Reply to: How did you make the permie to contractor jump?

[BillHicksRIP]

I've worked as a permie for a few consultanicies and done stints at client sites where they were me charging me out at £850 - £1000 a day plus hotels and food. The odd client permie would have a dig about rates as they were obviously privy to what was being invoiced, but it wasn't the best situation on a personal level. Now I'm competing with my old companies but charging about half what they do. I do enjoy not having some manager telling me to work 300 miles away for weeks at a time when I can decide when to do that myself. :-)

[DaveB]

Why would anyone hire a contractor with no experience when there are cheap experienced people around? Unless he charges a truly pitiful rate, in which case he might as well get a proper job to get some training and learn how the world actually works outside of university! Maybe switch jobs a couple of times quickly to maximise experience and then try contracting.

A pitiful rate for a qualified, experienced contractor is a bloody fortune to a newly graduated student with debts to pay off.

[Mich the Tester]

Why would anyone hire a contractor with no experience when there are cheap experienced people around?

Believe it or not, it's happening, because they'll happily work for half the rate of someone with experience.

[Scrag Meister]

First time: got pissed of with permie role, started looking for a new job and got an offer of a contract and decided to go for it. They even awaited 2 months for me to start. (Thanks BT! )

Second Time: Had a longish spell on the bench after a few years, just as the recession was starting to bite, and MrsB wanted me to go back permie so picked up a new permie role. 2 years later I was thoroughly pissed off with it when I got made redundant. They handed me a nice fat bonus, told me I'd get a decent redundancy payment and I had a new contract lined up within a week of being told it was happening

Back in permie world, I was waiting in the car to go in to an interview for a new role at a new employer, when I was rung by a colleague to tell me that we were being made redundant from current employer.

2 week over-lap, work during consultation period, of course.

Was a rubbish redundancy pay-off though.

[d000hg]

I'm really inclined to push him down the contracting route seeing as I see more contract vacancies than permie vacancies for junior testers or programmers here in NL

Why would anyone hire a contractor with no experience when there are cheap experienced people around? Unless he charges a truly pitiful rate, in which case he might as well get a proper job to get some training and learn how the world actually works outside of university! Maybe switch jobs a couple of times quickly to maximise experience and then try contracting.

[DaveB]

First time: got pissed of with permie role, started looking for a new job and got an offer of a contract and decided to go for it. They even awaited 2 months for me to start. (Thanks BT! )

Second Time: Had a longish spell on the bench after a few years, just as the recession was starting to bite, and MrsB wanted me to go back permie so picked up a new permie role. 2 years later I was thoroughly pissed off with it when I got made redundant. They handed me a nice fat bonus, told me I'd get a decent redundancy payment and I had a new contract lined up within a week of being told it was happening

[Jog On]

I got a perm gig at a security company (ADT) where they had a 6 month probation period in which the notice period was just 1 week. Was there for a month or so before getting my first contract.

[DS23]

Redundancy then luck

whs

9 years of it. luck?

[kanulondon]

After Uni I fell into IT (I studied Env Engineering) and stayed with a large High St bank for 6 years. I came up through their graduate training scheme working my way up from Support Analyst >Technical Team Leader > Team Leader > IT Manager (without the official grade!). Made some sideways moves in a bid to get formal management grade. However it was a bit of an old boys club. Resentment started to set in and I was keen to leave

I had a couple of contractors in my team and after deciding it was the best option for me, I went about getting all of the formal qualifications needed (to give me an extra advantage). Got my Prince 2 Project MGT & ITIL V2 Manager's all paid for by my company (they didn't twig at all). I then started the search for the job, got the first contract after about a month of looking and handed in notice. Felt a bit bad, because I carried out looking and found an even better contract paying nearly £100 per day more. So I made my excuses and started work on my first gig Feb 2009.

Best deicision I made career wise. . . . . .

I've been fortunate to have not been on the bench as yet and I'm on my 4th Client. At the time of my first give I increased income by about x4. Market has slowed a little bit, so I am probably only on x3 now (taking into account permie rises) but it's making such a difference for me and my family.

Not sure I will be gigging forever, but for the next 5 - 10 years . . . I will look to continue

Since starting, I've continued to keep up my studies and stay fresh. This is so important in the fast moving world of IT, but it requires time and discipline

[Mich the Tester]

How about seeing if current client is looking for junior testers and offer to supply one ? That way you give the lad a leg up and also make a few quid along the way ?

Yep,, thought about that, but he's not available until September; after his exams he's quite rightly sodding off to the beach for a couple of months to get laid and enjoy life.

[Mich the Tester]

You can pass the entire ISTQB exam set without ever seeing a computer, let alone actually doing the job.

Who would you rather have on your team, a 'qualified' tester with 3 years exerience or an 'un-qualified' one with 10+ years?

A tester who's done or doing Cem Kaner's BBST course.

[FiveTimes]

It seems most of us were permies for some time before either seeing the light or being thrown into the light by redundancy. Right now, there's a young guy I know from the rugby club who's nearly finished college and wants to work 'in IT' so he's asking me for advice. I'm really inclined to push him down the contracting route seeing as I see more contract vacancies than permie vacancies for junior testers or programmers here in NL. Of course, he'd be right in at the deep end and he'd have to sink or swim (although I can probably give him some guidance on the phone here and there).

Thing is, would I be advising that simply because I often wish that I'd gone contracting right from the start? Is it rally feasible to go it alone before getting some experience of corporate cack (politics, getting the tulip job of maintaining some old permie's spaghetti code etc) ? What do the panel think?

How about seeing if current client is looking for junior testers and offer to supply one ? That way you give the lad a leg up and also make a few quid along the way ?

[lukemg]

1993 - Drifted into IT after Poly, job came from sandwich course placement co. Did a lot of euro travelling, US trip etc networks just starting to be used, email only for senior mgrs etc.
Offered a promotion in 'shipping' as IT was still not considered a real job. Contract draughtsman on site says go contracting, his dad was an accountant with IT bods on his books.
At the time, it was Freelance Informer and bounce your CV using a Fax machine to the agency contact numbers !!
Offered a contract in Brum, stayed with friends of friends in shared house during the week. Pay tripled over night. Started 10 year continuous run before ass fell out of my meagre skills. 2.5 years perm (pay halved) to 'reboot'. Back on the contract train for 6 years now (with about a year bench time all added up).
Yearly revenue graph looks like the worlds scariest roller-coaster but still certain it was the right idea with 2 caveats:
1 - Don't expect to flog the same horse forever, you can be left with worthless skills very quickly. You may not even notice if you are on a long contract until you get tumbleweeds when looking again. Update if you can !
2 - Always be thinking about a plan B. Mine is stashing a decent portion in investments. Good warchest if needed, pension if not...

[bless 'em all]

You can pass Foundation by reading one book and doing the exam. Unless you're a moron, in which case you could probably pass without reading the book.

You can pass the entire ISTQB exam set without ever seeing a computer, let alone actually doing the job.

Who would you rather have on your team, a 'qualified' tester with 3 years exerience or an 'un-qualified' one with 10+ years?

[Mich the Tester]

And it pays for the training, you need ISEB/ISTQB Foundation to get past most sorts for testing jobs these days.

You can pass Foundation by reading one book and doing the exam. Unless you're a moron, in which case you could probably pass without reading the book.