Permie > Contractor

[DanielSQL]

So I've just had an agent contact me to discuss a new role. Sounds decent.

The only issue is the rate. It's much lower than I hoped to start off with. Should I just hush and accept - afterall this would be my first gig.

[northernladuk]

So I've just had an agent contact me to discuss a new role. Sounds decent.

The only issue is the rate. It's much lower than I hoped to start off with. Should I just hush and accept - afterall this would be my first gig.

Well to be honest you've got nothing at the moment. I'd go ahead with it and then make a decision if they offer you it.

When they do you will have to think about can you afford to turn it down, would it look good on your CV, what will you do if you don't take it etc. Most of the points you need to consider relate to your personal situation and not for us to decide.

[LondonManc]

So I've just had an agent contact me to discuss a new role. Sounds decent.

The only issue is the rate. It's much lower than I hoped to start off with. Should I just hush and accept - afterall this would be my first gig.

If it's your first gig, they'll be trying to fleece you on rate.

What's market rate for the gig? Then take 10% off for being green and that's roughly the rate you should be looking at, e.g. £320/day v £350/day, not £250/day v £350/day

[DanielSQL]

Well to be honest you've got nothing at the moment. I'd go ahead with it and then make a decision if they offer you it.

When they do you will have to think about can you afford to turn it down, would it look good on your CV, what will you do if you don't take it etc. Most of the points you need to consider relate to your personal situation and not for us to decide.

I'm going to have them put me forward for the role. Heck, I may not even receive an offer.

Thanks

[MrMarkyMark]

Good luck Danny, glad to see you're making progress

[northernladuk]

If it's your first gig, they'll be trying to fleece you on rate.

What's market rate for the gig? Then take 10% off for being green and that's roughly the rate you should be looking at, e.g. £320/day v £350/day, not £250/day v £350/day

Isn't the official term newbie tax?

I'll bet if agents weren't allowed to fleece the new guys so badly it would be a LOT harder for newbies to get in to the market.

[DanielSQL]

I think you're right.

I knew I wouldn't be able to bag a 500+ day rate from the get go... But that didn't prepare me for the figure quoted. I had to ask her to repeat what she just said.

Oh well... Let's see how I get on

[MrMarkyMark]

I think you're right.

I knew I wouldn't be able to bag a 500+ day rate from the get go... But that didn't prepare me for the figure quoted. I had to ask her to repeat what she just said.

Oh well... Let's see how I get on

Was she calling from Bangalore?

[CompulsiveArsonist]

Good luck on your contracting adventure!

I was a permie C# Web developer earning ~£40k
I gave my notice in and started looking for contracts without having anything lined up, it took approximately 2 months to secure my first contract and that was a 3 month contract. Yes in the short term I probably lost out but over the long term it was worth it.

My first project was an incredibly boring project but I was getting £325 per day. The funny thing is that I came in to replace an existing contractor who was leaving, he was a very competent guy but first time contractor, he found out that was only getting £280 per day but another contractor on the project was getting £350 per day so he was upset. He asked the agent to increase his rate, when the agent refused he left. I came in at £325 a day to do his job.

One thing to consider is the type of the company, as a web developer I worked at a couple of digital agencies, £300-£350 was the norm there for what I did, Investment banks pay more but usually they want someone who already has banking experience, I was lucky that I managed to get investment banking experience by coming in as a web developer on a web project and moved to another project inside the same bank where I got this experience. It's only then that I got a higher rate as banks can afford to pay more and I had an investment bank on my CV.

Don't be too picky about rates when starting, I was holding out for £350-£400 a day when I could have been getting £300 per day and actually billing. I have friends that want to get into contracting, they see a BA job for £500-£600 per day and they immediately think that's what they deserve and that they can get that gig. Be prepared at the start to go in a little bit lower, once you have some contract history behind you then you are more likely to be able to negotiate higher rates. Agents do not know what your previous rate was, you can say that you want £400 per day even if you are currently on £300.

