You will have an opportunity
below to send us an email. But before doing so, please consider our requirements
carefully. And please resist the urge to call. There are no shortcuts to our
rigorous application process. All the necessary steps are outlined in detail
below. And our toll-free number is provided for our clients, not our
consultants.
MvCaTs is
spearheading a Paradigm Shift to remote PICK/MultiValue support.
We are looking for positive thinkers with the attitude "that might work", who
thrive on problem-solving, believing "all roads lead to Rome but some are better
roads". The single most important trait you must possess (other than
the ability to program) is the ability to follow instructions. We want Consultants who program themselves to succeed. If
you think you can, you're right; if you think you can't, you're right.
We are looking for exceptional Senior PICK/MultiValue
Programmer/Analysts with education, experience, and
expertise, who exhibit enthusiasm, self-confidence, and a passion for original thought.
We are seeking those rare individuals who show incredible attention to detail
(perfectionists ARE encouraged to apply) and who are committed to an
open exchange of ideas and resources and absolutely dedicated to preserving and enhancing
the PICK/MultiValue Database Model for years to come.
Our
Manager prerequisites include the following: a minimum of 15 years experience
in PICK/MultiValue Basic (any variant) and a 4 year degree in any
discipline to earn the title of
District Manager; a minimum of 10 years experience in PICK/MultiValue Basic (any variant)
and a 2 year degree or technical diploma in an Information Technology
discipline to earn the title of Project Manager;
experience working with a variety of MultiValue systems and their code
variations; some form of GUI
experience as it relates to integration with MultiValue; good people skills; the
ability to create PICK/MultiValue source code from scratch as well as to
maintain existing code; excellent verbal & written communication skills;
experience creating MS Office Word documents & Excel spreadsheets; desirable
skill sets such as AccuTerm GUI, Activant Prelude, DesignBais,
OpenInsight, System Builder, Visual Basic, Java, Oracle, CUBS, DataFlo, DataStage, DataTel Colleague,
Envision, InfoLease, web development, MS Office Access; experience working via
secure remote access using a Terminal Emulator application such as AccuTerm, ViaDuct,
wIntegrate, or HostAccess; demonstrated ability
to manage time and projects
effectively; and a strong sense of commitment to getting the job done right
- whatever it takes. Your resume must reflect client loyalty.
We would favorably consider a
Unix/Linux/AIX expert and/or a U2/AIX VAR with hardware installation experience.
To work
effectively with our clients, you MUST be able (and willing) to
multi-task. Rarely will you have the luxury of starting a project and
taking it all the way to completion uninterrupted. When you log onto a
port on a multivalue system, your process is given a timeslice. And every
other process gets a little less system attention while you are logged in.
If you've ever tried to log in and instead got the message "too many users", you
know how a client feels when a consultant is unwilling to take a few minutes to
let the client be heard. It's a great way to lose a good client.
Instead, you must be willing to give them your gracious, sub-divided attention.
You don't have to "drop everything" to start that new project; you simply need
to suspend temporarily what you are in the middle of for another client by
closing out that time log entry and opening another for the party in need.
They just want to know they've been heard and given an idea of when you hope to
be able to look into the matter. It will only take a few minutes of your
time, and the consultation is usually billable (unless it's a new client
prospect).
Mediocrity is
NOT spoken here. "Good enough" never is. Our Consultants are
expected to strive for excellence, even in the smallest details of the
simplest project. That means always coding to the best of your ability, testing
thoroughly for both desired and undesired input, and anticipating the "dough
boy" effect your changes may precipitate. (If you push it in here, it's
sure to pop out there.) Your performance is a reflection on us all.
Just as a General Contractor in the building trades inspects the work of a
sub-contractor before calling in the Building Inspector, our CEO will perform
final alpha testing as
Quality Assurance
before any deliverables are presented to a Client.
MvCaTs are on
the prowl for work that's right up your alley!
