Reply to: Your first contract

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

2010 in the midst of a recession, many at the time said I was taking a gamble with first kid on the way and leaving the "security" of permiedom.

Fook that "security". I left 27k job for £250/day which was a massive relief at the time. I was depressed and fed up in permiedom and that £250/day has steadily risen to a much healthier figure.

Have more security now than I ever did as permie, that's cos contracts suite me a hell of a lot more and I know to play the game (so far).

[zemoxyl]

Spent a-g-e-s getting knocked back for gigs (like just now), then in 1990 I got my first direct contract on £25 p.h. doing unix sysadmin. Became a P.M. swiftly thereafter. on the same moolah. The banks were on a cyclical dip in their recruitment, and I tried to hire a Sybase DBA for my team, and he told me he would work for me as a favour (because we knew him) for an absolute minimum of £50 p.h. - which was well under what he was getting in the City.

First 10 years without a single day out, and then everything downhill slowly thereafter......

Ha, kids today!
My first contract was in 1977 on a rate of £120 per week. A big jump from a salary of £3600 a year.

Great to see you're still in the game - AND you've improved your lot by speaking a couple of languages. Well done fella !

[bstar1]

Well I was a shop assistant for 5 years heard a lot about the contracting lark from my buddies. So they said just do this basic 2 week hardware/ms dos course. Knocked up a very creative and then the interview at a global telecoms giant in 1997 the guy asked me "what would you do if a user said PC not working on the end of a phone" my response "ah well are you sure everything is pluged in correctly and take it from there" he loved my answer and followed by tons of BS I got the gig. Boy did I tulip myself when I discovered email. But learned very quickly how to survive in this fical world. £15 pH. Not bad for a shop assistant.

[shaunbhoy]

1997 - Project Manager for Ericsson working on Mobile Phone Networks in Guernsey and the Isle of Man. A paltry £25 per hour but it was worth it to get away from the permie hell I was enduring prior to that.
Lots of expensed trips to both places too although being based out of Burgess Hill was a bit of a trial.

My next contract was for a sh*tload more cash for doing a fraction of the work. Swings and roundabouts and all that.

[DS23]

2003 oracle apps functional analyst 350 per day in Amsterdam

don't recall the salary i was on in my last permanent job - probably 35k

i couldn't believe that were paying so much per day and i was right to be incredulous 'cos they weren't for very long as the agency went bankrupt after 6 months. i was too trusting and nearly went bankrupt myself. bastard learning curve.

[vetran]

28th Feb 2011 - £330 a day

End of 2010 I had a breakdown, tried to kill myself gave up my permie civil service job and moved back home, applied for permie and contract jobs at the same time, got offered a permie job then a contract, walked out of the permie job after a few weeks into the contract.

Had a clear focus from contracting to be debt free, am now debt free so don't care if I go back to permie with the latest set of changes from the budged, it was a means to an end

sounds like contracting has been kind to you.

[SimonMac]

28th Feb 2011 - £330 a day

End of 2010 I had a breakdown, tried to kill myself gave up my permie civil service job and moved back home, applied for permie and contract jobs at the same time, got offered a permie job then a contract, walked out of the permie job after a few weeks into the contract.

Had a clear focus from contracting to be debt free, am now debt free so don't care if I go back to permie with the latest set of changes from the budged, it was a means to an end

[lukemg]

14th April 1993, left my perm job for the bright lights of BASS in brum, yes it was a brewery. I was on a days notice for 2 weeks as they hated the chap before me and didnt want to risk it again.
He turned up to ask for the job back same day I did and since they had told him it was budget cuts rather than that he was a t**t, they had to keep me out of the way till they got shot of him.
From 17k/year to 675/week (seemed like a lot when my monthly expenses were about half this)...

[vetran]

2000, best rate £450 a day from my ex employer. Teach them to hack me off.

Combined with a little bit less from 3 other clients. I did well until New Lie imported ICTs by the plane load.

[DimPrawn]

2001 I think, went from £55K permie to £80/hr

My first rate and my best rate! Downhill ever since.

[Lockhouse]

1987. Went from £7200 per year to £600 per week working in Hemel Hempstead at Honeywell Bull. Down the pub every lunchtime, V12 Jag, first BTL on the go; those were the days.

[psychocandy]

1997. £35 an hour. Left permie job £22K plus nice company car.

Actually picked up spanking new car at mdnight march 1st and drove to new contract next day.

Did contract for year. Mgr was a complete arse - worse person I've ever worked for. Bullying etc.

Ended up making me ill (long story) - never do that again.

[BrilloPad]

I lent Billy 50p. He would not pay it back. So I gave Fred 5p to get it back for me.

[MarillionFan]

1997. 28k with a company car as a technical account manager.
Had a spat with my boss the day I came back from holiday. I'd been so stressed before, was about to lose my driving license for drink driving (2 pints of Stella FFS!), had been arrested for getting in a punch up in a bar the week before that and life was unravelling.

Threw my car keys across the room, told him to **** it and walked out to nothing. Most liberating experience ever.

A few weeks later they had to call me back. One of my clients insisted I finish a project they were in the middle of and my former company had to rehire me as a contractor as only I knew how to do it. I hit them for 500 quid a day, including travelling and meeting times and at th beginning of the summer I had paid off my student loans and had 10k savings. I took off the summer, best summer of my life and at the end I got my first proper contract at post office for 225. Never looked back.

[I just need to test it]

1997. I went from a perm 33K to 500 + expenses in Bavaria.

The expenses included as much German beer as I could quaff. And after lunch each day the extremely affable project manager would demand to know how much I'd spent then press a few Deutschmarks into my hand. It was a good life.