Early Morning Market

So; post number two today, a little earlier than the last one (although it says posted at 8:49 - it a'int true). I have about 20 minutes before the markets open this morning, so I figured I'd get this post out of the way before my day actually gets going. No I am not a Stock Broker, Day Trader, Futures trader etc., I simply dabble; and yesterday (as you might tell by the tone of my post) was not a good day for any bluechip or tech stocks.

Anyways, so before the market opens and possibly disappoints and since last post was a wee bit pessimistic, I thought this one should be a little bit more uplifting. Engineering...hmm, well what can I say; if you like it and are in the field good for you, if you don't care and aren't in the field; get the f*@& off my blog...kidding, keep reading.
I keep writing this stuff and taking sips of my horrible work brewed coffee and think; anyone who tries this stuff for the first time will vomit, by I on the other hand have become...complacent I suppose...
Anyways; Engineering. So yesterday there was no work, or I should say very little work, and since I am a salaried employee (as opposed to hourly waged) I must hang around and log what's called Professional Downtime which basically means I am doing dick all and am not being charged out to a client (making the company a profit) so this is not a good thing. But by the same token, you can't invent work - it is supplied to you by senior staff members who put you on Projects. Yeah Projects...something we don't have a lot of at the moment. Why you ask? Well, Let me tell you, you eager little engineer you!

Remember not too long ago our friends to the south loused up the economy pretty bad - for everyone causing a global recession? Well although they are generally bad, it is good for our industry because the government injects "stimulus" funds into infrastructure, which theoretically; creates jobs for the masses. This is why sometimes our jobs (working for a Consultant; more on the different streams later) are labelled "recession proof". Not entirely true - here's why: Imagine a huge explosion that you can safely see and not get burned. Now imagine you are just far enough to not get burned by much to close to avoid the following shock wave (JPS analogy, copyright 2010, all rights reserved). We are now experiencing the shock wave; all clients (municipalities) have been given a deadline of which they MUST spend any and all allotted "stimulus" funds by. This caused them to take any work they may have had planned for 5 years down the road, brought up and rushed out. My opinion: any rushed job is a poorly executed job, and thus; the citizens of that city or region suffer with shitty infrastructure that may or may not get repaired, but will need it.

EXAMPLE:

Sole Sourced jobs: a job given to a firm with a proven track record and in good standing with the client, as opposed to the normal bidding process that most jobs are won through. Sole Sourced jobs are rare (from municipalities rather than private clients or high level government: DND) because they aren't "fair" to all consulting firms, so they are only performed on occasions where some kind of deadline warrants the need for speedious action.

Now, not too long ago we received an odd job from a client, which was; to review the technical details and designs for a job about to be tendered by another (fairly respectable) firm - which has never happened. Basically the client is burning any and all stimulus money they have for fear of a reduced federal budget...great! So, my company got payed a lot (enough for me to put a down payment on a home and buy a serious high performance German sports car) to have us "review" their work.. what? you don't trust your originally selected consultant? Pathetic.

Anyways, the market opened 4 minutes ago, time to read the news and see how much more money I will lose today... Until next time