Anyone regret going back to permie?

[northernladuk]

"If everywhere you go stinks of tulip, check your shoes!"

Absolutely this.

[Swamp Thing]

This. Do it for 6 months and if it doesn't work out it will just look like a 6 month contract on your CV if you word it right . Keep the Ltd open until you decide obviously!

Have just done this (well for 10 months). After 9 years of contracting I permed up at a client because the project was too good to pass up (perming up was the only way they'd let me do it). So I completed that project after 3 years and then looked around.

That's where I went wrong because I went for another perm role - thinking that the culture and mindset would be similar to the last employer. I was so wrong. I thought I'd done enough due dili on the organisation, but nay. Perms were treated like machines, management were awful. Took 3 months to fully discover the horror of it all. After 6 months I plotted my escape plan. At 10 months I left the organisation, and am working a new contract elsewhere whilst they are still paying me my final month's salary. Nice. They accepted a bit of mea culpa.
CV-wise, I had to be clear that the previous role was perm but honestly, it didn't matter too much. Only one interview specifically raised it and my answer was straight: I was taken on for a role that didn't materialise.

I am frankly relieved to be back in contracting. A number of peeps here have commented on the travel and away from home challenges of contracting. For me and my family, in the round, we can accept these in return for the advantages which we all know well.
HTH

[ChimpMaster]

I am desperately fearful of going back to permiedoom.

I left my last permie role back in 2004; working for a consultancy I was constantly on the road, living out of a suitcase and often travelling to many countries within the same week. Back home on Friday night, only to fly out again on Sunday night or Monday morning… ughh those horrible 4am mornings to get the first flight out! Missing out on friends getting together, not have stable relationships, being ill and still having to go to clients etc. 

The worst part of all this was not having any control, and no choice in the matter: I was a consultant on the staff rota and they paid me so that they could send me wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. I was too young/naïve/stupid to know any better and I should have pushed back more, but eventually the travelling and living away really tired me out. I also bought my first home and got married, only to be told that my next consultancy assignment was going to be 4 hours away from home, for a year. Screw that I thought, and so I resigned, at which point I fell into contracting.

Now I write my own contract. I work at home when I want. I choose where to take contracts, so that I can be home every evening with the family. In many ways I have it too easy. It’s wonderful having the choice and freedom.

For a number of reasons I will have to go permie again for my next move and am dreading it, but the difference this time is that I have earned parts of my freedom by having saved/invested my contracting income over the past 10 years. So now, when I get permie jobs coming up, I can specify my requirements and my parameters. I can be a heck of lot more choosy, so I can avoid consultancy and I will avoid companies that don’t appreciate work/life balance.

[skysies]

I know a contractor whose interests I represent (ahem) who moved overseas and took a permie job. Absolutely hated it. Handed in notice after 3 months, went contracting and stole the client.

You can do that, but the question is what hit your reputation and name can take from quitting in only 3 months, especially if you just waited for another contract to come around. Some may see you as unreliable, which in turn can harm you future chances, especially if it's a small industry where people know each other.

[SussexSeagull]

Well that's the odd thing. I've not had much opportunity to be able to pick where I work in pursuit of need to end gigs and accommodation is driven by where the work is. I'm just starting my 3rd year of being away from home. It's not a problem at the moment but much of that touted flexibility hasn't really been there for me. The holidays thing is massive for me so that flexibility is great but the way I'm working general flexibility isn't really there. I am aware that is my choice though.

I do think some people get a bit carried away with the whole 'I am in a contract so I must be in demand and anyone who isn't needs to retrain' thing and forgets that they might not have a choice on location or that their rate hasn't gone up in years.

[SussexSeagull]

Coming up to eight months out so if the current batch of possibilities don't come to anything I might have to go permie, which would be a massive change of lifestyle and, on a personal level, an admission of defeat.

[northernladuk]

Coming up to eight months out so if the current batch of possibilities don't come to anything I might have to go permie, which would be a massive change of lifestyle and, on a personal level, an admission of defeat.

I don't think you should see it like that. Somethings not happening so take steps to fix it. If that's permie land to skill up again and come back then that's business, not defeat.

[SussexSeagull]

I don't think you should see it like that. Somethings not happening so take steps to fix it. If that's permie land to skill up again and come back then that's business, not defeat.

I am not sure a contracting career in Testing or Developing is sustainable long term anymore unless you have something seriously niche (and that carries it's own risks). Out of the two hundred or so Jobserve adverts I have responded to I have got one interview, which I nailed but they then decided to give it to someone internally. Any advert going out gets hundreds of recipients and is basically a lottery.

Networking is the way forward but several of my contacts came through job adverts in the dim and distant past so it is difficult to renew the network.

You are correct about skilling up but, in the testing example, automated testing is coding and most coding tends to end up in India eventually. Ultimately the best you can do is put yourself towards the top of a dwindling list of opportunities.

I suspect the softer management skills and analysis will do better but outsourcing wise I think everything is on the table now.

[skysies]

I don't think you should see it like that. Somethings not happening so take steps to fix it. If that's permie land to skill up again and come back then that's business, not defeat.

Agree. What's the point of sitting on the bench doing nothing/earning nothing? If your ego is too big to think you can be part of permidom, that's another thing. Being flexible is the name of the game.

[SussexSeagull]

Agree. What's the point of sitting on the bench doing nothing/earning nothing? If your ego is too big to think you can be part of permidom, that's another thing. Being flexible is the name of the game.

I might have to go back into being a permanent employee. I am sure I will suck it up and smile sweetly. I will still consider it a personal failure though.

(note, I don't consider contractors a superior species to permanent employees, it's just I prefer being one).