Keep contracting or go back to perm - IT career progression

[mischmaster]

There may not be a right or wrong answer to this, but I'll ask anyway! In short, I'm currently contracting as an IT BA and worried that if I keep contracting in similar roles, I will limit my career progression and won't be able to apply for more middle management/senior perm roles as a result.

I'm still relatively young (late twenties) so conscious that I may have gone down the contracting route too soon and should try to stick with a more middle management/senior perm role first.

Curious to hear views/recommendations from those that have worked in IT for a while, or those that have contracted and gone back to perm or vice versa.

To give some additional context, the IT BA role is outside of IR35 and pays £100k+ gross over 12 months. I don't want to dip back into a perm BA role as that will be a 60k+ pay cut. So my options are to continue in similar contract roles for the forseeable or apply for Product Owner/Business Partner/Service Delivery Manager type roles as a kind of 'best of both worlds' (~£60k ish gross but with the benefits that perm work brings). I have held a role at this level previously but I'm worried that if I work as a BA for another 6, 12 months I just won't be able to apply for roles at this level, as my experience won't be recent enough.

Welcome any advice, thanks for reading.

[DanL]

Depends what you want out of your career. Why are you looking to get into a more senior position? If it’s money then, well - you’re doing well anyway. I’m a director / head of product as a product manager, and I could probably have earned more staying as a Java programmer and going contracting. I’d have had less day to day stress too.

I moved roles because I could see jobs were being offshored, and didn’t want to remain a techie - I don’t have the interest in staying current that it needs.

So - what’s the motivation to go permie, and will making the change really achieve that?

[98elise]

It comes down to what you want out of your career and work environment.

Hated being in management so went contracting (Also as a BA) and never regretted it. I earned more then I did as a manager and did stuff I enjoyed.

I also really enjoyed not being part of the corporate machine. No reviews, no politics, few meetings etc.

[Deep Thought]

98elise said:

It comes down to what you want out of your career and work environment.

Hated being in management so went contracting (Also as a BA) and never regretted it. I earned more then I did as a manager and did stuff I enjoyed.

I also really enjoyed not being part of the corporate machine. No reviews, no politics, few meetings etc.

+1

Theres people who make a career of contracting too, so its not like theres a limit on it.

[98elise]

Deep Thought said:

98elise said:

It comes down to what you want out of your career and work environment.

Hated being in management so went contracting (Also as a BA) and never regretted it. I earned more then I did as a manager and did stuff I enjoyed.

I also really enjoyed not being part of the corporate machine. No reviews, no politics, few meetings etc.

+1

Theres people who make a career of contracting too, so its not like theres a limit on it.

In my case I was late to contracting. I was 45 and had been doing various management roles but advancing further had zero appeal. If anything I kept holding myself back because I wanted to do more of the hands on stuff.

I ended up contracting for 10 years and retired at 55. If I wasn't retired I would be contracting now. My father contracted as a Chartered Engineer into his late 60's.

[Deep Thought]

98elise said:

In my case I was late to contracting. I was 45 and had been doing various management roles but advancing further had zero appeal. If anything I kept holding myself back because I wanted to do more of the hands on stuff.

I ended up contracting for 10 years and retired at 55. If I wasn't retired I would be contracting now. My father contracted as a Chartered Engineer into his late 60's.

Similar here. I went contracting at 45, am now 53.

Friends of mine went contracting in their late 20s and like you, have since retired early.

Its genuinely a lifestyle choice. Even if i didnt get paid the extra money, i'd prefer it. My work is project based, so usually in at inception, and there until post implementation then we hand over to the BAU team. All the interesting stuff and out before it becomes boring and repetitive.

[danny0001uk1]

mischmaster said:

There may not be a right or wrong answer to this, but I'll ask anyway! In short, I'm currently contracting as an IT BA and worried that if I keep contracting in similar roles, I will limit my career progression and won't be able to apply for more middle management/senior perm roles as a result.

