Contracting - how do you feel about it?

Ok, I have done all of these. The trend in our outsourcing global economy is to try before you buy. However, I prefer the FTE route. First, contractors have find a way to keep themselves up to speed on IT, programming, whatever area they want to work into. They are usually brought in for specific staff augmentation projects and then let go after that is completed. In addition, at least in my experience, very rarely are contractors used on the "interesting and new" technology work. We usually get a lot of legacy work. So our skills can atrophe pretty quickly.

As an FTE, we can grow with the company, learn a particular business and really find our own niche in that industry. We learn what our competitors are doing and can really make a difference.

As a consultant, we get probably the best and worst of both contracting and FTE. There is a subtle difference between consultants and contractors. Usually consultants are not staff augmentation, they are senior people who help get the project done on time and in budge. They know how to work at all levels of an organization, with vendors, etc. Consultants get a lot of money but have already earned their knowledge and know how to market themselves effectively.

At least this is my opinion. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, so....

And I have been a contractor for five years or so. I have been a self contractor; I found contract jobs on my own. They pay great ($45 to $150 an hour) but you do not get benefits, you should be bonded and there is no one to fall back on. Working for a contracting company cuts deep in to the pay and there is no benefits unless you want to pay a hefty sum out of your pay check.
On the plus side it gives you great experience and you get to meet allot of good/bad people. This gives you a nose for how to deal with people and how to tell what a company wants from its IT people.
I found that if you do not specialize in one thing I can get more job offers. But specialization can pat too if you find the right field.
Yes a company can save money if they go over sea's but they loose the chance to get people who already know how our business?s work, know how we think, know how we work and we speak good English/ sort of :) And with on site IT people the users do not have to wait for along time just to talk to a real person.
Dell has learned a hard lessen because of over sea's out sourcing. They have opened a help desk here and are hiring a ton of people.
I have always kept up with new technology and I keep my resume as a generalist because most companies want some one who can do many things and will not balk at learning something else.

on what you want out of your career.

The two pros for contracting are fairly obvious, you are your own boss, and you are frequently covering new ground.
[ walking into a new office, having to work with new people / procedures, even occasionally working with cutting edge technology ]

the cons are fairly obvious as well, the biggest being no income security.

If having that regular paycheque is important, then don't do contract work.

If you would rather have the challenge of constant change, then go for contracting.
mixing the two is very hard, since scheduling conflicts can all to easily arise.
It is possible to work part time, or even full time and do contract work as well. Easier for full time if you can have an odd schedule, like 4 10 hour days.

I do both regular and contract, for contract work I often vary the rate for the company, a smaller company that doesn't have the same resources I quote lower rates to.

I am not a fan of contracting. I contract only to fill in until I get a permanent position. If you want stability, well...relative stability in today's economy, go for FTE. As a contractor, you are not considered a "member of the family" so to speak, your opinions are not as valued as a FTE, and the project you are contracted to work on could end at any given time. You are generally relegatied to the 'legacy" system conversions or grunt work. The FTE's are given the opportunity to learn/work on new technology. This is understandable since they are the ones that will be around a lot longer than you. Also, as a contractor, it is not easy to move into a different position or higher paying position because you are contrated to work at a certain level, even if you do have the same or better qualifications than the employee.
But, contracting does sometimes has its positives, I am sure someone else has a list of them to share. Just my opinion...

I am an employee (a.k.a Staff Consultant) of a consulting company, who is sent out for contracting positions. I get the usual benefits - health and dental, vacations, holidays and even get paid on the Bench. My company and I survived the bubble-burst.

So with that element of security in place, I like the various contracts that my company sends me out to. With some degree of experience and loyalty :-), I even have the privilege to refuse contracts which I do not like.

The company has a very small annual allowance, that can be used for buying books and training. Most of the training costs are well above this allowance, but I am happy to buy books and learn.

Also, I have been placed in projects where I was able to learn new technologies. The contracts vary from few weeks to few years. Sometimes we get repeat orders too.

I like to work on different projects and so far this arrangement has kept me financially and non-financially content.

