2 ms·
Me too, good analogy! The upside is that there exists such a thing as an employed contractor. It has many of the benefits of doing "your own" contracting work,
by unwind 14y ago
Me too, good analogy! The upside is that there exists such a thing as an employed contractor. It has many of the benefits of doing "your own" contracting work, but you have a sales department! :)
On the other hand, of course, you don't have the same control over exactly who will be your next client, and there is financial overheads too, naturally.
Still, it works for me.
- HaloZero 14y agoIsn't the primary benefit of contracting the ability to choose and control who you work for and set those hours?
- cstross 14y agoI've done IT contracting (not for, um, 15 years and counting) and I've been a freelance author. There's a significant difference in terms of what you do and who has control. (I come up with ideas for products and pitch them at publishers, who then pick and choose which to buy. I then do the work. So I'm not under my publisher's control, and they don't have any input on my hours -- but they hold the purse strings and I have to deliver a product they're satisfied with.)
- unwind 14y agoYes, I guess. But there are of course (subjectively speaking) "primary drawbacks" too, such as becoming responsible for your own sales. I would not function very well if I had the responsibility to do my own sales. Instead, my "strategy" is to do my very best as an employed contractor, which seems to be working out pretty well in terms of client choice influence.