I'm still relatively young (late twenties) so conscious that I may have gone down the contracting route too soon and should try to stick with a more middle management/senior perm role first.

Curious to hear views/recommendations from those that have worked in IT for a while, or those that have contracted and gone back to perm or vice versa.

To give some additional context, the IT BA role is outside of IR35 and pays £100k+ gross over 12 months. I don't want to dip back into a perm BA role as that will be a 60k+ pay cut. So my options are to continue in similar contract roles for the forseeable or apply for Product Owner/Business Partner/Service Delivery Manager type roles as a kind of 'best of both worlds' (~£60k ish gross but with the benefits that perm work brings). I have held a role at this level previously but I'm worried that if I work as a BA for another 6, 12 months I just won't be able to apply for roles at this level, as my experience won't be recent enough.

Welcome any advice, thanks for reading.

Hi do you mind me asking how you got into to be a IT BA? I currently work in IT but fancy doing something different.

I tried to send you a PM but you have emails turned off on your profile. Thanks

[Shaoxter]

I'd carry on and milk it as long as you can, you'll continue to build up experience and skills anyway just like a permie.

I started contracting at 25, built up some nice assets which I would never had got as a permie and only now (10 years later) are the perm salaries even worth considering, and that's only because I'm on PAYE now. If it wasn't for the blanket ban on PSCs in my industry I'd be happily contracting until retirement.

[mischmaster]

DanL said:

Depends what you want out of your career. Why are you looking to get into a more senior position? If it’s money then, well - you’re doing well anyway. I’m a director / head of product as a product manager, and I could probably have earned more staying as a Java programmer and going contracting. I’d have had less day to day stress too.

I moved roles because I could see jobs were being offshored, and didn’t want to remain a techie - I don’t have the interest in staying current that it needs.

So - what’s the motivation to go permie, and will making the change really achieve that?

A few things I would say:

1) Having more stability/a back up plan for when the contract work dries up or if I get fed up contracting. My biggest concern is that if I contract for another x number of years as a BA, on paper I will just be a 'BA'... so if I want to go back to perm and progress at this point, I will have to go back to being a perm BA on 30-40k per year and I don't want that. Maybe I'm being hard on myself and in reality would still be able to apply directly for middle management type roles at this point but I feel that is unlikely? Will hiring managers look back and be like oh 5 years ago he was a Service Delivery Manager, so he has worked at this level before, or will they be like oh he's been a BA for the last 5 years...

2) Similar to your position before you moved roles, I'm not sure if I want to do the granular 'doing' work long term and, in the experience of the more senior role I had before (I was an IT Service Delivery Manager), I enjoyed the routing/escalating/managing & owning issues/accountability that came with it. I wouldn't want to work higher than this (I take my hat off to people like you as Directors and Heads of Departments, that's too much stress and responsibility for me!), but I found that the level below was a good blend for me.

3) Learning, continued development and opportunities - as a contractor I'm not really learning anything, and this is what worries me, even more so because of my age/stage of career. Of course soft skills like developing new relationships and getting up to speed in a new org or on a new project are being developed but I feel there are certain skills, situations and opportunities that can only be learned or taken when working perm at a higher level.

98elise said:

It comes down to what you want out of your career and work environment.

Hated being in management so went contracting (Also as a BA) and never regretted it. I earned more then I did as a manager and did stuff I enjoyed.

I also really enjoyed not being part of the corporate machine. No reviews, no politics, few meetings etc.

I can certainly relate to not missing the corporate machine elements... Obviously there are some positives to perm work like bonuses, pension, private healthcare and other benefits. How did you find going without these long term, was the trade off still worth it for you?

Were you ever out of contracts for long periods as a BA and did you find that you were always able to apply for Outside IR35 roles? These days it seems as though anything inside isn't really worth it when balancing everything out, which makes the window of roles to apply for even smaller.

What didn't you like about working in management and how long did you end up contracting as a BA for, out of interest?

danny0001uk1 said:

Hi do you mind me asking how you got into to be a IT BA? I currently work in IT but fancy doing something different.

