Jump to content

Contracting - your views


Brem

Recommended Posts

I think the best time is any time as long as the job market is there for you i.e. u have the desired skills.

I too have been considering this but i feel like im hindered because im currently in employment. Many of the contractin jobs i see want immediate start. I'm not gna quit my job...not confident enough for that. Mad tho cos the guy doin my job before me is contractin and he got 3x my pay and is now on more doing projects he had no experience before

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Incumbent said:

just do it

 

Yep this. Main reason why people hesitate and never make the jump is because its out of their own comfort zones but in reality its just an excuse:

- im not ready yet

- not enough experienced

- need to learn my job first

- need to first reach a certain level 

Etc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone i speak to about this says they wish they started earlier.

Just bought a house and so once i'm in next month , i'm going for it.  If you know how to manage your money , network and you are actually good at your role , you'll be fine.

UNDERSTAND TAX or even outsource your admin - always get told this , heard some mad stories about people mugging themselves off for years cause they didn't know a.b.c 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is the plan when I move industry, currently just trying to get enough experience under my belt. 

Few years back at my work place way before I started, guys were working their notice period and then coming in the following Monday in the exact same role earning 2.5 the money. But they are cracked down a lot now on any non permanent role.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Greens said:

This is the plan when I move industry, currently just trying to get enough experience under my belt. 

Few years back at my work place way before I started, guys were working their notice period and then coming in the following Monday in the exact same role earning 2.5 the money. But they are cracked down a lot now on any non permanent role.

 

Yep

Where i am you got people contracting for a max of 2 years and then they HAVE to leave for 6 months if they want to come back.

Some places treat contractors like shit tho. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, i5_PRODUCER said:

 

Yep

Where i am you got people contracting for a max of 2 years and then they HAVE to leave for 6 months if they want to come back.

Some places treat contractors like shit tho. 

Yeah, think mine is 3 months then you have to leave

 

But doesn't effect long term contractors. One guy been contracting here like 15 years. Happiest guy in the building, always smiling 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ive been contracting for like.... 1 year 

 

boy i can tell you this - you never know when you are going to get the CHOP  - its definitely mad

 

then again ive gone from permanent role @ £1,500 a month thinking i was the dogs bollocks - to then contracting, amassing £3,300 a month then onto £4,100 then £5,000

 

i never thought i would see those monthly sums at this point in my life as i thought that kinda money is for when you are older, all qualifications and experience behind you - 

 

again, anyone can jump into contracting - 

all you have to do is apply for temp/contracting roles, and thats it - but make sure to set up your own LTD COMPANY

 

and always always always know that the 'COMPANY' you are working alongside with can just terminate you like nothing - on the same day

 

then you are out of work for god knows how long - 

 

thats why ive saved up a lot of bags in my account as ive trained my mind to save whilst i work every month - because when those rainy days come - ITLL BE PEAK

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definitely want to do this in the future.  Once I qualify and have enough experience under my belt going to definitely do it.  Was actually looking at trying to get my visual basic coding skills really solid as at the moment they are relatively tame but figured it would help give me an extra niche in the accounting field.  If I can find a way to make it interesting I may look at systems accounting as the contractors I have come across in those type of roles are calling for stupid amounts a day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

bruv from what i can see the most PROFITABLE ROUTES to go into if you are a contractor is:

 

AUDIT

IT

ACTUARIAL 

REGULATORY

CODING/SQL/DATABASE

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

HR

CLAIMS

PROPERTY SURVEYOR

 

 

ALL THE ABOVE ARE JUST A LIL  EXAMPLES - 

 

IF ANY OF YOU WANNA GO INTO CONTRACTING, MAKE SURE YOU GO INTO ONE OF THOSE CLASSES IVE NAMED AND BANG OUT THE EXAMS THEY HAVE - 

 

YOULL THEN BE ON £600/DAY IN NO TIME ARE YOU DUMB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been on both sides of the scale - Full time for over a decade and contracting for about a year.

I have recently gone back to full time and personally i prefer it but this is due to stability and the nature of my industry. (i live in London and there are only a handful of good companies here).

The money i was making as a contractor was pretty damn good. I was earning more than my direct boss.

The trouble was it made me paranoid that I could face being terminated at any point.

I set up my own limited company, got an accountant and all the online accountancy software that allows you track everything and generate invoices.

The thing is, personally it all just felt like a hassle to me. 

Keeping receipts and uploading them to expense it, expensing everything, constantly thinking what can I expense.

Generating invoices, checking they have paid me, chasing up why payment has been late or even early etc

Setting up the pension and just generally chasing up with the accountant whether everything i am doing is the most efficient way to do things.

All of it just naturally adds up as an administrative annoyance and personally I am quite lazy with that stuff and just want to get on with the job I love.

It also forced me to be organised and set up a personal google drive to record everything since it made me paranoid about getting caught out of whatever reason.

It also felt like every other month there was some form of tax to pay, whether it be corporation or whatever. The money wasn't a problem just the annoyance of it all.

Don't get me wrong, the money was great! But personally for me all the admin stuff around it was not worth it. I had other friends in my industry who were the complete opposite and loved it. Loved the money and were not bothered about all the other affairs you handle around it.

I always saw the extra money as danger money. Paid myself my old wages and banked everything else incase work dried up or another big ass bill came in.

On the other side FTE vs Contracting there is the work environment.

Now this really only applies to my experiences in the games industry but in general most people stay in a company long term.

Depending on the company they can drastically treat full timers and contractors differently. This often created an "us and them" mentality.

Games companies tend to have a pretty tight knit dev culture. It's just that type of environment due to the nature of the work.

Due to regulations some companies policies made things a little divisive. 

Contractors would get separate emails regarding matters or not invited to company wide meetings (bare in mind the workforce could be 40% contractors)

In some places friends told me they were not even allowed to be invited to the company parties or get any free shit that the fulltimers got.

Imagine when the xbox one released half the company went into a room and walked out with a free console whilst the others looked on enviously. 

Kinda made for a elephant in the room type of situation at times or resentment and didn't really fit in with the nature of the type of work we were doing.

What made it worse is that not all the contractors were making good money so it just sucked for them in general unless you were a senior.

 

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know if I contracted now. I could double my pay. That's the temptation. Trying to constantly climb the career ladder is draining. The contractors I know get paid more, less skilled than me and leave earlier (because why should they give a fuck really). 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...