelerated and growing demand for skilled IT professionals.

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  2. In this expanding IT market, why should I consider joining Ferguson Consulting?
    Our experience has shown that when the economy begins to bounce back, companies are more likely to engage consultants than to expand their payrolls. As a Ferguson employee, you have access to these attractive opportunities as they open up. That is because we are a highly respected IT firm that has developed strong and enduring relationships with our clients. We have earned a place on the preferred procurement lists of the best firms in our market. We maintain these relationships by continuing to match client needs with the most appropriate and qualified resources. In addition, we are a certified Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE). We are currently pursuing public-sector work to broaden our base of opportunities and address that segment of the IT contract market.

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  3. Are there advantages to being an IT consultant compared with taking a corporate IT position?
    Being a career IT consultant with Ferguson offers distinct advantages. As a consultant, you are in control of your career. That reality offers the best definition of job security that we can imagine, especially in budget- and productivity-driven work environments. Consultants who keep their skill levels up to date and market-relevant – traits that are embedded in Ferguson’s DNA – can expect to be considered for the most engaging IT assignments. As a Ferguson employee you seldom, if ever, experience gaps between project assignments. Moreover, you often will be assigned to projects that involve development and new technology while the client’s corporate IT staff supports existing systems. Because of our reputation for providing high-caliber resources, our bill rates tend to fall toward the high end in our market, even when economic pressures hold down the overall wage environment. In turn, we keep consultant wages highly competitive.

    Continuing exposure to new challenges and success completing successive assignments strengthens your résumé and expands your readiness for new opportunities. As a consultant you can choose among new challenges when an assignment hits a plateau. Working with Ferguson, you take responsibility for assessing opportunities and adding to your skills – you free yourself from corporate performance reviews, subjective salary ranges that apply across disciplines, and inter-department competition to capture finite corporate resources.

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  4. What advice can you give me for when I resign my current position to join Ferguson Consulting?
    Managers understandably do not like to lose valued employees. Turnover slows progress on a project, adversely affects co-workers’ attitudes, and adds to the workload of the remaining team. The current lean staffing that goes along with economic uncertainty is likely to magnify managers’ concerns. Under such circumstances, you may well receive an offer of higher pay or better perks to stay, but an unplanned pay increase or near-term promotion may affect subsequent decisions about how to reward you. Once you have let it be known that you are considering a career change, colleagues and bosses are likely to re-evaluate their perceptions of your loyalty and dependability. Even when a counter offer is made and accepted, employees often find that working relationships have changed, not necessarily for the better.

    Whether and when to change employers are among the most important decisions you face. It is up to you to weigh your options, think about the long-term impact of your decision on you and your family, and decide how much control you want to have over your own career. If you are considering becoming a consultant, stay focused on why this career path attracted your attention in the first place. Our consultants like the increased ability to control their own careers, the pace of new challenges, exposure to new industries, and opportunities to apply their passion for making processes work. If you are considering joining Ferguson, we urge you to act in the most professional manner as you make the transition. That is how we have built and maintain our reputation, and that is the behavior we look for in our consultants.

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  5. What types of positions are staffed by Ferguson Consulting employees?
    Our business model has consistently focused on providing IT application development resources to fulfill the project and staff augmentation needs of Fortune 400 companies in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. We recently received our GSA Schedule 70 and are prepared to apply our corporate experience in the public sector. Our full range of application development services extends from project design through implementation and support. We provide specific expertise in enterprise-level architecture and application development, project management, business analysis, QA testing, web design and helpdesk support.

    The recession forced clients to accomplish more with less, which means they now require “hybrid” IT roles with broader job descriptions. They are looking for proven ability to adapt to the changing needs, philosophies, and management styles of the new economy. We understand the increasing pressure on our clients to effectively manage contract labor services and achieve greater efficiencies.

    Among the roles we staff are:

    • Business Analyst
    • Project Manager
    • Java Developer / Java Architect
    • .NET Developer (C#, ASP.NET, VB.NET)
    • .NET Architect
    • C/C++ Developer
    • VB Developer
    • COBOL Programmer/Analyst
    • Data Analyst
    • Database Administrator
    • (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2)
    • Database Architect (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, MS Access)
    • Database Developer (PL/SQL, SQL, Access)
    • Data Warehouse
    • Business Objects Developer
    • Middleware Developer
    • WebSphere Developer/Administrator
    • WebLogic Developer
    • SAP Programmer/Analyst
    • SAP Analyst/Configurator
    • Web Designer
    • System Administrator
    • Network Analyst
    • Helpdesk Analyst
    • QA Tester (Manual and Automated)
    • Technical Writer
    • Six Sigma Business Process Analyst

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  6. What skills do you look for in hiring an IT professional to become a Ferguson consultant?
    Candidates must have very good to excellent skills in their core capabilities, a college degree, and at least five years of experience with excellent business references. IT professionals who expect to join the Ferguson team must submit complete and accurate résumés and handle themselves well in face-to-face interviews. Our thorough hiring process is an important contributor to our reputation for providing the best consultants to our clients, and our stringent review process is aimed at focusing on the top talent in the IT market.