I tried to send you a PM but you have emails turned off on your profile. Thanks

Sorry, I'll try and fix that, if I can remember which e-mail I've used for this account.

Sure so I got a degree in Business Information Technology, was reasonably technical but never super techy and my strengths were always more writing business/IT documentation, capturing requirements, building process maps, turning tech speak into business language and so on, so the role of a BA seemed a good fit. I got my first job out of University as a graduate BA, worked in that role for a couple of years and then moved into a technical BA role which was more IT focussed. I then felt like I was taking on a lot more ad-hoc management type work outside of the BA realm so got promoted to a Service Delivery Manager which I enjoyed a lot. I had to leave this role due to unforeseen circumstances (local office shut down and relocated to half way across the UK) so by chance came across an IT BA contract role which I planned to do as a filler but here I am 12 months on, hence this thread and the dilemma I'm in!

If you want to know more about the role of a BA let me know on here and I'll try and PM you.

Shaoxter said:

I'd carry on and milk it as long as you can, you'll continue to build up experience and skills anyway just like a permie.

I started contracting at 25, built up some nice assets which I would never had got as a permie and only now (10 years later) are the perm salaries even worth considering, and that's only because I'm on PAYE now. If it wasn't for the blanket ban on PSCs in my industry I'd be happily contracting until retirement.

Interesting, thanks. Might sound like a silly question but how did you build up new skills when contracting? Of course I can fund my own professional training but, as alluded to in one of my posts above, I don't feel like I'm learning half as much in a contract role as I was when I was dropped in the deep end in the middle management perm role I held previously. The contract roles are very much you come in to do a job essentially, and in the most part apply what you already know to a project. Once the project is complete then you look for the next contract.
In the perm role, every day was different, hours were long and I was constantly having to adapt/learn new things to get the job done.

After your 10 years of contracting, were you able to apply for more senior perm roles due to your longevity of contracting or are you doing perm work at the same level as your contract work?

[98elise]

mischmaster said:

98elise said:

It comes down to what you want out of your career and work environment.

Hated being in management so went contracting (Also as a BA) and never regretted it. I earned more then I did as a manager and did stuff I enjoyed.

I also really enjoyed not being part of the corporate machine. No reviews, no politics, few meetings etc.

I can certainly relate to not missing the corporate machine elements... Obviously there are some positives to perm work like bonuses, pension, private healthcare and other benefits. How did you find going without these long term, was the trade off still worth it for you?

Were you ever out of contracts for long periods as a BA and did you find that you were always able to apply for Outside IR35 roles? These days it seems as though anything inside isn't really worth it when balancing everything out, which makes the window of roles to apply for even smaller.

What didn't you like about working in management and how long did you end up contracting as a BA for, out of interest?

With regard to all the employment perks I had a simple philosophy....I'd rather have cash than a perk. It's all rolled up in your day rate and you get to choose what you do with it. I piled all the excess cash into my SIPP pension. That's how I retired early.

The only period I had out of contract was getting my first one. It was close to Christmas which is always bad for picking up a contract. Beyond that it was a couple of weeks at most, which was ideal for taking a holiday.

I didn't like management because it took me away from the work I enjoyed, yet made me responsible for the work of others who were possibly not as good as me (hence me being their manager). I have no interest in budgets, strategies, planning etc. I'm a natural introvert with a strong work ethic, so I'm best suited to being given a task to deliver and leave me alone to get it done. It will get done and it will be on time!

I ended up contracting for about 10 years. I should have started 10 years earlier!

[Greenmantle]

definitely contracting as a first choice and obviously falling back to perm if money is running out.
why?
For the simple reason that perm positions are the stty end of the stick.
Most companies like to talk the latest buzz words Cloud this, Agile that but how many actually do it day in day out.
Therefore the increased daily rate is compensation for selling me a pup.

