Why do you want to become an I.T. contractor? What are your hopes?

[SueEllen]

Cos I needed money to live.

[jmo21]

Two words. Appraisals, targets.

This.

Money was also a motivator too. The only way for me to earn more than I was as a permie would have been to side step into project management, or get promoted up to Development Manager, neither of which I had any interest in doing.

Obviously there are some companies out there where you can continue to be promoted and paid more, and stay developing, but they are few and far between where I live.

[MrMarkyMark]

The loss of appraisals and BS cuddly stuff for me.

Moved from a lousy perm £20K, just after the year 2000, to a £300 PD contract with Reuters and have never looked back.

[NotAllThere]

Beats working for a living.

[MyUserName]

Money

[LondonManc]

Variety - most of my work was/is project-based, so sitting there supporting something that wasn't going to fall over got boring.

[heyya99]

I'm a commitment-phobe and (work-related) money hungry.

[billybiro]

My motivation

In this order....

1) Autonomy
2) Variety
3) Money

Yes, money was at the bottom of the list. The ability to have more control over my own destiny and being my own boss, which lead onto 2 - the ability to change what I'm doing and the client I'm doing it for every 6 months or so are the two biggest motivators for me. Money is a fairly close third, but TBH, I'd still do it for 1 & 2 even if the money were the same as that of an equivalent permie position as you'll never get the same amount of 1 & 2 in a permie position.

1 & 2 are the (very delicious) cake, and 3 is the icing on the top.

[heyya99]

In this order....

1) Autonomy
2) Variety
3) Money

Yes, money was at the bottom of the list. The ability to have more control over my own destiny and being my own boss, which lead onto 2 - the ability to change what I'm doing and the client I'm doing it for every 6 months or so are the two biggest motivators for me. Money is a fairly close third, but TBH, I'd still do it for 1 & 2 even if the money were the same as that of an equivalent permie position as you'll never get the same amount of 1 & 2 in a permie position.

1 & 2 are the (very delicious) cake, and 3 is the icing on the top.

In reality, do you change client every 6 months? Wouldn't such shortish term gigs put off a client who has a large backlog of work?

I also contract for the flexibility but of late my stints are 1.5+ years. Not complaining mind.

[northernladuk]

In this order....

1) Autonomy
2) Variety
3) Money
4) Trolling Nluk

FTFY