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Contract rates 2019

24

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 768 ✭✭✭14ned


    smacl wrote: »
    As for profits, if you're self employed it makes sense to keep retained income in the company rather than your own account for the inevitable lean periods, where you can offset one years loss against another years profits. You can also charge back very many reasonable business expenses. While I've no big love of accountants, they're a necessity in this game and a decent one will pay for themselves many times over.

    I think you're referring to how things work in the UK, where there isn't a close company surcharge on undistributed profits. In Ireland, closely held service companies have a tax penalty on retaining any income in the company. It's deliberately designed to almost always be worse for you tax-wise to retain income. Irish Revenue really, really, really want close service companies to pay out all revenues within 18 months to somewhere, with a clear preference for PAYE or pension.

    +1000 on a decent accountant, though there is no substitute for learning the tax system and learning how to manage cash flow. My wife is currently training to become a chartered accountant, and an interesting thing we've learned is that I could probably pass most of the Irish CAP2, which is the second year of training. I would expect that any experienced business owner in Ireland would be the same. We have a deeply unfair, but simple, tax system in Ireland. It's easy to master, compared to other tax jurisdictions e.g. the UK's.

    Niall


  • Registered Users Posts: 768 ✭✭✭14ned


    mrcheez wrote: »
    You can pay yourself at the 20% tax rate, then the remainder goes into the company and is taxed 19% corporation tax Vs 40% that would be taxed on the same amount if you were permanent.

    This is all wrong. You only pay corporation tax on profits, which is 12.5%. No IT contractor incorporation should ever, ever make a profit which is not offset by a loss rolled forward, which reduces that corporation tax charge to zero. If you ever pay corporation tax, then you need a new accountant pronto.

    You also seem to not realise that company profits must be paid out as dividends, else the close company surcharge arises. Dividend payments are taxed identically to PAYE income, USC, PRSI, the works. So it makes zero difference whether your contracting company pays you via PAYE or dividend in Ireland. As PAYE is easier (less paperwork), that's what everyone does. In the UK all this is very different, but in Ireland it's very simple: all income is taxed identically.

    You cannot escape the 52% marginal tax rate in Ireland by any means, except by paying into a pension, or becoming a farmer, or becoming a creative artist. Or emigrating. Or being rich enough to afford setting up a multinational network of cross-owning entities and charities like that Ikea founder.

    I'll grant one compliment to Irish Revenue, they have the tax system here sewn up. Very, very hard for individuals to avoid taxes over here compared to anywhere else in the OECD. I do recognise the elegance in their tax system design, but it is horribly horribly unfair. Corporations get off scot free with almost anything. Individuals cannot escape tax without going into farming.

    Niall


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,735 ✭✭✭funnyname


    Thanks Niall, so basically you're saying, anything you don't pay yourself above the 20% tax amount allowed or put into a pension is going to get hit at the 52% rate?
    14ned wrote: »
    This is all wrong. You only pay corporation tax on profits, which is 12.5%. No IT contractor incorporation should ever, ever make a profit which is not offset by a loss rolled forward, which reduces that corporation tax charge to zero. If you ever pay corporation tax, then you need a new accountant pronto.

    You also seem to not realise that company profits must be paid out as dividends, else the close company surcharge arises. Dividend payments are taxed identically to PAYE income, USC, PRSI, the works. So it makes zero difference whether your contracting company pays you via PAYE or dividend in Ireland. As PAYE is easier (less paperwork), that's what everyone does. In the UK all this is very different, but in Ireland it's very simple: all income is taxed identically.

    You cannot escape the 52% marginal tax rate in Ireland by any means, except by paying into a pension, or becoming a farmer, or becoming a creative artist. Or emigrating. Or being rich enough to afford setting up a multinational network of cross-owning entities and charities like that Ikea founder.

    I'll grant one compliment to Irish Revenue, they have the tax system here sewn up. Very, very hard for individuals to avoid taxes over here compared to anywhere else in the OECD. I do recognise the elegance in their tax system design, but it is horribly horribly unfair. Corporations get off scot free with almost anything. Individuals cannot escape tax without going into farming.

    Niall


  • Registered Users Posts: 768 ✭✭✭14ned


    colm_c wrote: »
    Have a look at the DevelEire salary survey from last year, to give you an idea of the companies involved.

