Reply to: New Contacted landed

[TheFaQQer]

YEP !!!! I go to work to earn money nothing else, I don't go for the love for god sake

Whether deliberately or not, you misunderstand the post about leaving money in the pot.

If you are taking all the money out as soon as it comes in, what are your plans for when you are out of work between contracts?

[TheFaQQer]

My first contract fell through and now I'm still in two minds to hand in my notice and walk in four weeks.

I wish I could make up my mind !!!!!!

If you cannot make up your mind about whether you can get a contract or not, then you aren't ready to be a contractor. You can either survive with the uncertainty of where your next piece of work is coming from, or you can't.

[steve80]

What benefits? Surely the money goes into the pot.

Unless you intend to be one those contractors who piss the lot away and leave no war chest.

Think you just see ££££ and that's not what this is about.

YEP !!!! I go to work to earn money nothing else, I don't go for the love for god sake

[stek]

Are you seeing the benefits financially ?

What benefits? Surely the money goes into the pot.

Unless you intend to be one those contractors who piss the lot away and leave no war chest.

Think you just see ££££ and that's not what this is about.

[steve80]

Are you seeing the benefits financially ?

[robpow]

Do it. If you're fairly sure you have the skills and experience.

I'm one week into my first contract which took about two months to land. Make sure you have enough savings to keep you going for at least three months and also get someone who is likely to tell you the honest truth to give you feedback on your skills.

[steve80]

My first contract fell through and now I'm still in two minds to hand in my notice and walk in four weeks.

I wish I could make up my mind !!!!!!

[stek]

Also had to take a leap of faith and hand my notice in with no job to go to (3 month notice period). Worked out fine for me luckily.

I think with me and others who have done this for a while, we worked on a stage of mass redundancies everywhere, people temping, the burning embers of the job for life regime and for me at least, it was temping. Heard about 'contracting', then doing that. For me that was early 90's. I ended up in a Contract thinking I was just a temp. clueless.com.

I have no memory of setting up my first limited lol!

[morf]

I was in a perm job last year and had a 3 month notice period. I knew I wanted to go contracting but had no chance of getting one with that notice period. I quit and was out of work for 1.5 months before getting my first contract.

Haven't looked back since. If you're young(ish) and have no big commitments and your skills are in demand go for it. Worse case scenario is you can always go back to perm.

Also had to take a leap of faith and hand my notice in with no job to go to (3 month notice period). Worked out fine for me luckily.

[TheFaQQer]

Leave a perm role with no job to go to ? I would of thought that's a little irresponsible surely.

I've no mortgage or loans however

If you don't like the risk, then contracting isn't the right world for you to be operating in.

If you want certainty that the client will wait for your notice period, then wait until either (a) the market is booming and clients will always wait; or (b) you have skills which mean that clients will be willing to wait for you to start.

Anyway - aren't you now working your notice period, since your original post said that you had a contract offer? So get looking now and tell people that you are available in three weeks.

[SpontaneousOrder]

I've never (apart from once) had a new job before quitting the old one. Not saying that that you should do that. Just saying that you should have some idea of how 'employable' you are? If i'd been single I might have been ore cautious though (although then i might not have had a mortgage so maybe not).

[d000hg]

That's a shame, but a lesson learned. Contractors are selling flexibility and expertise, which means ready to go on short notice and hitting the ground running. As long as you have a notice period, you will be at a major disadvantage in landing a contract role. It's brutal, but you should think about leaving now if you're serious about going contracting.

I think taking the jump into contracting it's reasonable you wait until something comes up, since you have no warchest and with no contracting experience, have no idea how easy it would be to get a contract. It is a bit of a chicken & egg situation though.

[Angrybunny]

I was getting phone calls every few days for opportunities. I'm 35 and a Qlikview developer / BA. It's a decision only you can make buddy.

[steve80]

I'm 34 with over 15 years IT experience. I work as a Microsoft Engineer.

[Angrybunny]

Leave a perm role with no job to go to ? I would of thought that's a little irresponsible surely.

I've no mortgage or loans however

I was in a perm job last year and had a 3 month notice period. I knew I wanted to go contracting but had no chance of getting one with that notice period. I quit and was out of work for 1.5 months before getting my first contract.

Haven't looked back since. If you're young(ish) and have no big commitments and your skills are in demand go for it. Worse case scenario is you can always go back to perm.