Part time contracts how to find

[northernladuk]

Agreed, and I am not suggesting that part-time contracts or indeed part time work of any kind is appropriate for someone at the start or middle of their career. It is only (perhaps) appropriate for me because I have a plan B and also am towards the end of my career (age 52) and fortunately have a lot of savings/investments to fall back on. When you're young the best thing to do is work as hard as you can, learn, have confidence that you can learn and grow, and build up that war chest.


Thanks for the other answers - useful.
FYI My plan B is investment-based, and does not involve IT skills unfortunately, so I can't stick it on my CV as anything relevant.

Yep the plan B bit using part time to back it up is workable. My comment was more for the Zola as their working model only included part time work with no other backup so that model is pretty unsustainable.

[Zola]

Remember also the 'second contract is the hardest' rule applies here, if not more so. Yes you can find part time work when you are happily billing for 5 days. Might take awhile but for a select few it works.. but, the nature of our work is always temporary so whatever cushy arrangement you find will end in the not to distant future and you are back to square one with zero income coming in. Running a career on part time contract work is just not feasible for I would say virtually everyone bar the odd individual. We've seen over the years of the same questions on here it's incredibly difficult to find part time work, but to find two gigs that dovetail, and then find another around the same time one or both ends? It's just not going to work as a rolling plan.

Thanks for explanation. I Agree too. I always go back, that's not worth the effort ...

[d000hg]

I don't suppose getting a part-time permie role might be another option if you want to keep your skills sharp? Might widen your field a bit.

[d000hg]

Total work = Actual work + Appearance of Work

With this in mind any contract can be part time.

If you lack professionalism and morals.

[ladymuck]

If you lack professionalism and morals.

[NotAllThere]

Networks. Contacts. That's how I did it. The heady days of having three clients..

[GJABS]

Networks. Contacts. That's how I did it. The heady days of having three clients..

Makes sense.
Of course it relies on one having made the effort to get the contact details of and keeping up with people who you have worked with in the past. It is in a sense "work" to have done this and continue to do this.

[ConsultingTechArchitect]

Would love to hear about your plan B!

[GJABS]

Would love to hear about your plan B!

The plan B is actually just fundamental investing in small UK shares. Over the past 6 months I have spent many hours taking a close look at the accounts, presentations, analyst reports, and social media opinion of about 100 small UK companies, looking for signs that many other investors are prejudiced against them. These form the best investments because almost regardless of the underlying quality of the company, those investors in due course are going to be surprised to find the company doing better than they expect (as a result of their prejudice), resulting in a rise in the share price.
In the case of small UK listed companies most of the other investors are private individuals - baby boomers, many of whom are racist, nationalist, and sexist - and in general prejudiced against British companies (which have historically underperformed in recent years).

I've invested half of my warchest (the other half in index funds), and am up over 50% in the past 12 months, which is a greater return than I can expect to get from doing contracts.
Of course it is risky because share prices can fall in the interim, but ultimately the value of the companies will be reflected in dividends and buybacks paid to investors by the companies such that the share prices won't matter.

In case you're interested, here are the companies I've identified (the first three of which still have further to rise in my opinion):


Pantheon Resources: A market cap of £750 million, but owns a 3-billion barrel oil field in Alaska that is worth £6 billion. Initial investment in Nov 2020 up 400%.
Cause of prejudice: racism against its American directors. Bad company name (should be "Pantheon Energy"). Oil seen (in error) as being replaced by renewables.

Plus500: Financial bookmakers. A market cap of £1.5 billion, with £700 net cash and net profits of £300 million/year and expanding. Initial investment up 25% in 7 months.
Cause of prejudice: Israeli directors (antisemitism).

Southern Energy: Canadian company owning low cost oil wells in Mississippi. Initial investment up over 100% in 3 months.
Cause of prejudice: Confusion with the similarly named Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), resulting in being overlooked. Racism (American owners). Oil seen (in error) as being replaced by renewables.

i3 Energy: Canadian oil company. Initial investment up over 100% in 5 months.
Cause of prejudice: Islamophobia (Islamic directors). Oil seen (in error) as being replaced by renewables.

Aviva (insurance): Initial investment up 75% in two years.
Cause of prejudice: Sexism (new female CEO). Seen as a boring company.

RSE: Private equity oil company. Initial investment 100% on the lows seen a few months after Covid.
Cause of prejudice: Oil seen (in error) as being replaced by renewables.


Many people discuss these companies on chat boards such as lse.co.uk and advfn.com and reading these whilst armed with a good understanding of the company can allow you to pick up on investors mistakes and misapprehensions as a cause of mis-pricing.

[d000hg]

...

Interesting stuff. When you create the fund for others to invest