Keep itching to get into Contracting

[TheFaQQer]

That's what got me tempted. 220 days a year is assumed and l would guess probably not realistic.

Last year I invoiced 222 days, and I was in contract for the whole year. The year before I invoiced 242 days under the same contract. So it is perfectly achievable.

However I also had two years when I worked 120 and 125 days respectively, where I struggled to find work for a significant time.

It's about working out what is realistic and what suits your lifestyle. I take time off in contract to make sure I get a decent break every so often, whereas other people I know never do - I've spent this past week chilling at home with my wife and kids when I could have been working instead, for example.

[yasockie]

70k + benefits is too good a position to be switch from, at least in the current market.
(but honestly that is unlikely to improve)
Instead try and focus to make the most out of it - if it's 5 days a week you're home maybe go out and exercise in the mornings or sth.
Use you paid holiday copiously etc
Enjoy life rather than worry about the next contract.
Even if with contracting you could match your current situation money-wise, you'd still have to worry about the moment the current contract end.

[permidom]

Your reasoning made me think getting a new hobby that would include a fair amount of socialising would be the best way for you.

I'm afraid you're probably right. I regard my Job my first priority which is not right.

[permidom]

However I also had two years when I worked 120 and 125 days respectively, where I struggled to find work for a significant time.

Are such gaps questioned and ever a problem?

[tomtomagain]

1. More variety
2. Experience life (90% of my work is home based with occasional travel to customer sites). Only advantage working from home is the 2.5 hrs l save not travelling, otherwise it's kinda boring as l like banter
3. More money (upto £450 should be attainable)
4. Nothing to lose but potentially a lot to gain - GF with no kids planned, debt free, war chest would last me years if l end up on the bench
5. New challenge

Have a kid. That'll sort out 1,2, 4 & 5.

[uk contractor]

OP keep your perm role.


1: You will find contracting is not an exact science.


2: You may get lucky (you will need luck to even get your first contract most agents will not want to touch you with a 10ft barge pole vs experienced contractors with the same skillset & years of contracting experience). You just cannot compete with those on any level except take a big pay hike of 25-30% then perhaps if everything else is equal the agent/client might offer you the role if they really like you in the interview (if you can even get it to begin with that is!) otherwise its a fantasy.


3: £70k pa perm on paper sounds easy to get as a contractor but its getting harder & harder to keep the contract work flowing so in a perfect world we do not live in more than £70k pa should be easy but in the real world you might make £40-50k for 6 months work then spend 2-3 months trying as hard as you can to get another well paid contract along with 100s of other contractors! So that £70k pa with low stress becomes the same as a contractor with more stress & you now need to manage your limited company affairs & or pay an accountant to do some of it for you.


4: Many of the experienced contractors today are highly skilled, have a lot of relevant commercial experience & qualifications. You will struggle to offer anything more than them unless you are willing to work for much lower rates & you can even find an agent willing to send your cv over to the client (a lot will not want a 1st time contractor either when they are paying big money they want it all upfront in advance).


Trust me £70k pa perm is worth more than £500-600 a day as a contractor. Do you like stress as finding a new contract when there are few & intense competition plus agents who lie for a living giving you false hope are the real world factors which make contracting stressful.


If your still willing to give it a go good luck but most permies misjudge the situation. I would not even consider it nowadays unless:


My mortgage was fully paid off.
I had at least 1 years salary in cash in the bank & no other debts.
I was willing to admit defeat to myself & return to permie land if I could not get the dream contract & or regular contract work.
I had a plan B like starting my own business & the cleared funds to do so.

[BlasterBates]

I wouldn't differentiate jobs into interesting and not interesting rather stressful and not stressful.

There are no jobs which are interesting other than perhaps for a few short weeks where you learn the ropes of the new job. Once you've worked your way in, it's always boring. After all wherever you are, you write code and make it work (zzzz). Very rarely do come up with some new exciting architecture. To me what makes work is having a joke and a laugh with your colleagues and a great canteen.

Sounds like you're on a good wheeze. Contracting means working away, i.e. travelling long distances and staying in hotels; which incidentally means your take home is a lot less. It also means not only will you have a boring day you will probably have a boring evening as well, not to mention many boring hours stuck in traffic jams or on a train.

I think you need to look for things outside work to make your life interesting.

I also agree with comments above, the contracting market is now tough, far less opportunities than 10 years ago when it was booming.

[TheFaQQer]

Are such gaps questioned and ever a problem?

Some agents don't understand why you would have a gap on your CV, some do.

Some clients will also expect you to have been constantly working, so be prepared to explain what you did with your time off when you are benched.

[psychocandy]

Hmmm. £70K is a big permie salary to try to match IMHO.

If it was me, unless I HATED the perm job which it doesnt sound like you do, then I'd stick with it.

Do you have a niche/in demand skill set or standard BTW?

[TechJinx]

I'd dispute the figures being bandied around here - I left a £78k job (admittedly with some pretty good perks like non contributory pension making it a job worth ~£100k with no bens


moved onto £500/520 p/d contract and according to my figures after a year of contracting (exactly matching the financial year which has been handy for accounting...) and I reckon I've made £107k net this year - which equates to £183k as a permie salary using a reverse calculator.
(assumptions are that I've "made" the money in my war chest and pension but haven't drawn them yet - used the same calls on my non bens salary above so its on equal footing)

Now that includes having one of the best set ups where my wife has half the shares and I did have quite a large amount of expenses travelling into London daily from Z6 but still - thats not too different to the figures the OP was quoting and is a substantial increase.

Just my 2 pence worth from the other side of the fence.....

But as several have alluded to thats a full year billing 224.5 days (gotta love a detailed invoice tracker spreadsheet)...... so depends how in demand your skill set is.