if you had opportunity to start again what mistakes would you avoid ?

[lukemg]

Have to agree with expat - depressing as it seems. Just for the money for me, enjoy the interaction and meet some people who are fine to work with but I have responsibilities which I need coin to cover. AND I can't think or find anything that will pay me this much.
I don't think peers have necessarily changed the world either although its true that many will earn as much as me across a career + pension despite a head start for me !
Plan B - assemble large enough investments warchest to make me immune to skill cliff, working away or terrible contracts.
AND - Make sure I enjoy everything else I do outside work !

[expat]

Have to agree with expat - depressing as it seems. Just for the money for me, enjoy the interaction and meet some people who are fine to work with but I have responsibilities which I need coin to cover. AND I can't think or find anything that will pay me this much.
I don't think peers have necessarily changed the world either although its true that many will earn as much as me across a career + pension despite a head start for me !
Plan B - assemble large enough investments warchest to make me immune to skill cliff, working away or terrible contracts.
AND - Make sure I enjoy everything else I do outside work !

You put it much more succinctly.

Especially that the attraction of IT contracting is fleeting, other people do as well or better in many respects, taken over their whole careers.

[IR35FanClub]

Having somehow missed the chance to make money during the dot com boom, property boom, commodities boom etc etc I can see plenty of things I would change if I could go back 15 years. Including getting married

In terms of Contracting I don't think I would have changed much. I would like to have avoided losing > £150k on poor stock market investments (gambles) though.

I was waiting outside the divorce court with a barrister and solicitor and I was paying a lot of money for the day asked some general questions. Specifically the one that stands out was :
Q) What can I do to stop getting in this mess again - would a pre-nup work?
A) The only sure way is don't get married. There's no benefit from being married, but lots of down sides. Pre nups are only for people with millions. You could do one though and at some point in the future it may become legal. But right now they aren't, so more than likely it will just kill the romance.

A fellow contractor had the best idea - he agreed to do the ceremony with his new bride to be, on the condition that when he signed the register he'd just wiggle the pen in the air above the paper and not actually sign. Smiling happily at the brides family as he did so. What a hero! They split up recently - he gave her a couple of months rent, and let her keep some stuff. Much better than losign £15k in legal fees and half the house that the other half never paid anything towards.

[Robinho]

Wish i'd paid myself dividends a lot earlier.

Other than that i'm very please with my contractor career.

[IR35FanClub]

there must be something I can do. I will come to it eventually!

I've been thinking of getting out of IT contracting for about 5 years. In fact - I think I went contracting in the first place so I could get out of IT sooner by earning more money. trouble is you then review every busines plan you write against what you are earning now, and think - is it worth the risk. And it isn't . Given you can spend abotu 8-10 hours a day out the house, in a fairly local contract and get to invoice hundreds every dat for several months at a time - it's very difficult.

My main mistakes were
a) Incurreing some training expenses I did to get some accreditations before I went contracting. I.e I was still permie so it was before the company was formed which I couldn't later reclaim. If I had just registerd the company and put money in the account I could have knocked £2,500 of my first years profits. Grrrr.
b) Joining an EBT scheme for a year. Alwthough my net payments went up, I did it mainly to hide some income from my ex wife - who then questioned my net as it looked to low for the rate that she knew I was getting. My solicitor explained to me I needed to declare the EBT payment in the case- and so my divorce settlement was based on the higher tax efficeint income. I had to leave it at that level for a year before I could get it reassede to the now sensible figure I'm taking back from the Ltd Co. And I still wonder if hector will come knocking in 6 years time - though the scheme was legit, and had declared itself to HMRC etc, I still think one day they might ask question I can't remember the anwers to. I'd prefer to keep thing simple in future.
c) Going via an agent on a contract which an ex-colleague/friend had recommended for. i.e. he works at the client site and got the recruiting manager to take me on without an interview. I could have been direct but am through not 1 but 2 agencies taking a cut. That actually is my current contract - and should have known better to ask a few questions of my friend. There are 2 parasites taking £1,500+ a month between them, bascially to pay me my invoice - they did no recruiting!

[nomadd]

I agree with that. I usually think that I have had a good run with contracting but as I reach the end of my "career" I find that I am doing nothing interesting, the rates are lower and the time between contracts longer (I have started calling that "semi-retirement"), and looking back over my life gives me no sense of achievement.

