I worked overseas for three months for my last permanent job (back in 2007), and really enjoyed the flexibility of being about to avoid winter. But since that w

I worked overseas for three months for my last permanent job (back in 2007), and really enjoyed the flexibility of being about to avoid winter. But since that was a one off (and I was sort of planning on moving country), I quit that job... then put some feelers out for possible contract work. And for the past five years I've been completely busy with that. I'm a full-stack, jack-of-all-trades sort of dev. Bit rubbish at design (but I have a great designer I partner with when needed), but I do a bit of everything, from infrastructure, networking, database, middle tier and front-end html/css/javascript. Any specialist in any of the above will wipe the floor with me skills/wise. But I'm pretty comfortable communicating with clients and helping get the best bang-for-buck with them only having to basically describe what they are trying to achieve. My key bit of advice would be to fire difficult clients and only work for time and materials. If a client is too high a maintenance, you may not be a good fit for them, or them for you. In that case I try and transition them elsewhere, recommending someone that may be a better option. Equally, fixed prices quotes are almost never worth it in my experience. I'd rather release early and often, then the client can then see how much business value they've gotten for XX amount of hours/money. After which, they can make the decision to either continue or to terminate, depending on whether they feel they're getting value or not. It's normally a completely different way of working for most clients, but I often offer a two week shared-risk starter deal to ease them into it. If it doesn't work, I'll absorb half the cost and we'll call it quits. But so far, every relationship seems to have worked out well. The biggest downside is possibly taking time off. I'm pretty flexible about timings. I'll work when clients need it, and take breaks during slack periods (of which there haven't been enough). But my ex wasn't supportive of me having to work while on 'holiday'. It wasn't a lot (no more than 20 hours over a two week holiday), but YMMV depending on how understanding your partner is/isn't. As far as transitioning goes. Try sounding people out for possible side projects you can do while keeping your day job. I worry that I'm not a good networker, and that one day the work will completely dry up. But on the flip-side, I kind of want that to happen, so I can focus more on projects that I want to do myself. And it's hard to do those when you've got paying projects to do. But if you can pick up a couple of side projects, once they're earning almost enough to live off, you've no excuse to pack in your day job and do that full time. I've got a couple of mates who started contracting this way. Unless you mean just straight out contracting... as in, apply for a typical contract and work there.. just like a day job. In which case, it's a piece of piss... just start applying. But I find recruiters(pimps) rather distasteful to go through, so I've avoided them completely. (There are good ones, but they're few and far between) Good luck!