Contracting straight out of uni. Is it doable? v2

[PermMCCon]

Actually I wouldn't recomend anyone going into IT but as we are passed that I would personally go and find a permanent role and learn your trade on the job then go contracting when you have hit your ceiling.

Funnily enough I would have recommended differently a couple of years back but I think the era when projects were almost entirely resourced by contractors is coming to a close so it is returning to the days you needed to be a full on specialist.

I think Sussex is spot on - just enjoy permie roles for a fair few years. Enjoy the holidays, the training, the roles, the experience. Ensure you remain in the top 25% of performers in your company.

Then you will have something of value that other companies will want. Off course you might be ok if you go contracting now... but please do read a few other threads throughout this forum and you will see that contracting is no walk in the park! You need a tough skin and I just think that a few years in permie wont hurt.

[JohnM]

A good contractor should have enough experience to be able to build a system on his own back to front if required and build it to enterprise level standards. You can't do that straight from university.

In my experience if you have not had at least 10 years experience you should not be contracting - bad contractors give us all a bad name, you should be an expert if you are joining a company as a contractor and be able to do whatever the client requires with no training or help.

[Snarf]

I'd suggest finding some freelance work on the side rather than go contracting. Depending on your areas of interest and experience this might be easier or harder to do... small firms are always looking for website functionality from freelancers for instance.

More or less what I did, 10 years as permie doing freelance work landed some freelance gigs for the NHS 8 years in and that looked great on MY CV and helped to land me my first proper contract - at that point I also had over a decade of industry experience though.. I wouldn't have considered contracting without a decent amount of experience (For my own piece of mind as much as for the clients.)

[Snarf]

A good contractor should have enough experience to be able to build a system on his own back to front if required and build it to enterprise level standards. You can't do that straight from university.

In my experience if you have not had at least 10 years experience you should not be contracting - bad contractors give us all a bad name, you should be an expert if you are joining a company as a contractor and be able to do whatever the client requires with no training or help.

Further to my previous comment this was also one of the factors that made me consider contracting - the company I was working at had a string of utter crap contractors come through - They lasted a few weeks each and were pretty much laughed out of the building (the dev staff were all fairly experienced and didnt suffer fools - but didnt have a say in the hiring process)

I guess the moral there is even if you dont know what your doing you can probably screw a few k out of a company before they cotton on and get rid of you - if youre happy with that then carry on.

[SuperZ]

Further to my previous comment this was also one of the factors that made me consider contracting - the company I was working at had a string of utter crap contractors come through - They lasted a few weeks each and were pretty much laughed out of the building (the dev staff were all fairly experienced and didnt suffer fools - but didnt have a say in the hiring process)

I guess the moral there is even if you dont know what your doing you can probably screw a few k out of a company before they cotton on and get rid of you - if youre happy with that then carry on.

Devs can be a funny lot and this sounds more down to the hiring process anyway. If they were getting crap contractors or more accurately, contractors that weren't suitable for them, they should have examined their hiring process.

Going straight from Uni to contracting probably isn't a good idea but 4 years+ ideally working in a few different environments should be enough.

[malvolio]

Devs can be a funny lot and this sounds more down to the hiring process anyway. If they were getting crap contractors or more accurately, contractors that weren't suitable for them, they should have examined their hiring process.

Going straight from Uni to contracting probably isn't a good idea but 4 years+ ideally working in a few different environments should be enough.

Agreed. The whole point is that contractors sell what they have done. If you haven't done anything, what are you selling?

[LondonManc]

Agreed. The whole point is that contractors sell what they have done. If you haven't done anything, what are you selling?

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

Surely straight out of uni you're going straight inside IR35 for a few years while you get up and running anyway so you may as well get your development paid for. Then wait for a nice redundancy five years down the line and make the switch if the market is friendly.

[Lavarella]

Agreed. The whole point is that contractors sell what they have done. If you haven't done anything, what are you selling?

In my experience if you have not had at least 10 years experience you should not be contracting - bad contractors give us all a bad name, you should be an expert if you are joining a company as a contractor and be able to do whatever the client requires with no training or help.

This is because 90% of those who recruit prefer to believe the experience in a CV rather than sit down and ask a person to show them the skills in some kind of technical interview.
And this idea that experience measured as elapsed time equals skills is also a rather silly proxy people go by. Ten years in a permanent role could teach you less than even just 4 years in consulting, and after 4 years in consulting some individuals might be very well prepared and some other ones not.

I've lost the count of the senior mongoloids I have seen successfully selling themselves as data and business analysts to clientcos I was working for, when 10 minutes worth of assignments on Excel would have given away their ineptitude and shown them for the absolutely abismal candidates they were.
Bad contractors give contractors a bad name, true, but being a bad contractor has little to do with the length of the experience...

[TheGreenBastard]

This is because 90% of those who recruit prefer to believe the experience in a CV rather than sit down and ask a person to show them the skills in some kind of technical interview.
And this idea that experience measured as elapsed time equals skills is also a rather silly proxy people go by. Ten years in a permanent role could teach you less than even just 4 years in consulting, and after 4 years in consulting some individuals might be very well prepared and some other ones not.

I've lost the count of the senior mongoloids I have seen successfully selling themselves as data and business analysts to clientcos I was working for, when 10 minutes worth of assignments on Excel would have given away their ineptitude and shown them for the absolutely abismal candidates they were.
Bad contractors give contractors a bad name, true, but being a bad contractor has little to do with the length of the experience...

Weirdly you'll find technical tests are high treason to some "experts" on this forum.

[SueEllen]

Weirdly you'll find technical tests are high treason to some "experts" on this forum.

Technical interview is not necessarily the same as a technical test. I can look up the answer if you give me an online technical test but I can't if you give me a face to face technical interview.