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSer0VQAWHVSBl-JIqoH8kjAixGVOVwf5J-I2RVyN116mrP9yg/viewanalytics

    36% of the responses are in Data Science. 18% are SRE.

    So over half are hardly representative of the Irish tech industry. You're talking top 5% of highly paid roles here. So no wonder the figures are what the survey shows.

    Last time I interviewed with Google was in August 2015. The salary on offer was €130k. I wouldn't be surprised if pay has risen at least 7% p/a since, so that would make it €170k or so. That matches the survey.

    All that said, last year I was onsite in Verizon, and I know for a fact that none of the team I was in were on more than 80k. All very senior software devs, but not in a currently hot niche.

    A famous engineer I knew in the cloud division in Verizon was on 105k. He left for another tech multinational I won't mention for 150k, and he seemed quite pleased with that.

    So I'd surmise from all that that in the "hot" tech sectors, pay has been ramping quickly for years now. If you're not in a "hot" tech sector e.g. web stuff, then pay has been far more static. I'd still consider 70k-80k a perfectly reasonable senior software developer salary in central Dublin for most kinds of software development.

    For machine learning et al, then sure, a senior software dev ought to be on twice that. Cloudy senior devs nearly as much.

    As always, supply and demand.

    Niall


  • Registered Users Posts: 768 ✭✭✭14ned


    funnyname wrote: »
    Thanks Niall, so basically you're saying, anything you don't pay yourself above the 20% tax amount allowed or put into a pension is going to get hit at the 52% rate?

    I think for 2018 it was 50% or 52% (add 40% income tax x USC x 4% PRSI), yes. It's very hard for ordinary individuals to avoid tax in Ireland.


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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,685 Mod ✭✭✭✭smacl


    14ned wrote: »
    I think you're referring to how things work in the UK, where there isn't a close company surcharge on undistributed profits. In Ireland, closely held service companies have a tax penalty on retaining any income in the company. It's deliberately designed to almost always be worse for you tax-wise to retain income. Irish Revenue really, really, really want close service companies to pay out all revenues within 18 months to somewhere, with a clear preference for PAYE or pension.

    Slightly different for me as I own and run a small software house, where we develop product and sell licenses. That classifies as manufacturing in Ireland for tax purposes which works our far better than selling services. (Edit:Historically, not any more) Sales based revenue streams can be very lumpy and it is vital to keep money in the bank to smooth things out. I've made the mistake of putting too much money in the directors pension in the past and regretted it in tighter times. It would be interesting whether moving to a SaaS model would change this, I'm guessing it probably would. In terms of profit and loss, it often makes sense to have a loss near year end if the pipeline is strong, as you can offset the loss against a future profit. This can be done by buying assets, or deferring a sale slightly.
    +1000 on a decent accountant, though there is no substitute for learning the tax system and learning how to manage cash flow. My wife is currently training to become a chartered accountant, and an interesting thing we've learned is that I could probably pass most of the Irish CAP2, which is the second year of training. I would expect that any experienced business owner in Ireland would be the same. We have a deeply unfair, but simple, tax system in Ireland. It's easy to master, compared to other tax jurisdictions e.g. the UK's.

    Niall

    Similar enough story. My wife comes from a financial management background, is top notch at cash flow management and knows the tax laws well. Just as well as it is something I'm weak enough on and have little interest in myself. Once you avoid taking on employees until strictly necessary and always keep in the black, things are easy enough to control. We had a second company before having kids that grew to sixteen employees. Hugely stressful but luckily we managed to sell it for a decent sum before going entirely nuts. Never again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,936 ✭✭✭Royale with Cheese


    Been contracting in .net for 4 years. In my experience the money is considerably better than permanent and on top of that you don't need to do anything other than dev to get it. No leading teams, taking on extra responsibilities etc. I also don't miss performance reviews or having to feign an interest in corporate culture like in some bigger companies I worked in as full time staff. There's no way I'd go back to permanent unless I'm forced to.

