First time Permie to Contract - What Rate Should he ask for?

[Dynamic]

Assuming a skilled senior .net engineer is a permie and earns £60k a year including bonus, etc. He wants to move from permie to contracting; first time contractor - he has read a good book about IT contracting so has some knowledge about it.

Should he move to contracting now; how is the market?

What minimum daily rate earns him almost the same as permie considering the risks, insecurities, etc? e.g. if he is offered a 6 month contract which pays £350 a day, should he move to contracting?

[cojak]

Your hourly rate as a contractor is annual salary / 1,000. Seems generous but remember there is no pension, sick, annual leave, job security or notice period. If you are a spender who is always overdrawn at the bank then this game is not for you, you need 3 to 6 months living money in the "war chest" in case you end up out of work.

And multiply that by 7.5

Do any of the regulars want to write a separate thread about this? I'll sticky it in the Newbies section if they do...

[northernladuk]

I didn't think topic was firm enough to have it's own sticky, except to say it's a moving target and we can't agree how to quantify exactly how to translate permie to contractor pay as there are too many variables and it would be comparing apples to pears.

The closest we can get is point out all the differences and let the poster make his own decision on what aspects are important to him. Topline pay might be more but with no holidays the over all would be lower unless the reader doesn't care about holidays etc etc.

Or we could have a thread that when you it open it says 'Go and do some research in to the differences to permie and contracting situations and when you understand come and ask again if you need to'. Posted by Mal of course

[cojak]

Or we could have a thread that when you it open it says 'Go and do some research in to the differences to permie and contracting situations and when you understand come and ask again if you need to'. Posted by Mal of course

[Scrag Meister]

Check out itjobswatch.co.uk to get an idea of advertised rates for different roles in different regions.

[Dynamic]

so it would be like

£60,000 / 1000 * 7.5 = £450

do you think it should be calculated like this for first time contractors even? or with a lower coefficient e.g. 6?

[cojak]

It completely depends on your niche (or not so niche) skills and experience.

And your cheek.

[Dynamic]

'Go and do some research in to the differences to permie and contracting situations and when you understand come and ask again if you need to'

I've done my research from colleagues, a contracting book I read and other things.

another thing I've heard from an experienced contractor that you can put in average 7 weeks a year aside for holidays, sick leaves, etc so in average 45 weeks a year you could do contracting (assuming you find work obviously) although I know few contractors who have been out of work for months.

[cojak]

Is that 'few' or 'a few'???

If you don't know many that haven't been out of contract for months that's because you don't know many contractors.

Many that I know of have been out of work for months at some point in time.

[lukemg]

I have spent on average 25% of the time out of work over the last 4 years, this is due to location restrictions and because I am not that good.
The reality is that there are too many variables to give good advice, it all depends on your skills, the market, your location/willingness to travel, personal attributes, ability to network/current contacts, health etc etc.
No-one can tell you these (and you may not have a good view yourself !).
It's easier if you have nothing to lose due to being made redundant/in somewhere terrible so don't care - this is the path in for many.