Contractor Life

AnswerIs42 · 04-01-2022 2:43pm #1

I was wondering if any contractors could give insight into the day to day life difficulties of a contactor?

For example:

If you are in the middle of a contact and you want to take a few days holidays, can you do that and just not get paid or are clients expecting you to work everyday of your contract 6/9/12 month contract and any holidays should have been agreed up front?
Are your start/end times monitored each day or do your clients just trust that you've started each day when you've said? Or maybe it's more a case of here is the work, get it done by this date?
If you need to take an hour or two for a doctors appointment or something like that, is that problematic?

I'm considering going down this road and I think my life is well suiting to the overall contact life but wondering about the day to day difficulties of dealing with clients.

Jim2007 · 04-01-2022 5:43pm

All of these things will depend entirely on the contract you sign with the client.

Depends on if you are body shopping or staffing a specific project. Body shopping usually goes by the rules of employees at the company, project specific with deadlines probably not
Again it depends on the contract payment terms, hourly yes, daily probably, piece work no
Not an issue

Bigger concerns would be:

Finding clients, keeping up contacts, networking etc... all additional work you need to do
Accounting and Tax record keeping
Training, education and keeping up today
Keeping skills current and marketable: No matter what marketable skill you have now they will go out of date, so how do you keep current and be able to convince clients you can do the new tasks without previous experience.

AnswerIs42 · 04-01-2022 6:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118417086#Comment_118417086

Thanks for the reply @Jim2007 Is there anywhere I can see what a standard boiler plate contract looks like or maybe a commonly used one?

John_Mc · 13-01-2022 11:02am

I contracted for 12 years when I lived in Dublin and in all of the places I worked, you were treated pretty much like a normal employee. You requested holidays in advance and they would almost always be approved provided that it wasn't at a critical part of the project you were hired to help deliver. You obviously don't get paid for holidays/leave taken.

With appointments it was the same, you would just worked the hours back or adjusted timesheet.

I was always paid for days worked rather than hours and timesheets were submitted by me and approved by the manager. You would usually go through a recruitment agency and they would pay you and seek payment from the client. This makes it a lot easier to get paid as you don't need to chase things.

In my 12 years I was never a day out of work as the market was hot. I'd disagree a bit with Jim regarding contacts & networking as that's where recruitment agencies come in. Things would be different if the market tanked though.

You have two options with setting up - an umbrella company where you're pretty much an employee of a company set up and managed by someone else, or you set your own company up with the assistance of an accountant and run things yourself. The former is a lot easier but I know several people who went the umbrella route and weren't able to take advantage of being self employed by buying new hardware, phones etc because the people managing the umbrella company said it wasn't a valid expense. A programmer buying a new computer every year or two would definitely be that. You should also expense your phone & internet bills etc.

Jim2007 · 13-01-2022 3:44pm

I'd disagree a bit with Jim regarding contacts & networking as that's where recruitment agencies come in.

It would be wrong to think that you don't need to cultivate agencies - contrary to what some contractors think they are also humans ;-) In my experience over 30+ years. Being on good terms can mean:

Better rates
Lower commissions
First refusal on contracts
They will push you to clients

It's popular with some contractors to treat agents like dirt. And that is short sighted, because agencies will only deal with them when they can't find anyone else.

Mr. CooL ICE · 13-01-2022 4:28pm

Contracting roles have interested me for quite a while. I've worked in mainly .NET roles (with smatterings of different JS frameworks) for around 6 years. I'm afraid of dipping my toes in as I'm not 100% confident I'd be able to get up to speed as quickly as some companies might expect.

I wouldn't be looking right now, but in the future, how possible would it be to get some sort of part-time hours role? Like a 20 hr/week role? Having had kids in the last few years, the girlfriend has taken a step back in her career. To return the favour, I'd be willing to take a step back in mine so she can work full time again, so working part-time for creche/preschool/school hours would be an ideal solution.

John_Mc · 17-01-2022 4:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118468059#Comment_118468059

Yeah it certainly can't do any harm and you should always be professional. I did it for 12 years though without putting any particular focus on it and as I said, never a day out of work and rates on the upper end so it's not exactly required.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118468398#Comment_118468398

.NET is generally enterprise level stuff so I doubt you'll find a gig for 20 hours a week. You would be expected to slot into a team working same hours as the rest of the team. There's no harm asking a few agencies though.

I also wouldn't be afraid about not being able for it. Just make sure you're a good fit in the interview and be honest!

dazberry · 18-01-2022 6:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118490163#Comment_118490163

I was talking to few agencies about .NET last year, primarily around reduced hours - all said it was uncommon. I have worked shorter weeks in the past, but that was after being embedded in the organisation full time for a few year prior to re-arranging.

Royale with Cheese · 18-01-2022 7:07pm

I've been contracting in .Net for nearly 7 years. I'm on my third client now, all three are big name well known companies. My first contract role lasted over three years and I left of my own accord, could still be there if I wanted. The second was just under 2.5 years and I was let go at the end of my fourth or fifth contract there. They subsequently asked me to come back a few months later but I'd already started on my third contract role by then which I'm still with now and don't expect to be let go from anytime soon but you never know.