We
advertise and prospect for PICK/MultiValue Clients and seek to
match existing and new Clients with Consultant skill sets. We perform
monthly Time Billing, Accounts Receivable, and Payment services for Consultants
in exchange for services rendered to MvCaTs Clients. However, we do not
make any guarantee of future work. All qualified Managers will be given
the opportunity to accept a new project which will be assigned on a "first come,
first served" basis. So a timely response is critical. You would not
be under exclusive contract; instead, you would be encouraged to freelance for
your own and other non-MvCaTs Clients
between projects to
supplement your income as needed or desired. No MvCaTs Consultant works a
40 hour week for any Client. So if that's what you're looking for, find a
recruiter. We are a multivalue development corp.
You may be
running your own software corporation and supervising a staff of programmers.
As an MvCaTs Manager, you would be able to sub-contract MvCaTs projects to them.
You would be responsible to perform quality control on their work as well as
their timecards before presentation to our CEO. Their performance would
reflect on you as well as MvCaTs. Time billed for each of your programmers would be tracked
individually then emailed to you once a month on an itemized Time Billing Staff
Summary along with One check for the Total amount earned. You would then pay your programmers as you normally
do after a client
pays you. In this case, MvCaTs would be a "pseudo" Client of your
corporation.
Your
application will not be considered unless you are incorporated (filing IRS Form 1120 or 1120S) and working as an
Independent Contractor.
Incorporating protects your personal assets from litigation and enables us to
engage your Corporation on a non-employee basis. And you must not be working the equivalent of full-time for any one client.
In other words, you must currently be supporting at least two clients and submitting
monthly billing invoices to be paid for your time. W-2 employees will not be considered. Why?
Well, for one thing, you would not be
available during the day to support MvCaTs Clients; it would create a conflict
of interest. And for another, you would not understand the level of
commitment it takes to win and retain clients.
If you
are just now considering incorporation, a word of caution from our Independent Accountant: "Working as a
1099 instead has already cost you several thousands in lost tax breaks. Go
for INC as an S-Corp rather than LLC. Under the auspices of an
S-Corporation, in addition to many tax breaks, you can also set up a pension
fund. An LLC can only be classed as a Corporation if there is more than
one person in the company. But even then, it is really a partnership.
The IRS calls an LLC 'the new kid on the block' and targets it constantly for
audit. With an LLC, you will not get the tax breaks, you cannot even set
up your own payroll, and in some states such as CA, you may not even be allowed
to open a business bank account. In addition, an LLC offers very limited
liability protection." Since MvCaTs requires you to be classed as a
Corporation, if you do not have more than one person in your company, you must
go with INC, not LLC.
While we do
not offer Benefits, we can refer you to a wonderful and
reputable group which does. We encourage you to check out
Freelancers Union
which provides amazingly affordable Group Medical, Life, Dental, and Disability
Insurance for Independent Contractors. The
organization and its founder, Sara Horowitz, were profiled on The Jim
Lehrer News Hour on PBS television. Membership is free and includes such percs as discounts at Staples, drugstore.com, T-Mobile, Barnes & Noble,
VisionDirect, and others. They also offer doctor recommendations,
professional tips and forums, and classified listings. You can setup a
profile for self promotion and find other freelancers, locate work, or outsource
jobs. And they conduct seminars ranging from business plans to retirement.
We finally have an advocate!
As an MvCaTs
Manager, you
would work from your own District Office via secure remote access to Client
sites. And you would provide your own computer equipment, office supplies,
fax and cell phone, etc, just as you already do to support your own clients.
The pay rate you negotiate with MvCaTs will be considered sufficient to cover
any expenses incurred to service an MvCaTs Client. (Our Clients pay for
ALL travel-related expenses as outlined below.)
At MvCaTs,
we've got each others backs. As a collaborative effort, MvCaTs Consultants
are offered a Manager
Backup Agreement in response to
the popular Client
question: "What happens to us if something happens to you?".
This agreement provides sub-contracted support for the Manager's own clients and
software whenever the Manager is overwhelmed with projects or unavailable (on
vacation, under the weather, needs personal time, etc). We would bill your
corporation at a 20% discount off our remote rate, and you would bill your
clients at your regular rate. We currently have 100% participation.
