by codedeep on 3/10/24, 9:02 PM with 90 comments
by aaronrobinson on 3/11/24, 12:33 AM
1. Job security - you’re absolutely right. In my time I had 3 contracts that lasted longer than 6 years and I left 2 of them
2. Rates - you can earn north of £1000 a day with the right skills but there’s a big difference between inside and outside. Inside needs to be much higher to compensate for the additional tax.
3. Most contractors do 6 week to 6 month contracts - see above. And if you pitch your CV to me with a string of 6 month contracts I’ll assume you weren’t extended and look for reasons
4. All the stuff about choosing your hours, holidays, not being on call is not true. As a contractor your job is to fit in with the team and help them to deliver. If you’re swanning in at 10 when perms have to be in at 9 or going off in a long weekend when there’s a deadline looming you’ll be toast pretty quickly.
5. Mortgages - you usually just need 3 years accounts but some offer less but higher rates
6. Tax arrangements - don’t get sucked into schemes that offer you low single digit tax - HMRC will make your life hell. Stay above board and hire an accountant.
7. Insurance - I never had - complete waste of money. I know in some cases you may be forced to.
by sirsinsalot on 3/10/24, 10:00 PM
The most inaccurate bit is day rates. They're underestimated by quite some way in my experience.
What I would say is contracting in the UK is a game with different layers. This is the basic "coder for hire" layer. There's levels above that, with contracts spanning 10 years+ and higher day rates, but it is much more like dark magic.
by karaterobot on 3/10/24, 11:34 PM
> If you turn up and are rubbish, your contract will be terminated really quick. And if there are layoffs, contractors would (sometimes) already be well gone already.
This is one piece of advice I haven't found to be the case.
I have told the following lies as a contractor: "Sure, I know PHP", "Sure, I know Ruby", "Sure, I know Python".
The reality is that most of the time you're working on the shit that no employees at the company want to do, so no one is paying the least attention to you. Yes, you have to deliver functioning code on time, but you can get away with tap-dancing for a while until you learn the stack you're working on. In 13 years, I was never fired, and usually got my next clients via positive referrals.
The above explains why this statement IS true:
> You are always seeing new companies, new tech, new tech stacks, and the job never gets boring
That was the best thing about contracting: variety. Also the worst thing. I got about 3-6 months of experience on dozens of different technologies, but never mastered anything except the skill of learning skills quickly.
But in my experience, if you only worked on things for which you were already hot shit, you wouldn't get that level of variety, and you probably wouldn't get enough contracts to sustain a business. People do specialize, but the tendency in contracting is always to be a generalist because you have more options.
The two biggest skills in contracting are communication and faking confidence. They are paying you to deliver something, but really they're paying you to happily accept some of the stress they feel. If you practice saying "That shouldn't be hard, let me handle it" you are well on your way to being a success.
by lbreakjai on 3/10/24, 10:07 PM
I thought the times were good, but even then the old timers were talking about the good old days with some nostalgia.
by everfrustrated on 3/11/24, 6:49 AM
Eg https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contracts/london/software%20en...
by harel on 3/10/24, 11:14 PM
by madeofpalk on 3/10/24, 10:26 PM
But now, I've switched to a perm role and I'm enjoying it a lot more. There's a lot less admin and tax stuff I need to deal with - I can focus fully on being a developer - plus I'm working on more fulfilling projects over longer periods, and making longer-term plans.
Technically I guess I could be earning more cash, but that came at the cost of time and stress that I just don't worry about any more. I'd much rather be happy.
by nerdawson on 3/11/24, 12:13 AM
If you’re going to work inside, just use an umbrella. The margin they take is minimal and they make life so much easier.
If you’re going to run a limited company, you have to actually run a limited company. There are horror stories on the contractor forums where HMRC have taken a dim view of contractors whose companies are essentially run by their accountants. I can’t remember what the term associated with it is but definitely an area to be careful with.
by ksahin on 3/10/24, 10:08 PM
by junto on 3/11/24, 2:45 AM
After emigrating from the UK, I moved around in the EU (GMT+1/+2). It was the best of both worlds since IR35 cannot apply to non UK domiciled tax residents.
Rates around £450-500 per day for that I was doing. Finally settled in an EU country and then moved to a permanent role after twenty plus years of being a remote contracting bum.
If you have questions then ask away.
by codedeep on 3/10/24, 9:02 PM
by petesergeant on 3/10/24, 11:26 PM
Yikes, really? In that case they’re unchanged in the last 12-15 years.
by T-zex on 3/10/24, 10:00 PM
Perhaps inside IR35 and perhaps for a low rate. Big corps mostly do umbrellas these days.
by jacobp100 on 3/10/24, 10:05 PM
by Charlie_32 on 3/11/24, 3:31 PM
by mp05 on 3/10/24, 9:54 PM
This comparison is more true than a lot of devs want to admit.
by dom96 on 3/11/24, 12:46 AM
This really doesn't hold for many cases, and especially for the rates mentioned in this article.
Are there any somewhat reliable sites that show median and other percentile contract rates? Something like levels.fyi but for contracting rates?
by aussieguy1234 on 3/10/24, 10:04 PM