How many years as a Permie before you took the leap into contracting?

[blackeye]

11 years perm, 1 year contract (6 contracts including two at once for a short run) - quite enjoying it

Very odd. What industry do you work in?

[DS23]

You're not making many friends on-site, are you.

Edit: NLUK will still have you tagged as a Permietractor.

ha! looks that way but a breakdown shows: 6 contracts lasting a year or more, 7 at 6 months, and the rest just short jobs lasting weeks or days (training, pre-sale, best practice etc.) and most of them ran parallel to large contracts. still, there's definitely a trend to shorter contracts. i think i'm doing less life-cycle and more parachute-in / steering. of the jobs 3 were return contracts after a year or more away at other clients. my current client is a perfect example - i worked for them through a big integrator via a big vendor 2 years ago and now i'm back post big bang fixing things that just don't work as well as was envisaged. no big integrators in sight or on site this time.

[Einstein Jnr]

Very odd. What industry do you work in?

IT - some gigs require just the architecture and design done and they then get a junior engineer to roll it out - if they are paying the same rate for the engineering, I don't mind getting my sleeves dirty

[fool]

6 Years Permie; 4 years contracting.

Wether or not 6 years permie is enough probably depends on the actual jobs and background. I have a Bachelors/Masters in my field and most of my hard won experience was working at a start up with a great mentor who allowed me to design and build things and explain my tulip mistakes to me.

I've certaintly met folks with a decade plus of experience who I wouldn't consider experts in their field and I've met a couple of youngsters who I'd be happy to work with.

With that said, I still have to learn new things all the time. Usually I find if I'm doing my job well, I'm trusted to work with tech I haven't touched more and more.

[FarmerPalmer]

10 years permie (of which 4 was as an apprentice), 4 years contract, 7 years permie (when IR35 first came in), 9 years contract

[munkee]

7 years perm - mainly dev / BA work
coming up to 1st year contract

[nomadd]

..if I'm doing my job well, I'm trusted to..

Why, Dharling, you're a Contractor - you should always be doing your job well. *

(* Or at least giving the impression there of. )

[No2politics]

3 year 10 month permie. 8 years contracting. Now founded a startup

[RSoles]

22 years perm, 16 contract. Not dead yet....

[DSF70]

28 years permie (well 2 weeks just shy of), 3 months contracting.