Permie asking contracting questions

[MyUserName]

It is not about money - I was a permie, a contractor and now a permie again.

A £500 a day contract is only £500 a day when you are in the contract!
Perm salary is paid every month. If you get made redundant then you get a package to keep you going until you get a new job.

Plenty of people have been benched for months, some a year or more without seeing it coming. Do not assume it can not happen to you.

Do you have an infrastructure based around your working day? I have young children who need to be taken to school etc. and Mrs MUN needs to be taken to work a few days a week. My local contract ended and the only one that popped up was one in London on £650 a day. An awesome amount of money but it made it impossible to organise my homelife.

I knew that even if I managed to wing it together in 6 months it might all change again - more hassle, more winging things together = more family stress.

Contracting for me did not work out because it did not fit into my family life as my family commitments changed without making everyone stressed and miserable. I am now working as a permie in an awesome company on interesting work (some of which would not be out of place on a PhD thesis) with lots of friendly, clever people who do not mind me training outside at lunchtime in medieval armour. Every commute is 45 minutes each way. So I can plan pick ups and drop offs for school runs etc. = happier me and less family stress which means even happier me.

Do not base it purely on money - will the life style make you happy?

[TheFaQQer]

If you get made redundant then you get a package to keep you going until you get a new job.

Not necessarily.

[ChimpMaster]

It is not about money - I was a permie, a contractor and now a permie again.

<snip>

Contracting for me did not work out because it did not fit into my family life as my family commitments changed without making everyone stressed and miserable. I am now working as a permie in an awesome company on interesting work (some of which would not be out of place on a PhD thesis) with lots of friendly, clever people who do not mind me training outside at lunchtime in medieval armour. Every commute is 45 minutes each way. So I can plan pick ups and drop offs for school runs etc. = happier me and less family stress which means even happier me.

Do not base it purely on money - will the life style make you happy?

£650 a day, do that for a while and Mrs. MUN doesn't have to work and can enjoy being a mother with the associated school drop-offs etc. Assuming of course you can get home every evening - I wouldn't want to work away from home for even £1k a day (£2k maybe...).

Of course, if you enjoy the permie job then that's another matter.

[jmo21]

Do not base it purely on money - will the life style make you happy?

For me, it is the lifestyle of contracting that makes me happy, and the money is a massive bonus.

I have never had to travel more than an hour each way (so never worked away from home).

I enjoy, in no particular order:
- the variety - lots of different industries, places, people
- the tech/process - different companies, using different tools, in different ways - some better, some awful.
- office politics - the biggie for me. You still get caught up in it, but mostly to a lesser extent, and you can give less of a tulip about it. Yes, it might affect an extension, or you might get some permie with a chip on his shoulder giving you grief, but you always know you'll be gone soon enough.
- yearly reviews - I guess this comes under office politics too. Working your bollocks off all year, working extra hours, bending over backwards to suck up to the boss for some measly bonus/promotion. F*%k that. Been there, done that (stack ranking anyone?)
- being the System X guru - getting stuck with 1 or 2 apps. Similar to the variety point, there are always those folks who are stuck on a project year after year.

Now, if you can find an awesome company, where those bad things are few and far between, great!

Then there is the money. A giant part of why I started contracting WAS the money, and being able to earn more, while staying technical. Most places where I am, the only way to make more in tech is to move into management roles, or out of the tech side into Project Management, and I'm just not interested in that at all.

There is a company in my local area who I have heard incredibly good things about, great tech, very flat management structure, ticks a lot of boxes.... but I'd need to take a 50% pay cut to get in.

I can't see myself going permie anytime soon.

[jbond007]

I am now working as a permie in an awesome company on interesting work (some of which would not be out of place on a PhD thesis) with lots of friendly, clever people who do not mind me training outside at lunchtime in medieval armour.

Made me chuckle ! How long does it take you to put the armour on and then take it off. It does seem like a nice company though. I've contracted at couple of media companies where the permie staff seem happy being permie and appreciate the flexibility it offers them

[MyUserName]

Made me chuckle ! How long does it take you to put the armour on and then take it off.

I guess that is a little odd out of context I can get padding and full plate on and off in about 10-15 minutes. I don't wear the bevoir though (throat protection) because sometimes it locks up and I need someone else to undo the clip!

For me, it is the lifestyle of contracting that makes me happy, and the money is a massive bonus.

Awesome!

£650 a day, do that for a while and Mrs. MUN doesn't have to work and can enjoy being a mother with the associated school drop-offs etc. Assuming of course you can get home every evening

I left bits out in my haste to reply. The commute was 3 hours and the company required a minimum of a 10 hour day, so I would have not seen either of my children apart from at weekends. My daughter is also pretty high on the autistic spectrum and gets very stressed if things change. It is one of those things where the ducks didn't line up for me anymore. *shrug*

Not necessarily.

Well alright, usually then!