IT contracting - am I daft

[scooters]

Bit of a strange title I admit but I'm after a your collective opinion.
Me: Work as a senior business analyst for a large financial services organisation working on a WRAP based project.
Wife: just made redundant from her part time job.

Situation: Need both incomes to pay bills etc etc. haven't got a huge stash of cash to burn

So, two options spring to mind
(1) Wife finds another job which can pay the bills - can only do two set days a week due to child care, and specialises in selling property to the cash rich who can afford to buy a holiday home
(2) I quit my permanent role and go contracting - everyone I speak to says that the market is full of contracting roles but is this being a bit silly given the financial mess that the country is in at the moment?

Any opinions will be gratefully received

[ewenm]

Start here: www.jobserve.co.uk and see if there are really loads of roles advertised.

[Snoggledog]

As ewenm says, have a look at jobsite, jobserve, monster & CW Jobs to get a flavour of what's out there before handing in your notice. Bear in mind though that 10-15% of roles that are advertised are simply agencies collecting CV's. 20-40% of jobs advertised are companies looking to get someone in for peanuts or in silly locations. 10-15% are adverts cribbed from other agencies in the hope that they can steal the contract from another agency. 10-30% of agencies are incapable of reading a CV.

So.. To sum up; out of every 100 jobs, around 30 are real. Getting the agency to actually represent you is the next hurdle. Getting (some of) them to understand what's on your CV is the following hurdle. Tailoring your CV to suit their requirements is time consuming and often fruitless. Out of those 100 jobs, expect 1 possibly 2 phone interviews. Out of those phone interviews hope to see 1 face to face interview. But remember that the agency will usually put forward a minimum of 2 candidates for any one role. So you could then have a 1 in 2 or even 1 in 5 chance of getting that role.

Unless you're well known / respected / working in a niche field with plenty of experience when jobs are available, stay in the permanent job.

If after that you're still keen on exploring the contracting market try to find a specialist recruitment agency who deals specifically in your field. Avoid the big name agencies. Can't name and shame but if I could........

Sorry.

[n3il123]

Remembering also that the rate is high to allow for things like working away from home, paying taxes, sick days etc.

Also despite what you think the market is not great, there are many very experienced contractors that have been on the bench for a long time check this thread on another forum clicky .

Having been out of work for most of last year (the first time that it wasn't my choice in 10 years contracting) I decided to go perm, its fine when your contract ends and there are plenty of roles around the odd month out isn't too bad, but when you are running to the end of your savings and you're not getting interviews let alone offers its not nice.

Also from your op it sounds like things are tight anyway so saving could be an issue, would you be able to survive for 3 months after 3 months work?


And from my experience it is hard to get back into a perm role after being contract, companies are wary that you may just using them as a filler until the next contract comes along...

All just IMHO

[siscar]

n3il123 said:

And from my experience it is hard to get back into a perm role after being contract, companies are wary that you may just using them as a filler until the next contract comes along...

All just IMHO

I'd certainly agree with that, I am very reluctant to take on people who have been contracting because in my experience that is exactly what happens.

[Dupont666]

siscar said:

n3il123 said:

And from my experience it is hard to get back into a perm role after being contract, companies are wary that you may just using them as a filler until the next contract comes along...

All just IMHO

I'd certainly agree with that, I am very reluctant to take on people who have been contracting because in my experience that is exactly what happens.

I get offered interviews to both types of jobs, I only took contracting as it was the first role to land on my desk and needed a person there asap... I would be happy to go back to permie jobs again.

As for the OP, what type of business analyst, what industry? Hell just put your skills and experience up here and I might have some friendly agents I can point you towards.

Did you say a location you live? Would you be happy to move?

Can you survive at least a month of no pay to start with? (you wont be paid for the first month until you have done it then the agent can take 14 days to pay) so in reality its 6 weeks before the first pay slip arrives.

I have to say I had my doubts about contracting, but Im loving it, but the cons are:

You need a good accountant/tax man.
No sick pay
No holidays
sort out own pension
you will work longer than 9-5
you take a day off and you will think 'st that cost me £XXX in missed wages' get over it now or you will not enjoy life.
You need your own insurance for your work
you need your own health insurance
you need your own dental insurance
Think about insurance for loss of job and mortgage insurance too.

