What is your ideal length of time at one client?

[wendigo100]

Many contractors just want extensions and seem to want to stay as long as they can. Will Knight's recent CUK article was based on that premise.

I once did five years somewhere, which in hindsight was far too long.

This year I've started six new contracts, not including an extension during one of them, which is perhaps a bit too MF-ish.

Obviously if the money is silly it is hard not to turn down extensions, but otherwise, what is the ideal length of time for a contractor to hang around?

Isn't part of the reason for contracting the variety, which is better than one long stint somewhere (like a permie) where all the years merge together?

[Buffoon]

The ideal time at JUST one client is zero. Best to have several clients at the same time. IR35 safe for a start, but also means that you don't have to take so much crap from them as you can 'let them go'.

[MarillionFan]

I quite like the variety. Plus, I like to do other things, take a month off go on holiday. I cant do that if I extend and finally a number of different contracts/mixed up mean I am outside IR35.

Mentally, if I am on a contract and the missus wants to take a week off, I bleat and cry like a little girl that even though the cost of the holiday is £1000, it's really costing £3000!!!!!

[Ardesco]

I would find it hard to stay longer than a year. I would get bored out of my brain and get itchy feet and want to look for a new challenge.

[Mordac]

If it's fixed price, the less time the better...

[ChimpMaster]

I look at it slightly differently, in that personally I'm only in it for the money. So if I can get a good stint then why not ride it for as long as possible?

Then, say after several years I have achieved "financial freedom" I can then pick and choose what to do and work in.

So all in all, if the rate's good then hope it lasts as long as possible.

[Denny]

I think six months max is nice. Preferably three months with one extension for the same rather than six months straight off.

I've been in my present contract 8 months by the time I terminate end of next week (two four month stints) and it's a bit too long for me. I only stayed that long because the client site, when I needed to visit it, was on the doorstep and the rate was very very good plus I was well outside IR35.

I've found it very stressful too, because the hours I needed to put in were often quite long for the first 6 months, with Saturday stints being necessary far too often. In the past six weeks the pressure has tailed off so much with no much time needed on my remaining work to justify keep me that fully occupied during the day (a 7 hour day makes me feel I'm working part-time, when I spent such a concentrated effort over a few months prior to that putting in 10-12 hour days regularly and Saturday's too). Therefore, I felt like I'd pretty much left weeks ago, with programme e-mails slowly drying up and no new work coming in, even though I've worked out of my homeoffice for the entire run of the contract. When you look on your laptop and only find 2 e-mails come through from your programme team for the entire day (and on odd days none at all), it's time to move on.

It's been a good run for me though, I've also had no expensive breaks mid contract or between first and second extension.

I can afford to take a couple of months off without penny pinching over Christmas now and hope to pick up something else at the end of January giving me a solid 6 week break - which I badly need now that I feel physically and mentally exhausted. That will take care of Christmas, decorating my bathroom and going away for a couple of weeks too.

[cojak]

2 years. After that you feel like a permie. Not good.

[threaded]

One of my clients, a UK gov dept., must be well over 20 years now. OK it's not on site all the time, just do the odd job.

[Sysman]

Three years at one place doing code maintenance. The money was excellent and it was 20 minutes from home, but my skills were getting stale. I had to move on to attack something different and keep my sanity.