Why I love contracting..

[doodab]

I had a permie job once. It was tulipe. So I looked for another one and accidentally found a contract instead. It was a great improvement.

[rl4engc]

OP here.

Just remembered another defining moment at the beginning of my Contracting career. I'd been permie 7 years at a Co and moved up to Senior Eng, but the way it was at the time, OurCo was doing some high stakes work for ParentCo. ParentCo expected OurCo to be at their premesis for often weeks at a time, OurCo were paying bonuses of ~5k for a few months stint at the other end of country (Mon-Fri). I thought 'fook this' and went for a dinnertime pint or two (as you do) with a Contractor at OurCo. He's what got me into it. Anyway I applied for a nearby Contractor role and that was my first experiences of the interviews, it was more "This is what we need someone to do, can you do it?" rather than the crap you get with permie ones "We're very much a family here.." b.....ks.

Anyway got the gig, told everyone at OurCo, one of the brown nosers (you know the type, friendly to peoples faces but would stab anyone in the back to help his cause, he was best mates with a few of the SMT, 'a loyal employee' you might say) smarmily said "Becoming Subby Scum are you?!" I said "Too right, you don't think I'm gonna stick round here do you?!"

Few months later I was at a birthday do for Contractor mentioned above, OldCo were going through their second round of redundancies, Think Mr. Brownnose was clinging on owing to 'friends' in 'high places'. I went up to him and said along the lines of "Subby scum eh? I'm bloody loving it!" to which he replied somewhat despondently "Yeh, bet you are".

Couple of years later the OldCo had pretty much imploded, last I heard Brown Nose was contracting, away from his family, in Nordern Ireland. A misguided sense of loyalty gets you nowhere.

As the Great AP said 14 times in his book "Needless to say, I had the last laugh.."

[Mich the Tester]

I have a permie job. I've been there 3 months and it's the first permie job I've had in 9 years.

I am looking for a contract.

[MarillionFan]

I have a permie job. I've been there 3 months and it's the first permie job I've had in 9 years.

I am looking for a contract.

Man up. Where's your Dunkirk spirit?!

[Cliphead]

I actually got into contracting by accident.

Remember the old Channel 4 teletext thing? IT agencies used to put jobs and contracts on there so I saw a role I though looked interesting assuming it was a permie job, when I called the agent he asked me what my rate was, did I have a Ltd company etc. I hadn't a clue about rate so asked him the going rate - £400 he said and I thought per week, not bad. Started the gig the next day and turned out to be £400 per day (I was getting ripped off of course). Was a short 3 weeker so at the end of the contract I had wised up and with a new cert of incorporation I never looked back.

[Shimano105]

I have a permie job. I've been there 3 months and it's the first permie job I've had in 9 years.

I am looking for a contract.

Been there and done that a few times this century. Never, ever again! Not having a go though, we all have to find out for ourselves.

[KentPhilip]

A misguided sense of loyalty gets you nowhere.

Very true.
At the end of the day all a company is is a piece of paper filed at Companies House. Anything more than that, staff, "career prospects", assets, is a lucky consequence of it being successful at some stage in time. Any one of thousands of things can cause it to go back to being just that piece of paper.

You don't want to be loyal to a piece of paper..

[Shimano105]

Very true.
At the end of the day all a company is is a piece of paper filed at Companies House. Anything more than that, staff, "career prospects", assets, is a lucky consequence of it being successful at some stage in time. Any one of thousands of things can cause it to go back to being just that piece of paper.

You don't want to be loyal to a piece of paper..

[garethevans1986]

I worked for Company A (perm)....had been there less than 12 months, very stagnant, manager was starting to become a dick, was working alot of hours with no overtime but this was expected because I was also looking after the servers on top of developing software for them.

Applied for a job in Company B, £5k+ wage increase, decent project + skillset required (MVC, NHibernate etc), project was a full redevelopment of 5 systems into 1...anyway, got the job. Handed notice in at Company A and got married in the same week.

Turned out that Company B had a good bunch of devs (always wanting to step up and grab new technologies and still in touch with them too), manager was also a good fella. IT Director was a dick.

3-4 months into new job, IT Director announces that they won't be developing the new system. Que pissed off devs. My Manager even apologised to me for the company doing this - not that it was anything to do with or his fault.

Decided to look for a new role, was messed around by a few companies (second interviews etc) - nothing came of them. I was 1 week away from passing my 6 month probationary period where my notice period would go from 1 week to 3 months so wanted out as quick as I could.

I was contacted by a pimp for a contract using C#/SQL/WPF in Liverpool for a big legal client.....6 months, decent rate. Went for it, had the phone interview, got the job. Turned out I was interviewed by another contractor (good dev and a cracking fella too). Half way through this first contract, we setup the Ltd Company.

Even went back to Company B for a small stint on a crap rate but regretted it the day I walked through the door. Fell out with IT Director in the end.

I'm still contracting today, the business was 1 year old in Feb 2013. We're now getting more direct work (speaking to a client on Tuesday about a £100k+ .NET project too) and the wife who is a Director of the Ltd company has now handed in her notice for her perm job and is now working for our business. She's a Virtual PA.

That's how I became a Contractor and our business started.

It's hard work but I've enjoyed every minute of it. CUK also helps.

GE

[Mich the Tester]

Been there and done that a few times this century. Never, ever again! Not having a go though, we all have to find out for ourselves.

Very true.
At the end of the day all a company is is a piece of paper filed at Companies House. Anything more than that, staff, "career prospects", assets, is a lucky consequence of it being successful at some stage in time. Any one of thousands of things can cause it to go back to being just that piece of paper.

You don't want to be loyal to a piece of paper..

Thanks both of you; this kind of thing reassures me I'm doing the right thing by preparing to go contracting again.