Do not tell agents everything about your current situation, if you get asked what the market is like or if you have anything else on the go just say things like "oh I've got a few things lined up but nothing concrete" if they ask if you worked in such and such team under such and such person just make up a name and do not fall for the "we need two references" ploy. Don't act desperate, act like you don't really care about their role and you are doing them a favour by considering their role for a lower rate. I usually say to agents that I am currently on £x (which is £50 higher than I really am on) but I am not too hung up about rates as long as the role is good, and they start going on about how good the role is and how many months of work there is available etc and that has worked for me getting interviews and securing roles.

At the moment I do Python, it's a lot more niche so there are fewer roles out there, there are plenty of Java/C# jobs but rates are lower, it's a gamble deciding which path to go down but it does help if you do something you enjoy or find interesting.

Keep your skills relevant, you need to look at what you think will be useful in the next 12-24 months, e.g. if you are doing ASP.NET then keep up to date with the newer frameworks even if you do a bit of practice on the weekends. I don't do any DevOps in my current role, but I can see that Chef/Puppet/Docker are more relevant so I am getting up to speed with them.

Interview skills are important, typically you will have a phone interview and a face to face interview, if you are not currently in a gig go to as many interviews as you can to get as much practice as you can, I find that when my contract is coming to an end and I need to start looking my interview skills are a bit rusty so I go to a couple of interviews just for practice, typically for technical roles they will ask the same questions (e.g. what is a decorator, what is an iterator etc.) and it's worth just improving areas that you are weak on, that way when you do interview for a role that you really want you have got some practice in and know what to say when questions come up about previous projects.

When you start billing and you see money coming into your account it's very easy to start spending it. It's very easy to increase your outgoings but it is difficult to come back down to Earth. My first car was a 10 year old Vauxhall Corsa, my second car after starting contracting cost 10x as much! Nothing wrong with enjoying yourself and your money but my advice would be to keep your outgoings under control.

Keep a rainy day fund, or warchest. Keep a decent amount of money in your company account for times when you are not in a contract. Keep an eye on how much you will need to pay for corporation tax and for personal income tax and make sure you have a comfortable buffer.

Make sure your CV is formatted well, I go for short bullet points explaining what I delivered on the project, your CV is basically a sales document outlining why you are the best person to deliver the project, and what projects you delivered before and how amazing and successful they were.

Finally I would say just give your notice in and start interviewing, unless you take the first step you aren't going to become a contractor. Contracting is great for people who are confident and self-assured, who can interview well and are articulate, it's not an easy path to riches but if you can do it then you won't look back. If you are risk-averse it probably isn't for you.

I could still be a permie, from £40k I could probably by now in 6 years since I started contracting perhaps be on £60k today. I took the chance and it worked for me

[bobspud]

Started another perm job a few months back. And recently I've come across some work that had been put together by a contractor a few years back. Now after reviewing the work I could help but question whether this person was actually paid to do this work.

The solutions just about work, the coding/ scripts aren't very clear and the methods used are questionable.

Do you produce and leave documentation behind for your clients?

The person that wrote it probably knows it needed improvement. There are too many reasons why you find stuff like that laying around. The main reasons are

Lack of time to implement it.
Someone wanting to add a skill to their CV.
Lack of skill in something they think they know.

Sometimes all three coincide at once in a mega cludge.

A lot of the time when you find a PoS in the middle of a system its because the author got asked to fix something quick. They get a rough answer out the door and tell the client that it barely works but the next revision will be better. In response the client ignores the part about doesn't work and either moves them on to the next firefight or says oops we are out of budget jog on...

As for wanting to go contracting I think anyone telling you to jump in right now is not a friend. There are far too many threats to the way we work on the horizon and I think the days of mega money are mostly over. Also remember that once you jump into contracting your career is effectively over and you become the daddy daycare of all the crap your clients have ****ed up. No one looks at a CV of a developer and says: "This one has developed for 10 years lets promote him to a lead architect"... They go to the market and find someone like me who all ready is a lead architect. You can grow but its much harder.

Personally I waited ten years to become a contractor but in that time I made damn sure I was getting top rates as for a permie 70k+. I also made sure that I was getting the skills that lead to the better rates when I jumped. It hasn't all been easy but I see far too many guys in their late 40's still writing code not because they want to but because its all they jumped with.