How have other people I know fared in different careers? My brother and one of my oldest friends have worked in computing in Silicon Valley, and both have made a mark: some things about computers and communications and the internet are down to them and you can find their names on google in discussion groups (usenet!) from as far back as the 1980s. Brother retired over 10 years ago with (AFAI can see) well over 1m in houses and plenty of money. Old friend hasn't retired yet because he spends loads of money. But could any time he wanted.

Many of my oldest friends became teachers. All have by now become principal teachers or headmasters. They are making decent if not flash money, and they have done so all their lives, without any of the low periods that I have had, and which take a long long time to recover from. Also the pension is good and the time off, while not as much as some people think, is OK. And reskilling is built in.

Some of them stayed in universities. The 2 that I am still in touch with are now professors. Neither will get a Nobel but they are doing worthwhile and interesting work, and again have income, pension and holidays, not to mention sabbaticals.

One or two of my friends have done something less obvious and more independent. One publishes an arts magazine of some reputation in its circles. Another designs aspects of rides for Disney parks. Another, the most left-wing of us ironically, ran a successful business and also became involved in politics as well as in writing. A cousin became a teacher, then owned a shop, then taught kayaking.

There are a few doctors in there, and one heart surgeon in the US. Also one of the teachers reskilled as a lawyer and became a chief prosecutor.

Without bulltulip, only a couple of them were as intelligent as I am (was?) and I should have been able to do any of those things. But instead I have sold my intelligence to make minor tweaks in some companies' IT systems and so perhaps help them to move stock around or sell things to customers. Someone has to do it but neither the doing of it nor having done it makes me feel that my life has been well spent.

I thought that in contracting I was free, but much of that is illusory, it's just employment without modern social protection, excused only by high rates of pay. The supposedly high rates of pay are not so great either - we all know that 500 a day does not give you 125,000 a year to spend (especially if you have to work abroad). I thought that I could take time off to travel, and I did. But other people got the employer to pay for travel, or for time off. You can do a lot in the school holidays, and as for a sabbatical...)

In short, I have done nothing more than a slightly up-market version of what a promising 16-year-old does when he leaves school to work and get a little money as soon as possible: thrown away a life for a quick paycheck.

I would advise anyone to consider whether this is really what they want to do with their life. I didn't really want to do it with my whole life, but it looks as though I have. It is hard to get out of. If you do want to do it, I would strongly advise building up a huge warchest and then savings. At least then you will have choices later, when you may want them (out of boredom) or need them (out of failing market).

Could have written that myself!

Four month break from contracting now. I'm not sure I can ever face another client.

Truly despise the industry I once loved.

Hate London, too. But it's where most of the work is and I'm on a cheap rental deal.

Will drift on until the New Year. After that? Maybe it's time to "up sticks" and move on to a new life?

Don't think I can take another 10 years of Bobs/Agents/Clients/IR35 hassles.

[Scoobos]

Not much to add to what nomadd says above.

I think there's a bit of a hidden cost to contracting in that when you're a permy you'll perhaps go through 3-8 employers in a lifetime (if you are lucky and brave to move).

My life as a contractor has seen me work for 8 different clients in Canada, USA, Australia, Malaysia, UK - in as many years .

Whilst this sounds great to a permy , all its shown me is that GOOD management of I.T and GOOD morale in workplaces is far far too rare.

It's becoming annoying to me that you have to sit and keep your mouth shut as a consultant in most places, when you can clearly see its being really badly managed.

Having had contracts with 2 quality clients, its tough for me to face working for a shower... My recent history has shown a desire to cut costs and quality in order to make quick bucks - destroying really good infrastructures that FTE's have built over 5-10 years , only to hand them to TATA or some other crap provider and effectively put the I.T back years, and kicking out the only staff with real knowledge.


That has eroded my morale already and I'm only 35.. I've had enough of I.T.

[Robinho]

Meh, i still enjoy it. We get a tulip ton of money and have a lot of freedom.

[Scoobos]

Fine, for me though Money isn't anything at all , it would be nice at the end of your working life to look back and say you did things that were constructive. I can say that for the first 3 years, but now not really much at all.

I'm contracting only as I cannot handle office politics and was forced into it by the market; so perhaps I'm a bit unique. Even as a permie the longest I ever stayed anywhere was 20 months.

I'm not sure about the freedom part either. I don't get a lot of freedom , as my costs increase in line with the contracts I'm never really in a position where I can sit back and not earn for the business.

Rent for an unfurnished place is over 1000 where I am now .

[Robinho]

10 months here.

I don't really care about what i have achieved in a job so long as the client is happy.

The idea of work is horrible so i'm glad i get as much money out of it as possible.