Conversion to perm?

[Clippy]

Wow - what does she do?

Anything you want, sugar.

[BrilloPad]

Wow - what does she do?

Blackmail.

[Evil Hangover]

My wife is a permie and earns £150K salary, year in year out, plus final salary pension scheme.

Not sufficient compensation for being married to you though. Least she's got the pension

[TinTrump]

3 key reasons for me.

Had spent 18 months contracting at an automotive company doing technical work. Following purchase by Indian company there was loads of transition work but mostly involved dull documentation. Not my thing.

Got approached just at the right time to work in the Mid East so change of scenery, interesting work and no tax. Would only take me on as a perm though.

Lastly, after spending 20 years in London and another 20 in Brum I risked acquiring an appalling hybrid accent.

[basshead]

As the recession bites, I hear of more and more people 'retiring' from contracting and most moving to the dark side and becoming a permie again.

For those that have, what motivated you to do it? The simple answer is just money but was there something deeper than that? Mrs Mustang and I were talking recently and she is very nervous about me continuing to contract. When I started, we were not married and didn't have kids; now we are and have 2 little mustangs. Difference circumstances.

Fortunately I am currently in a contract with the potential for work up until October. The question will come as to what I do if more work is not forthcoming and October is looming.....!

Thoughts? Comments?

I've just gone back to perm after 5 years contracting. For me the primary reason was security of income, the local market has always been slow but has been even more so in the last 18 months. I have a few months war chest but thats not enough in this market.

Secondly the roles that did come up locally were poor (low rates, crap gigs) and so I realised I would have to travel a fair way and work away from home to find anything suitable. Couple that with a need for flexibility given I have a young family and my options were severely limited in the contract market. No past contacts had anything on offer so when a perm role with a more than decent salary for a good employer that had lots of work going on came up I tried for it, and fortunately got it.

Should I want to go back contracting in the future I'll be able to pitch for more senior gigs on the back of this role. You have to do whats best for you and your family.

[swamp]

Contracts tend to fit in to 1 of these areas:-

1. Project based. i.e. company needs to ramp up staff for 1-off project.
2. Poison chalice. i.e. no permie wants to take on the role so they'll find a contractor
3. Niche skillset. i.e. company's tried to find a suitable permie but has failed so looks to a contractor to fill the role.

There is another area:

4. Company/organisation does not have the skills internally, and it's not within their remit or desire to retain those skills in house. Most common in the public sector, they face a choice of hiring expensive consultants or cheaper independent contractors.

[Ruprect]

No two peoples situations are the same really. In my case I've been a contractor for 11 years but after spending the last few years in the public sector I think my skills have got stale. Therefore I have taken a one year salaried contract - it will tide me over the quiet period, the money is not good (in fact the money is pretty bad) but it'll just about pay the bills - just have to tighten my belt for a year and ride it out, but for me the big thing was working on some new technologies.

Hopefully once the year is out I have some new skills on the CV and the market will have hopefully picked up a bit - even if it hasnt I now have a better idea of how much permie roles pay (I had zero idea' when I took this role - was too used to the amounts in the contract market and not elsewhere) and could look to a decent permie roll elsewhere for a nice increase. Though I really dont want to stay permie, I am actually desperate for the year to finish so I can contract again - after 4 months doing this performance reviews, HR, stupid "compulsory" company meetings etc have put me completely off permie life.

EXACTLY the same here. Permiedom sucks. Seeing out the time to have enough experience to contract as an architect instead of a dev. Boy it sucks though.

[kaiser78]

I would find it more difficult financially on a permie salary than contract, which is partly why I took the contract route. IMHO the notion of there being less contracting roles the higher the seniority, the conversion of salary /1000 or 1200 whatever it is = contract rate for perm to contract conversion etc etc is all nonsense.

In my experience contracting provides more options in roles, greater flexibility and the chance for a more fulfilling career overall.

[TykeMerc]

I've just gone back to perm after 5 years contracting. For me the primary reason was security of income, the local market has always been slow but has been even more so in the last 18 months. I have a few months war chest but thats not enough in this market.

Secondly the roles that did come up locally were poor (low rates, crap gigs) and so I realised I would have to travel a fair way and work away from home to find anything suitable. Couple that with a need for flexibility given I have a young family and my options were severely limited in the contract market. No past contacts had anything on offer so when a perm role with a more than decent salary for a good employer that had lots of work going on came up I tried for it, and fortunately got it.

Should I want to go back contracting in the future I'll be able to pitch for more senior gigs on the back of this role. You have to do whats best for you and your family.

Very sensible choice in those circumstances.

Ignore anyone that says you have weakened from being a "pure" contractor, I've contracted for 18 years, (probably 19 now) and if I found a really good permy role that I fancied I'd take it.

You have to make the choices that are right at the time, I hope the new role works out well for you.

[cojak]

There is another area:

4. Company/organisation does not have the skills internally, and it's not within their remit or desire to retain those skills in house. Most common in the public sector, they face a choice of hiring expensive consultants or cheaper independent contractors.

Actually this is happening in the private sector as well.

Current ClientCo picked me up as they wanted the Programme built from indy contractors as they'ed been burnt using big consultancies - twice...

I'm wondering if this might be a trend that keeps me in contracting...