As an MvCaTs Manager,
you MUST be
available during the day to support
our
Clients.
A Manager assists our CEO in specifying the Service Quote,
responding to Support Requests and interacting with the Client contact, assigning portions of the project to
themselves and other interested Consultants, and ensuring the Client's
satisfaction with the finished product. A Manager is free to consult with other
Managers to request advice or to ask if
another Manager already has a routine which
would accomplish what they are trying to do without the need to reinvent the
wheel. When another Manager participates in a project, that Manager will submit a Timecard
in order to be paid for their participation (see Daily Timecards
section below).
MvCaTs
pays a Fixed Percentage
of the Hourly Rate we bill the Client (AFTER any discounts have been applied).
If an Applicant passes muster with both our CEO and our General Manager, the Applicant will
be offered a
Fixed Percentage Pay Rate which we believe
to be commensurate with their education, experience and expertise. It is
then up to the Applicant to accept or negotiate a different rate. The
agreed-upon rate is then recorded in the Consultant Agreement. This
Agreement remains in effect until canceled or replaced. Here is an example:
if a Consultant negotiates for 60% of the Hourly Rate, the Consultant would earn
$75.00 per hour at our current Remote Rate of $125.00 and $99.00 per hour at our
Onsite Rate of $165.00. If a 10% SMA Discount off our Remote Rate was in effect, the Client
would be billed at $112.50 per hour and the Consultant, in this example,
would earn $67.50 per hour which is $75.00 - $7.50 (10%). Our rates
undergo an annual COLA on March 1st of each year.
With the
Percentage we keep, MvCaTs pays two types of Expenses: 1) Corporate
Expenses such as charitable donations, headquarters office rent, electric,
natural gas, water/sewer, trash pickup, telephone (land line, toll-free, fax,
cell), website hosting, insurance, office supplies, postage, maintenance &
repairs; 2) Administrative Expenses such as Wages & Matching Payroll for
our W-2 staff who perform Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll, Time
Billing, Accounting, Customer Service, Prospecting for New Clients, & Website
Maintenance.
In addition
to their Pay Rate, Consultants can earn
two types of Sales Commissions: one for Product Sales, the other for
Volume Sales. Our Product Pricing is designed to recapture a portion of
the Development Hours per unit sold plus a small percentage for Sales Markup.
If a Consultant facilitates the sale of any of our products to a new or existing
MvCaTs Client, they would earn their Pay Rate as a Product Sales
Commission on the Sales Markup portion of the Hours billed for those
products. If a Consultant encourages a new or existing Client to sign a new
quote, the Consultant would earn a 3.00% Volume Sales
Commission on all hours billed under that quote. Participation in
this program is voluntary and requires the signing of a Sales Consultant
Agreement.
Occasionally, a
Client requests
some Onsite Services.
No Manager is required to accept an Onsite project. But MvCaTs bills at a
32% premium above our Remote rate for these services in exchange for a
Consultant's willingness to leave the comforts of home, family, friends,
religious and community ties and responsibilities to endure the tedium and risks
of travel, to live out of a suitcase, eat restaurant food, and work odd hours in
an unfamiliar environment. You would need to take a Laptop computer in
order to access shared utilities, check email, and submit Daily Timecards.
Our Rates page includes a Sample Quote for an Onsite Survey. If a
Consultant accepted such a travel assignment, which includes 18 hours for
travel, a Travel Expense Advance would be mailed to the Consultant the day after
the Client's 100% Retainer was posted to our corporate bank account. In
the above 60% Pay Rate Example, the Consultant would receive an advance totaling
$1,782.00 to cover travel and onsite expenses. See our
Travel Policy for further details.
Our Consultants bill us by
submitting Daily Timecards
at the end of each day worked using Excel worksheet templates supplied by MvCaTs.
All Timecards are reviewed for accuracy and approved by our CEO before being
posted through Time Billing, Accounts Receivable, and Payment services. From these timecards, we generate
Time Billing Statements to our Clients on the first business day of the month
following a month in which services were rendered. Clients have until the
20th of the month to remit payment. After those deposits clear, a check
will be mailed to the Consultant's corporation, usually no later than the 27th
of the month (or the first business day thereafter if the 27th occurs on a weekend or corporate holiday) following a
month in which services were rendered to and paid for by MvCaTs Clients.
