As someone in a contract position, I couldn't agree more!
I just finished a code review where I finally figured out why I kept butting heads with the lead developer (a lifetime employee of the company contracting my services).
They had been trying, albeit only implicitly, to drill deep domain knowledge of the application into me. In the meantime, I've been doing everything I can to refactor the application so that it can be more readily understood, sans domain knowledge (knowledge that I couldn't use with another team in the same department, never mind at different companies). In short, I've been trying to make myself unnecessary, instead of turning into an essential member of the team.
As a contractor, I expect to not be there in a few months, so I can fix the code until I'm not needed. The "native" employee, on the other hand, feels the need (conscious or unconscious) to protect the code and the livelihood that comes with it. When you improve code to the point that even an intern could maintain it, you're providing huge value to the company. Keep that in mind (and the salary costs you'll spare them) when pricing yourself.
I just finished a code review where I finally figured out why I kept butting heads with the lead developer (a lifetime employee of the company contracting my services).
They had been trying, albeit only implicitly, to drill deep domain knowledge of the application into me. In the meantime, I've been doing everything I can to refactor the application so that it can be more readily understood, sans domain knowledge (knowledge that I couldn't use with another team in the same department, never mind at different companies). In short, I've been trying to make myself unnecessary, instead of turning into an essential member of the team.
As a contractor, I expect to not be there in a few months, so I can fix the code until I'm not needed. The "native" employee, on the other hand, feels the need (conscious or unconscious) to protect the code and the livelihood that comes with it. When you improve code to the point that even an intern could maintain it, you're providing huge value to the company. Keep that in mind (and the salary costs you'll spare them) when pricing yourself.