How did you make the permie to contractor jump?

[NotAllThere]

...think typical CUK poster but nice...

I tried that and my head exploded. Messy.

I was in a crap job, half client consultancy, and half helpdesk. Despite clearing 90% of the helpdesk issues myself, and being the only person who was prepared to deal with the half singporean half welsh lady who was head of IT at Islywn Borough Council, management insisted I wasn't a "team player", since I wasn't in at 8am, and left before 6pm. That was six months in. I resigned a week later, worked out my notice of four weeks, spent three weeks looking for a contract (thankfully buffered by a previous redundancy payment), and never looked back.

Except when I dipped into permie for a year to get SAP skills. And then in 2000 did management for five years until I got sick of the politics.

[scooby]

Fell out of love with company after being asked to run a project to central 2nd line support team, make my own team redundant and with no promises on me having a role afterwards. Handed in my notice and due to SC clearance and ex Army was snapped up in 3 wks by a competitor on a joint project with employer.

Due to working on sensitive contracts, once i made this known and that the competitor would wait 7 more weeks for me, I was then lead downstairs and escorted off site with full pay till the end of notice.

That was Thursday, and I started contracting on the Monday 7 weeks earlier than planned!

my reasons to jump were also not helped by the 7 contractors in my team and the timesheets and invoices i had to sign weekly!!

[FiveTimes]

I've drifted in and out of contracting, but it started in 2002 when made redundant, had couple of months off and then bagged a nice contract. This last 18 months followed by a few other gigs.
I've drifted back to the dark side a few times, mainly as mrs 5* doesn't like the idea of me not earning.

[Netraider]

Redundancy then luck

WHS

[oscarose]

At the time, lifestyle of excess needed additional funding.

Never looked back.

HTH

[MyUserName]

Got made redundant last year, took a linux job after being reasssured that linux knowledge was not required. A new CEO took over who thought linux knowledge was required who told me that I was going to fail my probation period regardless of what I did (despite the fact that my manager wanted to keep me), forced me to sign a document which we established was factually incorrect but was told I would be fired on the spot if I did not sign it.

I signed it as at that moment I had a mortgage, debt, a daughter and a pregnant wife and could not afford to lose the income.

We had been told that my son might be born with genetic complications which could be fatal (possibly a 1 in 4 chance of death) and they had very little extra information to give so I decided I needed money in case we had to have specialist treatment.

I got another perm job (almost got a contract but got beaten at the post as they were in the process of offering it. After a month I was offered another contract and took it - had to leave my perm job after a month which was a shame as I liked everyone there.

[Gonzo]

I had to give three months notice to leave my permie job so I resigned with no contract lined up.

I finished my permie job, still with no contract.

Three months after leaving my permie job I started my first contract.

After that I was lucky.

[alreadypacked]

I don't remember, must be getting old

[garethevans1986]

Worked perm for firm A for 6 months, didnt turn out as what they said it was in the interview (but good dev team etc), still in my probation so only had to give 1 weeks notice - accepted a contract on thursday night for client B, gave notice friday morning, agent phones back saying they need somebody to start next (wednesday at the latest), left same day, started in Client B on Monday.

Contracted for 6 months to Client B, perm fellas were absolutley useless, Firm A then offers me 6 month contract work so left Client B and then contracted with Firm A - low rate but easy 25 drive to work, know everybody here, not done too much in the past 2-3 months, project has been delayed (not due to me) so contract will be extended and rate increased ;-)

Loving every minute of it.

GE

[BoredBloke]

Went to school
Went to Uni
Went contracting

Never had a proper job!