    OP, I've always found the Morgan McKinley salary guides (there is a contract rates section) to be reasonably consistent with what I've been offered in Dublin. I have friends who work full time in other IT roles like project management who would agree:

    https://www.morganmckinley.ie/salary-survey


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,952 ✭✭✭✭retalivity


    My 2c...
    I'm contracting 5.5years now, focused on data analysis and engineering. I too do not miss all the hr crap associated with perm jobs - performance reviews, goals, targets etc., As well as town halls, corporate events etc. Just get in, do my hours and get out. My rates have increased ~40% in my time contracting, to the point that i do not think i could earn something similar for the same work unless i went into google, fb etc. Ive no interest in management or leading people, nor have i done any additional training over and above my work - any additional skills or experience gained have been on the job.
    Data focused jobs range from 400-550 in dublin, with niche roles like senior ds or hardcore python rising exponentially - paying up to 700+. Im not really uo to date on dev but from being in touch with recruiters and on linkedin a fair bit, i think the rates are similar to the above.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32 s_mcloughlin


    14ned wrote: »
    36% of the responses are in Data Science. 18% are SRE.

    So over half are hardly representative of the Irish tech industry. You're talking top 5% of highly paid roles here. So no wonder the figures are what the survey shows.

    I think you may have misread - from the last graph, 36% of the responses are Full Stack and 18% are Distributed Systems


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,590 ✭✭✭✭mrcheez


    14ned wrote: »
    This is all wrong. You only pay corporation tax on profits, which is 12.5%. No IT contractor incorporation should ever, ever make a profit which is not offset by a loss rolled forward, which reduces that corporation tax charge to zero. If you ever pay corporation tax, then you need a new accountant pronto.

    I just double checked the annual return, and yes sorry you are right it's 12.5% not 19%


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  • Registered Users Posts: 13,590 ✭✭✭✭mrcheez


    14ned wrote: »
    I think for 2018 it was 50% or 52% (add 40% income tax x USC x 4% PRSI), yes. It's very hard for ordinary individuals to avoid tax in Ireland.

    Well it's not hard if you put it into a pension, or well, lower the taxed amount by spending it on expenses!

    So at the end of the year if you are permanent on 100K, vs contracting on 100K, so you probably end up with a little more on the contracting front.


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    14ned wrote: »
    This is all wrong. You only pay corporation tax on profits, which is 12.5%. No IT contractor incorporation should ever, ever make a profit which is not offset by a loss rolled forward, which reduces that corporation tax charge to zero. If you ever pay corporation tax, then you need a new accountant pronto.

    I have been a contractor for nearly 2 decades, both in Ireland and abroad, and while I agree somewhat with the above statement I have to disagree with the line that you should never pay corporation tax. Everyone's circumstances are different and everyone has different objectives when it comes to handling finances.

    I have made profits in the past and left them in the company, and paid CT and surcharge on them - but I had a valid reason for doing so.

    I agree that in general there are only three ways to take money out of the company
    1. Salary
    2. Dividends
    3. Capital Gains
    You can also extract funds out via pension contributions, but will leave that one for the moment.
    In normal circumstances, they all work out much the same and the revenue have set it up that way to avoid people being creative. But a number of years ago, CGT was 20% for example - so rates do change !

    However, it is very possible that people can be carrying forward a capital loss from a poor investment choice during the boom times. It is also possible that people may be considering working abroad for a few years in the future which would change their tax status especially around dividends and capital gains. Others could be looking at entrepreneur relief at 10% and wondering what may be around when its their turn - depending on their age. There is also the discussion around a potential redundancy payment in the future, if things went to hell completely.

    Over the years my approach has changed a number of times, depending on the security of the contract I was in, the economic conditions and my financial commitments. Overall I have tended to pay myself the going market rate for the permie role I was doing. I then tended to either pay myself a bonus if I had a need for it and/or made a one off pension contribution (paid into the pension as I went along). Sometimes I held money in the account, especially if I was coming up towards the end of a long term contract and planning to take some time off between them (either planned or forced).

    Personally, a few years ago I decided to build a reserve of 6 months expenses (including salary, pension etc) in the company. This was to smooth over any downtime between contracts and make it as seamless as possible. I paid CT & surcharge on this - at the time USC & Income tax were slightly higher, so this swayed me a bit also.
    I would urge all contractors to consider how they would fund a 3-6 month gap between contracts and not think they will automatically roll from one contract to another.

