IT contractor - pros and cons of a contractor's life

I’m one of those rare individuals – a professional contractor. I’ve never worked full-time for a company (unless I owned it) preferring instead the life of a contractor. And it’s struck me that my work life is ideal to talk about on a career break website as it fits in so well with what some of you may be able to do.

As a contractor, I move from place to place picking and choosing what I want to work on next. Yes, sometimes I do have to take a boring contract just for the money (or because they offer me so much money it’s hard to turn down) but, in general, I pick what geographical areas I want to work in and what type of work I fancy doing. Oh. I should explain. I’m an IT Consultant so this article will only really be interesting to people with some IT skills.

As a career break for IT people, a year or so as a contractor could be the making of you. As a short-timer on a fixed contract you can leave your current job and head off into the wild blue yonder and try your hand at something totally new, yet still related to whatever skills you possess computer-wise. It’s remarkably easy to get work even with basic skills, and the work can take you all over the world. And, at the end of it, you can slip back into your own career and bring skills back to your own job that you might not have had a chance to acquire if you’d stayed put.

IT contracting – the pros

• Generally more money doing the same work as the permies.
• More freedom to set your working hours and conditions.
• You rise and fall on your abilities rather than on political rubbish found in most companies.
• Chance to acquire new skills and to work at the bleeding edge of technology – contractors are often used on project work rather than taking permies away from their normal duties.
• Chance to travel. A lot of my contracts have involved extensive foreign travel.
• No HR to deal with and no mindless interviews where you go through round after round of corporate crap. Most contracts are awarded after one interview and that’s often done over the phone. Most places are only interested in whether or not you can do the job, not whether your face fits.
  

IT contracting – the cons

• No sick pay, no holidays. You only get paid when you work.
• Some extra paper-work, especially if you run your own limited company.
• No job security. You can be fired at a moment's notice with no appeal. (Never happened in 25 years but it’s been close a couple of times)
• That’s it.

Want to know more? If you do, email info@thecareerbreaksite.com and I’ll do a short series of articles on how to go about contracting for fun and profit.

Cheers,

Legless