[Shaoxter]

mischmaster said:

Interesting, thanks. Might sound like a silly question but how did you build up new skills when contracting?

I've had the opportunity to work in various functions in banking and different asset classes so I've learnt a lot about how everything works, learnt to use different trading systems, etc. I've been more of a hands on with the business type of BA rather than purely writing requirements and telling other people to test stuff so I think that helps with building knowledge.

mischmaster said:

After your 10 years of contracting, were you able to apply for more senior perm roles due to your longevity of contracting or are you doing perm work at the same level as your contract work?

I'm still officially a contractor but paying PAYE so the take home sucks big time (compared to running a ltd co beforehand) hence I'm now exploring some perm opportunities. The seniority of roles will probably be a notch down from where I would have been had I stayed perm the whole way, but I've made double the amount in that time so I've been happy with my choice.

[SWoll]

Contracted for 15 years starting in my early/mid 20's and then went back into the permie world for a few years back in 2015 as fancied a bit of stability, realised things had stalled career wise and thought some formal training and career progression would be a good idea. Moved jobs twice in that period taking a more senior position each time eventually into a role managing a large team of other techies, which I did enjoy but realised wasn't for me long term.

Now back contracting since Oct 2021 due to the significant change in ways of working etc. and have been working from home 100% for the past year earning double the daily contract rate I was previously with zero expenses. My takehome is now almost double what it was in my last permie role also despite being forced to work through an Umbrella co. (rates refelect this)

Development as a contractor can be very difficult and getting pigeonholed is common, a period of permie certainly helped massively for me.

Edited by SWoll on Wednesday 21st September 09:23

[rewild]

If you enjoy being hands-on at all, don't assume management is the obvious career path. If you wanted to be a manager, you'd have started down that path at MBA or something.

I left technical roles too early and fast-tracked my way up to head of department level (below C-level) and regretted just about every minute of it. I used lockdown to re-evaluate, take a technical (remote) role, and I've never been happier being back on the tools, albeit at significantly reduced income, which I mentally offset against quality of life.

Sounds like you've got work you enjoy, and an great income as well. Why change that? Do you really think you're destined to be a great manager, or is that just what everyone else seems to do? Management absolutely sucks if you're not born into it.

[sociopath]

Just to disagree with some other posts, I think I learnt far more as a contractor than I ever did as a permie.. "Maybe the contractor could do that" was a frequent refrain, whereas when I was a permie "that's not your job"

I also saw a lot of opportunities to get different roles I may not have been "qualified" for.

Also didn't have to get involved in office politics, and could move on much more easily when I wanted.

Final kicker, I wouldn't have retired when I did if I'd stay permie as I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

[98elise]

SWoll said:

Contracted for 15 years starting in my early/mid 20's and then went back into the permie world for a few years back in 2015 as fancied a bit of stability, realised things had stalled career wise and thought some formal training and career progression would be a good idea. Moved jobs twice in that period taking a more senior position each time eventually into a role managing a large team of other techies, which I did enjoy but realised wasn't for me long term.

Now back contracting since Oct 2021 due to the significant change in ways of working etc. and have been working from home 100% for the past year earning double the daily contract rate I was previously with zero expenses. My takehome is now almost double what it was in my last permie role also despite being forced to work through an Umbrella co. (rates refelect this)

Development as a contractor can be very difficult and getting pigeonholed is common, a period of permie certainly helped massively for me.

Edited by SWoll on Wednesday 21st September 09:23

I don't mind being pigeonholed or even stagnating. I see contracting as being mercenary. I'm there for the money so I don't care what you call the role or what you get me to do.

In my last role I ended up working through loads of spreadsheets full of crap data trying to get it validated and formatted for loading. Way below my skillset, but the day rate is the same regardless.

[SWoll]

sociopath said:

Just to disagree with some other posts, I think I learnt far more as a contractor than I ever did as a permie.. "Maybe the contractor could do that" was a frequent refrain, whereas when I was a permie "that's not your job"

I also saw a lot of opportunities to get different roles I may not have been "qualified" for.

