Reply to: A month on the bench

[Scrag Meister]

I started contracting nearly 5 years ago and am happy that NLUK has been around to (virtually) slap me every so often. If I hadn't been on this forum then I don't think I'd have been sensible as I have been. I am aged 30 now and with a 1 year warchest so things are looking up. Problem is I never seem content! I always said if I got 6 months warchest I'd be happy, then if I got 9 months etc. Now I am on 12 months I am thinking I should have 2 years in the event of a down turn.....

Perhaps I need to just spend more and relax.

Just aim for the 30-40 year warchest, depending on your age, and soon enough you'll be retired, and you can rename it to pension. :-)

[Old Greg]

I put as much into the warchest as I can but can't put enough away to only work 6 months a year.
I'd be interested how many contractors can afford to only work half a year because there sure aren't any where I'm currently working.

I can cover living expenses for a family of 4 on 130 days billed per year, but we don't have an extravagant lifestyle. If I work more than that, we put money by.

[Gaz_M]

If you can't survive on 1/3 of your daily rate then how are you putting enough away for the inevitable bench periods, future life, training courses, retirement, etc? It really hit me hard how important that money was when I had to take essentially an entire year off to look after my very ill wife, that money came in very handy. You never know what tulipy curve-balls life will throw at you.

I really don't mean, or want, to be preachy but if you're not making enough money out of contracting to be putting any away then maybe contracting isn't the right option...

I put as much into the warchest as I can but can't put enough away to only work 6 months a year.
I'd be interested how many contractors can afford to only work half a year because there sure aren't any where I'm currently working.

[craig1]

Oh, the 1/3 left for me is nowhere near enough to pay my bills then.

Nice idea if you can get your personal budget low enough.

If you can't survive on 1/3 of your daily rate then how are you putting enough away for the inevitable bench periods, future life, training courses, retirement, etc? It really hit me hard how important that money was when I had to take essentially an entire year off to look after my very ill wife, that money came in very handy. You never know what tulipy curve-balls life will throw at you.

I really don't mean, or want, to be preachy but if you're not making enough money out of contracting to be putting any away then maybe contracting isn't the right option...

[Gaz_M]

Net daily rate over the year... or more accurately put, your company's annual profit excluding all payments to you divided by 3.

Oh, the 1/3 left for me is nowhere near enough to pay my bills then.

Nice idea if you can get your personal budget low enough.

[craig1]

Where does that rule of thumb allow for expenses? In all my gigs I need another chunk to cover hotel and mileage payemnts.

Net daily rate over the year... or more accurately put, your company's annual profit excluding all payments to you divided by 3.

[Gaz_M]

The best rule of thumb I was taught as a contractor was: 1/3 of my daily rate for me, 1/3 for the taxman and company reserves, 1/3 for warchest. Just manage your personal budgets to match your 1/3 of daily rate and you could take 6 months a year off if you had to, if you're lucky and stay in work nearly all the time then that's 1 month earlier retirement for every month you work!

Where does that rule of thumb allow for expenses? In all my gigs I need another chunk to cover hotel and mileage payemnts.

[craig1]

The other thing that's important is pimping yourself properly out to agents. If you've been contracting for 12 years then you must have at least a few agents who'll recognise you as someone who is a good contractor. Just a little note to them letting them know you're available, the type of work and location and you'll at least stick in their heads for a tiny bit before they hit the cost of using a job search engine.

If you've reached 12 years and you have no agents like that then either you've been screwing them over or you've been particularly unlucky. I had 5 agents on my list that I notified one month before my contract renewal dates then again on expiry of contract. On the LinkedIn thing, I have 2 agents on my personal contacts, the rest haven't proven they're trustworthy enough to get on there; contacts are precious, if you treat them like things to exploit then you'll find you get nothing back.

The best rule of thumb I was taught as a contractor was: 1/3 of my daily rate for me, 1/3 for the taxman and company reserves, 1/3 for warchest. Just manage your personal budgets to match your 1/3 of daily rate and you could take 6 months a year off if you had to, if you're lucky and stay in work nearly all the time then that's 1 month earlier retirement for every month you work!

[dack]

Well I eventually landed a 'rolling' 1 monther yesterday, start Monday. That'll be 5 weeks on the bench. Rate's not so good but local gig with flexible hours.

My last gig was for just over 3 years and prior to that I had 8 years of back to back work. Despite being in the game for almost 20 years, I'm a newbie when it comes to being on the bench & looking for work.

Lessons learnt:
- Turnaround seems a lot slower these day, no more calls on a Thu, interview Fri and start on the Monday. Next time round, I'll be actively seeking 4 weeks out, not 2+ weeks after contract end.
- LinkedIn seems to be the way to find work but you need to be proactive, chasing jobs and making connections.
- Gone are the days of sticking you CV on JobServe, slobbing out all day awaiting calls.
- PluralSight.com is a joy, despite some of the trainers there talking like robots.

Good luck to all you currently on the bench, hang in there, something always turns up, eventually. Bench time is just something you have to factor in (which I didn't).

[flipFlop]

... The best thing I did was to stick my CV on a load of job sites - that got me a lot of calls but unfortunately none of the people calling seemed to have any jobs! But I figure that when something does come up the most recent contacts are most likely to get a call back.

I love these sort of conversations when no-one on either side knows what the hell they are talking about.

[Montyuk]

I've seen a flurry of activity since the holiday season has ended and I have a face-to-face next week back at Barclays. The role sounds OK and I'm happy where I am really thought it's a bit slow. Question is, do I really want to go back to Barclays? What would be in store? Enforced leave at Xmas followed by their Q1 rate cuts. Think I'll call it off.

Well have seen barclays do three rate cuts and always told them no. I can't complain on good day rate and still learning.

[dack]

Well, well, well ... hopefully this will give you some 'light at the end of the tunnel' hope but I had a phone interview today for a role I'd been put forward for back in August..

Seems the good old days of a call on Thu, interview Fri and start on the Mon are gone.

Cheers for the 'chin up', much appreciated.

[SPWeb]

Well, well, well ... hopefully this will give you some 'light at the end of the tunnel' hope but I had a phone interview today for a role I'd been put forward for back in August.

I don't know what's been going in between then and now, maybe people are working through their backlog of CVs after the school holidays, maybe the preferred candidate was killed in a freak gardening accident, maybe they were waiting for the perfect moment but there you go, they got there in the end.

So don't despair Dack - it looks like the market is moving, just very slowly.

[oliverson]

Barclays didn't rate cut everyone when they tried and they even gave increases, and yes the rate on is not on the low end.

Yes the 10 day rule over a three month period close to Christmas isn't great but the. It's not the end of the world as Christmas is a great time to spend with family etc

They did me twice in the space of 1 year, along with the Xmas. I did escape the Olylmpic 2 week enforced leave though but the guy who started a week before me got done.

Nah, I just don't trust them anymore. Who would? They also did my flatmate 3 times in 2 years. What was I thinking?

[Tasslehoff]

Hope you get something sorted soon