[bigandclever]

Dupont666 said:

Can you survive at least a month of no pay to start with? (you wont be paid for the first month until you have done it then the agent can take 14 days to pay) so in reality its 6 weeks before the first pay slip arrives.

To be fair, that's entirely down to the payment terms of the particular contract. Worst I've had was 90 days from receipt of invoice to payment - not doing that again

[Dupont666]

bigandclever said:

Dupont666 said:

Can you survive at least a month of no pay to start with? (you wont be paid for the first month until you have done it then the agent can take 14 days to pay) so in reality its 6 weeks before the first pay slip arrives.

To be fair, that's entirely down to the payment terms of the particular contract. Worst I've had was 90 days from receipt of invoice to payment - not doing that again

fk me... thats not nice... work for 3 months and then we will start paying you!!

Bet you loved it when you had to pay taxes but had no money physically in the account due to the agency holding on to it for the interest. Long phone call to HMRC was it?

[bigandclever]

Dupont666 said:

bigandclever said:

Dupont666 said:

Can you survive at least a month of no pay to start with? (you wont be paid for the first month until you have done it then the agent can take 14 days to pay) so in reality its 6 weeks before the first pay slip arrives.

To be fair, that's entirely down to the payment terms of the particular contract. Worst I've had was 90 days from receipt of invoice to payment - not doing that again

fk me... thats not nice... work for 3 months and then we will start paying you!!

Bet you loved it when you had to pay taxes but had no money physically in the account due to the agency holding on to it for the interest. Long phone call to HMRC was it?

Nah, it was part of the heady mix of risk:reward - was one of the more lucrative contracts

But I really wouldn't recommend it. Agencies can, and do, go bust so limiting your exposure to as little as possible just makes more sense. But you give good advice to the OP - personally, from the info given, I wouldn't make the jump from permy to contract without really looking at worse case scenarios. Headline hourly rates aren't the things to focus on.

[AJS-]

OP
In the situation you have described and the current market I think you would be mad to do that. The fact that your wife has been made redundant suggests that there aren't that many cash rich buyers snapping up holiday homes right now, so what if you take a 6 month contract, then have a month with no work, by the sounds of it you will be stuck.

Also, most companies hiring a contractor want someone there as soon as possible so waiting 4 weeks for your notice period would be a problem.

I'd cut expenditure until your wife finds work then if you still want to go contracting you can do it with at least your wife having a steady income.

FWIW I would also suggest your wife relaxes her criteria a bit and picks up some other work if she can't find anything in that particular field. If she can sell holiday homes to the cash rich she can sell houses to the cash poor, cars, or pretty much anything.

If you really do still want to go contracting then I'd suggest you park your CV with a couple of agencies and say you would be interested in a long term contract at a good rate, but you're not desperate. If they come up with a gem then take it but otherwise I would stay where you are until things are more certain.

Good luck.

[Halb]

How is the search for contracting going?

[Lost soul]

BBC breakfast had a slot on ths morning talking about a huge shortage of IT security bods

[Timmy35]

scooters said:

(2) I quit my permanent role and go contracting - everyone I speak to says that the market is full of contracting roles but is this being a bit silly given the financial mess that the country is in at the moment?

WRAP BA's are like rocking horse sh*t. IMO you'll have no trouble at all getting well paid contract work.

[scooters]

All,
Firstly, thanks for all of your advise, it has been well read and digested. I finally managed to get my act in gear and updated my CV. Good news is that I have been offered a contract (RDR) although I am D2C wrap savvy however givem the rate that I was offered it would have been foolish to turn it down.

Next thing is to set up all the legal stuff ie:
Company name
flat rate vat
insurance
blah blah blah

If anyone has any hot tips for this please let me know.

Again, thanks for all your comments

[ewenm]

Number 1 tip from me: Find a decent accountant who understands contracting. I can recommend a chap in Bath who has been a contractor himself and is very good. PM me through my profile if you want his details.

[stigmundfreud]

Lost soul said:

BBC breakfast had a slot on ths morning talking about a huge shortage of IT security bods

Really?

OP we currently are working on offshoring with a target of reducing our contractors, jobs the used to be contracted out will simply go to our offshore suppliers (good move or not is another debate).