    Other scenarios which may sway decisions is if you are on a threshold for a grant (e.g. 3rd level education) etc. As I said, everyone's financial circumstances are different and need to be considered accordingly !


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    retalivity wrote: »
    My rates have increased ~40% in my time contracting, to the point that i do not think i could earn something similar for the same work unless i went into google, fb etc. ............ nor have i done any additional training over and above my work - any additional skills or experience gained have been on the job.

    I have been contracting a lot longer than you - very close to 20 years at this stage. I dont work in development either - more the architecture, strategy, programme delivery space. I have seen rates rise and fall, rise again, fall again and recover to various levels. What I have learned though is its always the niche skills that pays the premium rates, and its very difficult to remain cutting edge while you are in the middle of a premium rate contract. No one will want to give up days towards training when on a premium.

    However, after a while the skills you have start to become outdated and while you can plod along for a bit (and lots do), ultimately a reset is needed. Its also very easy to get pigeon holed in an area and very difficult to get out of it after a while. I have seen so many people end up back permanent at this point mainly out of desperation !

    I would strongly advise to stay current in skills, devote a week a year to some sort of training/certification or go to a conference - even if not 100% aligned to what you are doing, as it gives options and shows interest. Its also much easier to do courses now with virtual classroom/on demand courses than it was 20 years ago when I started.

    Tech moves fast. I have ~20 years working life left (I only spent 3 years as a permie after leaving uni). There is no way to survive on your existing skills in the long term, and the longer you leave it the bigger the investment required. You don't want to be the 40-50 year old unable to get a job as they have become a dinosaur in their industry !


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    14ned wrote: »
    +1000 on a decent accountant, though there is no substitute for learning the tax system and learning how to manage cash flow. My wife is currently training to become a chartered accountant, and an interesting thing we've learned is that I could probably pass most of the Irish CAP2, which is the second year of training.

    I think you may be a bit generous there on your knowledge ;) Most accounting degrees only offer exemptions to subjects within CAP1 and there is a bit jump in knowledge beyond that. For my sins, I have a masters in accounting before I went down the IT route just before the dot.com bubble and would have had a CAP2 exemption at the time - but seriously doubt anyone would pass it without some serious commitment. I do agree though that an understanding of finance, accounting and tax is invaluable for all business owners, and courses are run on the subjects regularly by a variety of groups

    Gone a quick google and see that the pass rate in 2017 was 66% !!
    https://www.charteredaccountants.ie/News/cap2-june-2017-exam-results-released


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    14ned wrote: »
    I'm a bit out of date wrt current permie salaries, but if you earn €75k as a permie, +50% is €112k which is about right for a 48 week work year as a contractor in the same type of work. Divide by 48, then by 5, and you get €469/day.

    To be fair, its pretty easy to do a search online and find contract rate guidelines. Enough adverts have some sort of indication and even if its not a direct match, it can be give an indication.

    I agree that adding 50% to the permie salary is a good guideline in a lot of cases. However, that 50% is not the premium for contracting - you need to take accounting fees out, and then factor in the benefits you are going without including
    - employer PRSI (and the benefits that go with it)
    - employer pension contribution
    - death in service benefit
    - income protection (which is expensive!!)
    - sick/maternity/paternity cover
    - training costs
    - parking (in a number of cases)
    - RISK - of being out of work between contracts etc. This has a cost associated to it, even if it is hard to quantify. Never plan to walk from one contract to another !
    - CAREER DEV - in most cases you lose out on career dev and future earning growth being a contractor. This may be more relevant to some than others, but it is worth keeping in mind. Very rarely will you climb the ladder and get offered new opportunity as a contractor !

    There have been times I have done the numbers and the figures have been very tight between the two. Other times, fortune has shone on me and the gap has been decent. The question is more what is important to you, not just now but also in the future.

    For example, how many contractors do you think were offered mortgages in 2010 when money was tight and prices had crumbled ? There is always a trade off to be made....


  • Registered Users Posts: 87 ✭✭zephyro


    14ned wrote: »
    This is all wrong. You only pay corporation tax on profits, which is 12.5%. No IT contractor incorporation should ever, ever make a profit which is not offset by a loss rolled forward, which reduces that corporation tax charge to zero. If you ever pay corporation tax, then you need a new accountant pronto.

