Curious about Contracting

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by Jaron78, Jan 12, 2016.

  1. Jaron78

    Jaron78 Gigabyte Poster Forum Leader

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    Hi Guys,

    Just had a bit of time to kill and I was looking at some contracting jobs. I have NO intention of leaving my current role (in case anyone from work is reading this) but I always like to keep up with trends and get an overview of what's coming up.

    2016, I plan on completing a Network+, Linux+ and a CCNA. Now, I was just taking a look at a few contracting roles and CCNA can pay upto £450 / £500. Now excuse my ignorance but is this per Day? It may seem a stupid question but when I was contracting in my very first Helpdesk role, I was on £10.00 an hour (This was 4 years ago and I had 0 experience).

    Obviously there are the + and - points of contracting and of course its the experience that matters. I see people here at the current role contracting and they are looking at mega bucks.

    Just after opinions in all honesty.

    Cheers
     
  2. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Depends on role and location, but £400 pd is now a standard rate

    Contractors have to cover their own holiday, sick pay, pension, bench time, corporation tax, office, equipment etc.

    Having said that I did it over 12 years ago and have never looked back.
     
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  3. Jaron78

    Jaron78 Gigabyte Poster Forum Leader

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    Wowsers! Id better get the Certs done :)
     
  4. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    If you have a skill you shouldn't be on £10 ph, that is basically an unskilled minimum wage.

    You don't need certs to be a contractor, but landing contracts isn't always easy, so it all helps.
     
    Jaron78 likes this.
  5. Jaron78

    Jaron78 Gigabyte Poster Forum Leader

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    Ah but this was my very first IT job. No experience, nothing :)
     
  6. SimonD
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    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    Yes that's a daily rate but you're expected to know your stuff and not really be a recently certified, new to Cisco type of engineer.

    I was a contractor for 12+ years and loved it, not so much now although depending on how interviews go I may well have to go back contracting (I will be out of work at the end of the month, first time in 5 years).

    A word to the wise tho, contracting isn't as attractive these days as it once was, HMRC are looking at making it much more difficult for sole traders / contractors and it may well not be worthwhile at the end of the day to go contracting unless you're earning loads more than you can get in full time employment.
     
    Certifications: CNA | CNE | CCNA | MCP | MCP+I | MCSE NT4 | MCSA 2003 | Security+ | MCSA:S 2003 | MCSE:S 2003 | MCTS:SCCM 2007 | MCTS:Win 7 | MCITP:EDA7 | MCITP:SA | MCITP:EA | MCTS:Hyper-V | VCP 4 | ITIL v3 Foundation | VCP 5 DCV | VCP 5 Cloud | VCP6 NV | VCP6 DCV | VCAP 5.5 DCA
    Jaron78 likes this.
  7. Jaron78

    Jaron78 Gigabyte Poster Forum Leader

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    Cool, thanks Simon.

    To be honest mate, this isn't something I am looking at in the near future. More, something in say 4 or 5 years.
    I have a lot of certs / qualifications planned. We are getting married this year (December) and then probably kids so I need to get as much done before then ha ha.
     
  8. JohnBradbury

    JohnBradbury Kilobyte Poster

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    I've been contracting for most of my career, sometimes it's great, others, not so much. Just like being a permanent employee.
    • Can you adapt to new environments quickly, often without documentation, and on occasion without the assistance of the permanent staff?
    • Can you live without a guarantee of work?
    If the answer to either of these is no then I'd forget contracting. Beyond that it's just a personal choice about how you want to work.

    I've been in a pretty stable contract for the past 13 months, with a good rate of pay. The downside is that it's been a lower technical level than I'm used to working at. That said I have pulled in a pretty good turnover this past year and it's allowed me to invest in my training (both kit and courses).

    On a side note, £450-500 a day is achievable if you focus on marketable skills but I've never heard of anyone getting that kind of money off the back of low level certs such as the CCNA.
     
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  9. Jaron78

    Jaron78 Gigabyte Poster Forum Leader

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    Thank you John, that's a great response.
     
  10. Juelz

    Juelz Gigabyte Poster

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    I've also grown curious of contracting, surely it's the equivalent of being self-employed? and surely there is a risk of not finding another contracting job when the current one has ended? my mate told me when he first got into IT he had a contracting gig for helpdesk.. I was surprised you could get a helpdesk contracting job I thought it was more hands on type jobs that contracting entailed.
     
  11. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Yeah there can be down times between hits, and always remember the double tap !
     

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