I’ve been a contract BA for about six years now; it’s fine, reasonable variety of work and plenty around, money is good. It is all variations on a theme though, and there’s no way I’d go back to doing it as a permie (i.e the payoff for the slight career boredom/staleness is the increased income).

However, there’s a permie Business Architect role going at the place I’m currently at and I’m tempted (and I think I’d be in with a reasonable shout). It would be the new challenge that I think I probably need/want and if I was permie it would be the obvious next step career wise.

It would be a drop in income (although would pay more than a permie BA role) and it would obviously bring all the permie-bollocks of appraisals, objectives, yadda-yadda-yadda.

So, my fellow T5 owning, Waitrose shopping, keyboard warrioring IT contractor types, would a career-bump type role tempt you back to the dark side?

No not for me. Life’s too short for corporate BS, appraisals, target-setting etc

Things that tempted me back:

Paid holiday
Not losing riding time to paperwork and arsing about with accounts

Time > cash.

Contributory pension / sick pay and or critical illness cover in older age / company car / paid holiday / stock options / private medical + dental / redundancy and notice period / training / no IR35 to deal with. Combo of the above should equal any loss on your day rate. Once your at this level and you factor in all the above, there is often not that much difference between contract or perm when you look at total package value.

Things that tempted me back:

Paid holiday
Not losing riding time to paperwork and arsing about with accounts

Yeah, fair enough, but I class holiday as ‘paid’ anyway as I assume/loosely budget for 10 weeks of non-earning a year. And the accounts stuff takes about an hour a month.

Contributory pension / sick pay and or critical illness cover in older age / company car / paid holiday / stock options / private medical + dental / redundancy and notice period / training / no IR35 to deal with. Combo of the above should equal any loss on your day rate.

I’m not sure it does, but you’re right, I need to do the maths to properly quantify the difference.

As I get older, I think there are benefits from working for a big company – mostly around how much I’m worth to my mrs if I die whilst an employee, decent health care etc. On the other hand I fully expect the company to be the cause of my demise

Nothing… dont like the idea of being tied to one company, even if i was offered the same amount of money (which wouldn’t happen).
Never been anything other than PAYE/self-employed so dont know what its like to have paid holiday!

john_drummer – Member

No not for me. Life’s too short for corporate BS, appraisals, target-setting etc

you realise that this is not necessarily the case everywhere? All that must take approx 2 hours of my (paid) time per year.

OTOH, could definitely been tempted to start contracting to gain some variety, but then again the company is now paying for a qualification…. and I just had my ankle fixed on private health cover through work…. and I’m looking at fully paid shared parental leave

Freeagent FTW.

john_drummer – Member
No not for me. Life’s too short for corporate BS, appraisals, target-setting etc

you realise that this is not necessarily the case everywhere? All that must take approx 2 hours of my (paid) time per year.

I just resent them in general. Spent 4 years at the last job going through all the hoops every year only to be told “sorry, no money in the pot again this year”. And they made it an utter ball-achingly painful process, easily 8-10 stressful hours (self assessment, giving others feedback, face to face review, management review).

I’d much rather just be paid what someone thought the job was worth, be able to pay for my own training courses that might actually be useful in whatever career direction I chose, not the random interval scattergun of “there’s a place on this training course because we wanted one person trained the instructors coming in and there’s a PC free”.

And job security is a farce. I still got made redundant after 8 years with barely above statutory.

I’m about to be given a paid exit from the current job, and the reverse is true: I’d quite like to do some contracting to avoid the BS (like the internal job interview I’ve just had for a role I don’t think exists or has already been offered to someone).

But then I look at the day rates I’d need to charge to bring me back to a par on current overall remuneration, and I’d probably price myself out of everywhere except the South East (and I live in the North West).

Do the sums..!

But then I look at the day rates I’d need to charge to bring me back to a par on current overall remuneration, and I’d probably price myself out of everywhere except the South East (and I live in the North West).

Really? What sector?

I’d want to work in an office that provided some of the perks that I had when I was contractor working from home.
Things like working in my pants, liberal porn policy etc 😀

Too much work around for contracting at the moment, give it 18mths then decide.

mostly around how much I’m worth to my mrs if I die whilst an employee

The chances of a death in service payout are pretty remote, an accident basically. If you get a terminal illness it’s most likely your employment will be terminated as per your employment contract (e.g. if you can’t work for 6 months) before they have to pay out. That is why “death in service” insurance is so cheap/generous

Contributory pension / sick pay and or critical illness cover in older age / company car / paid holiday / stock options / private medical + dental / redundancy and notice period / training / no IR35 to deal with.

