Anyone regret going back to permie?

[skysies]

I might have to go back into being a permanent employee. I am sure I will suck it up and smile sweetly. I will still consider it a personal failure though.

(note, I don't consider contractors a superior species to permanent employees, it's just I prefer being one).

I know what you mean. But for me contracting is all about the money. Nothing more, nothing less. If I see I don't make money there, I'll exit and can come back later. But not stick around for months and months empty handied for the sake of being a contractor.

[Big Blue Plymouth]

I'm actually thinking about it myself at the moment.

I too have had my fill of living out of a suitcase & all the travel. A lot of the gigs I've been doing recently have all but felt like permie roles anyhow thanks to interpretations of Agile etc...

In my own case I'm looking at getting a role that allows me to work remotely most of or all of the time.

I'm quite prepared to accept a large drop in income to get that sort of role; could even be as low as 45-50k but I'm prepared to do that in exchange for ridding myself of the necessity of doing a gruelling 2 hour commute each way. And just to not work in an office.

[cojak]

I'm afraid that I think it's more to with automated testing than outsourcing. Reskilling as a tester in the cloud environment will keep you in contracting; there are few enough testers who know their stuff in this area.

[perplexed]

Coming up to eight months out so if the current batch of possibilities don't come to anything I might have to go permie, which would be a massive change of lifestyle and, on a personal level, an admission of defeat.

Nine months here. Never been able to suitcase it - youngest son has special needs so restricted to a commute of around an hour. Market has gone downhill last few months - all that seems to be available is public sector stuff, with the insistence on SC which had gone inactive anyway.

A permie role has arisen, seems to be interesting. Been feeling disenchanted with contracting for a while tbh. Read up on bleeding edge tech, never get to use any. If a contract occurs very soon, fantastic. If this perm role comes off, fantastic - will just close the Ltd down.

[SussexSeagull]

I know what you mean. But for me contracting is all about the money. Nothing more, nothing less. If I see I don't make money there, I'll exit and can come back later. But not stick around for months and months empty handied for the sake of being a contractor.

I know what you mean but Permanent is a lot less money and I am not sure there will ever be a buoyant contract market to return to.

[SussexSeagull]

I'm afraid that I think it's more to with automated testing than outsourcing. Reskilling as a tester in the cloud environment will keep you in contracting; there are few enough testers who know their stuff in this area.

So far as I can see it isn't just testers struggling though.

Specific to testing I think it is a combination of factors of which Automated Testing might very well be one. I have been teaching myself Selenium (have done QTP in the past) which you can do to a certain level but beyond that Automated Testing is more of a development task so it isn't as a simple as picking it up as it is a different skill set

[perplexed]

I know what you mean but Permanent is a lot less money and I am not sure there will ever be a buoyant contract market to return to.

I agree.

When you consider the public sector will be decimated, then dev, testing roles in private sector will be massively oversubscribed from now on causing rates to decline imo. I suspect the very top level of contractor will survive. Maybe the contractor pool does need to be pruned to emerge stronger long term. Who knows?

[SussexSeagull]

Nine months here. Never been able to suitcase it - youngest son has special needs so restricted to a commute of around an hour. Market has gone downhill last few months - all that seems to be available is public sector stuff, with the insistence on SC which had gone inactive anyway.

A permie role has arisen, seems to be interesting. Been feeling disenchanted with contracting for a while tbh. Read up on bleeding edge tech, never get to use any. If a contract occurs very soon, fantastic. If this perm role comes off, fantastic - will just close the Ltd down.

Funnily I found it has picked up since December but between September and November it was dead (as was July and August but that is nothing new).

Nothing wrong with a decent permie job. Make a few friends and get some training.

[SussexSeagull]

I agree.

When you consider the public sector will be decimated, then dev, testing roles in private sector will be massively oversubscribed from now on causing rates to decline imo. I suspect the very top level of contractor will survive. Maybe the contractor pool does need to be pruned to emerge stronger long term. Who knows?

I think there is a generation of Developers and Testers who would previously have been occupying senior non managerial roles in companies who went contracting as salaries had stagnated (amongst other reasons).

That said the Public Sector changes will hit everyone.

[skysies]

I know what you mean but Permanent is a lot less money and I am not sure there will ever be a buoyant contract market to return to.

Well, it's more money if you're continously employed. Five, six months on the bench and it's the same as being a permie. And from then, it's all losses..