Reply to: Should I go contracting ?

[Theonenonly]

I'm currently in support work and the contracts here in the north east range from £70 per day to £200 per day. I always applying for perm roles as I hate contracting.

At the low end (I dont really have any official qualifications per se but I have experience)

Best contract I have had was £140 per day for a PC roll out that lasted 5 weeks.

The one I'm on now pays £113 per day but for me and in my area this is well paid, i'm here for 6 month if it was to last a year theres the 27k your currently on, but I get sweet FA, no sick pay no holidays no nothing, oh and forgot to take off bank holidays, Christmas etc.

Dont forget moving over to contracting you have more to pay out too, I didnt realise but along with your normal tax and NI you also have to pay Employers NI and Umbrella fees. That will lower your overall income.

I'm umbrella, not limited but I have looked into it and unless you can do all your accounting yourself theres also extra costs involved there too. I'm still deciding if it will be best to make the move over to ltd.

[DieScum]

I've been in permie land for years now, but at contract rates, so I know f all.

However was catching up with a mate yesterday. Same kind of skillset as you. Field engineer stuff.

He'd been working on some bespoke government stuff, being an on site implementation guy. He quit out of boredom. Apparently they bent over backwards to get him to stay.

He left last week and started a new 30 day contract this Monday doing server build stuff. Not the best rate 250 but it compares well to the permie salary for that kind of stuff.

[Aman]

Hi,

I'm sure you must get this question all the time, but.... I'm trying to work out whether it's worth taking the plunge into the world of contracting and leaving my full-time job. As a permanent employee, I've seen a few colleagues leave to go contracting over the years with stories of untold riches etc. Now, I'm sure a lot of that is bull, but I'm slowly realising that my current position isn't going to improve and my salary isn't going to increase by the level I need it to, hence my post on here.

In a nutshell, I've been a field engineer (windows server builds, Raid, networks, switches, PC installs, fault calls etc) for umpteen years. The only vocational qualifications I have are HP APS in Workstation & Server (absolute joke of a certification), and I've put myself through evening classes to do a Cisco CCNA, though I've yet to actually sit the exam. I've been with my current employers for 8 years now and I'm on £27k + car but no other benefits - not even a pension. Also in a fair bit of debt. Being in my mid 40's, that's not a great place to be. I also don't have complete confidence that my job will still be here in 5 years time due to the direction the company is heading.

In short, I need more money. Is it possible / easy ? for someone of my status to earn more than I am at the moment by going contracting ? I often get told I'm an idiot for staying in a crap salaried job and ought to get out there - but, the only contractors I ever speak to are the ones my company employs on short-term contracts and they always seem to be asking me if there are any permanent jobs going ! So, I'm kinda getting conflicting signals !

What's the score guys ? Are the roads paved with gold, or should I just accept my lot and stay on crap money but be grateful it's 'permanent' ?

Many thanks in advance !

Cheers !

Clear your debts.
Live within your means. You are in your 40s and have a solid permie job, so there's little excuse for being in debt.
Look for another permanent role, with better money. Though your skillset is quite common and should in theory enable you to work in any location, server and support peope are becoming commoditised and I've seen contract rates as low as £8.25.
I see you are in NW. Durness isn't really an area where you would be able to find much work so I think you would struggle.
I'm not sure how useful CCNA will be to a server / support person, but if someone else is paying for it could another string to your bow. There's not much north of M8 corridor with Cisco but the good news (for you not the client networks) is that they use general IT people for that rather than comms specialists..

[TykeMerc]

My default answer when I'm asked "should I go contracting" is always no. Anyone who hasn't mentally committed to the risks and uncertainties involved in contracting shouldn't do it.

If asked "how do I set up as I'm going contracting" I'll do my best to give them advice and where to get other advice.

I've been asked both at least a dozen times in the last 20 years as a contractor.

Going contracting as a way to pay off debt is a damn silly idea so clearly NO.

[Saddo]

I saw an ad on TV where if you do their PC management course you can guarantee yourself a job in an industry where the average salary is over £30,000 PA.

Imagine having to live on that little.

Well according to the TV adds you can earn over 30K pa just by becoming a driving instructor. I think they might have forgotten to include some salient facts though - the 30K is gross income; you have solid bookings 8 hours a day 7 days a week; you ignore car and insurance costs; etc.

[nomadd]

the op has a very similar skill set to me though i have ms certs, i'd be well happy on £27k + car right now considering the near zero contracting opportunities about at the moment.

Anything you gain contracting you will lose in the months where you do sod all apart from hit the refresh button on jobserve, it's not a nice place to be right now.

Personally i think you'd be mad to try it in this market, sit tight and wait for things to improve.

WHS.

QFT.

[BlasterBates]

What I wouldn´t do is resign and then look for a contract, not in your financial position. Go for a contract and then take it from there, give the agent the availability he requires, but try and be a bit vague, because it´s only when you have an interview that it gets really serious. If you get a few interviews lined up that´s when you might consider resigning, i.e. get the idea of how in demand you are first. Sometimes a skillset isn´t in demand and better to know while you´re still in your reasonably paid permie job.

