Temat: Employment vs. Contracting

As an employee of a company, you generally have more benefits, stock options, sick time, education and training, office space, and a structured plan for career advancement. The biggest plus is that you'll have a steady paycheck. From a contractors point of view, full time employees have traded the "illusion" of job security and stability for less money. Full time IT staff often see contractors as "mercenaries" (or worse), who broker themselves to the highest bidder and have few loyalties. Some contractors have earned a reputation as snake oil salesmen who make all sorts of promises and then wreak havoc on the company's network before they eventually get fired. Others are viewed as incompetent vagabonds who need a position where they can moved from company to company, because nobody will hire them full time. To be honest, I've seen enough of both types, but I know enough talented people who break this stereotype as well.

Being an employee isn't all it's cracked up to be either. We live in a Dilbert world where bad management appears to be the norm and company employees (even valuable IT staff) are treated as cattle. I've watched countless companies pressure their people into working mandatory overtime, weekends, holidays, and put off vacations because of some urgent crisis that is always pending because their departments are chronically understaffed. Many of these employees are salary, and are often promised "comp time" to make up for the extra hours, but few actually get it. If they do manage to take it, it is often brought up later in a performance review as a negative attribute. Not working free overtime will obviously impact your productivity, and god forbid if you become labeled as someone who isn't a "team player." Several large Fortune 100 companies actually pit the employees against each other during performance reviews. The top 10% of employees get raises ( a whopping 4%) or get promoted. The bottom 10% get laid off, and the middle gets put on notice. To make the top 10% requires lots of unpaid overtime, never saying no to your boss's unreasonable requests for rush projects, and sometimes even long distance travel on short notice.

Contracting is vastly different. Terms of employment are usually short (3 -18 months), and your hourly pay is higher than many equivalent full time employees. If you don't like where you're working you can simply pack up and leave - you're a contractor and expected to jump from job to job. (Although overdoing it will ruin your reputation). Since companies are paying you by the hour, they almost always ask their full time salaried employees to come in on weekends, work holidays, and stay late. There's no pressure of a pending performance review or a promotion hanging over your head. If you do a good job and act professionally, your contract may be extended and/or you may be offered a full time job with the company. If you're like most contactors, you'll be bored with a company in 12-18 months and be dying to leave for a new job with new challenges. Occasionally you may find yourself out of work for a few weeks, but since you make a higher hourly wage than most full time employees, you should easily be able to save enough cash and see the break as a vacation and/or training time. If you use your "down time" wisely and continued to build your skill set, you can easily increase your salary by 10%-20% a year.