First, welcome to Boston, Adam. Hope you can come to Monday's tech
meeting.
Second, your experiences as a contractor were very different than
mine. For your response to the list to be so vehement, your experiences
must have been pretty bad indeed. I think you'll find Boston a nicer
climate for working, especially if you're an experienced perl
programmer. :-)
I have never had a 'real' job. I like being my own boss. I have
contracted via the internet since 1995 and took my first w-2 onsite
contract through a headhunter when I got to Boston a year ago, and I can
give you the following reasons why I will continue to contract as long as
I am able:
1) Flextime. My telecommuting contracts are 100% flexible. My onsite
contract was not so flexible at the start, but as we got comfortable
with each other, it became very flexible after two months. If it didn't,
I probably would have walked within another two months.
2) Rates. A good Perl programmer can make four times as much as an
excellent K12 teacher. It ain't right, but that's still the way the
market is. (If anybody has any good ideas for making this system better
I'm all ears. Offlist.)
3) Hours. In my experience, which may or may not be usual in the current
economic climate, I haven't had a problem finding enough work to keep me
busy. In a given month I am working 2-3 contracts concurrently, each
10-30 hours a week. In my experience, a contract has never forced me to
work insane hours just to keep up, like many high-tech workers. I will
never work 80 hours for a job that is supposed to be 40 hours. It's in
the contract.
4) Variety of work. Some salaried employees may be lucky enough to get a
job with a wide variety of assignments, but it's built in to contracting.
If something is boring, the contract will end soon enough. If it's
exciting, I add it to my resume and hope something similar comes along
again soon. I've written WebDAV applications for Apache, made a college
improv club an interactive text web/email game, been paid to add to
open-source apps AND I've gotten to return the source to the developers.
What could be better?
5) Uncertainty. I like flying by the seat of my pants, owning my own
business, with the attendant risks. On the flip side, I've reduced my
overall risks considerably by working on two long-term contracts that each
demand less than full-time. I actually feel safer than if all of my eggs
were in one company's basket, especially since they are in different
areas (such as web services, IT, biotech).
Here are the downsides and how I'm dealing with them:
1) Retirement. I'm saving a lot of money and have a paltry amount in an
IRA. Probably the IRS is getting more of than that than they could if I
signed up for a retirement account.
2) Benefits. My sweetie's job comes with partner benefits, which is good.
I came to Boston from upstate NY, where there is a moderately expensive
option for major-medical insurance ($100/mo with $4000 deductable). I
don't know if something similar exists in this area.
3) Sustainability. I've only been doing this for five years, and I'll
probably have to make some changes sooner or later. Maybe I'll have to
eventually learn perl 6 or something. *shrug*
4) Taxes. As Greg and Chris said, a small-business accountant is very
useful.
5) Headhunters. The only real downside. They are a real crapshoot; but a
good contract company will usually hire the better headhunter, in my
experience.
These are all in my own experience, and may not be used as legal advice.
IANAL. Contents may settle.
Cheers,
Daniel
----------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Allen http://www.coder.com/
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Prescient Code Solutions V: 519-575-3733 F: 309-285-2840
== Q: What do you get when a Postmodernist joins the Mafia? ==
== A: An offer you can't understand. ==
On Thu, 5 Jul 2001, Adam Russell wrote:
> >I would appreciate hearing what other people have to say to you that
> >don't post to the list. Might be some real gems in there.
>
> >Thanks,
> >Christopher
>
> Given the current economic climate I cannot see why anyone would try
> to, or even be successful at, working as a contractor. Non-permanent
> employees are *always* the first to go. I suppose if you are already
> an established name and you have the right contacts then you'll not
> have this problem but the thread has to do with starting, right?
>
> Just my opinion. Also, I just moved to the Boston area so maybe things
> are a little different/better here.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> --== Sent via Deja.com ==--
> http://www.deja.com/
>
