Traveling Contracting

Question

I am fresh out of College (graduated in December with BS in Comp Sci). I have been working for a very large (40,000+ employee) company for over two years. My job is as stable as anyone could hope for. However, I am always bored, they cannot keep us (developers) busy. I am thinking about apply at some local contracting companies and try out contracting. I have been told that I could make a lot more money as a contractor and even more if I was willing to travel. I have been told that as a contractor I would basically be constantly coding, no BS meetings about project charters and stage gates, and that I would learn more in a year than I would in 10 years at my current job (this I believe since we're using java 1.4 and our brand new laptops have windows 2000 on them... lol). I just want to know what to expect if I decided to go the contracting route, and if traveling is worth it. Since I don't have any kids and this seems like the best time to do something like this.

What have been your experiences with contracting? How do the mechanics of travel as a contractor work (what is paid for, do you work 4 10 hour days... etc)? Will I really be mostly coding? Will I really gain valuable insight and knowledge of the IT world?

Answer 1

I can't speak for your situation in particular, but my company recently terminated all of our contractors as part of our cutbacks, and many other companies did the same. Most companies have hiring freezes, where they will not take on new employees at all, contractors or not. My friends that were working as contractors all lost their jobs, and are generally having a difficult time finding new positions.

If you are already in a steady job, I would say that now is not the best time to drop it and try switching to the life of a contractor.

You expressed an interest in learning new technologies, so if your company doesn't keep you busy, and you're "always bored", why aren't you using that time to read up on the things you're interested in?