Also didn't have to get involved in office politics, and could move on much more easily when I wanted.

Final kicker, I wouldn't have retired when I did if I'd stay permie as I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Maybe/maybe not. In 5-6 years of permie work I went from being a senior consultant at a small firm to practice manager/lead architect for one of the big consutancies. This allowed me to then get back into contracting at a level I wouldn't have been close to qualified for otherwise and will make up the slight loss of earnings very quickly, if it hasn't done so already after 12 months.

98elise said:

I don't mind being pigeonholed or even stagnating. I see contracting as being mercenary. I'm there for the money so I don't care what you call the role or what you get me to do.

In my last role I ended up working through loads of spreadsheets full of crap data trying to get it validated and formatted for loading. Way below my skillset, but the day rate is the same regardless.

As above though, if you are there for the money a period of permie to help fill out your skills and CV can be hugely beneficial. I've doubled my daily rate and work fewer hours with no commute compared to what I was doing up until 2015.

Edited by SWoll on Wednesday 21st September 09:44

[sociopath]

SWoll said:

sociopath said:

Just to disagree with some other posts, I think I learnt far more as a contractor than I ever did as a permie.. "Maybe the contractor could do that" was a frequent refrain, whereas when I was a permie "that's not your job"

I also saw a lot of opportunities to get different roles I may not have been "qualified" for.

Also didn't have to get involved in office politics, and could move on much more easily when I wanted.

Final kicker, I wouldn't have retired when I did if I'd stay permie as I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Maybe/maybe not. In 5-6 years of permie work I went from being a senior consultant at a small firm to practice manager/lead architect for one of the big consutancies. This allowed me to then get back into contracting at a level I wouldn't have been close to qualified for otherwise and will make up the slight loss of earnings very quickly, if it hasn't done so already after 12 months.

This whole thread is maybe/maybe not.

I have a friend, very clever, never done any contracting, and his career completely stagnated.
No one can say their experience will help the OP really.

[SWoll]

sociopath said:

SWoll said:

sociopath said:

Just to disagree with some other posts, I think I learnt far more as a contractor than I ever did as a permie.. "Maybe the contractor could do that" was a frequent refrain, whereas when I was a permie "that's not your job"

I also saw a lot of opportunities to get different roles I may not have been "qualified" for.

Also didn't have to get involved in office politics, and could move on much more easily when I wanted.

Final kicker, I wouldn't have retired when I did if I'd stay permie as I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Maybe/maybe not. In 5-6 years of permie work I went from being a senior consultant at a small firm to practice manager/lead architect for one of the big consutancies. This allowed me to then get back into contracting at a level I wouldn't have been close to qualified for otherwise and will make up the slight loss of earnings very quickly, if it hasn't done so already after 12 months.

This whole thread is maybe/maybe not.

I have a friend, very clever, never done any contracting, and his career completely stagnated.
No one can say their experience will help the OP really.

Hence offering him alternative views as you say, and I can at least comment from a position of actual experience having done it?

I've worked with plenty of people like your friend over the years, often people just want an easy life and don't push themselves which is absolutely fine if happy with it. Each to their own.

[mischmaster]

Thanks for all the replies, they have been really, really useful.

98elise said:

With regard to all the employment perks I had a simple philosophy....I'd rather have cash than a perk. It's all rolled up in your day rate and you get to choose what you do with it. I piled all the excess cash into my SIPP pension. That's how I retired early.

The only period I had out of contract was getting my first one. It was close to Christmas which is always bad for picking up a contract. Beyond that it was a couple of weeks at most, which was ideal for taking a holiday.

I didn't like management because it took me away from the work I enjoyed, yet made me responsible for the work of others who were possibly not as good as me (hence me being their manager). I have no interest in budgets, strategies, planning etc. I'm a natural introvert with a strong work ethic, so I'm best suited to being given a task to deliver and leave me alone to get it done. It will get done and it will be on time!

