Re: Downside of contracting

[Dave Whelan <agi259 -at- FREENET -dot- MB -dot- CA>]

The length of the famine cycle depends on your location, your mobility, the
economy, your skills, your contacts, the length of time you have been in the
business, and whether you use agencies.  I would advise any contractor to
put aside savings to cover about 6 months of basic living costs to cover the
inevitable dry periods.

If I lived in the US, I would also be concerned about the lack of universal
health care, but I think that would be a concern whether I contracted or
not. You may even be better off as a contractor buying your own insurance
because as no job is secure these days, neither is your employee health care
insurance.

Regarding the issue of being forced
>to take anything that comes along just to be working rather than being able
to >pick and choose the companies and technologies that I am interested in.
I don't think this is an issue just in contracting, permanent staff often
have to do uninteresting work too.

Regards,

Dave.
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Dave Whelan, Technical Writer
Whelan Technical Services (204) 334-1339
 mailto:agi259 -at- freenet -dot- mb -dot- ca
 http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~agi259
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