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  7. Why do you require a face-to-face interview?
    Success as an IT consultant involves more than an attractive résumé and technical skills. We insist on face-to-face interviews because we want to be able to assess not only your IT capabilities but also your communications skills, how you interact with potential colleagues, and your ability to handle pressure situations. One of the main reasons that clients engage Ferguson consultants is our reputation for only submitting candidates who satisfy our thorough screening process.

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  8. What is the difference between salaried and billable-hours employees?
    All Ferguson consultants are full-time employees and receive W-2s. We are not an administrative staff for independent contractors. We offer our employees a choice between being salaried or working on a billable-hours basis. The difference between the two primarily relates to salaried consultants having paid time off, profit sharing, benefits and training in addition to salary, while under the billable-hours arrangement employees receive a higher hourly wage and self-fund time off, training, and benefits.

    Here’s how it works:

    • Salaried consultants are paid an hourly rate for all hours worked and are eligible for overtime, paid vacation, holidays, sick leave, training reimbursement, and profit-sharing. The package includes bench pay, which provides salary continuation in the rare event that a gap occurs between assignments. In general a consultant who has been with us at least a year can expect to receive bench pay equal to one week’s salary for each year of work with Ferguson.
    • Billable-hours consultants are paid an hourly rate for client billable hours only. It is higher than the hourly rate for full-time consultants because it incorporates the value of benefits and includes the expectation that billable-hours employees will pay for the training that is necessary to keep skills up to date and obtain specific training as directed by the client. Billable-hours consultants who have worked for Ferguson for 10 years and maintained an acceptable profitability level become eligible for 40 hours of paid vacation a year.

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  9. Will Ferguson tell me my bill rate? How and when do I get a bill rate increase?
    Ferguson generally discloses your bill rate to you when you start your first assignment. We also assess bill rates when assignments change and generally on an annual basis as well, taking into account market and economic conditions along with your track record for meeting project milestones and taking advantage of training opportunities.

    The exception to sharing bill rates occurs when the client stipulates that we cannot provide that information to you. That has occurred in certain instances when the client has team members who misuse their knowledge of relevant bill rates.

    We respect our consultants enough to share not only bill rates whenever possible but also the complete financial picture, including your cost and profitability to our business. When you are a Ferguson employee, we want you to understand the IT consulting business in addition to having excellent IT skills to apply to client assignments. The executives and staff at the Ferguson office are responsible for building long-term client relationships so that we can continue to provide quality opportunities for you. In order to develop and maintain these client relationships, we have to attract and retain the best resources. To do that, we provide competitive pay, excellent benefits, training programs, and career growth. Enhancing this circle of relationships among the company, our clients, and our employees is what we aim to achieve every day.

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  10. How do you market me – and re-market me once I have an out date?
    We market your core capabilities, and we leverage your secondary skills wherever possible. We market current employees before new hires who have comparable skill sets. Our operations managers regularly work with our marketing representatives to match new assignments with suitable consultants, and we help consultants develop new skills to take advantage of opportunities on the horizon. We begin marketing you for your next job four to six weeks before your current assignment ends, starting with meetings between you and the sales and operations managers. You will then receive at least one written communication per week regarding your status. We never submit your résumé without your permission. When you are re-marketed, we reassess your wage rate in light of market conditions.

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  11. What is the average duration of a project or assignment?
    The length of projects typically has varied from six months to two years. Because we select consultants carefully, it is not unusual for them to stay on a client site for successive projects over a period of years. More than half of our employees have been at their client sites for more than five years.

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  12. Who pays costs associated with out-of-town assignments?
    When our consultants are assigned to sites where they are subject to local earnings taxes, such as consultants who work but don’t live in the city of St. Louis, Ferguson covers these costs on the employee’s behalf. We also cover the cost of job-related parking fees and facilitate the reimbursement of any client-required travel expenses by invoicing the client and reimbursing you directly. As a Ferguson consultant, you have control over which assignments you accept. You can choose not to take an assignment away from home.

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  13. If I join Ferguson Consulting, can I commute from my home in another city?
    The recession’s effects have produced plenty of candidates for clients to choose among, and only the most cooperative and competitive are getting picked up. In this kind of environment we are more likely to see positive employment results when we can convey the candidate’s willingness to interview in person and relocate if an offer is made. Moreover, clients and Ferguson alike have had the unfortunate experience of matching skills with positions only to have the commuting employee resign as soon as a position opens up back home. To avoid the accompanying disruption in their business, clients increasingly insist on relocation. Candidates who choose not to do so move to the bottom of the prospect list. Ferguson respects our clients’ perspective and makes their preference part of our hiring decision.