Contributory pension – check and huge input by employer (financial sector)
sick pay and or critical illness cover in older age – check
paid holiday – check
stock options – check
private medical – check
redundancy and notice period – check
training – 😆
no IR35 to deal with – check

I wouldn’t have gone permie had I not been TUPE’d in but I can’t grumble at all regarding the package. Absolutely detest corporate BS, appraisals, etc. though. Ah well, not long to go.

If most of the IT types i know are anything to go by: given you’ll likely only be in post for 18-24 months before you choose to move on, will there really be that level of staleness, or corp nonsense anyhow?

it would have to be a shit load of money and a 2 day week.

Never going to happen.

I’ve gone from contract to perm to contract to perm again. Pros and cons to both, money being better contracting but sitting on a beach worrying about losing my day rate soon got old.

I wanted to become more senior in my position and for me the only way to do that was going perm. Worked out well so far, especially as I’m off work at the moment with glandular fever

Can you afford to give up £1k a day?

Simple question..

would a career-bump type role tempt you back to the dark side?

Just done this myself as I got offered something I really wanted to do. Tough decision to give up on the cash, flexibility of holidays and benefits, and the independence of contacting. Can always go back to it in a few years though with this role on my cv.

Can you afford to give up £1k a day?

Simple question..If you are being paid £1k a day for 3 days a week then you can easily afford to give it up for the rest of the week unless you have a very big c&h habit

Now look I know STW is home to Audi driving Waitrose shopping wood burners, but how many of us are on £1k a day?

As many as are awesome drivers, “gnar to the power of sick” and troubling the pro circuit i imagine

Life’s too short for corporate BS, appraisals, target-setting etc

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Oh, and not being bound to n weeks holiday / year as well.

Miss Piggy.

If the business architect role would be interesting and develop new skills then well worth considering IMO. You’re investing in your future earning potential, whether that’s perm or contract.

What made me jump was a step up to lead developer and increasing anti-contractor noises from the government/ HMRC.

Did that for a couple of years then transitioned to a BA role about a 18months ago.

If I didn’t like my job, or the people I work for/with then I’d probably go back to contracting, but I’m ok where I am at the moment…

I class holiday as ‘paid’ anyway as I assume/loosely budget for 10 weeks of non-earning a year

That’s a healthy approach! Nice one.

A lot of the contractors I know wax lyrical about the “between contracts” freedom but very rarely take advantage because after a week they’re cacking themselves about where the next job is coming from.

I went contract -> per for pretty much the reasons you outlined (personal development) however also there were some other issues like wanting to ease back a bit for a house renovation / mortgage.
That’s done now, so I’m thinking about a move to contracting again now

after a week they’re cacking themselves about where the next job is coming from.

I’m back perm now because I couldn’t get a contract after my last one finished in 2015 – was 6 months out of work…

If I could guarantee 9 months of work a year you wouldn’t see me perm ever again but life’s really not that straightforward.

Perm job security is a myth. We have big redundancies being announced in the next few months and if I go I’ll have been here less than two years. My last contract I was in the same organisation for four years and have a lot more cash in the bank to show for it that I would from the equivalent time in perm…

Now look I know STW is home to Audi driving Waitrose shopping wood burners, but how many of us are on £1k a day?

I think you’d probably be surprised.

I went permie at an IT consultancy as I can see people in my area struggling to get work as most projects are going to be cloud related now and we need to get the new skillz. Might still lose my job though but they seem keen to give training for now.

I went over, in reality I always wanted to especially as the role was basically disguised empolyee.
The deal worked out about the same as the holiday pay and pansion were very generous.

When it comes to preformance management etc. the biggest issue I find is with people who refuse to engage. The permanent role also opened up internal transfers with security so that was also a bonus.

Really? What sector?

I’m probably classed as procurement these days.

It’s not just the salary, bonus, car allowance, pension, etc. It’s also losing LTIPs which (if they pay out – IF..!*) add a significant justification to stay in perm roles.

*TBF the last 2 schemes have been completely underwater.

I wanted to become more senior in my position and for me the only way to do that was going perm.

If the business architect role would be interesting and develop new skills then well worth considering IMO. You’re investing in your future earning potential, whether that’s perm or contract.

I think these are where I’m at. The perfect role would be a contract Business Architect (cos then I could potentially be on £1k+ a day), but no-one’s going to take on a ‘green’ contractor.

Being out of contract work for a significant period would make me go from contract to perm,but in 22 years of contracting i havent been out of work for more than 2 weeks.

Other than that i cant see me moving to perm.

I guess if there was a car / bonus / share option / private health on the table with no requirement to become a team leader/manager ever then I might consider it. If the alternative was being out of work