I ended up contracting for about 10 years. I should have started 10 years earlier!

That's good going, contacting for 10 years and only really having 2 week gaps between each contract! Did you just build up a good network around you and sign up with various recruitment agencies?

I can certainly relate to your points, being an introvert myself - not to suggest that introverts don't make great managers but I do like being left to deliver a task.

SWoll said:

Contracted for 15 years starting in my early/mid 20's and then went back into the permie world for a few years back in 2015 as fancied a bit of stability, realised things had stalled career wise and thought some formal training and career progression would be a good idea. Moved jobs twice in that period taking a more senior position each time eventually into a role managing a large team of other techies, which I did enjoy but realised wasn't for me long term.

Now back contracting since Oct 2021 due to the significant change in ways of working etc. and have been working from home 100% for the past year earning double the daily contract rate I was previously with zero expenses. My takehome is now almost double what it was in my last permie role also despite being forced to work through an Umbrella co. (rates refelect this)

Development as a contractor can be very difficult and getting pigeonholed is common, a period of permie certainly helped massively for me.

Edited by SWoll on Wednesday 21st September 09:23

Ah interesting. Yes the pigeonhole element is the bit that I'm worried about if deciding to contract long term. I can fund my own training but I don't necessarily think it's the same as the career progression/on the job training you would get in a perm role, not to mention the perm opportunities that can often arise in house if you do a good job/get noticed by the right people, etc etc.

Did you find that the experience you'd built up over 15 years as a contractor enabled you to apply for more senior level perm roles compared with when you left the perm space initially? Or were you having to take a substantial cut in pay and/or role level, and work your way up again?

You also make an interesting point regarding the Umbrella rates - a lot of the inside stuff I've seen doesn't even seem worth considering (vs perm), I suppose they are always negotiable but vs outside the difference seems to be huge (certainly in the roles I've seen advertised recently).

rewild said:

If you enjoy being hands-on at all, don't assume management is the obvious career path. If you wanted to be a manager, you'd have started down that path at MBA or something.

I left technical roles too early and fast-tracked my way up to head of department level (below C-level) and regretted just about every minute of it. I used lockdown to re-evaluate, take a technical (remote) role, and I've never been happier being back on the tools, albeit at significantly reduced income, which I mentally offset against quality of life.

Sounds like you've got work you enjoy, and an great income as well. Why change that? Do you really think you're destined to be a great manager, or is that just what everyone else seems to do? Management absolutely sucks if you're not born into it.

Really interesting, thanks for sharing. Some people are born to manage and I'm certainly not one of those. The level I worked at previously was middle-management, I reported into a head of dept, my job title had the word 'manager' in it but this was more from a responsibility/seniority perspective, I wasn't managing any people.

I enjoyed working at this level as it tested me day to day and paid reasonably well. I'm not tested as much in my contract role, hence the worry about stagnating and not progressing, but maybe I need to just get over that, do my job for the day, log off and accept that this is what contracting is. I guess the 'learner' in me finds that a little hard and I'll always be a bit anxious that if the contract work dries up, I'm just seen as an 'analyst' to future employers, whether that be in 1, 5 or 10 years time.

sociopath said:

Just to disagree with some other posts, I think I learnt far more as a contractor than I ever did as a permie.. "Maybe the contractor could do that" was a frequent refrain, whereas when I was a permie "that's not your job"

I also saw a lot of opportunities to get different roles I may not have been "qualified" for.

Also didn't have to get involved in office politics, and could move on much more easily when I wanted.

Final kicker, I wouldn't have retired when I did if I'd stay permie as I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Interesting to hear a differing view. I get the opposite, certainly in my current contract anyway. Being Outside of IR35, I can't work on BAU or random work. So I seem to get more of the "it's not your job' than what the permie's get. This would be different Inside IR35 though I'm sure.

Yeah I don't miss office politics at all and being able to move on much easier is a nice to have. Retiring early isn't a bad thing either!