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Ask HN: Non-obvious pros/cons of contracting vs. full time work?
I've been contracting full time for a company for the past four months or so. I get paid pretty well, but of course have to pay self-employment taxes and have to handle my own insurance, etc.
It looks like there's a good chance the company will offer to hire me full time. This will presumably mean less taxes and some decent benefits, which will be nice, but will probably come with a pay decrease to even it out. Thats's all fine.
My main question is this: what should I consider besides all the obvious stuff (taxes, pay, benefits)? For example, this is a fortune 500 company, and I'm a little worried about being sucked into the politics of working for a company that large, whereas I've been able to stay out of any of that as a contractor. Is this a valid concern? What else should I consider before making this decision? What are the non-obvious pros/cons of full time work for a large company vs. contracting for it?
- stray 16y agoFor some reason, we seem to get more respect as contractors than we do as statutory employees.
- mcrittenden 16y agoYou mean respect from the company or from your peers/other devs?
- th0ma5 16y agoI think this is incredibly true on technical expertise, but as for advocating organizational change instead of a technical solution, being an employee has seemed to offer more respect for me. Granted there are business process consultants that do that exact thing, but I do feel there is some kind of line there with technical experts employed vs. consulting.
- edabobojr 16y agoHow many hours a week are the employees expected to put in versus the number of hours you were billing? I've been places where the employees were abused and the contractors were expected to work not a minute more than 8 hours per day.
- mcrittenden 16y agoExcellent point. I bill 40 hours/week exactly. I have no idea if employees are expected to work more than that. I'll have to try and find out if I get the offer.