When to take the plunge into contracting (Scotland)

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SueEllen replied

26 October 2017, 14:51
Who knows?

Biggest problem you have is a small market. In London and SE your skills are wanted.
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skipirate started a topic When to take the plunge into contracting (Scotland)

26 October 2017, 14:16
When to take the plunge into contracting (Scotland)

Hi there,

Posting this in FAQ since I'm sure it's been asked 100s of times before. I've been keen to move into contracting for a while now. I used to work for a large consultancy in London as a senior java dev and also dev ops engineer. During that time worked with many contractors so I'm aware of a lot of the pitfalls around contracting and the obvious perks.

I'm now living back up in Scotland where I'm a permie in financial services. I know the market is a lot quieter up here than down in London but even at my current place we still have a lot of contractors and I'm regularly seeing positions advertised on job boards. I'm actually making a decent salary (£52K + pension + bonus) but was wondering how to translate that into a realistic day rate in Scotland?

My concern about jumping into contracting has been that I'm fairly young and I'm only 29. I've got 7 years of professional experience and some recruiters I have talked to have suggested that contractors with more years of experience would always be given preference for interviews first. When I was in a consultancy I was responsible for interviewing contractors for our teams and it did always seem that agencies sent people who (on paper) appeared more experienced. Is this a genuine worry for me? I'm very confident in my interviewing abilities from my consultancy days though.
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