Typical rates for chartered engineers ?

[fatbadger]

Hello

Second post - first was about 50K salary V £50/hour (basically decided it's way too low to jump ship as after pension, 6 week hols, bank hols, pension, accounts expences, life ins, sicness ins etc etc it's a bit more yes, but also risky and far more stressful, so I'd want a bigger carrot to do it).

However, now I've starting reading up about the contractor life I am still interested but I wonder does anyone here get anything like £1000/day i.e. £125/hour, which is what I'd consider truly worthwhile. Or even just £100/hour which what I think would be my personal minimum?

Basically, what is typical? Perhaps this will help others who are thinking about the leap.

cheers

[WTFH]

I’m not sure how many chartered engineers are on here - although a few of us are qualified as mech or sparks. But yes, £100+ per hour is achievable after a few years of contracting experience, some skill and a lot of luck.

[northernladuk]

I'd disagree with the esteemed Mr WTFH. No chance are you going to get that money. If you your base perm is 50k a year how can you delivery anything like enough l to warrant 800+ a day. Not a chance.

The days of those rates are long gone. You'd need to be the very best in your field to be near that and the chances of finding end to end gigs are very slim bringing the entire package down.

You need to do a bit of your own research, particularly with us being IT guys. I had a very very brief search and I couldn't find much for you let alone at those rates.

The whole market is about to fall apart as well so don't forget to consider that.

I'd say take your Rose tinted glasses off, don't get giddy about the money and go research.

We see this type of post regularly on here and I generally think that people of that calibre do not need to ask on (IT) forums.

[Paralytic]

Historically, when has someone asked me the question "what rate do you need to make it financially worthwhile to go contracting", and they don't want the real answer (look into it yourself!!!) I typically tell them to take their current salary, double it and divide by 220 (days per year), then try find a role around that figure, depending on where they work, what the market is like, what benefits they have etc.

If you use £50K as a salary and apply this, that's around £450 per day. I'd say what you've been offered is in the right ballpark.

This was in IT and before IR35 though - we don't know what that will do to rates.

[BigJohn]

Or even just £100/hour which what I think would be my personal minimum?

I agree with the above, if your base perm salary is £50k this skill set jump to £800pd isn’t something you can just ask for.

Doing some quick calculations, take home of a £50k job is about £3,000pm depending on your setup and £100/hour (what you perceive to be your minimum) would be near £8,200 also dependent on your setup up. A difference of £5,200, what would justify £100/hour as your minimum to move into contracting?

This security mindset needs to be left in your perm job before making the jump into contracting.


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[edison]

Hello

Second post - first was about 50K salary V £50/hour (basically decided it's way too low to jump ship as after pension, 6 week hols, bank hols, pension, accounts expences, life ins, sicness ins etc etc it's a bit more yes, but also risky and far more stressful, so I'd want a bigger carrot to do it).

However, now I've starting reading up about the contractor life I am still interested but I wonder does anyone here get anything like £1000/day i.e. £125/hour, which is what I'd consider truly worthwhile. Or even just £100/hour which what I think would be my personal minimum?

Basically, what is typical? Perhaps this will help others who are thinking about the leap.

cheers

I'd disagree with the esteemed Mr WTFH. No chance are you going to get that money. If you your base perm is 50k a year how can you delivery anything like enough l to warrant 800+ a day. Not a chance.

The days of those rates are long gone. You'd need to be the very best in your field to be near that and the chances of finding end to end gigs are very slim bringing the entire package down.

You need to do a bit of your own research, particularly with us being IT guys. I had a very very brief search and I couldn't find much for you let alone at those rates.

The whole market is about to fall apart as well so don't forget to consider that.

I'd say take your Rose tinted glasses off, don't get giddy about the money and go research.

We see this type of post regularly on here and I generally think that people of that calibre do not need to ask on (IT) forums.

Exactly as NLUK says, there is a big mismatch between a £50k salary and £800-1000/day contract rates.

As a comparison, in the IT world, at £1000/day you would need to be in one of the handful of most senior manager level roles in the IT department like an IT Director/Head of IT or Senior Programme Manager. These would be roles on a salary of say, £120-140k.

Even at these sorts of rates, the IR35 changes are having an impact. I know three IT Directors who typically get £900-1200/day all looking at going back to perm.

There is more than one rule of thumb. One I haven't seen anyone mention for a while is take the annual salary, divide by 1000 to give an hourly rate and multiply by 7.5. However, in the current climate with IR35 changes pending, such rules of thumb can only be a starting point.

[pr1]

Hello

Second post - first was about 50K salary V £50/hour (basically decided it's way too low to jump ship as after pension, 6 week hols, bank hols, pension, accounts expences, life ins, sicness ins etc etc it's a bit more yes, but also risky and far more stressful, so I'd want a bigger carrot to do it).

However, now I've starting reading up about the contractor life I am still interested but I wonder does anyone here get anything like £1000/day i.e. £125/hour, which is what I'd consider truly worthwhile. Or even just £100/hour which what I think would be my personal minimum?

Basically, what is typical? Perhaps this will help others who are thinking about the leap.

cheers

In your role/what you do, if you were charging £1000 PER DAY you need to know you can be contributing something like £1500 of value to that project PER DAY! for it to be worth the client paying you, do you realistically think you could do that knowing what you know about your skills?

Most people baulk at spending £1000 on a new mattress they'll sleep on every night for 5-10 years, you're talking about getting someone to pay you that for your services PER DAY!

It's a lot of money - I'm in engineering and I only know of one person who's ever been any where near that

In my opinion the best way to make that kind of money is to double and triple bubble £50/h // £400/d work, but you need to be good at juggling

[cojak]

Hello

Second post - first was about 50K salary V £50/hour (basically decided it's way too low to jump ship as after pension, 6 week hols, bank hols, pension, accounts expences, life ins, sicness ins etc etc it's a bit more yes, but also risky and far more stressful, so I'd want a bigger carrot to do it).

However, now I've starting reading up about the contractor life I am still interested but I wonder does anyone here get anything like £1000/day i.e. £125/hour, which is what I'd consider truly worthwhile. Or even just £100/hour which what I think would be my personal minimum?

Basically, what is typical? Perhaps this will help others who are thinking about the leap.

cheers

£1000 a day? What are you, a rocket scientist?

Good luck getting that from the likes of Rolls-Royce or BAE Systems...

[cojak]

I’m not sure how many chartered engineers are on here - although a few of us are qualified as mech or sparks. But yes, £100+ per hour is achievable after a few years of contracting experience, some skill and a lot of luck.

Good question - Mechanical, Electrical or Software?

[WTFH]

I'd disagree with the esteemed Mr WTFH. No chance are you going to get that money. If you your base perm is 50k a year how can you delivery anything like enough l to warrant 800+ a day. Not a chance.

Sorry, I didn’t write my post very clearly.
What I meant was “Yes it’s possible to get those rates in some fields of contracting with the right experience”
With a separate question of “What sort of chartered engineer are you?”