As Bob said, it is Normal (though unprofessional). I would bet anyone with just a few years experience in the mercenary field tech world has had the exact same thing happen to them.

It is one of the really annoying parts of this business (beyond the extremely low pay). You wait, and wait, and wait for these "notice to proceed" statements and when they finally come in the client goes insane and starts pressuring you to get the project done ahead of schedule. And that is because they are now behind schedule because they waffled on the getting the work started in the first place...

Note: There are often justifiable reasons for the delay. For instance, I got delayed on a gig in Arkansas for almost 5 months because of a MOA discussion with a local Native American tribe.

I have a semi-permanent (I never feel I have job security in this field) gig as a field director and my managers will typically only give me about 12-24 hours notice that I need to be 3 states away for about a month... which makes family life really difficult and stressful.

Unfortunately, some managers will keep saying "just a bit longer" over and over again, so their crew doesn't just up and take new gigs. In the future, if you are looking at CRM and actually have a job in hand you might want to tell said employer that 2-weeks notice might not happen... Of course that employer has to be a bit reasonable.

The mercenary field tech life is a nasty one. I always detested having to look for a new job every week to two weeks. Then, get out on the project (usually 200 to 500 miles away from home) and it starts raining... so "No pay; No per diem". Companies are starting to at least let you keep the per diem now-a-days. Unfortunately, for new grads like yourself this is really the best way to get exposed to the business, get your name out there on people's rolo-dex, and you really get the idea of whether or not you want to stay in this line of work.

Good luck out there.

[quote:="Mandy"]I can't wait around for these jobs anymore, and have now started to look for any employment I can get. I quit a good job to end up doing nothing, and am extremely disappointed.

my advice is, don't wait around for companies. I know times are a bit lean right now, but in general, if a company can't get their crap together then you don't really owe it to them to wait by the phone or quit your current job. You have to do what is right for yourself. That doesn't mean blowing them off either, but let them know that you have bills to pay, you have gotten another job and if they still need you then availability can be worked out at that time.

It seems that everyone has pulled the "in a couple of weeks" spiel at least once. As Bob and McBain have noted sometimes there are legitimate reasons for delay, BUT, it is extremely unprofessional and discourteous to string along field crew while the machinations take place. I agree with Prisoner here; if the company cant get it's business in gear too bad for them if you've signed on with someone else. They certainly dont have you on retainer so you owe them nothing once they finally get their act together. If they call and say they are ready to go, politely explain to them that you waited as long as you could but had to take work elsewhere. If they dont appreciate your position in this matter, it's not likely they will appreciate you in anything else.

Cheers,
Richard

It is unfortunate that some companies "jump the gun" so to speak before they have all the required documentation to proceed with a project and then in the meantime they hype the project to potential hires and string them along with promises of work.

With the company I have been working at for the past several years, we frequently are awarded contracts and then begins the snail-pace process of getting the contract signed and the final notice to proceed. As an example, we just received a signed contract and notice to proceed for a project we were awarded a year ago, AND a year ago we did not promise to hire anyone for the project nor did we tell any of our crew about it then in an attempt to keep them on or to string them along. We knew the process would take a long time.

I too have been the victim of the run-around back in my tech days. I had zero tolerance for it then, and still do. I never waited around tho, I took the first job that came along (with decent pay) that I knew was a certainty, and never spent more than a week unemployed. I also began my job searches as soon as there was a whiff of being strung along on a project I was on and almost always had a job lined up before the project I was on then came to an end and even then I usually left that project before it came to an end. All too often I have heard of companies abruptly ending projects with little or no warning to the employees.

Scott