    You cannot escape the 52% marginal tax rate in Ireland by any means, except by paying into a pension, or becoming a farmer, or becoming a creative artist. Or emigrating. Or being rich enough to afford setting up a multinational network of cross-owning entities and charities like that Ikea founder.

    What if you plan on availing of Entrepreneur Relief or Retirement Relief? Also how do you deal with the applicable limits on Executive Pension contributions?


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    zephyro wrote: »
    Also how do you deal with the applicable limits on Executive Pension contributions?

    The limits on executive pensions can be low enough depending on how long you have worked for the company, your current salary and current pension value. The monthly limits are much more generous than one off payment ones.

    Also worth noting that executive pensions can be accessed at 50 currently, so again depends on someones age profile may be very beneficial to extract a chunk of cash from the company.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,157 ✭✭✭srsly78


    T
    - CAREER DEV - in most cases you lose out on career dev and future earning growth being a contractor. This may be more relevant to some than others, but it is worth keeping in mind. Very rarely will you climb the ladder and get offered new opportunity as a contractor !


    Are you kidding me? Contractors get way more experience/career development, because they aren't stuck in the same place vegetating. Climbing the ladder? Haha good one.... Everone knows that the best way to increase earnings is to find another job. Permanent salaries for dev roles are a joke at the higher end.


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    srsly78 wrote: »
    Are you kidding me? Contractors get way more experience/career development, because they aren't stuck in the same place vegetating. Climbing the ladder? Haha good one.... Everone knows that the best way to increase earnings is to find another job. Permanent salaries for dev roles are a joke at the higher end.

    That may be particular to development roles, where a senior developer is the top of the ladder for most and you achieve that in your mid-30's after say 15 years experience. What then? Some people may be happy to stay at this level and others will want to try and move on, maybe into a software architect role, or product architect or potentially into a development manager role and beyond. I am sure most of those roles are not made available to contractors in the vast majority of cases. You are there to do a job NOW, not in the future.

    Yes variety of work is good and you get to see different ways of doing things, but chances are you will always be directly under someone elses technical guidance. Some people don't like this

    But back to your point, some people value career guidance and development. Others don't, but you should not assume a one size fits all scenario. Just because its not for you, does not mean its not for everyone !

    I am not saying contracting is bad - I have been one for close to 20 years, but its not all roses either. Its very easy be a contractor in the good times when roles are readily available. Different story when things slow down, and I wonder how many on here have been contracting long enough to witness a bad cycle !!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭ Ezequiel Purring Witchcraft


    srsly78 wrote: »
    Are you kidding me? Contractors get way more experience/career development, because they aren't stuck in the same place vegetating. Climbing the ladder? Haha good one.... Everone knows that the best way to increase earnings is to find another job. Permanent salaries for dev roles are a joke at the higher end.
    Yeah I thought I was progressing fine in my role until I quit and was offered a 30% raise and promotion as a counter offer. Loyalty doesn't pay in most places, which is dumb. New place seems to recognize the value of retaining employees.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    Yeah I thought I was progressing fine in my role until I quit and was offered a 30% raise and promotion as a counter offer. Loyalty doesn't pay in most places, which is dumb. New place seems to recognize the value of retaining employees.

    I think everyone needs to be aware of their value and know how to push for salary increases/promotions. However, people also need to know when its time to leave a company, whether in a permanent or contract role.

    My point is that you would not have been offered the promotion as a contractor (or very unlikely to have been), so if that is important to you, then it should be factored into the thought process. You can still switch companies every 2-3 years as a permie to gain different experiences and get promotions along the way.

    In the open economy, everyone needs to look after themselves !


  • Registered Users Posts: 869 ✭✭✭moycullen14


    One thing I am noticing in the last few years is that companies now seem to favour contractor over permanent employment - to the extent that they are no longer taking on permies, all new roles are contract. I guess they are reducing their employee liability.

    I've seen it in a few places, just wondering how prevalent it has become


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    One thing I am noticing in the last few years is that companies now seem to favour contractor over permanent employment - to the extent that they are no longer taking on permies, all new roles are contract. I guess they are reducing their employee liability.

    I've seen it in a few places, just wondering how prevalent it has become

    I guess it does depend on the job role. Most jobs in architecture for example are permanent, unless you are working on a specific programme delivery project, or working on tender responses.

