Permanent to Contract... Please help!

[T1994]

Need to grow some, hand your notice in and start looking. If you are scared of a gap between work then you've got a bigger problem coming. We have a saying that your second contract is the hardest to get. You'll have no income with only one gig behind you so the worst place in your contracting career.

At the moment you've got it super cushy. You should start looking about 2 weeks before you leave which is how long the majority of clients are willing to wait. If you don't get a gig then fair enough, you start contracting the proper way with zero income looking for work. That's what we do. If you aren't ready for that don't jump in I am afraid.

I love the honest and straight forwardness! Sometimes one needs this to progress. Re. income - out of interest, how did you manage your spending habits during the first couple of contracts/ was there any major changes?

[northernladuk]

Defnitely agree - I feel that confidence is a big factor! And doing a few interviews will give that confidence. Whats the key difference between the permie and contractor interviews?

Permie interview
They are checking to see if you are a good asset to the business long term
Looking to see what your attitude is as well as your skills as you'll be doing lots of different things over your employment
They'll be looking to see what your career aspirations and that kind of soft thing as well.

Contractor interview
They are looking to see if you have the skills to do the task they have and if you've done it before.
They'll tell you more about the project and see how you can deliver
They could be doing a face fits for the team as well

Remember as a contractor you will be going in to apply your skills to a specific piece of work and nothing more so will be looking to see if you can deliver.

The slight issue here is not very many people are any good at interviewing at the best of times let along being able to switch gears between perm and contractor ones so all that said above it's quite likely it will look and feel exactly the same as a perm one. It shouldn't, but it can.

[T1994]

Need to grow some, hand your notice in and start looking. If you are scared of a gap between work then you've got a bigger problem coming. We have a saying that your second contract is the hardest to get. You'll have no income with only one gig behind you so the worst place in your contracting career.

At the moment you've got it super cushy. You should start looking about 2 weeks before you leave which is how long the majority of clients are willing to wait. If you don't get a gig then fair enough, you start contracting the proper way with zero income looking for work. That's what we do. If you aren't ready for that don't jump in I am afraid.

I have to say though, BA with 5 years experience? Unless you've got super lucky and that 5 years is in some proper big BA work I'd say you aren't the most experienced by a long chalk and if it's general doing stuff on projects rather than proper BA work you'll be a generalist is a very very tough market.

You say nothing about your skills and what you do so I could be totally wrong but starting with BA for 5 years the alarm bells are ringing.

I do have relavant BA experience on various significant migration/regulatory/digital transformation projects - I have private messaged you with more details, with the aim of providing more context so that you may be able to advice better. Thanks again.

[northernladuk]

Oh yeah, and you should wear your best Rolex at a contractor interview where that isn't advised and a perm one.

[northernladuk]

I love the honest and straight forwardness! Sometimes one needs this to progress. Re. income - out of interest, how did you manage your spending habits during the first couple of contracts/ was there any major changes?

Personally I was tight as a gnatts chuff and lived on the absolute bare minium I could until I had at least 6 months of money in the bank that would see me though any bench time at a comfortable level. I probably had the least amount of spendable money in my first gig as I think I've had in my working life.

[T1994]

Need to grow some, hand your notice in and start looking. If you are scared of a gap between work then you've got a bigger problem coming. We have a saying that your second contract is the hardest to get. You'll have no income with only one gig behind you so the worst place in your contracting career.

At the moment you've got it super cushy. You should start looking about 2 weeks before you leave which is how long the majority of clients are willing to wait. If you don't get a gig then fair enough, you start contracting the proper way with zero income looking for work. That's what we do. If you aren't ready for that don't jump in I am afraid.

I'd be scouring job boards to see what's out there and seeing if I could do a bit more digging with agents somehow. Get your CV up to snuff and out there on sites/agencies though in a way your employer doesn't see it.

Why do you want to move into contracting is worth asking, and what level of financial security in case you can't walk into a gig, or you get one but it falls apart after a few days/weeks (not unknown)?

I certainly wouldn't be handing in my notice and then starting to do my research.

Have you much accrued holiday that might get your notice down? Is it likely your employer will want you to work the full notice period, or would they let you go sooner as far as you can guage?

That's a great question around the WHY. I guess for me - I have been in fixed term contract during the last 5 years of my BA role and now this is the first time I am permanent. I miss the reality of delivering and moving to the next project with new company and environment and DELIVERING whilst always on your toes. Personally it made me the great BA I am today, always seeking to improve myself and being thrown into the deep end. And final point being the FINANCIAL benefit being that I need to raise a deposit for a property, which will otherwise take a considerably a long time with the permanant route.

Hopefully that answers your question around my WHY.

[ladymuck]

Personally I was tight as a gnatts chuff and lived on the absolute bare minium I could until I had at least 6 months of money in the bank that would see me though any bench time at a comfortable level. I probably had the least amount of spendable money in my first gig as I think I've had in my working life.

You mean you've eased up on that now??

[ladymuck]

Another way to get contracts is networking. However if you knew how to do that you wouldn't be posting here. Keep that in mind for the future so make sure you are nice to everyone in life as you never know when you will meet them again.

Whilst I agree with this generally, it's unlikely someone making the transition from perm to contract is going to have a useful network unless they worked for a consultancy. It took a good 5-6 years of contracting before I felt I had a robust enough network.

[northernladuk]

You mean you've eased up on that now??

Oh yeah, I'm back to standard Yorkshire level now so you can imagine how little I spent back then

[northernladuk]

Personally it made me the great BA I am today

The problem is every one 5 years out of uni thinks they are the great whatever

And final point being the FINANCIAL benefit being that I need to raise a deposit for a property, which will otherwise take a considerably a long time with the permanant route..

And there we go. The same reason as always. To be fair he gave it a bit more guff before we got to the nitty gritty of the situation but it's always there at the end.