I can't say that I particularly like it. When my last contract ended, I decided to start looking for an FTE slot. My primary reason is benefits. Most contract firms don't offer them at all or they are way too expensive.

My next choice will be contract to hire. That also has a downside- there is no obligation to hire you, just a possibility.

Whatever you do, consider what your basic job functions are. There are things that cannot be effectively outsourced- those job areas should be your focus.

And especially stay away from the contract firms, consulting companies and "staff aug" body shops. And I say that having mostly contracted, through no special desire on my part, since 2001.

You have to remember that Contract Nation is that symbiotic though psychopathic relationship between knowledge workers who think they can earn more while working less and companies who are convinced that world class quality and absolute best practices can be accomplished by a disposable workforce. Neither is ever entirely true. And only through the potential and practice of long-term employment does either party truly succeed.

I am a conscript, rather than a volunteer, in Contract Nation, and look forward to retiring from same to a permanent position soon. Preferably with a company that can write and place a help-wanted ad, read a r?sum?, conduct an interview, and make an offer.

I've been an FTE most of my life but had one stretch as a contractor and another as an hourly consultant.

Personally, because my wife is unable to work, I prefer the stability of FTE. But I have friends who are the sole support of their family who are happy to be contractors. They have more in demand skills than me and have done very well financially because of it. They never want to be management, and feel their tech skills are better compensated for in the contracting world.

I was paid better as a contractor than my current managerial job. But with a mortgage and kids I dont think the choice is there.

James

I'm an employee of a contract firm. I've been working the same contract for over 4 years. That's longer than my previous position which was as an FTE.

Working is *so* much better than unemployment.

I was personally sick of contracting, especially when you work for a staffing augmentation firm that in order to make their profit look better when it came to the augmentation, they would cut your pay by 5-10% every year.

I got fed up with it and send them a letter asking for a 35% raise in order to keep up with the cost of living (13% increase) and what I lost in the previous three years 22%. They said no since that is not showing loyalty to the company so I told them bu-bye and went with working for myself.

Contracting is not a bad position to be in if you are working for yourself, but if you are doing it for a pimping agency, just remember, they take 52% of your pay and you get the shaft.

Let us face it, permanent jobs will not be as numerous as in the past. Contract jobs will become a norm, not an exception.

Employers are getting smarter. That is why. With permanent jobs and severance pay, plus may be benefits, it is very expensive to hire someone permanently, especiall if you are not sure whether the job will actually be permanent, or your company may change business in the future.

With all the merges and acquisitions going on, and constant technology changes, the person you hire today may not be functional in your company in any capacity with his current pay grade in two years. You must keep your workforce flexible and adaptable. Not too many employees can do that, with any amount of education and training. (Training don't make you feel comfortable moving from the East coast to the West coast with your spouse having a job with some other company.) The way to do that is to change the people in your team. Contracting is a reasonable way to do that.

I don't think contracting will ever die out. Not in Oz anyhow. It seems to behave the same as everything else. That is, it goes through phases. Depending on your age you may have seen the situation of outsourcing in government. First they all seem to get this great (OLD) idea that outsourcing is good. So they shunt everything to external providers. Approximately 5-7 years later some bright spark says, hey, we can do this better and cheaper inhouse. So they bring it all back inhouse again. I've seen this cycle 3 times in my career.
Contracting behaves the same way. So even though there are periods where it is harder to get a nice contract, it isn't long before it all picks up again.
As an employer, and all things seeming equal, I would take on a die hard contractor in preference to someone newly contracting. New contractors take a time to season and drop the FTE behaviour. The experienced ones in general get their butts in here, understand first time what is expected, they keep me informed of what's happening, they understand clients very well and produce work quickly and usually of high quality.
There have been some dubious ones but they get moved on quickly.
Upskilling is a major drama when you're a contractor though. It takes time (with no income) and it costs money. The way I worked around this was to go permanent every now and then for a couple of years and get some more training etc. Sneaky, but it works.
A good contractor is worth their weight in gold. There will always be work for good contractors but sometimes you have to take mediocre contracts, that are beneath you, until the next gem appears.