Advice needed pls.
I have a decent job and earn ok money.
Should I take the challenge to earn more money and leave my current ok paying job?
My current job is reasonably easy but the money is not flash.
The new job will pay 50% more and will require approx. 2 weeks training.
Thanks in advance.
PS the job is in the IT industry.
Working As A Contractor Vs Working for a Boss
grabngo on 17/01/2017 - 14:57
Comments
It depends on a few factors:
- Some contract roles offer no super, annual leave and sick leave entitlements. Will u be able to handle this?
- Some contract roles have a 1-2 weeks notice period without redundancy payouts.
- With this contract role, will yr career options grow?
- What is your main objective in life? Is it career progression, $$$ or stability? Addressing this will help you decide.
It definitely depends on your lifestyle. Like, I have a mortgage so i'd go for the more secure option, but if I didnt i'd go for the higher pay any day of the week.
IT great industry to be in at the moment - take the money and run
If you have any career ambition take the money and training. If you have no desires to develop and advance stay where you are. I sincerely hope you do the former.
I sincerely hope you do the former.
I know plenty of people who regret joining the hedonic treadmill.
If you are satisfied with lower pay and easier work, why work harder for more money? You won't get extra hours lost to overtime back, and you won't get any worry or anxiety over less security and poorer entitlements compensated except via a higher pay check.If you ambitions can be met more quickly with more money, and you have few security concerns, by all means pursue the cash. But do so knowing it can be traumatic to reverse the process if you change your mind a few years down the track.
Actually OP didn't provide enough information. We do not know what type of role, what type of training etc. OP is applying for. For all you know, the training could be just training to do the new job, or in some custom software that is only used in the new organisation.
By the way OP, just because you intend to be a contractor doesn't mean you are your own boss. Your client is your boss.
keep the job and find something extra for after hours.
The main unexpected "gotcha" here is that hourly contractor rates are way lower than they sound once you factor in the price of the sick leave, annual leave, super, etc that's included for a salaried position.
50% more is probably good enough to move for, but
a) do your maths, as it'll probably end up looking more like 30% more once you calculate the real hourly rate of your salaried position
b) That may not be a big raise if you're a junior programmer. My first few jobs (10 years ago) were:
At graduation: 25k
6 months later: 45k
12 months after that 70kThat's not uncommon, it just reflects how useless an inexperienced programmer is compared to one with just a bit of real commercial experience.
It's not 10% or 20%! You're talking about a 50% pay hike!!
Unless you're near retirement or something, isn't the answer to your question obvious?
I took a pay cut of that size to move from a temp contracting role to a permanent position with better conditions.
I'd do it again too.Yes, I've done that too - which means we're both already qualified and can decide the type of role we want.
The question I got from the OP's post was whether he should take the two weeks training to be able to earn a 50% pay increase - that is the bit I said was obvious.
I was thinking about it, and we don't have enough info.
If he is a junior DBA and an agency wants to fund him to 2wks to get some Hadoop cert (if you can do such a cert!?!) so they can employ him in contract roles, I would say great.
If OP is a support person in a DC or something, running cables and fibres and the offer is 2wks training OP pays for then you are a "contractor" working for Visionstream or similar and getting as many jobs as they give you, I would say no.
The 50% pay rise in those cases are based on you taking no holidays, working hours that include non-weekdays but with no penalties, and assume there is always more work than contractors. It is in the company's interest to get extra contractors on the books in those situations, so they always have staff available for a job, but they don't have to be paid when there are slow periods.
Take training + pay hike.
Take the chance - you only live once.