Considering going permanent - how to go about salary negotiation

[BlasterBates]

I find though these days that a lot of companies allow you to stay techie, something I saw in bank I was working in where the tech manager actually took on someone to manage everything so he could stay techie. Also in the current company a couple of managers have stepped down to become "principal engineers", basically got fed up of spending their entire days in meetings.

[malvolio]

I'm not sure about the 1000th calculation. What I do know is that I wouldn't consider a permie job for less than £75k

For the umpteenth time, it's not a calculation, it's a rough approximation of your minimum starting point just to stay level.

And what you forget is that an employer doesn't see a salary, if his finance team are on the ball, he sees a cost of employment, which will be anything up to same again on top. That's what you compare your day rates to, not the headline salary, if you're trying to prove contractors are cheaper (which they are, although almost no middle manager understands that.).

[PurpleGorilla]

And what you forget is that an employer doesn't see a salary, if his finance team are on the ball, he sees a cost of employment, which will be anything up to same again on top. That's what you compare your day rates to, not the headline salary, if you're trying to prove contractors are cheaper (which they are, although almost no middle manager understands that.).

Totally agree with that. Employment costs tend to come out of centralised budgets but projects often pay for contractors. Someone has to understand both sides in order to draw a good analysis.

[SQLSwerver]

Most permie roles force you to go managerial - to keep progressing up and getting higher wages. Getting well paid for tech only is quite hard. For me contracting allows me to do the technical work for decent money.

Why would you want to be a manager when you could contract for a decade, take 3 months of each summer free, and have enough to retire?

[kaiser78]

Thanks a lot, am doing a bit of research, salary suveys and running some numbers. As a rule of thumb, I'd like to consider these two:
- hourly rate x 1000
- daily rate x 240

How are they even approximately equivalent? This would imply 4.16 hours in a working day, but it's more likely double that (I think my contract says 8)?

Thanks.

I would suggest hourly rate X 1200 is a more reflective equivalent.

[PurpleGorilla]

Why would you want to be a manager when you could contract for a decade, take 3 months of each summer free, and have enough to retire?

Exactly, I'll take the contract road any day!

[billybiro]

Exactly, I'll take the contract road any day!

O ye'll tak' the contract road, and Ah'll tak' the permie road
And ye'll have a coronary afore me!

[PurpleGorilla]

O ye'll tak' the contract road, and Ah'll tak' the permie road
And ye'll have a coronary afore me!

Probably, I shalle best check the clauses on mye ol' private medical cover...

[d000hg]

The salary you were on at your last permanent job is as good an indicator as playing around with your contract rate if you have only been contracting a short while, IMO.

If you don't know how to negotiate salary, are you sure you're cut out to be a permie?

[GillsMan]

Hi all,

I've been been contracting since I was made redundant from my previous job. I've been very lucky and have managed to pick three contracts in succession so haven't really been out of work since the redundancy.

However, I do think my good fortune in getting contracts is partially attributable to my prior permanent experience. For this reason, I'm keen on going back permanent. I'm a bit confused about salaries though. I want to keep my expectations firm but also realistic.

It's likely that the perm job will come with benefits such as paid time off, pension contribution, bonuses, etc (not to mention getting back-to-back contracts).

I do have a number in mind, but I was looking for a few pointers/tactics when translating contracting rates into a permanent salary? I've seen metrics such as hourly rate x 1000 or daily rate x 240, but they're not particularly useful from a negotiation/justification point of view.

One thing I was thinking of was perhaps the absolute haircut I would be willing to take on a gross salary basis.

Thank you.

Probably a short back and sides. My god, how has no-one else picked up on this typo/autocorrect?