As an
Independent Contractor, you set your own Work Hours
based on Client expectation. MvCaTs has two Rate Classes: Remote and
Onsite. These rates are in effect around the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week, 365 days a year. Sometimes, a Client you have supported may be in
dire need at odd hours or on a weekend or holiday. You will be expected to
render support, even when it is an inconvenience, because you are a
professional.
To
succeed as an Internet-based multivalue development corp, frequent communication is vital. We expect
a Timely Response to
ALL attempts to contact an MvCaTs Consultant. When we cannot reach you at
your District Office or at your home, we must be able to reach you at
your Cell Phone number. And if we send an email, we expect a response
within 24 hours, if for no other reason than to acknowledge receipt of the
email. (If a complete stranger said "hello" in an elevator, you would say
"hello" back. It's common courtesy.) MvCaTs Consultants are not required to accept any project
offered. But they are expected to let us know promptly whether or not they
are interested in said project. Our Administrative Staff does not have
time to hand-hold or cajole. As the Gordon Lightfoot song says, "Step up or
step back." Not responding is not an option.
Three failures to respond in a timely manner will result in immediate
termination of the Consultant Agreement.
Application Guidelines
If your
career is at a crossroads or you are looking to supplement your income, and you meet ALL of our prerequisites stated above, you may want to consider Partnering with MvCaTs.
(If your credentials don't quite meet our prerequisites, but you strongly
believe you should be the exception to our rule, we invite you to use your
powers of persuasion via step 1 below.) Please resist the urge to call; instead first determine if you share the philosophy of our Home
page. Next, see if you agree with the policies on our
Guarantee and Rates
pages. Finally, see if your education, experience, and expertise compare
favorably
with our Credentials. If the answer
to ALL of these is YES, here is your first assignment:
1)
Click
here
to email a Detailed Cover Letter telling us a little about yourself and
your corporation, your enduring passion for PICK, your work ethic, how you heard
about us; describe your definition of integrity and tell us why you believe you would
be an ideal Manager for Client Accounts. By detailed, we mean
more than one or two sentences. How would we benefit if you were to join
our Alliance? What unique attributes would you bring to the table?
Also state the Hourly Rate you would like to earn. 2) The email
Subject Line must say Manager Applicant and nothing else. 3) Attach
your Resume in .doc format. 4) Attach the following Code
Samples
in .txt or .doc format: a) Your first sample
must be a PICK Basic routine which demonstrates comprehensive
character-based handling of
a MultiValue window data display with user paging options such as 'F'orward and
'B'ack. b)
Your second sample
must be a PICK Basic called subroutine
which validates
an ending date, receiving the beginning date variable as one of the parameters.
Allow both dates to be null. This subroutine must be GUI-friendly so it
could be called from either a GUI or a character-based driver.
c)
Your third sample
must be a recent screen snapshot of a GUI Screen which you
authored along with the event driver code as a .txt or .doc attachment.
Choose your code samples carefully.
We will not execute your samples; instead we will critique them for excellence in structure, logic, comments,
error handling, and syntax.
5) Attach a sample of your corporate billing statement so we can evaluate
the level of professionalism with which you present yourself to your clients.
And last but not least, since we will not be interviewing face to face, 6) Attach a
professional-looking thumbnail Photo in .jpg format (as seen on
our Credentials pages). Be sure to resize it for emailing, with a file size under 100kb and image dimensions no
larger than 640x480 pixels.
To be
considered, you MUST ACCURATELY COMPLETE all steps outlined
in the paragraph above. Only then will we
let you know that your application was received. And if we consider you to
be exceptional, our CEO will schedule a telephone interview. If you
present yourself well verbally, your application materials will then be
submitted to our General Manager for review. If both our CEO and our GM
give "two thumbs up", you will receive an invitation to join our alliance and be
offered a Fixed Percentage Pay Rate.
