Reply to: Becoming a contractor (Software Developer)

[edison]

Sorry I should clarify, I have 2 years private sector experience coding in the football industry. So I do have both private and public sector experience split 2 years and 2 years at the moment for a total of 4.

What area of the public sector do you work in? I worked at a London council last year and they were struggling to recruit perm developers at £50k and eventually took on two junior devs with about 2-3 years experience for £40-45k. Market is obviously less buoyant now but still, I would agree with the advice above about looking for perm roles nearer to £50k.

As someone who has switched back and forth between public and private sector for the last 15 years, I would hesitate to completely dismiss working in the public sector again. I'm not a developer, but in my experience across local government, several FTSE100/Fortune 500 firms in different sectors, a charity and even a scale up, there's more in common than some people might suggest.

From a hiring perspective, the biggest barrier is likely to be bias against the public sector from individual hiring managers and sector bias particularly in financial services, retail and life sciences.

[SueEllen]

Hundreds of them pop on to Jobserve. Often there are multiple agencies representing so the same role will up many times over. PS is mainly inside due to the frameworks in place. They could also only be advertised on the digital specialists thingy and possibly GCloud but that's not for contractors any more.

You must also be doing something very wrong as I've just done a search on jobserve for Public Sector in London 100 miles in the last 7 days and there are 375 results.

You probably aren't excluding roles due to them not being remote/hybrid, and your location parameters are probably bigger. Most permies won't consider traveling 100+ miles to do a contract.

For the last decade or so most of the roles that I've done that have been hybrid weren't advertised as being hybrid. It's only since Covid this has changed to them being advertised as hybrid.

Oh and some of the roles I've done are only put on Jobserve when I'm in the process of completing my paperwork.

[SussexSeagull]

It's great that there are (on paper at least) suitable contracts available for your skillset but getting from seeing an advert on Jobserve to starting a contract can be a long journey where you encounter many setbacks. I am a tester rather than a developer so maybe a different experience but I consider myself very good at what I do but a lot of recruitment now is buzzword bingo with a lot of agents - who you will need to go through to get near most contracts - lack the technical knowhow to tell the technically great from the technically average so they tend to put forward whoever they make a connection with and/or can get to do it cheapest.

Throw in there are several people across multiple disciplines who have been doing this for years struggling for work at the moment.

[northernladuk]

I am going to presume you mean Security Clearance. If so then yes I do.

I have not even seen many contract opportunities in the public sector, then again I might be looking in the wrong place.

Hundreds of them pop on to Jobserve. Often there are multiple agencies representing so the same role will up many times over. PS is mainly inside due to the frameworks in place. They could also only be advertised on the digital specialists thingy and possibly GCloud but that's not for contractors any more.

You must also be doing something very wrong as I've just done a search on jobserve for Public Sector in London 100 miles in the last 7 days and there are 375 results.

[YggdrasilMana]

If you have SC then I would advise you stay in the public sector. It will be easier to get contracts as the is less competition for them. You will still have the same tulip, but I find I and cope with it better for about a year until i move contracts and have the 6 month honey moon period while I discover the new variety of tulip.

You will probably end up with inside IR35 contracts to start with so should not bother with a limited company yet.

If you don't have SC then go with a better paid permie in the private sector, the pace of development can be worlds apart.

I am going to presume you mean Security Clearance. If so then yes I do.

I have not even seen many contract opportunities in the public sector, then again I might be looking in the wrong place.

[northernladuk]

Dunno, looking at developer contracts, we seem to be in high demand. Especially in the .NET Core, Azure, React, Full Stack technologies.

There will always be demand. You need to quantify high demand. 10 to 15 contract roles per day? There are 10's of thousands of contractors. I don't know the figures but before the IR35 changes there were easily 300 applications per role. Can't be much less now.

In a heavily saturated market like that 'high demand' means nothing. It's also a very rose tinted comment, just as you previous one and some before that. As much as you seem to have approached this right you also seem to have almost fantasy view on what is very different in reality.

[Hairlocks]

If you have SC then I would advise you stay in the public sector. It will be easier to get contracts as the is less competition for them. You will still have the same tulip, but I find I and cope with it better for about a year until i move contracts and have the 6 month honey moon period while I discover the new variety of tulip.

You will probably end up with inside IR35 contracts to start with so should not bother with a limited company yet.

If you don't have SC then go with a better paid permie in the private sector, the pace of development can be worlds apart.

