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I often get asked about working as a contractor or a full time employee. When I get asked this question I always pause and try to think about the mindset of the person I am talking to.
It’s not that I’m wondering if they are all there when they ask me this question but rather I’m thinking in regards to what type of person they are, how they live their life, are they Type A, Type B, Alpha, etc… You might be scratching your head right now thinking “why does that matter”?
There are so many things to think about when dealing with the contracting or full time employee question. What is the industry that you work in? What is the market value of a contractor or full time employee? What is your education and how advanced is your degree? Are you looking to manage, project manage, or be a worker? What is the name of the company you want to work for? How long have they been around? What is your degree in and is it an advanced degree?
As they scratch their heads I go on. Do you have a nest egg in case contracting doesn’t work out? Do you have good insurance now and if so what would your insurance situation be as a contractor or a full time employee? Are you able to work from home or are you required to be in the office part time or all of the time? What does their benefits package look like. I can see they now are overwhelmed by what I have mentioned up to this point. So I go on some more.
Do you have children? Are they currently in daycare? If they are currently in daycare how will switching from contracting to full time and/or full time to contracting change your daycare situation. Does your company have daycare or are you going to have to factor that in to your budget if they don’t? I go on some more.
Have you met the people you will be working for? How do you like the people you work for now? Is this a step up or a step down the career ladder? What does your resume look like? Does your resume show several job hops? That’s common with a contractor and an industry expectation. How do you explain your twenty different jobs or how do you explain your possible lack of experience by staying with one company for fifteen years? Are you a good interviewer? Have you dipped into your 401K and savings with your current company? How much do you have saved with your current company and how aggressive is their program as far as putting money in your future? What was your GPA and how big is the company? Will you be competing with a village of people and what are your chances at progression through the company?
I could go on and on and on but I think you get the idea. There are benefits to both contracting and full time as well as cons to both. Contractors typically make a lot more money, often times as much as fifty to seventy thousand dollars more but full time employees typically don’t have to worry about job security and don’t have to pay significant health insurance and bills out of pocket as a lot of contractors do do to their insurance not being as beneficial.
Contractors often feel a sense of independence because they don’t “belong” to the company they currently work at if you will and there is no long term investment with the people you currently work for. On the other hand a full time employee typically is expected to work significantly longer hours as opposed to a contractor who is required to log and watch his or her hours closely as they get paid more.
A company often times prefers to bring in contractors due to low cost as they don’t have to pay health insurance, new employee costs, benefits and so on. A company will often bring in contractors due to not being able to find the expertise in their own house and once the job is done they can cut ties with the contractor after they had the contractor train one or more of their full time employees and/or create a knowledge base. Another question would be do you specialize in one area or are you skilled in several areas?
As you can see there is a lot to think about in making any career move. Look at your current situation and ask yourself what will change? What will change for the better and what will change for the worse? Make a list and look at the list everyday you wake up, before you go to bed, and when you get home from work. Do this for an entire week to give yourself quality time to look at the whole picture.
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