Reply to: Did you have a warchest before starting your first contract?

[alreadypacked]

Had a bit of a warchest, but not intentionally (had sold a house and made a nice profit on it). Was Taking a year out and when it came to looking for work fell into contracting by accident.

Haven't looked back since..........

Same here, I had just made a profit on some land, felt secure enough to take a contract in Europe.

[Mich the Tester]

This was in the days when you had to fax your CV to the agencies you found in Freelance Informer !!

A fax? Luxury! We had to fold up our CVs and fix them under a pigeon, then send them off to Arthur Daley and hope the bird didn't tulip on your CV on the way. You had it easy!

[lukemg]

Fair play to anyone walking off a job to go contracting, especially with nothing already fixed up. I was offered a job in ‘logistics’ as a move away from the IT department. I decided to try my luck and scored a contract in Brum with a rise of 150% over my perm rate. This was in the days when you had to fax your CV to the agencies you found in Freelance Informer !!

[Scrag Meister]

My grandmother sold her house moved into my parents place and gave my bro and I a nice £wad each.

Next day

"Dear Employer

Please accept this letter as the required 3 months notice.......

Yours faithfully

Scrag"

3 months did drag, then took me another 3 months eating into the stash to land the first contract.

[MarillionFan]

I have since learnt a whole heap more and when people tell me they are thinking about going contracting as if it's the easy choice I do point and laugh.

I think it depends. I find contracting easy money but now wholly unfulfilling. I jacked the best job I've ever had as opposed to have relocating to the US, I should have kicked the wife in the arse or in to touch & taken it.

I now really regret it.

[MarillionFan]

I'd been out of university for three years and was perm. Just bought a house,company car and a £28k salary. But still owed student loans and has about 3k in the bank.

I was working tulip loads of hours, very stressed was drinking too much and getting into fights in pubs almost every week.

Then about to lose my driving licence on two pints of freaking Stella!!!! Got my arm dislocated and arrested in a fight at the grand hotel and then a massive row with the MD where I told him to **** his job and threw my cars keys at him, walking out. All the stress just dropped away.

Luckily the client I was working for insisted that the consultancy paid me to finish it. I negotiated £500 per day and I billed for everything. Two months later and with 20k I then got a jammy contract a mile away from my house which lasted six months and got me on a preferred contractor list with PWC for the next few years.

[Mich the Tester]

Yep, had about 3 months permie salary in the bank. Resigned just as a project came to an end (was working for an insultancy) so was able to leave quickly, walked into a contract the next week that I'd already been offered. Unfortunately the day after I resigned the car's turbo blew up and cost 1500 euros to replace. Still, got through to first invoice being paid.

[swamp]

Applied for a credit card and handed my notice in. Only way to go!

[norrahe]

Had a bit of a warchest, but not intentionally (had sold a house and made a nice profit on it). Was Taking a year out and when it came to looking for work fell into contracting by accident.

Haven't looked back since..........

[shaunbhoy]

I took my first contract because I wanted a warchest!!

[d000hg]

Bit hard to say for me. I was doing freelance work alongside a full-time job for about a year (earning more in the evenings as a freelancer than the whole day as a permie). By the time I became full-time freelancer I suppose I had a few grand set aside,

[doodab]

I had pretty low paid permie job but I was being dicked about so I applied for a couple of things on jobserve. TBH I had no idea about contracting at that point, I didn't even realise I had applied for a contract as such.

I had to sit down when the agent phoned me after the interview and told me the "slightly lower due to lack of experience" rate I would be getting

[northernladuk]

I took VR and had a month off. I just couldn't face going back to permie land so started contracting. I had my redundancy pot that would have lasted me half a year or so if need be so very low risk start for me. It did take me 2 months to find a role as I hadn't read up on tailoring CV's and dealing with agents and so on though.

[thunderlizard]

I had no cash reserve at all, but then again I'd never had a job before either. It wasn't a matter of giving anything up to "take the plunge".

(I really dislike the term "warchest". I'm not Genghis Khan.)

[suityou01]

I often read the advice that you need a fair bit of money stashed before you even consider going contracting, and I'd agree it's sensible advice however when I think back to when I started my first contract I recall I had very little money to my name and if I'd waited until I had 6 months worth stashed I'd still be permie.

I suspect quite a few people were in the same boat when they started, and the main reason they have warchests now is because they've been contracting for several years, not because they waited until they were 100% secure before making the leap.

So, a poll.

Didn't have a pot to **** in. Walked out of a permie gig I was being treated like tulipe in and said fook this I'm going contracting.

My father was an IT contractor for 20 years so I knew quite a bit about it from a getting started pov.
I have since learnt a whole heap more and when people tell me they are thinking about going contracting as if it's the easy choice I do point and laugh.