Reply to: Chasing first contract

[andyg]

Really?



It is often clever intelligent nice people granted anonymity. Try attending a meet up and you will find out.

PS are you related to andyw?

No relation

[BrilloPad]

It takes a conscious effort to write/post something on this forum.

Really?

The usual suspects seem to delight in writing absolute shi*e for the sake of posting.

It is often clever intelligent nice people granted anonymity. Try attending a meet up and you will find out.

PS are you related to andyw?

[andyg]

Or you get dragged down to that level.

Not really. It takes a conscious effort to write/post something on this forum. The usual suspects seem to delight in writing absolute shi*e for the sake of posting. I do have a feeling that one day I'll meet one of these 'super posters' working on the same gig and I'll have great delight in giving them shi*e work to do, griding them down, then let's see if they survive the length of the contract or bail. After they have spouted crap about seeing the contract through to the end come rain or shine. Rant over.

[BrilloPad]

You'll get used to the amount of negativity on this site

Or you get dragged down to that level.

[andyg]

Thanks to all for the constructive feedback received so far. However I find it a real shame there is such negativity thrown around by posters with thousands of posts to their name. Considering this ought to be a place for contractors to share their wealth of knowledge and experience - I can only assume they are frightened of the competition and frequent here to scare newbies away rather than offer any support or encouragement??

As I mentioned in my OP, I am a data analyst by trade, and knocking up a calculator for plugging these sorts of number into was one of my first ports of call when I started weighing this option up. Not to mention the wealth of online information & calculators available on this site and others.

Whilst I appreciate malvolio's "dose of reality" - this is no more representative than suggesting I might never get that first contract, therefore my earnings are £0, or I might land a contract that get's extended indefinitely. A good contractor friend of mine is currently knocking on 3-years into a 3 month contract.

I have done my own sums and a £350/day contract - even inside IR35 - a conservative 200 billable days and knowing what my expenses will be comes out at £3311 take-home per month. A far cry from the £2276 I currently receive as a permie. To suggest this increase in take-home is negligible or not worth pursuing is frankly ridiculous.

In fact, to break-even and match my current take-home would require billing for just 130 days - funnily enough about 6 months - coincidentally the length of that first contract I was going for.

So forgive me if I take advice along these lines with a whole vat of salt!

You'll get used to the amount of negativity on this site - I did, even after posting what I thought were useful accounts of my time in Qatar and Dubai and offers of help for those thinking of going to work there.

For every role I work at (I'm an enterprise architect and work on large-scale transformations) there are always data analyst working in the team. So keep your head up and just keep applying for roles. Try changing your CV regularly and posting it on Jobserve/Monster/etc as it seems to trigger something with the agencies. Also, accept agency/recruiter requests on linkedin as they post and like other recruiter's posts, which then appear in your feed. Good luck.

[PerfectStorm]

This isn't being OTT, keep applying until you're sat at the desk at your new clients - and do the same about a month before each and every renewal. Don't trust that something is in hand when contractually it isn't. Who knows, you might need the same flexibility yourself one day (for example when you have 2 jobs in the running and need to let one down at the point you're certain the other one is 'on')

3 weeks of chasing is annoying and while the likelihood of it falling to bits grows with each day, by employing this method you won't have agents burning your own money in exchange for their free assurances.

[malvolio]

£400 a day get you £60k in the bank if you work every day you can, which is very good if you can do it. Sadly, quite a lot of the time, you won't. I worked 28 straight months on my first gig, then was out for four months, then had six hard months then was off for another three, then another three months then six months on the bench. So in four years I'd worked about three of them. But that's what I'd budgeted for so it wasn't a problem (other than getting very bored and serious p***ed off with agency incompetence!)

But you're in the right place now so have fun. Just remember it's not all about the money. A lot of it is, of course, well, almost all of it is, but there are other important benefits now you can afford to enjoy them. Or something...

[SussexSeagull]

I had a bad year last year and my last contract was terminated before Christmas (time will tell how quick the next one will come) but if you like varied work and don't like the quiet bits in between projects then contracting might be for you.

Until you have experienced it I can't quite do justice in describing in how good it is that no matter how bad a working environment is it probably won't be your problem in a few months and that monthly meetings with your manager and annual appraisals are something you will never have to deal with again.

You should be able to make a lot more money at it as well. Which last time I checked was fairly much the main point of being in business.

[l35kee]

Do it.

I was on £50k as a permie. My take home was about £3k a month, or £36.5k a year.


My first contract was at an undervalued £400 pd. Could have gotten more, but I had no emergency fund so the risk wasn't worth it.

9 months later and I've taken home £61.5k Net. You can obviously deduct contractor expenses like accountant fees, etc. But they are minor costs.

Confident you are good at what you do, and (more importantly) confident you can make sure a recruiter and interviewer know you're good at what you do?

Then go for it. It's changed my life anyway.

[MrMarkyMark]

Cheers Mark, great feedback.

Truth be told, I don't have a long-term end goal game-plan yet. I am young(ish) and really enjoy what I do (and am good at it - even if I do say so myself!). I have worked on two big data migration projects during my last two permie roles - which is where I have come to get to know contractors, and found that I far more enjoy project work than I do run-of-the-mill daily grind kind of jobs.

My intentions are that breaking into the market as a £350-500pd data analyst gets me the experience - both real & on paper - to start thinking about specialities to work towards over the next 30-35yrs.

PB

It does, but can you expand it further beyond.

