Reply to: Perm to contracting - Advice needed for Java developer!

[Bazza]

What area of the country you work/live is important. I live and work in the North West around Manchester but tend to find J2EE jobs scarce on the ground and the rates are not as good as darn South. Competition up here is much tougher and hence the rates are lower as people will undercut you to not have to work away from home.

After my current gig I shall probably have to look down South and work away from home. Not good since we have one child and another on the way very soon and I don't like the prospect of being out of contract for 6-10 weeks again which seems to happen every summer.

I live in East Anglia, but will be looking for contracts in London - which is where I currently work. Although, I am prepared to work pretty much anywhere really (within reason).

[maverick]

What area of the country you work/live is important. I live and work in the North West around Manchester but tend to find J2EE jobs scarce on the ground and the rates are not as good as darn South. Competition up here is much tougher and hence the rates are lower as people will undercut you to not have to work away from home.

After my current gig I shall probably have to look down South and work away from home. Not good since we have one child and another on the way very soon and I don't like the prospect of being out of contract for 6-10 weeks again which seems to happen every summer.

[Bazza]

One advice: if you want to be a contractor you should try to be a little technology agnostic. You cannot impose your choices to the customer. And the customer is always right. Furthermore, highly needed skills might not be so in the future and they are not going to crosstrain you (apart from a few exeptions). So if he wants .Net that's what you are good at.

Try to build a wider range of skills (do not underestimate depth of knowledge but don't count on this only).

I agree with what you are saying - - I work with a java/opensource evangelist who has a big downer on microsoft, I keep telling him that his principles are all very well, but they won't pay the rent. I don't really give a toss one way or the other what I develop in. .Net is one on my list to add to the toolset.

[gables]

I remember when I was a permie one of the technical guys told his boss he had just accepted a job with the company's main competitor, he was escorted to his desk to pick up his pen and then marched off the site. There was no animosity, the company was just protecting itself.

I think he went contracting

[Francko]

What? Switch from j2ee to .Net?

One advice: if you want to be a contractor you should try to be a little technology agnostic. You cannot impose your choices to the customer. And the customer is always right. Furthermore, highly needed skills might not be so in the future and they are not going to crosstrain you (apart from a few exeptions). So if he wants .Net that's what you are good at.

Try to build a wider range of skills (do not underestimate depth of knowledge but don't count on this only).

[threaded]

And if the client already does both, introduce them to Ruby On Rails.

[_V_]

Learn both and do migrations both ways.

[Bazza]

Advice: .Net

HTH

What? Switch from j2ee to .Net?

[threaded]

Advice: .Net

HTH

[VectraMan]

I hear what you are saying, but as I am the sole breadwinner and have 2 kids, a wife and 3 mortgages, I think it would be a bit foolish to jump in feet first without weighing up the risks. It's not a case of not being able to cope with the risks, but knowing what the risks are - no point in wading in blind!

All you can really do is look at the job ads and try to gauge how much work there's likely to be for you. And you could get a 6 month contract in no time, but then in 6 months time find things have changed and nobody wants you.

But that applies to permiedom too. How sure are you your current job is secure? Having an in-demand skill is the only real job security.

FWIW my last two contracts I had to wait 2 weeks after being offered and accepting the job for the client to be ready for me to start.

[Bazza]

Just go for it. If you can't cope with the risk, you probably aren't cut out to be a contractor. You said you have enough to survive for 6 months, which is probably more than most of us when we start. I had no money, and 3 credit cards that I reckoned I could survive on for 4 months at a push.

I hear what you are saying, but as I am the sole breadwinner and have 2 kids, a wife and 3 mortgages, I think it would be a bit foolish to jump in feet first without weighing up the risks. It's not a case of not being able to cope with the risks, but knowing what the risks are - no point in wading in blind!

[Bazza]

Many thanks for all replies - particularly those on how to handle the the notice period situation.

Bazza

[VectraMan]

if I am honest I would describe myself as and OK-to-good developer

I thought you said you did Java?

Just go for it. If you can't cope with the risk, you probably aren't cut out to be a contractor. You said you have enough to survive for 6 months, which is probably more than most of us when we start. I had no money, and 3 credit cards that I reckoned I could survive on for 4 months at a push.

[MarillionFan]

"When I look at ads on jobserve they seem to want everything under the sun -"

Just do what 90% of the posters do on this board. Lie.

[mcquiggd]

Tell the agent '2 weeks, negotiable'. Accrue 10 days holiday, and most companies will allow you to use that against your notice periods - I say most as I don't believe that it is enshirined in law that you have the absolute right to use it, but once you've told them you are leaving, they tend not to want you lingering around encouraging other staff to go and earn more money elsewhere...

You could check with your HR department but from past exeperience I would be a little wary about doing so, as HR have a tendency to be corrupt, and inform management of any 'interesting developments'.

I am currently permanent and the company has a policy that you have to take oustanding holiday on resignation - they wont pay you for it... I am carrying over 10 days to next year

An (effective) two week notice period sould be fine except for the most urgent contracts, and those tend to be of the 'oh my god the project is in serious doo doo' type.

Personally I'd look at making the jump around late February, March / April time if at at all... existing budgets have to be spent, or new ones are released, so projects tend to kick off.


And bear in mind just because you get a contract, you can be walked off-site at any time, perhaps with a weeks pay in lieu. Projects get cancelled, personalities clash, budgets get cut. That's one of the reasons companies want contractors - they can be disposed of without all the hassle of permies. Put as much of the money from your first contract into a some form of easily accessible low-risk investment vehicle to minimise tax (combination of ISA and something else), or simply a bank account and take the tax hit for zero risk.

Also bear in mind feckwit Gordon Browns every move is to force everyone into permiedom and stifle the 'flexible labour market' he mumbles about from time to time, in between his repeated pledges to send the money we earn overseas. And he targets IT with every budget or 'pre budget speech' where he introduces new taxes anyway.