Thinking about the career so far

[Cliphead]

Been over thirty years in IT the first five years being permie and since then only one permie job till now which was a brief nine months as the company went bust. It was sufficiently interesting and well paid to entice me away from contracting albeit for a short time.

I know some here have moved between permie and contractor for various reasons. Have you always been a contractor solely? Have you moved between permiedom and being your own boss?

[BigTime]

Learned a trick or 2 in a few perm jobs, then the next best move and also the best paid next move was contracting. Stuck at that for almost 10 years but a well paid perm job with excellent benefits and pension came along. Unfortunately the expectations were so high that I'd never have lived to draw a pension so am now a year back in contracting and will continue to graciously decline any further perm offers.

[d000hg]

3-4 years as a permie in 3 different jobs after university. Then switched to freelancing working with clients I was already doing sideline work with along with my day job in 2007, started hiring my own subcontractors/freelancers in 2008.

No plans to switch back to permie, unless they let me work from home, which was the main reason I ended up leaving permiedom - I just hate commuting.

[TykeMerc]

3 or 3.5 years in permieland then contracting ever since with the odd spot of time in academia post grad.

20 years a contractor, gave up engineering gradually over the last decade (challenge had gone completely) as I got offered more projects to lead and manage, been full time PM and Programme Managing for the last 5 or 6.

[NickFitz]

career v.i. move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way

Works for me

[wantacontract]

permie for the first six years then started contracting for the 4 years then went back to permie for one year at a local council (foolishly thought it would good, kinda of strange in some ways, as I got what I thought I wanted = drank tea and talk garbage whilst doing not a lot with people that were low on ability but easy going, which was what I envisioned my retirement to be, after a year of that it was depressing and boring, so got out of there, guess you shouldn't get what you wish for)

and now back at contracting....

[PAH]

Been contracting since 1998 and have only once been tempted to try permiedom during that time, mostly because I was tired of working away from home staying in soulless hotels and battling through the friday/monday commute.

The one permie position I went for I gave up at the second interview when I realised if they have that many hoops just to get the job then the day to day office bollox would soon become unbearable. Too used to having one quick interview (sometimes by phone) and starting the following Monday.

So now I tend to take a long break after a particularly grueling contract, until either the funds run low or I feel refreshed enough to dive back in.

[aussielong]

I've been in and out of contracting for the last 15 years. I am now contracting for top dollar but in a couple of years I intend to jack this in. I will either go permie to get a career going off the tools, or do my own software and focus on that for a year or two. Contracting is getting boring for me - doing the same thing again and again.

[downsouth]

10years a permie from college, took a pitiful redundancy amount and haven't looked back, best thing I ever done, haven't even considered a permie role in last 8 years and wont unless personal circumstances dictate and even then would be last resort!

feck that Personal development nonsense, office politics, nah not for me

ideally would like to focus on sub contracting a few roles out as getting quite a rep for the work i do, so guidance appreciated

[aussielong]

ideally would like to focus on sub contracting a few roles out as getting quite a rep for the work i do, so guidance appreciated

This is a good idea too. Was working with one contractor recently who hired a third guy, trained him up on the platform and took 15% of his daily rate for that.