Investment Banking: Quit Perm -> Contract?

[mace]

I dont agree with this at all. From my point of view if you are young and on a mediocre salary then I d say the risk of contracting is not as high as people might have you believe.

I m starting out for the first time and left a 65K perm salary with all the extras to do a contract.

If it all blows up I am pretty confident I could get a similar job to the one I left at 60-65K.

In my opinion it is worth the risk.

Now if I was on a 100k perm, doing something very niche, had a wife and kids that would be a different story

£60-65k is a midrange salary for an IB but a mid-to-senior range salary for everybody else. The problem with going contracting and then wanting to go back to being a permie is that employers have different perceptions of the 2 groups i.e. that contractors are technically astute whereas permies are better at teamworking. A contractor who goes back to being a permie may well be viewed as somebody whose no longer at the top of his game and won't fit in and/or is only going back for the short term to re-skill.
Obviously for some positions, employers are desperate enough to overlook this and that will let you back in to re-skill but you'll be more limited in your choice of employers than you previously were.

[Ruse]

£60-65k is a midrange salary for an IB but a mid-to-senior range salary for everybody else. The problem with going contracting and then wanting to go back to being a permie is that employers have different perceptions of the 2 groups i.e. that contractors are technically astute whereas permies are better at teamworking. A contractor who goes back to being a permie may well be viewed as somebody whose no longer at the top of his game and won't fit in and/or is only going back for the short term to re-skill.
Obviously for some positions, employers are desperate enough to overlook this and that will let you back in to re-skill but you'll be more limited in your choice of employers than you previously were.

WHS And after you have been contracting for a number of years and have reached a certain age threshold it is harder again to get considered for permanent roles if you want to go back to the security or permiedom.