I was/am basically an employee in all but name in all three companies (though I would never say this to revenue 😀). Ask for your holidays in advance and they'll be approved no problem, you've no set amount but I've taken anything from 2-6 weeks in a calendar year. I'm sure if you start taking the piss with the amount of time off you want they'd ask questions but it's never been an issue for me.

In my current role I have to clock in/out on some timekeeping system they have which I thought was ridiculous when I started but nobody really pays any attention to it so it's not that bad. For any doctors appointments I'd just tell my line manager I'll be out for an hour or two and then work later or start earlier that day. Obviously it depends on the role but all three I've had have had no issue with this kind of stuff and have always treated me fairly and no different to an employee really.

The money is way better if you just want to stay in development and have no interest in ever moving into management, I don't miss doing performance reviews either. Maybe this is also true for permanent roles (not sure as I only ever had one and that was a graduate position) but there's a lot of legacy work out there when it comes to contract roles. At first I just looked for the best paying contracts with the shortest commute but was a lot more picky about the last role I took. Things change fast and your skills will get out of date fairly quickly doing legacy work, any training you want to do is paid for out of your company's pocket. Though the last time I felt this happen to me I just bought a few courses on udemy for a total of €50, used what I learned from them to build a sample app and then put the code up on GitHub as a kind of online CV. So you don't really have to break the bank upskilling.

In terms of shorter hours, yeah that would be quite unusual. If you get in somewhere and do 6-12 months and impress them you could ask to go down to a 3 or 4 day week instead of (or even on top of) asking for a rate increase. I've seen this done but you need to put the work in first.

Jim2007 · 18-01-2022 8:11pm

The money is way better if you just want to stay in development and have no interest in ever moving into management, I don't miss doing performance reviews either.

Is that what you think, or have yo actually done the calculations comparing like with like. In my experience most contractors under estimate the true benefits of an employee package. Particularly when it comes to assessing pension, disability and death benefits, loss of income etc... And generally speaking contractor's working lives are shorter than employees. Pretty much all of my colleagues, myself included got out at 55 -56. At that age even landing new contracts is not easy and a lot of stuff offered is boring maintenance stuff.

Though the last time I felt this happen to me I just bought a few courses on udemy for a total of €50, used what I learned from them to build a sample app and then put the code up on GitHub as a kind of online CV. So you don't really have to break the bank upskilling.

Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not, a lot depends on the skill sets and the point in the market where you land your first contract in the technology. If the skill set is being introduced at your current gig is new to the market and you've done a few courses the client will most likely go with you, on the other hand if it's been around for a couple of years and there are people on the market with experience, you may find yourself being pushed out. After all that is why they have contractors.

I can only recall two occasions where there were serious shortages of in a skill set to the point that clients were willing to take on all comers and pay for it.

The introduction of Windows 3. The sudden take off in Windows, created a huge demand for C programmers (C++ was still on the horizon). I spent 6 weeks on the clients dime over in London getting up to speed on that one.
The up take in Java around 1995-6. Again the shortage had clients doing crazy stuff. Again I spent 8 weeks on the client's dime certifying in Java in Germany and a further 4 month on retainer because they did not have a project to work on, but they were afraid they'd not have the resources when they did.

In my 30 years I'd say jumping from one skill set to another was a bit hit and miss. If you moved while at a current client and got a bit of experience under your belt you were more like to land a new contract with a new client than if you had to start a convince a client that you could do it without any real world experience. Here again if you had a good relationship with an agent, they would be more will to put you forward to clients in such situations.

I enjoyed working as a freelancer both in IT and Financial services in the last decade or so of my working life. But you will get into situations you are unlikely to encounter as an employee and depending on how comfortable you are with that it can be a good approach or not.

awec · 18-01-2022 10:19pm

Agree with @Jim2007 that you need to be careful on the financials of it.

Basic income is definitely higher, but you will also have higher personal costs as there's obviously no paid holidays, no paid health insurance, no employer pension contributions etc. On the subject of not having to do performance reviews, this is true and is certainly a perk, but you must also consider that if you do have a good year there'll be no bonus at the end of it, some employee will probably get the kudos and the financial reward for the work you have done instead.

Jim2007 · 19-01-2022 2:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118497111#Comment_118497111

The pension situation is something you really need to pay attention to. Agency contracts are designed to put as much money into your hands as possible and when you are young that is what most people like, but it is not good for you in the long run. When you are young you are at the top of your game as a contractor and unlike employees where salaries grow with age, it is often the opposite for contractors, as you get older your skill set will not be in such demand, there will be more maintenance type contracts and even periods where you may not have a contract. So it makes sense to front load your pension and not assume that you will be able to load up at the end as is typical with employees.

An actually there is a performance review and it is more brutal than an employees - contract terminated or not renewed and usually you get no warnings or opportunity to correct the situation.

22-01-2022 2:48am

I know a contractor who should be highly paid but has been in quite some sporadic debt. It is not a good option for those who are bad at managing personal finances.

Contractor Life

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