It can be done BTW, both my Mrs. and I have greatly expanded our roles whilst contracting.

Not easy though

I should add, if you can't handle the real world views on here, then good "luck" with your contracting career.

[MrMarkyMark]

Hi Purple Banana,

Not wanting to derail the thread/teach you to suck eggs, but in the interests of balance.....

I was in a similar situation to yourself (£47k salary with a costly commute) and made the switch to a £400/day contract, and the income was #ballin!

If you're undervalued in your current role and have considered the risks, which it sounds like you have, then go for it. If the recruiter has gone AWOL and not returning your calls, in my experience I'd read that as a no, but the fact you've already met the grade means you shouldn't have any difficulties in finding a similar role.

My experience of lurking for awhile and recently joining these forums is there is a tendency for people to downplay the appeal of contracting. I'd suggest this is as:

1). It perhaps isn't quite the golden ticket it was previously, and there is the threat of further clamp downs on the liberal tax controls...;

2). People have a tendency to negatively portray an industry within which they've worked for a while due to mounting cynicism;

3). They're trying to protect newbies as it is a risk - you could get hit by a bus and be unable to work for six months, without the safety net of sick pay etc. But then equally, you could get fired from your permanent job tomorrow!

If you did stay permanent and your salary increased, the tax disadvantages of being a higher rate tax payer make the idea of contracting even more appealing.

Best of luck with your search.

Good post.

Its actually a combination of all 3, for me.
The idea should be your increase your earnings as you go, so you don't worry about the extra tax, if you are actually successful that is.

Some suggest it's because we don't want the competition.

To be blatantly honest, I stopped competing at the entrance level 15 years, or so, ago now, so I'm in a different market, as are a lot of the regulars on here.

[fiisch]

Hi Purple Banana,

Not wanting to derail the thread/teach you to suck eggs, but in the interests of balance.....

I was in a similar situation to yourself (£47k salary with a costly commute) and made the switch to a £400/day contract, and the income was #ballin!

If you're undervalued in your current role and have considered the risks, which it sounds like you have, then go for it. If the recruiter has gone AWOL and not returning your calls, in my experience I'd read that as a no, but the fact you've already met the grade means you shouldn't have any difficulties in finding a similar role.

My experience of lurking for awhile and recently joining these forums is there is a tendency for people to downplay the appeal of contracting. I'd suggest this is as:

1). It perhaps isn't quite the golden ticket it was previously, and there is the threat of further clamp downs on the liberal tax controls...;

2). People have a tendency to negatively portray an industry within which they've worked for a while due to mounting cynicism;

3). They're trying to protect newbies as it is a risk - you could get hit by a bus and be unable to work for six months, without the safety net of sick pay etc. But then equally, you could get fired from your permanent job tomorrow!

If you did stay permanent and your salary increased, the tax disadvantages of being a higher rate tax payer make the idea of contracting even more appealing.

Best of luck with your search.

[BR14]

No, I dont think webmaster can do much in this situation, because he already got a forum with a few faithfuls/regulars, but his interest lies in adding more traffic and member, otherwise its just a club of a few people with their own slangs, inside bants etc. He can annoy the regulars because he will want to protect what he already got.

The regulars are like pub regulars, they don't like new faces, familiarity is more comfortable, in fact camaraderie such small gathering gives them a feeling of ownership and brings them back here. You don't want to destroy that.

may be webby can select a few volunteer from regular, with track record of patience and empathy for new comers and give them special badges/flairs and encourage them to respond to stupid threads/posts with care.
This will create a healthier system and rest of the regulars will follow.
May be am a bit too optimistic...

Have you asked your accountant?

[fatboyslim]

So the webmaster who has built the no 1 contractor site site should change the way the site works?

No, I dont think webmaster can do much in this situation, because he already got a forum with a few faithfuls/regulars, but his interest lies in adding more traffic and member, otherwise its just a club of a few people with their own slangs, inside bants etc. He can annoy the regulars because he will want to protect what he already got.

The regulars are like pub regulars, they don't like new faces, familiarity is more comfortable, in fact camaraderie such small gathering gives them a feeling of ownership and brings them back here. You don't want to destroy that.

may be webby can select a few volunteer from regular, with track record of patience and empathy for new comers and give them special badges/flairs and encourage them to respond to stupid threads/posts with care.
This will create a healthier system and rest of the regulars will follow.
May be am a bit too optimistic...

[billybiro]

Cheers Mark, great feedback.

Truth be told, I don't have a long-term end goal game-plan yet. I am young(ish) and really enjoy what I do (and am good at it - even if I do say so myself!). I have worked on two big data migration projects during my last two permie roles - which is where I have come to get to know contractors, and found that I far more enjoy project work than I do run-of-the-mill daily grind kind of jobs.

My intentions are that breaking into the market as a £350-500pd data analyst gets me the experience - both real & on paper - to start thinking about specialities to work towards over the next 30-35yrs.

PB

If you want to read one of the finest pictures ever painted of IT recruitment, you need to read the article below. Sadly now deleted from the original author's blog, but the Wayback Machine comes to the rescue:

Don’t Feed the Beast – the Great Recruitment Agency Infestation

It's a bitter (although highly accurate) rant against the state of the IT recruitment industry. If you just want to understand how recruitment agents (the people) and recruitment agencies (the businesses) think and work, start at the heading "Go Forth and Multiply: The Parable of Sh!thead". Enjoy!