Dear Tom:

If you haven’t made the decision yet, if you didn’t quit your job and said yes to the other company, then make sure you sit quietly someplace, have a quiet time alone, in a relaxing atmosphere at home or outside. Take slow, deep breaths, clear your mind, then think, maybe do so by writing (thinking-while-writing helps me, calms me, makes it easier for me to think clearly), and try to reach a decision in that calm mindset.

I hope to read from you soon.

anita

Dear Tom:

An umbrella company.. an ltd company, don’t know what these mean to you but clearly not something good or convenient, so you are staying in your current position, I understand?

What would it mean to you, arranging for your payment through an umbrella or an ltd company?

anita

Dear Tom:

I turned on the computer this evening for one purpose, to post to you. I just spoke with a person with a lot of experience dealing with contracting companies, who was in the position of hiring people for a big company (US). He said that as a manager for twelve years he never had the opportunity to hire a contractor because the fees are too high. These are sometimes called finder’s fees that the employer has to pay the  contracting company in order to hire the contractor (that would be you) as a company employee.

Some contracting companies are better than others about benefits and pay, but they are all pretty much well.. (my source’s word) pimps that that make money from their workers, the contractors (that would be you). You have to be cautious because you may have to pay your own taxes, fund your own vacations, fund your own retirement, etc.. At the end of the contract (the six month) the contracting may cut you loose, and you are basically unemployed.

This is all news to me, so as I heard it I had to let you know. My source told me that you need to really crunch the numbers and see if it makes sense, you need to have really sizeable savings so that in case there is not contract continuance or another company to go to, you can still pay your mortgage and not lose your house. My source has seen contractors that didn’t get another position for 2-3 months. Skilled contractors plan for this, typically having 4- 6 months expenses in the bank.

anita

Hey Tom,

Sounds like they have gone out of their way to make this work for you – which is a very good sign. It is not unusual to only be able to offer the contract until the end of the year, it’s how internal budgets work and they will likely be unable to get approval for any longer. The budget process is also often odd in that perm headcount and budget spend are two different things. When I was managing my teams for example I would often have budget for contractors but would be unable to hire perm people because of head count limits.

So, worst case, you are relying on them to have the same budget again next year to extend the contract, which is likely. Best case, whilst you are there they make the case for an additional headcount and you become perm. It is also much easier to apply for other perm jobs once you are in the company just through your increased connections etc. So all sounds pretty good to me for a company you want to work for in a role that will stretch you – as said, all life is a risk but this is a pretty well-balanced one in my view.

Anita, if it helps –  the savings advice is good advice but it applies to both contract and perm people since both roles are at risk. Many perm jobs have very short notice periods these days, though still a couple weeks longer than contract roles. 2-3 months is the average time it takes to find and start a new job, though contract can often be quicker than perm to start. So regardless of which role, pretty much everyone is recommended to have an emergency fund to cover 2-3 months living expenses when possible, though know it’s harder when starting out.  There’s finder’s fees for both perm and contract roles, the level depends on the agency used – some are much worse than others for sure!

Hope helps. Happy to help out on any other practical q’s – as Anita said, I’ve spent a fair bit of my life successfully negotiating these things! Am out now, back late Sat (UK time )