[MRM]

Or contract for hire means we need a body for six months but we don't want the permanent headcount when we cut the position. You just don't know.

The best thing to do is be very candid with them about your concerns. If they are worth working for they will appreciate your concerns. If not, you are better off knowing they plan to jerk you around before you place your career in their hands.

As things get serious with them, tell them that longevity and permanance of the position are important to you, that you can't take all the risk, including the risk that they are well meaning but that at the end of the contract someone higher than them decides to cut your position despite perfect performance, and that you can't place your career and family's wellbeing in such a precarious position without some assurances. And that if you receive meaningful assurances you'll be the best and most loyal employee they ever had.

One final thought. When you're looking for work, it's always flattering to have anyone say they like you and want you to work for them. In a workplace where employers are telling employees they are not wanted, anyone telling you the oposite is so flattering that it can cloud your judgment. There is a saying, I think it comes from Korea or someplace in the east, that you should make every decision twice - once when you're drunk, and once when you're sober. The "drunk" decision comes when you first have the idea and it seems like a great idea, like all new ideas and oportunities do, so you get drunk on the idea and push ahread blindly. After you get past the drunk on a new idea stage, think it over coldly and soberly: Is this the kind of job you want, is this the next step in my career that I want to take, how does this oportunity compare to others?

This is a bad market, but it will be better a year from now (it will get worse until then) so you want to walk the fine line between not passing up something that turns out to be a good place to sit out the rest of the storm, and a dead end position that keeps you from pursuing the position you really want.