Reply to: Would you give up Contracting for "promotion"?

[vetran]

take the opportunity to use them to improve your appeal.

Its your career and their feck up.

[jamesbrown]

Working? Not a chance. 3 months tops

Invoicing? Now that's a different matter.

That's the spirit.

[WTFH]

Working for 6 months of the year sounds pretty good to me.

Working? Not a chance. 3 months tops

Invoicing? Now that's a different matter.

[jamesbrown]

Regarding your longer plan (come back to contracting as an architect), architecture is great and well paid but the opportunities are few and far between. Its all very well being on $$$ for 6 months, but not if it takes another 6 months to find the next architecture gig.

That really depends on why you went contracting.

Working for 6 months of the year sounds pretty good to me.

[northernladuk]

It's so nice to hear from a true contractor. NLUK -are you sure YACOTBA?

Permatractor and proud.

You sure that acronym is right?

[NotAllThere]

So.. lets get this right. You are contracting in a position the clients needs to fill with a permie so has offered you the role. You've said you'll only work for him as an architect but you aren't qualified and have no experience. They've never had one so you'll have to design the role, process and everything from the ground up.. with no experience or skills.

It's so nice to hear from a true contractor. NLUK -are you sure YACOTBA?

[northernladuk]

Thanks for the replies.

They want to meet in a few weeks after I said I would only be interested in an architecture position so lets see what they say!

So.. lets get this right. You are contracting in a 280 a day position the clients needs to fill with a permie so has offered you the role. You've said you'll only work for him as an architect but you aren't qualified and have no experience. They've never had one so you'll have to design the role, process and everything from the ground up.. with no experience or skills. And you've told him that's all you will do?

I hope you are doing a bit more in the background to try find more work than waiting to see what your client says. Wish and prayer doesn't really cover this one.

[ctm]

Thanks for the replies.

They want to meet in a few weeks after I said I would only be interested in an architecture position so lets see what they say!

[NotAllThere]

I'd give up contracting for a decent pension package, but I've already got one.

[GJABS]

Be a little careful - they may promise to appoint you as a skill-gaining architect, but in practice keep you doing the same job you were doing as a contractor because it is more convenient for them.

[unixman]

Regarding your longer plan (come back to contracting as an architect), architecture is great and well paid but the opportunities are few and far between. Its all very well being on $$$ for 6 months, but not if it takes another 6 months to find the next architecture gig.

[man]

As others have said, that contract rate is low and you're taking on a lot of risk of it dipping further in real terms due to the expected IR35 changes. Architect roles pay £450+ (at the lowest) outside of London, potentially much more inside.

I've made all of my career moves (mostly in permie land admittedly) with the main goal of future prospects in mind and gradually worked my way up from 1st line call centre ISP support (with no experience), to contracting in IT architecture with a global FTSE100 financial provider in a single digit number of years. So in my experience it is effective to aim at prospects over money (Sure, I've had to peddle and study very hard in a number of roles, and started to lose my hair and go grey, but that might've happened anyway...)

All I would say is that in permie jobs, stay at least a year if you can as any less and questions get asked. 2 years seems to be ideal for CV purposes. Good luck.

[WTFH]

Pros:
Architect is what the end goal for me was, ironically the chance may of come as soon as I turn to contracting
Paid Sick, holidays bla bla bla
I get on with the people I work with
When I move house (in next few months), travel will be about 10-15 minutes.

Cons:
Less money
Less freedom
I could have to get involved in the BAU crap that I currently say I'm not doing as I'm contracted to do X

Part of this is a soundboard... but I suppose my question is.. Would you move to Permanent position for a step up in career and be able to command more money in the future?

A "permanent" job can be a great way to get some learning in. Don't think of it as a 5-10 year career, but as a long term contract. Get what you can out of it, then go when the time is right.
At this stage I'd want to get them to give you an idea of salary/benefits etc - you might think it's 50k, they might say it's 40k. Are you then still interested? They might turn round and say it's 65k.

If it was me, I'd go from £280 to 50k, and treat it as a 2 year contract. I'd do my own review after a year, probably stay for the next and then see if it still interested me.

[Hobosapien]

If considering going permie, getting an inside view of the company and colleagues by way of a contract stint it is a good way to go about it. At least you know what to expect.

While mulling it over you can take more notice of what the permies get up to in terms of hassle from management, left to their own devices (easy ride), and see what staff retention is like (how long have they been there and how many have left or talked about doing so while you've been there).

Only thing you can't plan for is the future state of the contract market if you see permiedom as a stepping stone to better contracts later. The rules may be totally different by then. Though the death of contracting has been predicted as long as contracting has been around. Still makes sense in the right circumstances.

[northernladuk]

IMO it's no brainer. Take time out to update your skills and come back in in a better position for a host of reasons.

How old are you? If you are a young un you've got plenty of time. Spending the rest of your life at the bottom of the ladder doesn't make sense financially and it's going to get pretty tedious (IMO) doing the same thing for the next 20 years.

At 280 a day the role sounds ripe for outsourcing so you've got to protect your long term career.

With changes coming to contracting the lower rates are going to be harder hit. If, and that's a big if at the moment, but if IR35 in the private sector hits where is that going to leave you? 280 a day paying full tax is going to be a pretty poor position to be in and you are really stuck. You'll have no choice but to skill up but you'll be on the back foot. Anyone worth their salt will have taken the best gigs and you'll be left with what's left. Will your roles still even be a contract role after it hits?

Can you really be happy staying at level in an industry where you can't progress. Will you look back in 20 years and wonder if you could have been better at what you do? Did you make the best of your career or just chase a rate, which to be fair, isn't very good?

Personally speaking it's a no brainer to go back and become make the most of your career and then reap the rewards later.

BTW If you are doing a full time role at a client and they want you to go contract to perm are you absolutely sure you don't have an IR35 problem?