Hey folks,
I'm a permie, have started thinking about contracting and have been reading this forum for a while now, so I've taken the plunge and signed up here
I've been working for 15 years at a pretty decent IT company, been a lead developer for the last 6 or 7 years. However, in the past 2-3 years my salary has started to plateau, been turned down for a couple of promotions, etc. so getting a bit fed up, but still enjoying the work mostly.
I'd also like to do some travelling in the 2nd half of 2021 (assuming covid starts to settle down) - the company offers (unpaid) career break option, or I could just leave.
Long term, I like the idea of contracting and taking time off between contracts to travel and pursue my own interests. Looking at contracting rates, I reckon I could do this, take a few months off each year, and still come out the same as (or ahead of) where I am now financially.
Short term, in an ideal world, I could leave my job now and take a 6 month contract which would take me up to the summer, and I'd earn more money than my current job. Of course this isn't an ideal world
I'd like to get some advice from contractors on here.
Is the long term plan viable? Lots of (say) 6 month contracts with a few months breaks in between?
Short term, I have concerns about:
Interested to get some opinions here. There seems to be a lot of negative views of the contracting market on here right now, understandably so. What are your thoughts generally about my options?
Thanks in advance!
I'm a permie, have started thinking about contracting and have been reading this forum for a while now, so I've taken the plunge and signed up here
I've been working for 15 years at a pretty decent IT company, been a lead developer for the last 6 or 7 years. However, in the past 2-3 years my salary has started to plateau, been turned down for a couple of promotions, etc. so getting a bit fed up, but still enjoying the work mostly.
I'd also like to do some travelling in the 2nd half of 2021 (assuming covid starts to settle down) - the company offers (unpaid) career break option, or I could just leave.
Long term, I like the idea of contracting and taking time off between contracts to travel and pursue my own interests. Looking at contracting rates, I reckon I could do this, take a few months off each year, and still come out the same as (or ahead of) where I am now financially.
Short term, in an ideal world, I could leave my job now and take a 6 month contract which would take me up to the summer, and I'd earn more money than my current job. Of course this isn't an ideal world
I'd like to get some advice from contractors on here.
Is the long term plan viable? Lots of (say) 6 month contracts with a few months breaks in between?
Short term, I have concerns about:
- IR35 - is it reducing the number of contracting opportunities?
- Covid/Brexit/visas/the economy generally - is this a bad time to start contracting? Maybe better to stick with my current job, take time off in summer, and then look again at contracting winter 2021
- I also have a 60 day notice period with my current job, so might be hard to land a contract / require taking a leap of faith if I don't want to burn my bridges with where I work now
Interested to get some opinions here. There seems to be a lot of negative views of the contracting market on here right now, understandably so. What are your thoughts generally about my options?
Thanks in advance!
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