survive this consultancy experience with a tad of humanity left

Without even realizing I’ve made it to step no. 2 (out of 3) in the recruitment process for a Dutch company (software development, just to be generic enough).

They contacted me because they could be interested in me as a writer. A technical writer. With programming skills.

True, I proofread debugged a portion of code they sent me (without knowing the language in the first place), but is there such a shortage in the Netherlands that they seriously consider an option having me relocate? I’ve never - EVER - programmed. And when I write on my resume “working knowledge of HTML, XML and shit”, I mean it (except that I didn’t mention excrements, of course).

Well, let’s see how the phone interview goes. If it goes well… I guess I will need advice from all of you geeky friends :)

... done.
Survived.
Contract renewed, a significant raise, and lots of compliments. Yay!
I was wary of everything about this job, but even if this project is a mess (must be something inherent to consultancy stuff) lately I’m having fun doing it.

I want to eat my boss’s heart out of his chest.
They payed way after the due time, and only after some pressure, and my credit card was blocked in the meanwhile.
Maybe I’ve been too naive expecting them to be on time, but I’m sure that raw heart meat will help me grow tougher and more experienced.

I’m-fu**ing-furious.

Roar.

... where all the strategic consultants end up working.
Unless you put together six extremely opinionated specimens, who never met before, and ask them to work on a certain task without a coordinator, with a very loose brief.
Then hell is on earth.

Get ready for the Armageddon.