Is contracting better than a full time job

[Zafir Anjum]

Are you making $80 an hour or are you making $80K a year?


Is contracting worthwhile or even better than a full time job? What do you

think?

[D. Bytzel]

I contract (and have for the last 3 years). Personally, I enjoy it alot, but it gets a little stressful around the time to find a new contract.

[Allaoua Cheraitia]

More is expected of you when you contract a job. You put yourself under more time than you expect. It is fun though because of the project changes you experience. It is not always easy to contract jobs within short times though.

Allaoua

[Patty You]

I think contracting is worthwhile and better than a full time job if you do get a high pay contract job. My contract with a corporation was just up last week. I certainly enjoy working as a contractor while I don't have to play polical games and be politically correct all the time, and most importantly, I can always concentrate to do a good job for my client and get well paid. But now it is time for me to find another good pay job. It seems hard to get a good one this time, most of my agents complain that my rate is too high! ($75/hr in Houston, is it really too high?)


I am still hoping I can get a good contract job soon. Wish me luck!


-Patty

[phil]

Depends on the person. Some worry about security not realizing you have no assurance that your company will not and cannot release you at any time. The big difference is that as a contractor, you must always be ready to move on to a new job and are always working on keeping things in the pipeline. As a fulltime employee, you are too often suprised if you are released or your company moves or goes broke, and you go into shock and it takes days or weeks to start and effective job search.

[Phil]

Depends on the person. Some worry about security not realizing you have no assurance that your company will not and cannot release you at any time. The big difference is that as a contractor, you must always be ready to move on to a new job and are always working on keeping things in the pipeline. As a fulltime employee, you are too often suprised if you are released or your company moves or goes broke, and you go into shock and it takes days or weeks to start and effective job search.

[Jim McCreary]

I have been working under contract in Houston for the last 5 years and have always wanted to know what the going rate is for particular skills. I am currently working in Visual C++ and only making $50 an hour. I asked for more but was told that this is the max for this company (which is a world wide known high tech corporation.) Of course I am going through a body shop which usually takes 30% to 35% off the top.


I am with a body shop because the last contract, with a major oil company, started out as a simple contract between me and the department manager. He was paying me out of a casual labor budget that they might have used if they needed a plumber. The corporate suits found out and came down on us. We had to go hat in hand to Kelly Services and pay them 20% off the top to administer the contract. This was required just to make sure that nobody thought that I was an employee of the oil company entitled to any benefits.


I have worked for $75 an hour but it was with foreign firms and done completely via e-mail and fax. They didn't have to deal with U.S. Infernal Revenue and everyone understood that I was a contractor not an employee.

[Jim Murphy]

Patty,


If you are doing good OO/C++ work -- particularly for a technical company I think &75/hr is very resonable. My experience has been in this area as well...it seems to talk some management longer that others to realize what the true cost of an employees is(typically double the empoyees salary for technical workers). On that basis -- You are right in the ball park, especially when you consider the fact that you are taking on all of the risk associated with a particular endevour.


Jim

[Jim Murphy]

Also consider consultanting companies -- ie "experts" tend to charge $125-$250 per hour per person even higher for fixed price work.