Anyone here self employed?

kryptonmight

Just wondering if anyone here is a self-employed dev/tester/IT person?

I'm a bit sick of the 9-5 rat race and would like more flexibility over the hours and days I work.

Just interested in hearing from those who are self-employed / contracting etc about how you find it.

srsly78

Well the first thing to realise is that the hours will be longer than 9-5. Also there would be NO paid holidays

moycullen14

Ah, the joys of contracting......

The pros:
You have a very clear demarcation between you and your employer: You supply time & skills, he provides money. That's it.
No politics, no worries about promotions.
Career progression, such as it is, is in your hands.
You don't like the work? You move on. Simple as that.
You tend to focus on what's important.
More money - at least there should be. A good rule of thumb is that contractor hourly rate > annual permanent salary in thousands (e.g. if you can earn 40K as a permie, you should get at least 40 euro/hour, 320 euro/day as a contractor.
It's easier (though not easy) to change technology areas.

The cons:
Quality of work you are given can be poor.
No holiday pay, no sick pay, no security whatsoever.
No safety net. You don't perform, you don't eat.
You need to be located where there is plenty of work. City of London would be great. Ballinasloe not so good.
An IT contractor would have earned a lot more 15 years ago than today.
Revenue a lot tighter on expenses and tax avoidance than they were.
There can be a certain amount of resentment. I've had people I have worked with tell me that they 'hate contractors' to my face. Charming. You need a thick skin.


There are lots more. It works for some people, not for others. A good rule of thumb is if you care more about the company you work for than the technology you use, then you're better off as a permie.

Graham

+1 on the replies from srsly78 and moycullen14

I don't know many full-time contractors that aren't expected to work 9 - 5 or have much flexibility over the days they work.

kryptonmight

I've contacted before myself through an agency although I effectively felt like an employee of the company I was actually working for, albeit with no benefits whatsoever apart from flexitime and being able to work from home when needed.

Just thinking about different options. There's one company I would like to be permanent with but getting a permanent job there is extremely difficult as I've contacted there before.

Other companies, I can take or leave. I started a new job in the last few months and while I like the people, I miss the flexitime.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

very apt time for this thread, just when you're all back after the xmas holidays!

grass is always greener OP. I've never had a real job and was an affiliate marketer first, which truly is your own business, you rely on nobody. When that dried up I did contracting jobs for Dublin companies and it was pretty bad. Slow to pay, lot of work for idiots doing crappy projects and there's just not that money in Dublin for the stuff I was doing. I was offsite though, not in their office, which is different to what you're talking about I think.

Now I'm selling my own apps on iTunes and Google Play and it's great, money is decent and nobody to answer to. But even when I was really broke, I loved being able to do my own thing, in my own office and having my own hours.

John_Mc

Took the plunge Oct 2012 and haven't looked back. I was doing well in FT employment but the money wasn't great.

There's a bit of admin work involved every month with calculating income tax, vat, expenses etc but your accountant will probably give you some spreadsheets for this so it's easy enough.

As others have said, it's unlikely that you'll find a contract that allows you to work outside core business hours Mon-Fri.