another permie to contractor situation

[bob the bob]

I have about 5 years permie experience in 2nd and 3rd line IT support, with 2 very CV friendly employers over that time.

I am also SC security cleared.

Currently getting £32k + virtually guaranteed 10% bonus,
share incentive scheme,
private medical insurance for myself and 2 children,
dental care
4x life assurance,
travel insurance,
income protection insurance,
critical illness insurance,
childcare vouchers,
employer contributes 5% of salary to my pension
30 days holidays + bank holidays.


I have learnt here that the working approximation is annual salary / 1000 gives the hourly rate.

So £32 per hour it is, or £224 as a day rate. But that's just to match my current salary, isn't the point of contracting to make more money?
So I'd really want something like £350 as a day rate to boost my income and allow me to afford to buy myself most of those benefits.

I know my salary is not great for London, but the benefits package is pretty sweet, and would want to be offering myself the same benefits as a contractor (minus the share incentive scheme, can sacrifice that)


Is anyone out there getting contracts that pay £350 a day for IT support?

Thanks for reading.

[questiontime]

isn't the point of contracting to make more money?

If you are thinking about contracting as a easy way to make money, contracting may not be the right game for you.sometimes you make more, sometimes you loose. Read the recent thread http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...mpossible.html .. It will have an impact on your personal life and as you see, getting back to permieland is not easy.

Also, look at your career progression ... Do you like what your current employer offers? Sticking with them,where will you be in 5 years time? as a contractor, in 5 years time you may still be doing the same thing as you are now!

No, I am not discouraging you from becoming a contractor. But, before making the decision understand what you are getting into.

I wish I had the level of support and information the likes of this board provide when I started contracting in 2000.

[northernladuk]

Nice points from the previous poster. I would also give advice around caution at present although there is a mix of people here, the others will tell you to jump in and fill your boots as it is the best thing they ever did and I am sure it is if you plan it right.

Is there no way you can break in to a team lead or techincal workstream lead or something to give you a better rate and more flexibilty around getting a role. Spending the next 10 years contracting as 2nd and 3rd line support will be sould destroying won't it? Push the career as hard as possible as permie and then come to market with a better skill base?

Also do plenty of research on the job forums. I have seen PM and SDM roles in the smoke for that rate so not sure what the bottom end of your function is. Shouldn't be hard to keep an eye on the boards and map the rates over a few months to give you a feel. I wouldn't be surprised to see support roles for £150 nowadays.

[cojak]

WHS - particularly about rates.

Also it's very much the case of 'it's not just the money'.

You have kids. How much would you enjoy that £350pd contract if you had to work away from home 4 nights a week? (Not that you'd get that rate, of course).

[JimBobTwoTeeth]

If you really want to do it now is not the time!

Wages are depressed, contracts are uncertain and hard to get. Wait for demand to be on your side.

[d000hg]

If you are thinking about contracting as a easy way to make money, contracting may not be the right game for you.

He didn't ask for easy money, he said that he'd hope moving in his career would lead to more money... just as you would when looking for a new job.

[d000hg]

private medical insurance for myself and 2 children,
dental care
4x life assurance,
travel insurance,
income protection insurance,
critical illness insurance,

I think you could do with some insurance-not-paying insurance. You sure don't believe in taking risks, do you?!

[The Wikir Man]

Currently getting £32k + virtually guaranteed 10% bonus,
share incentive scheme,
private medical insurance for myself and 2 children,
dental care
4x life assurance,
travel insurance,
income protection insurance,
critical illness insurance,
childcare vouchers,
employer contributes 5% of salary to my pension
30 days holidays + bank holidays.

Stay where you are - the market probably isn't good enough to sustain what you need. There are plenty of people who have been benched for a long time round here - unless you have the money saved to be out of work for a while, I wouldn't jump at this stage.

[Ardesco]

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contrac...e%20support.do

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contrac...t%20support.do

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contrac...e%20support.do

I would stay where you are, looks like the average contract rate is £250~ a day.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Your benefits are too good to move into contracting and 2nd/3rd line support won't be able to pay what your looking for. If you had experience with a skill in demand e.g. data warehousing, CWF, Oracle DW or something which is needed by the guys with all the money (those bloody banks) then I would not think twice about going into it from any job paying less than 50k.

Perhaps think about moving into development and then jumping ship. Since you are already in London you can easily get rates of 350-500. I know one guy who was getting 900/day in London.

I am new to contracting but here is something that just hit me pretty hard:
ill for a couple of days + easter bank holiday = loss of £1000.