Trading In Contract Status For Management

[shelby68]

I went perm to do management once. It was almost as much fun as contracting, so long as the environment remained not too political. When it did, I went contracting again. I wouldn't do management again though. Too much like hard work.

Got to agree with that more hastle for a lot less money,

[Wilmslow]

Hello

I am about to trade in my beloved contractor status for a management role. I have been stuck on the bench far too long, since November 2007, in fact.

Although I am penniless, for last 8 days the contract phone calls from agency have suddenly become a drip feed. Luckily enough I had an alternative.

Anyway I digress, through some networking contacts, an old boss of mine recently came looking for a good technologist and after series of interviews I eventually got the job offer.

As a contractor I really liked that the office/department/division daily politics were left behind at work, the money was a lot better and the holidays even better; and I found a diversity of contract clients and jobs. I have learnt an awful lot on gigs more than if I had been a permanent employee in the job for five years. It has been really good, but I never received that "climb-up-the-ladder". Contractors do not get promotions!

My experience being a humble developer contractor meant that I have had a lot of software development, but rarely had anything to do architecture and design. We guys (and gals) tend to brought into projects when the project initiation documents has already been signed off by "high heejuns". By the time I have arrived in almost projects it time to code, refactor, test and delivery.

So I have bitten the permie pill and hopefully I can get into other stuff including "people management". There is another obvious trade-off. I have been speaking to loads of engineers, developers off-line, and most of us think that 2008 will continue to be hard and competitive, perhaps for some folks it may be harder to survive in the contractor market.

Who knows I might even be back as a contractor as a couple of years [2009-2011: circa Dotbomb III a personal prediction; can't wait to see that movie, did you see the last one?], whenever the market and optimism is taking off again.

Best.

ps: I will pop back in the Business/Contracts forum from time-to-time

Snap - doing the same thing myself!!

Good luck to both of us - also, wishing us both all the best leaving permiedom to return to contracting when things look up.

Personally - most of my experience is in banking, and we all know how great banks are doing at present. Hence I think our decisions make sense.

We need an Ex contractor forum.....

[lukemg]

No point flogging a dead horse, if you are contracting, it relies on a steady stream of work, if it doesn't turn up and it looks like you have given it a good length of time then you have to consider other options.
Perm is hard after contracting, bit like going away to college then coming back to your mums, somehow you just can't stand it for long ! Try to ensure you will get something useful, certification, training etc. General mgmt skills are less easy to quantify, architect experience would be better.
Also, your tech skills will die v.quickly if not used and you can struggle to go back.
I am planning to do some training to add strings but keep waiting for that one call that turns things round again, not ruling out a perm role though, even if it's for 12 months and treated like a contract !!

[floatsy]

Good Luck - all the best with it.