Why do you want to become an I.T. contractor? What are your hopes?

[diseasex]

Because had business mind since beginning of the career and was feeling suppressed at permie job?
Contracting freed me

[northernladuk]

I was born to be a contractor.

[MrMarkyMark]

Because had business mind since beginning of the career and was feeling suppressed at permie job?
Contracting freed me

And then we were lucky enough to benefit from your wisdom here.

Always winners and losers, in life, I guess

[MrMarkyMark]

I was born to be a contractor.

Other less charitable people may feel it suitable to switch in a more richly descriptive word of their choosing

[diseasex]

I was born to be a contractor.

I was selling books on local market when i was 6. bought them for like 0.01p from local russian shop and resold them for 0.50p each(currency doesnt not matter). At some point there was massive queue to my "box" , which was sand box used to spread sand on roads in the winter

[LondonManc]

Jeepers, MarkyMark on a windmilling session here. Stand back people!

[MrMarkyMark]

Jeepers, MarkyMark on a windmilling session here. Stand back people!

Back on track.....

Virtually the whole family are / were self employed, I'm sure this does have an influence as you are growing up.

Just realised, I have admitted that my whole family are tax dodging scum (copyright George Osborne)

[sal]

In this order....

1) Autonomy
2) Variety
3) Money

Yes, money was at the bottom of the list. The ability to have more control over my own destiny and being my own boss, which lead onto 2 - the ability to change what I'm doing and the client I'm doing it for every 6 months or so are the two biggest motivators for me. Money is a fairly close third, but TBH, I'd still do it for 1 & 2 even if the money were the same as that of an equivalent permie position as you'll never get the same amount of 1 & 2 in a permie position.

1 & 2 are the (very delicious) cake, and 3 is the icing on the top.

Same for me.

Appraisals, where usually your office politics and brownnosing skills are more important than your actual job are more or less mandatory in large organizations, which are the only ones with IT infrastructure large enough to be interesting to work with.

And usually i get bored after learning the environment inside-out, which usually takes 6-12m

[chopper]

Money.

The ability to earn double than I would as a permie, and then keep 98% of it. Just awesome.

The ability to leap from contract to contract, putting things right that once went wrong.

The bulltulip of dragging myself through hot coals and nasty spikes to get that next permie promotion has gone - I now realise that letting 'management' make truly awful decisions is an excellent way to keep contracts flowing. I just turn up, do my thing, and bog off when I'm done. Do they really want to deploy another Windows 2003 Server? Who cares. I do my thing, I send my bill. And in a couple of years, there will be a new contract to upgrade everything.

And not having to go through that ghastly appraisal process, designed to keep poor managers in jobs along with an ever expanding HR department. Why does it matter what MY goals are for the next year? Surely all that matters is that I can deliver the company's goals? Contracting is all about the latter, permiedom pretends it is all about the former.

You get the sea of permies who HATE their jobs, but wont leave because they've been there the past 9 years already - they're just waiting for the next round of redundancies and hoping it will be them and getting the hefty payout.

And finally, there is actually something quite exciting about the once-every-three-months wait for an extension. Will their be a hiring freeze affecting renewals? Will their be an arbitrary headcount reduction? Quite exciting.

And then there's the money. Did I mention the money? The reality is month to month, I have not much more than as a permie, and one has to be more careful to make sure money has been put away for the SA tax bill. But I have an every increasing warchest that will keep me going, if I decide to take a bit of time out or if someone else decides that. And I'm not stuck to 25 days + bank holidays and running out of them three months before year end. I aim for 40 days including bank holidays. Most permies now get nothing like that.

[diseasex]

Same for me.

Appraisals, where usually your office politics and brownnosing skills are more important than your actual job are more or less mandatory in large organizations, which are the only ones with IT infrastructure large enough to be interesting to work with.

And usually i get bored after learning the environment inside-out, which usually takes 6-12m

I usually, after initial euphory , have crisis after 3 months, which then carries on till I leave.