[Fraidycat]

HAHA! Honestly if I could pull in 30k a year contracting I would be absolutely fine. Wouldn't that be like 3-6 months work? at like 200-400. I am willing to put in what I need to put in to do this as I want the "freedom" that comes with contracting in a ltd company.

I guess you are in your 20's and still live at home with your parents if you would be fine making just 30K a year.

This is definitely an advantage for contracting, not having large bills to pay during bench time. And will also allow you to build a warchest faster, although you dont really need a large warchest while you live at home.

[eek]

Dunno, looking at developer contracts, we seem to be in high demand. Especially in the .NET Core, Azure, React, Full Stack technologies.

Not really, while thee are contracts available there are far fewer than there used to be.

and given the examples I’ve seen chatgpt 4 produce I suspect there will be even fewer going forward

[YggdrasilMana]

Doesn't work like that I am afraid. You are a slave to the next gig as you won't be earning a penny in between. A small number of contractors really live the life of working a few months a year and then buggering off abroad. Even less that are in a position to be able to turn down work because they don't fancy it.

The market is nothing like it used to be many years ago. Every man, woman and their dogs has gone contracting and its a very flat market, particularly when most contracts are now inside.

You can do all those things you mention as a perm and you'll want them as your income increases so I think you are kidding yourself a little bit there TBH

Dunno, looking at developer contracts, we seem to be in high demand. Especially in the .NET Core, Azure, React, Full Stack technologies.

[northernladuk]

Truth is I just want to be my own boss, run my own company and be able to decide where I work (remote contracts). Don't need a fancy car or anything. I just want to build wealth, invest, own my own company and live a good life.

Doesn't work like that I am afraid. You are a slave to the next gig as you won't be earning a penny in between. A small number of contractors really live the life of working a few months a year and then buggering off abroad. Even less that are in a position to be able to turn down work because they don't fancy it.

The market is nothing like it used to be many years ago. Every man, woman and their dogs has gone contracting and its a very flat market, particularly when most contracts are now inside.

You can do all those things you mention as a perm and you'll want them as your income increases so I think you are kidding yourself a little bit there TBH

[YggdrasilMana]

I think you are overestimating the wealth and status that comes with being an IT contractor.

Despite the bragging of some the reality is you might drive a slightly nicer car and live in a slightly nicer house than your permie team members.

Truth is I just want to be my own boss, run my own company and be able to decide where I work (remote contracts). Don't need a fancy car or anything. I just want to build wealth, invest, own my own company and live a good life.

[TheDude]

I think when it comes down to it, it will be my own drive and determination that will decide if I succeed at this. I quit my job to become a developer and studied every day 12-15 hours a day for 6 months until I got my first job. I believe I am a determined person and I appreciate all the advice you are all giving me.

I believe I will become a contractor one day because it is what I want to do and I won't stop until I get there. If I have to start at the bottom and some of you laugh at 200 a day then so be it, once I have more clients than I can handle I will up my rates at that point. First task is getting more clients than I can handle.

If anyone has any other suggestions or advice feel free to speak up. Thank you all!

I think you are overestimating the wealth and status that comes with being an IT contractor.

Despite the bragging of some the reality is you might drive a slightly nicer car and live in a slightly nicer house than your permie team members.

[YggdrasilMana]

Ah OK, still, IMO that's just not enough. We've I work in service so experience counts. Could be completely different in coding so will let some of the other guys in that area comment. Just note we've a lot of coders on here with well over 20 years experience who will be going for the same gigs as you.

I think when it comes down to it, it will be my own drive and determination that will decide if I succeed at this. I quit my job to become a developer and studied every day 12-15 hours a day for 6 months until I got my first job. I believe I am a determined person and I appreciate all the advice you are all giving me.

I believe I will become a contractor one day because it is what I want to do and I won't stop until I get there. If I have to start at the bottom and some of you laugh at 200 a day then so be it, once I have more clients than I can handle I will up my rates at that point. First task is getting more clients than I can handle.

If anyone has any other suggestions or advice feel free to speak up. Thank you all!

[TheDude]

Ah OK, still, IMO that's just not enough. We've I work in service so experience counts. Could be completely different in coding so will let some of the other guys in that area comment. Just note we've a lot of coders on here with well over 20 years experience who will be going for the same gigs as you.

Not at £200-£400 a day we won't.