    In development, I have seen higher levels of contract work over the last while also. This probably is driven by what people are looking for, as well as the skills being looked for. The big advantage is allows companies to on-board people without taking the risk of employee costs.

    I remember talking to a HR person a year ago and there is currently marginal difference to a company to have a permie v contract and there is less hassle/overhead with contractors. It also allows them to get rid very quickly if it does not work out or the need reduces.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭ Ezequiel Purring Witchcraft


    I think everyone needs to be aware of their value and know how to push for salary increases/promotions. However, people also need to know when its time to leave a company, whether in a permanent or contract role.

    My point is that you would not have been offered the promotion as a contractor (or very unlikely to have been), so if that is important to you, then it should be factored into the thought process. You can still switch companies every 2-3 years as a permie to gain different experiences and get promotions along the way.

    In the open economy, everyone needs to look after themselves !
    Yeah true. I didn't want the promotion. Took the sideways move with almost as big a package, a lot less responsibility and scope for promotions and raises in future.


  • Registered Users Posts: 87 ✭✭zephyro


    One thing I am noticing in the last few years is that companies now seem to favour contractor over permanent employment - to the extent that they are no longer taking on permies, all new roles are contract. I guess they are reducing their employee liability.

    They might be increasing their Revenue liability though if all these new contractors don't meet the Revenue criteria for self-employment and contracting! There seems to be a general misunderstanding that companies can classify roles as contract as they choose ...


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    zephyro wrote: »
    They might be increasing their Revenue liability though if all these new contractors don't meet the Revenue criteria for self-employment and contracting! There seems to be a general misunderstanding that companies can classify roles as contract as they choose ...

    Some very interesting discussions in the UK at the moment around the old IR35 legislation after the Treasury have lost some high profile cases against TV presenters.

    I think the Revenue here, and abroad, need to come up with a new way to tackle contracting/gig economy and put the responsibility on the employer based on the role, rather than on the person doing the job. The role should either be permanent or contract (part of retained organisation or not) and this would address some of the confusion based on what people are actually working on.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,120 ✭✭✭shanec1928


    Been contracting in .net for 4 years. In my experience the money is considerably better than permanent and on top of that you don't need to do anything other than dev to get it. No leading teams, taking on extra responsibilities etc. I also don't miss performance reviews or having to feign an interest in corporate culture like in some bigger companies I worked in as full time staff. There's no way I'd go back to permanent unless I'm forced to.

    OP, I've always found the Morgan McKinley salary guides (there is a contract rates section) to be reasonably consistent with what I've been offered in Dublin. I have friends who work full time in other IT roles like project management who would agree:

    https://www.morganmckinley.ie/salary-survey
    Does anyone have a copy of that report to hand that site is a joke.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭ Ezequiel Purring Witchcraft


    Apparently it costs more to hire a developer in Poland or the a Czech Republic now than in Ireland, and about the same in Bulgaria or Ukraine. We should look for salary increases across the board if that's accurate.


  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭gnf_ireland


    Yeah true. I didn't want the promotion. Took the sideways move with almost as big a package, a lot less responsibility and scope for promotions and raises in future.

    Sideways is nearly always better in the long term, especially if the salary is comparable.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 768 ✭✭✭14ned


    I am not saying contracting is bad - I have been one for close to 20 years, but its not all roses either. Its very easy be a contractor in the good times when roles are readily available. Different story when things slow down, and I wonder how many on here have been contracting long enough to witness a bad cycle !!!

    Hear hear.

    I just left contracting after ten years, because I believe a tech bubble burst is coming soon, and I don't want to be left out in the cold (again). Being permie again is weird, performance reviews, bonuses, responsibilities. But it's fully remote, and paid from the US. I cannot complain, probably the nicest permie role I've worked yet.

    It's easy to be attracted by the income flexibility of contracting. But it does require you to be fortunate in health, landing new contracts, and upskilling into the right new niche skills. In a booming economy, that increased risk factor isn't so obvious. It becomes very obvious in a downturn. Also, the higher your pay relative to your colleagues, the more likely you'll get laid off, so while pay increases are great, it does make you a nail to be hammered down during layoffs.

    Niall


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