[mschoebel]

Never call yourself a hacker. To non-tech people "hacker" has the meaning of "illegally hacks into computers".

[EStudley]

True, but if he's looking for contracting work hopefully his CV will be in the hands of an engineer rather than a hiring manager/HR.

[eropple]

Engineers only very rarely make decisions about contractors. If you're trying to do this stuff, you need to talk to managers.