Contractor (Full time) VS Full time employment

Bchen22

Anyone has experience being a contractor and being a full time employment?
Any differences one should be aware of?

joelsfood

I've done both. I got paid more as a contractor, I have better job security in regular full time. These days, I have a full time job and contract just in my spare time. That lets me get the security of full time employment for my family (And benefits, etc) as well as getting the additional income and exposure to more technologies available by contracting.

The real fun with a full time 40 hr contract (vs just working as a contractor but working multiple clients/cotnracts) is when a contract comes up for rebid and you worry about whether you'll still have a job come next week.

iBrokeIT

The big differences are taxes and benefits. As a 1099 contractor you just receive a check for the gross amount that you billed for that pay period without any taxes, deductions or benefits taken out of the check like a W2 employee would have on their pay check.

You have to make quarterly payments to the IRS, your tax rate will be higher since you paying both sides of FICA, manage your own retirement saving and buy your own insurance. USUALLY the contractor rate is higher to make up for those differences.

VAHokie56

I went from being a contractor to FTE ...I like being a FTE way more. With the bonus I get more cash in hand also...benefits,vacation, unlimited sick time ( be an adult here ) and free training and conferences like Cisco live. As far as differences I would say not many aside from you are not part on the company and subject to the HR and whatever else, I love it.

Burnsie

In my experience, it has hinged mainly on what type of contract you are on and even that is subjective. Some contracts will be low pay without any benefits. Others are high pay with full benefits (vacation, healthcare, etc.). The best contracts are the ones that have you as a W2 employee. I hated being 1099. Thankfully it was only for a very short term.

B

kohr-ah

I did both and here was the benefits and suckiness (which was also mentioned on here):

W2 Contractor -
UPS: Made more money than when I was FTE - Got to mess with all kinds of new technology - no on-call was just 40 hours and that was it unless they wanted to pay even more
DOWNS: No vacation (you wanted a day off you didnt get paid), the insurance sucked when you have a family, unless the recruiter has a good repor with the company you had no idea if you were going to be out of work soon or not so all that extra money was saved just in case you lost your job to keep you a float until the next one came along

FTE
UPS: Stability, way better health benefits, 401k matching, vacation, personal days, training, cert reimbursement and in some cases bonuses which are just extra money if you dont account for it
DOWNS: If it is a new job you should get to touch new technology but after 2 years you are usually just maintaining it (unless you are a FTE at a MSP then this isn't the case), and you need to learn the politics game which some people dont like to deal with.

My choice out of doing both - With having a wife and 1.75 kids - I will always do FTE unless I suddenly get fired and need to find work right away

Danielm7

My current job is my first time contracting, I'm a W2, full time, no benefits so I pay them myself. It's a year long but they're already talking about what I'll want to do at the end of the contract, meaning go FTE or independent contractor as I currently go through a recruiter. There are a ton of contractors in IT where I work so I get treated like a regular employee, paid training, etc. I love that I can't work more than 40 hours a week. The only hassle was the last month or so we had thanksgiving, christmas and new years, all days the regular employees had off. The plus side is I was able to bank some extra hours in weeks earlier that it totally covered the vacation time and I put a few hours in remotely in odd hours.

Overall I don't mind it, paying for benefits is annoying but I get paid more to compensate, they don't treat me like a 2nd class citizen because I'm a contractor, it's working pretty well.

kohr-ah

Danielm7 wrote: »

Overall I don't mind it, paying for benefits is annoying but I get paid more to compensate, they don't treat me like a 2nd class citizen because I'm a contractor, it's working pretty well.

This is one thing I learned from being a contractor. All contractors we get I treat as a member of the team and an employee. Because it sucks when they do treat you like a 2nd class citizen.

Burnsie

kohr-ah wrote: »

This is one thing I learned from being a contractor. All contractors we get I treat as a member of the team and an employee. Because it sucks when they do treat you like a 2nd class citizen.

I cannot agree with this more.

22306

i am a full time contractor (w2). i have been here for about a year and 2 month and i have only worked 2 hours of OT since i have been here. i get normal benefits (health,eye,dental,PTO) and also 3k a year for certs or education. oh bad side is that feds treat us bad. (why i want to leave)

logisticalstyles

I’m currently working as a contractor and I’m soo over it. The two parts that I hate are 1.) No paid time off, and 2.) No benefits. This holiday season was terrible. Everytime the office closed early I lost hours, every holiday I lost hours. The office was closed for Black Friday, which isn’t even a holiday and I lost hours. Basically, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s I had to take a week off without pay. I was not allowed to go to the holiday party even though I’ve been here since July and there are always other things going on in the office that are “for employees only”. The longer I stay here my responsibilities increase. This company I am contracting at pays 100% of the health insurance premiums. I get no insurance until recently. The new Affordable Healthcare Act requires all employers to offer some kind of insurance so my agency has put together what they call the Minimal Essential insurance plan. It’s just enough to avoid being penalized but it basically covers nothing that I can’t get for free already.

The good news is yesterday I just got a job offer to work Full Time for another company. I’ll be going from $17 an hour to $21 an hour with possible overtime every 6 six. The commute is only a few extra minutes than what I am already doing so life is good. Now my dilemma is figuring out my exit here. I’ve accepted the new job but I told them I won’t put in my notice until all of the pre-employment paperwork is cleared. Hopefully that will be early sometime next week. I kinda have the feeling that once I put in my notice at the current contracting job they will immediately let me go. I’m trying to not burn any bridges but I also have to look out for myself.
Getting back on topic… I hope to NEVER have to be a contractor again.

kohr-ah

logisticalstyles wrote: »

**SNIP!!!**
Now my dilemma is figuring out my exit here. I’ve accepted the new job but I told them I won’t put in my notice until all of the pre-employment paperwork is cleared. Hopefully that will be early sometime next week. I kinda have the feeling that once I put in my notice at the current contracting job they will immediately let me go. I’m trying to not burn any bridges but I also have to look out for myself.

I've brought to the attention of new places before that once my paperwork cleared that the employer commonly terminates us immediately upon giving notice. If that is the case am I able to move my starting date forward? They agreed to it and moved me up a week. Only lost 3 days of pay that way.

anhtran35

Did both. Currently converted over to full time employee. As stated, you get paid more as a contractor. No benefits though. I had to take a 10k paycut to convert to the Prime company. UGH.

JGDaily

I was in this situation recently. I was a contractor for a company paying X amount of dollars. I made a lot of money, but there was no benefits. I also have to do my own taxes towards the end of the year. Not having PTO also sucked.

I ended up getting hired on full-time at the place I was contracting for. I'm actually getting paid MORE than what I was making + the benefits.

I now do full-time for the company and I also contract after hours on the side. Do both. More income!

wes allen

I like being a contractor: I am paid well with no OT. And, for everyone that says normal FTE is better because of benefits/PTO, etc - they just take those costs into consideration as part of your total compensation, so it isn't like you are getting anything for free. On my current contract, I opted for more per hour vs. medical and PTO. Over the course of a year, the extra hourly rate will more then cover the PTO and medical. The other aspect of being a contractor that I like, is it sorta forces you to stay current / keep learning new stuff. I have seen FTE tech people that have become stagnant from being in the same position for far too long, and would have a really hard time finding a new job if they ended up needing to. I also like the idea of changing jobs every year or two, and may look into doing shorter term contracts after the current one is up. Higher hourly rate - usually interesting and demanding work, and as long as you stay current technically and are not overly tied to a location, there are plenty of infosec contracts out there.