How long did you think you'd contract for?

[MayContainNuts]

Was in the pub with a couple of contractors tonight discussing how they fell into contracting and how long they planned to stay in!

One guy had done 10 years already! And reckoned he'd have to do another 10 years before he'd made enough!

I'm just about 24 months now and was thinking another 36 months and I've got a good nest egg. How long do most contract for!!!

[ZuiderZee]

Until I retired.

I did think I would be able to retire in about 10 years though.

[cojak]

Until I retire.

3 - 5 years or when I stop enjoying what I do, or maybe when the work dries up.

[Robinho]

Until i'm too old and burnt out to be a competitive contractor - at which point is shall return to suckle under the nurturing teat of Permiedom.

Or just top myself.

[NickFitz]

I have no intention of ever being the employee of another entity again.

These days I'm getting pretty fed up with having to work at client sites, or even on client projects. Long-term aim is to make a decent living as an ISV, with maybe a bit of client work (done where I wish to do it) on the side.

[Goatfell]

Until i'm too old and burnt out to be a competitive contractor - at which point is shall return to suckle under the nurturing teat of Permiedom.

Or just top myself.

Different strokes for different folks, but eighteen years so far, and in my experience contracting keeps you "young at heart" if not in body. Every time you take on a new role it gets the juices going, meeting new people, learning new ways of doing things, having to think laterally, even different eye-candy. Beats getting stuck in a rut

When I was 16 I was going to top myself at 21 'cos that was like being dead anyway, mind you, I was a real numpty at that age

[aussielong]

I have no intention of ever being the employee of another entity again.

These days I'm getting pretty fed up with having to work at client sites, or even on client projects. Long-term aim is to make a decent living as an ISV, with maybe a bit of client work (done where I wish to do it) on the side.

This is what I want to do to. Working for someone else takes most of your energy and time. I'm torn between trying to develop something "on the side" and gradually move over to it, if it takes off. Or, just stop working, go and live somewhere cheap and devote all my time to it for a couple of years.

[Robinho]

Different strokes for different folks, but eighteen years so far, and in my experience contracting keeps you "young at heart" if not in body. Every time you take on a new role it gets the juices going, meeting new people, learning new ways of doing things, having to think laterally, even different eye-candy. Beats getting stuck in a rut

When I was 16 I was going to top myself at 21 'cos that was like being dead anyway, mind you, I was a real numpty at that age

Oh i see it going on for a good 20 years myself. Am only 26 atm.

I just like the freedom of contracting. The idea of being an employee at a company is basically communism to me.

I am a code monkey though and i think after a while my brain will slow down and i won't be as good as it. And because technologies are constantly moving on experience won't really count for much and be able to overcome that.

So unless i change roles i will become uncompetitive at some point.

[NickFitz]

This is what I want to do to. Working for someone else takes most of your energy and time. I'm torn between trying to develop something "on the side" and gradually move over to it, if it takes off. Or, just stop working, go and live somewhere cheap and devote all my time to it for a couple of years.

Go for shipping fast and iterating. The days of spending a couple of years perfecting something before shipping are over; while you make it perfect, somebody will have exactly the same idea, code the bare essentials, and have it running online or sitting in an App Store within a month. By the time you ship the perfect version in a couple of years, they'll have been earning the cash that let them make theirs even more perfect, and yours will be dismissed as a clone.

[EternalOptimist]

It depends, obv.

When I first started, I worked 9 hours a day, but now I have gotten my act together and I do about seven hours a day

In the future, I may get down to 6. if I am lucky