As a technical leader and contractor, I succeeded to achieve some strategic projects for our client. Naively, maybe I idealised too much the client's structure, I joined that client as a permanent Software Engineer. Now I have a better salary and some nice perks.
I feel like I regret for many reasons :
- First, on top of the technical part, I have to do some paperwork and have too many meetings
- Due to my responsibilities, I have to fix technical issues even when the contractors I work with cannot do it.
- I became grumpy mainly because of the contractors I work with : I'm not blaming them for not being efficient their jobs but, because we struggle to hire people due to the lack of talents in the area many of them can easily switch to another mission. So they don't care as much as I do.
Anyway, because of those reasons, I'm thinking about switching back to my contractor position or to go for a freelance career and working for the same client.
Question : Did anybody regret going from a contractor to a permanent worker ? Is switching back to the same client an easy step and common ?
You will have paperwork and meetings with clients as a freelancer. In general clients are not "technical" so you will have to engage more with their business and requirements, and learn how to fill in the blanks. I juggle a few long-term clients now, and probably half of my time is spent with emails, Slack, phone/Zoom calls, GitHub issues, etc. I have to fill in the project manager, tech lead, and programmer roles. I don't mind that, I like getting involved with the business, but not everyone wants to deal with that.
You will still have to deal with other contractors and f/t employees working for the client.
I freelanced for my last f/t employer for several years (just fired them in February), I think that's fairly typical. It's easy for the employer/client since you're a known value/risk to them, but may cause hard feelings depending on how you handle it. Anecdotally I knew other freelancers who quit as fte and contracted back to their former employer, sometimes it worked out, sometimes not.
Programmers who think freelancing will free them up from annoying human contact and non-technical stuff will probably not like freelancing. It requires some marketing, self-promotion, talking to customers, making decisions with incomplete information, constant communication.
You will give up all the perks and have to pay for insurance and deal with self-employment taxes. On the other hand you have more freedom and can (usually) charge more than a f/t salary.