Day rate vs further studies & climbing the ladder

[Hobosapien]

Simple way to have more money is to spend less.

[Skag]

I've gone contracting after some 10 years of perm jobs since I've left uni. Nearer my last jobs I took a year off to get an MBA from a top 5 unis in the UK.

My next 2 (perm) jobs after MBA did give me a boost of about 25% compared to all my comrades, but I stayed in my domain (IT, management, see dev manager etc). Was it the MBA? Probably not. But then again maybe. We'll never know.
One thing I know is that other students, if they were not wealthy already, they went to vanilla consulting, with average wages and 10+ hours per day, and a lot of political bulltulip.

I joined a niche IT group and went contracting. Result: triple the salary and holidays. You also get the opportunity to grown your own Ltd, i.e. hire more people and create your own small consultancy if that's what you're after. It depends very much on your aspirations. Though, sometimes the contract is crap, sometimes is interesting, and sometimes you don't get to choose e.g. time of the year.

I'll tell you this though: my friends are quite envious of me, and they're all on the £80k+ bracket, some of them being "head of" or work at big banks. I just go, do my job for a few months, get my money, and get out. Lately I've been wondering though: what if I want to go up the rankings in a big corporation, to reach C-level in the next 5-10 years? I guess for that you'll have to delegate a lot of time and blood (and politics) and again, maybe you'll make it, but there's only one at the top, so what are the odds? Again, it depends on your plans and personal aspirations.

HTH

[SueEllen]

If you plan on climbing the corporate ladder get a perm job first then do your MBA otherwise don't bother.

[GhostofTarbera]

MBA will make you £0 extra - permies won’t want to hire an egghead , just someone that can do the job well

[LondonManc]

The opportunity cost of uni may put you off.

Keep your skills current, but have those legacy skills to fall back on - they will eventually become niche; Lotus Notes died a sad death but there are still niche players who use it for example.

[aj4u]

Hello All,

Not your usual topic, but I suspect some of you may have been through this and I'm hoping to see what I am missing

Background on me:

• Working 6 years - 4 years perm - 2ish years on contract.

• Day Rate - ranged between 400 ~ 500 for the last 2 years, no time on the bench & tend to get contracts before leaving the one I'm in at the time. (market must be amazing because I really am not)

• I work for money, not because I love working

Assumptions (which I would love corrected, if I am wrong):

• Test Automation contractors make between 400 ~ 650 p/d (doing something in demand, top end is 600~650 @ I guess 5% of the market)

• If you want to make more you have to do something niche, that may get you a higher day rate but it also limits the number of contracts you can get long term.

• From my short experience I've learned that clients can use you as a consultant or a monkey on a seat churning work through, your job is to stfu and do w/e it is that is asked.... until it becomes unacceptable and you decide to part ways

I get a job at an average rate of 500 p/d:

• Working weeks in contract per year (average) -> 44 weeks

• 220 days * 500 -> £110,000 per year

Questions:

• Do I have it completely wrong, do people make way more money in contracts?

• Do management in companies make more money? I know its not for everyone ....

• Do I go back to Uni and do something like an MBA and does that translate into more money long term?

Sorry maybe its me, maybe its the job... contracting has taught me to keep my thoughts to myself when at the client / potential client which ends up meaning that I don't have anyone who I can consult for career advice...

Thanks Aj