Go from full time developer to contractor?

Contracting was a gold rush in the late 1990s. Since then contracting in IT has become a sort of "temping" career path. It depends upon the local market greatly, but in general, contracting as a software developer is not very good for your career.

There are multiple problems with it today:

• It's hideously difficult to establish a worthwhile independent business presence in contracting today. This is because most decent businesses hire through brokers and agencies (preferred vendor lists rule) because of IRS guidelines on using independent contractors. The net effect is that (pardon the metaphor that follows, it's generally quite accurate) you become a dependent "ho" to the pimp like agency that employs you and which probably will pay you at levels no higher than going FTE rates. If that.

• Because of this paid contracting rates in many regions can actually be lower than the equivalent FTE job. In other words it's treated exactly like industrial or office work temping by managers and placement agencies. You may see a particular situation that pays better, but do your homework.

• It's exceptionally difficult to ride the wave and stay with the current technology vogue. Clients tend to stereotype you in one technology, nobody wants you to learn on their dime even incidentally, so your skill set relative to the current market can decay over time. Unless you devote all of your off time to going to training and side projects, of course.

• You may find the first "GREAT!!!" gig but the BIGGEST challenge is finding the 2nd, 5th, 10th, 15th ... gig. So the advice to drop your FTE job when you get a solid contract offer is very bad advice, unless you were planning to quit anyway. All you know at that point is that you may or may not get paid for even one day of contract work. Often the first project that launches contractors in this work life was a cream puff that dropped in their lap. They later find that the marketing effort is quite elusive to replace that gig afterward.

• You may find some truly independent gigs directly with clients, which is where the best money will be (no stinking middleman to "control" you and steal 30+% of the bill rate). Be warned that the companies that tend to be willing to hire independents directly are small and so are often incredibly cluelessly run and badly managed, which can be incredibly stressful to deal with. That's just statistics: a large company has by definition already passed through all of the "natural selection" phases that tend to cause badly managed smaller companies to fold and go under.

• And one last thing: contractors are often treated as outsiders and "untermenschen" by management and co-workers. The contempt that some "kept" and pampered idiots can display toward their fellow man on the job can be scarring. Also there is the stereotyping issue. When you rack up several years of contracting you will simply no longer be considered for full time jobs. I can now hear a chorus of the macho younger guys saying "ha ha you're just a loser, I get job offers all the time and I contract!" Extend it out past 10 years and it is quite a different matter - HR departments will consider you untouchable damaged goods... Unless you are published and/or have a major FOSS project to your name. The exact issue is that when you have contracted for a very long time, years, it's assumed that FTE jobs will no longer make you happy enough to stay.

Overall, contracting looks better from the outside than it really is.

Beware the delusional macho tough guy posturing of thinking "yeah, but I'm better than everyone else" which programmers are prey to.

It's market forces so it doesn't matter how good you are, it's a tidal force of commodification that you will be fighting.

Good luck.

You sound like you are a lot where I was! I didn't end up going into contracting, I ended up setting up my own company, and hiring people to do web and software projects. But, similar risk... except i had to find all my own work. Not use recruiters, dice etc.

You have to know yourself. I had the confidence that I would have no problem finding another 8-5 job slinging code somewhere. I also would have rated myself more towards a senior developer as I hadn't really run into anything I couldn't figure out a way to solve, even in technologies I was totally unfamiliar with when I had to use them right out of school. eg: Crystal Reports (ack!)

You may want to consider looking into a company like Teksystems. Not sure if they are in your area, but something like that probably is. They essentially middle man deals, companies come to them looking for certain skills for a certain amount of time and the send them possible candidates. Maybe you can do that while you still have your job? Once you secure your first 6 - 12 month contract you can quit. If you do well Teksystems or whomever will work hard to find another gig for you, for more money. As you do it for awhile you'll eventually get offered contract gigs back with previous companies or friends of theirs and can start working outside of the staffing company making even more.

I have a business, but if I didn't I would be doing contract work for sure. It's fun to learn about new businesses, solve new problems, learn new technology. I have friends sitting in the same cube working on the same small portion of an enormous software app. New feature here or there, bug fixes, maintenance. Yuk!

.NET is still very much in demand.

But you can test it out before quitting your job, if you get a gig then put in your notice.

4 years is low - in general, contracting is not for junior people if you want good money.

Now, your negatives are aprtially bollocks. I give you an example why. You say it is a negative to have to search new work eery X months (X can be large - the contract I am in now runs in month 10 and will go on another 12 or so). But otoh I earn gross about 2.x times what they would pay me, and am tax wise a lot better. Having a month off every 4 months would still not make be break even. And in those times, even hired developers get fired - especially juniors.

Second, constantly learning new technologies. Sure. If you are employed for life. Which you are not. Otherwise - nex time you switch jobs, guess what - either you are a specialist (I am - I only take certain technologies and fields of work) or you... have to learn, too.

Both are not really negatives of a contractor.

At the end, i think it is a question of what type of person you are.

I would say to 100% do it at some point, but maybe not quite yet. Four years of experience might not be enough to get really great contracting work, but maybe it is...

I highly recommend teaming up and working under another experienced consultant that has some tight connection to a director, CTO, or CEO of where you are contracting to. You will take a lower wage, but you will learn a lot and you will be (presumably) safer than just some job off of dice. Do you work with any contractors at your current gig?

For insurance, I used to go through the ACM and paid something around $200 a month for pretty good health insurance (I think I was 26 when I took coverage).

The biggest benefit of consulting/contracting is that you should maintain your own intellectual property for outside work (if you set things up properly). That is the #1 benefit to me.

If you don't love your current gig, then I would go for it. If your current gig is pretty decent then I would try to network before making the jump. Try like hell to never go through a headhunter. I never did... direct relationships are much much better and certainly a heck of a lot more profitable.

As for taking the risk... Be smart and use common sense, but don't worry too much because you have marketable skills and can probably get hired someplace if everything else fails.

Also if your are in your 20's don't forget to go out and have fun!

Jon