My estimate in the current market is that contracts would pay 250-350 a day, and on the lower end of the scale (250) if you are paying travel costs, and taking into account bench time and and the same amount of holiday as you have in your permie job, you will be better off, but by a few grand. So you need to ask yourself whether it´s worth it.

For example on 250 working 230 days will gross 58000. now subtract 10-15 grand for costs, which means you´re on 40 something grand, so you should be able to store away say about 10 grand. Which is good but not really life changing. Of course bench time will eat that away fairly quickly, so you need that money in the beginning for any potential bemch time, you should really store up a warchest that can get you through 6 months, i.e. 1-3 months looking for the right contract, and then a further couple of months desperately taking anything.

What you can do as a contractor is not take holiday that gives you 10% more which you can invest. That can make it worth while. A lot of contractors don´t take holiday.

[lukemg]

Location is important too, if you are London/SE then you will have a much better chance but your skills although extensive are going to be a problem and it is only going to get worse.
I would seriously consider getting the certs, that will give you half a chance.
If you want to test the market you MUST sound available, tell them your section is closing next week - anything so you can start a contract quickly. The market will tell you if there is any demand and if you do land something, most employers will let you leave or just go sick.
I presume you can sell yourself confidently without appearing desperate - this will be essential.
Longer term - you HAVE to get out of support, it's been dead for years and about to be buried...

[krytonsheep]

In short, I need more money

If you're in debt, I'd sort that out before taking a jump in to contracting. Ideally you should not only pay off your debts but build up enough savings to keep you going without work for 6-12months.
For example, lets say you land a contract after a few months of job searching, quit your permie role. You turn up on the first day of the contract only to be told the projects been cancelled.

[gingerjedi]

The OP has a very similar skill set to me though I have MS certs, I'd be well happy on £27k + car right now considering the near zero contracting opportunities about at the moment.

Anything you gain contracting you will lose in the months where you do sod all apart from hit the refresh button on jobserve, it's not a nice place to be right now.

Personally I think you'd be mad to try it in this market, sit tight and wait for things to improve.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

I went into contracting at the start of this year which according to all was a dangerous move and I certainly agree it was dangerous. But I can't see myself going back to permie land. I am already thinking up plans B, C, D and E to avoid such an eventuality with plan E being suicide.

Life is really tough as a permie if you are on less than 40k. Even then it aint easy. However you are already in your mid 40's and i realised it is not easy competing in the contract world. You need to have all the latest skills and knowledge and be ready to compete with 25 - 65 year olds. With the cuts that are coming I can see things getting really bad next year.

Best thing you can do is apply and see if you get any interviews. If you do then you can probably find the next one after that.

[Svalbaard]

I saw an ad on TV where if you do their PC management course you can guarantee yourself a job in an industry where the average salary is over £30,000 PA.

Imagine having to live on that little.

[cojak]

If you go intro contracting only for the money you could be bitterly disappointed.

It's harder to get work out there unless you have a particular skillset that every company needs. So you could be out of work (benched) for weeks or months at a time - that will hit whatever extra capital you made (I suspect that you're not the type to save).

Then there are the costs associated with contracting - taxes (yes, there are some), travel, living accomodation etc. and the fact that you may have to work away from home during the week to be where the contracts are.

I was reminded why I was a contractor when I contemplated going permie earlier in the year - I deeply dreaded the thought of having to ask for holidays and being stuck in a dead-end job with no means of escape and being told to perform tasks that I didn't think were worthwhile...

The list went on and on.

[Clippy]

I would urge caution as, I believe, contracting work in your arena (field engineer) pays peanuts.

Think I saw an ad not too long ago, for a Dell engineer, paying per closed job ticket so you would really have to graft to earn an income every day.

If I was in your position, and I nearly was at the beginning of my career as my permie employer was pushing me to join the field engineers, I'd look at office based support roles whether they are contract or permie.

With your skills, I reckon you could easily pull in a salary of £30k but you'd lose the car.

Medium term, I'd suggest you look to move away from technical support as there really is no long term future in it due to all the offshoring - something which has been well covered on these forums and can be found with a quick search.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

[Saddo]

Becoming a contractor after being a permanent employee for years is a leap of faith. In my case I was made redundant and a friendly agent said he might find it difficult to find me another permanent job, but he had a contract job. I said no, I had a young family and contracting was too risky. He said okay, but it would be paying X pounds per hour. His argument was persuasive. And I never looked back.

The way I look on contracting is that I am more secure as a contractor than I would be as a permanent member of staff. You sign a contract which has an end date, and it is quite unusual for that contract not to reach that point. Often but not always you get renewals on that contract. But in any event you plan your finances around that point in time where you might be out of work for a while.

As noted in previous responses, for an agency to consider you it is necessary to be available to start within a short timescale. You are actually worth most to an agent when you can start tomorrow (though in all probability you wouldn't actually start tomorrow). The agent gets paid from placing people, and they aren't looking long term.

In your position I would suggest caution. You've got a job with an income, and as you've been there a while your employer wouldn't be choosing you as the first candidate to chop (redundancy payments would be higher than if they got rid of someone who had only been there less than 2 years). These are tough times in the job market which could get worse over the next year or two.

Don't get too taken in with dreams about money. Many contractors do make shedloads of money. But not everyone does. And you've got all the other expenses which permanent employees don't have.