Why I Choose To Be a Contract Programmer

A comparison between contract and permanent jobs based on my personal experience

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash.

I was a permanent employee once. At the time, being a contractor seemed daunting. When I thought about the contractor option, worries about job security stopped me from pursuing the idea further. However, I no longer had room to grow after completing a successful project as the lead developer. Leading a team of contractors, I knew they were paid double my salary. I decided to make a change. Soon, I landed a contract for a large government IT project.

After working as an IT contractor for more than ten years, here are some of my observations:

• As a contractor, I stayed at the same company longer than in my permanent job. My longest contract was five-and-a-half years, vs. my longest permanent job of four years. I also left the contract voluntarily, looking for a new challenge.
• Despite the insecure nature of a contract job, I have been fortunate not to have any gaps between contracts so far.
• I worked more hours in my last permanent job vs. my contract job.

Let’s look into the comparison of contract vs. permanent jobs in more detail.

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