    Out-of-town candidates who are offered face-to-face interviews on the basis of the initial screening by phone are responsible for their own travel to St. Louis. After an offer has been made and accepted and the candidate has started the new assignment, Ferguson will reimburse some of the costs associated with the face-to-face interview.

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  14. Will Ferguson work with H-1B and other foreign workers?
    Ferguson employs H-1B workers under certain circumstances. The worker must possess a highly marketable skill set so that there is strong potential for long-term employment. We require a relatively long-term initial assignment to justify the investment in USCIS filing fees and legal expenses related to hiring H-1B holders. We look for employees who are able to commit to an assignment and demonstrate flexibility with regard to the start date so that our clients don’t have to build waiting periods for visa approval into their project schedules. Generally candidates have to be available within three weeks of the offer date.

    H-1B workers should feel comfortable putting their trust in Ferguson’s meticulous process and track record of 100% approval of H-1B visa transfers. We work closely with visa holders and our immigration attorney so that the approach we take offers the best likelihood of success and minimizes risk. On a case-by-case basis we will consider sponsoring employees seeking permanent residency.

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  15. Do consulting positions through Ferguson lead to full-time job offers from clients?
    On occasion they do, and we don’t stand in the way of clients who want to hire our consultants. But it is not our business model to function as a placement firm. Our purpose is to provide staff augmentation to clients, and we hire consultants who want to become part of our team at Ferguson. We are looking for people who are passionate about their IT careers; appreciate the opportunities they have as consultants to develop, improve, and maximize clients’ IT systems; look for ways to enhance their marketable experience, and enjoy taking responsibility for staying ahead of the curve in a field that changes rapidly.

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  16. Does Ferguson offer any sort of training and/or training allowance? How do I use the allowance?
    Salaried employees accrue a $2,000 training allowance each year. The cost of training is integrated into the hourly pay rate of billable-hours employees, who are expected to cover their own expenses related to fulfilling training expectations. We attract the kind of people who want to invest in sustained employability, and we’ll work with you – whether you’re a salaried or a billable-hours employee – to help you do that, even increasing your training allowance if necessary. While the training must be related to your professional career track, you can select courses that enhance skills such as communication or time management in addition to technical training. Besides providing training reimbursement, Ferguson offers all of our consultants in-house classes and focus groups on the latest technology when it’s new – even before we know if it will be adopted and by whom.

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  17. How does Ferguson stay connected with consultants when they’re working on clients’ premises for extended periods?
    The corporate culture at Ferguson values teamwork and relationships, and we actively pursue a variety of communications channels to support that climate. One of the most important contributors to keeping consultants connected with Ferguson is our employees’ regular interactions with their operations managers. During the first month of a project and once a month thereafter, employees and these staff members meet in person or by phone to go over applicable best practices, the individual’s progress, project milestones, client requirements, and any potential risks to meeting project expectations. The substance of these discussions is shared with the Ferguson account manager responsible for that particular client as another check to make sure that client needs are being met. Besides paying detailed attention to project progress, the conversations between our employees and their operations managers cover training opportunities and other job-related topics. We encourage our consultants to take at least two training classes per year. We believe that this regular coaching, mentoring, and career guidance benefits our employees and helps maximize success at each client site.

    Our employees are required to provide weekly progress reports that include target dates and deliverables. These reports are shared with clients who request them as part of their relationship with Ferguson.

    We make two other communications channels readily accessible to all employees. One is an e-mail bulletin circulated every Friday afternoon to keep everyone current on events and company news. The other is the Ferguson Web site, which we update regularly. We also stay in touch through individual and team lunch meetings, discussion groups, and social events. We recognize our consultants’ service anniversaries every year. We take advantage of opportunities to celebrate our team members’ efforts and acknowledge their contributions to our clients’ success.

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  18. How does being a Ferguson consultant compare with full-time corporate employment?
    If you’re a full-time employee in a corporate IT department, your professional development is determined more by the dictates of that organization than by your individual career objectives. At Ferguson, IT isn’t a support function for our business – it IS our business.

    As a consultant, you get paid for overtime, which typically occurs with IT projects. By contrast, corporate IT staff members do not receive overtime pay. Your salary and assignments reflect project needs and your capabilities, unlike corporate employees whose promotions, perks, and performance reviews often are subject to forces beyond their control. Your career path in consulting allows you to capitalize on your growing knowledge and skills. On the other hand, corporate employees often find themselves doing the same thing year after year in a work pattern that mires them in outdated skills with limited industry experience. As a Ferguson consultant you can choose assignments based on the career you want for yourself. Our highly skilled consultants often develop relationships in which clients specifically ask for them, further ensuring continuous employment.

    Today’s fast-paced work environment defines experience as multiple skills, adaptability, and competence on many fronts rather than familiarity gained by doing the same thing many times over. In the demanding IT field, in which outcomes determine whether and how long relationships endure, the most reliable way to protect yourself from unemployment is to keep your skills on the leading edge through training and diversification of capabilities – the hallmarks of the Ferguson consultant.

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