5 Misconceptions About Freelance IT Contracting

1) All contractors are experts

Many wannabe contractors let this misconception stop them dead in their tracks when considering freelancing as a career move.

They believe all contractors are experts.

They would love to start contracting for all of the benefits they envisage (primarily the financial ones initially, although I believe there are more important ones), but they often put contractors on a pedestal and treat them differently, as if they somehow have special powers or abilities.?

Sometimes this may be borne out of not knowing any contractors personally, not having any contractors close to you who you can consult and ask questions, maybe seeing some good contractors in the workplace and comparing yourself to them, not realising that guy in that other team you think isn’t so great is actually a contractor too…?

2) I need more skills & experience

The next most cited reason for not taking the leap into the world of contracting if the belief that you need more skills, or you need to work in an industry, area or with certain tools or technologies for longer, and only then will you be ready to take the plunge into the contracting market.

I just need to learn X.

I just need to spend X more years working on Y.

The danger is of course that you will never consider yourself ready.

This is exactly what held me back from contracting.

3) I’m not good enough!

This ties in with the “needing more skills & experience” misconception of course, but it can run far deeper than that.

Often this comes down to an underlying lack of self worth.

Perhaps this is because you’ve not been working on projects and activities that excite you, inspire you, or fire you up every morning to jump out of bed and get to do meaningful work, solving meaningful problems.

It’s not that you’re depressed or miserable, but maybe the passion and enthusiasm has been sucked from you by your current employer?

4) I need more savings!

Some people feel they just don’t have the savings in place to take the perceived risk of quitting their job and going it alone as a freelance IT contractor.

I get it, everyone worries about money at some stage in life.

Maybe you’re earning a decent enough salary, but then there’s increasing fuel bills, food to buy, cars to run, houses to maintain, mortgages to pay… the list can be endless.

What if it takes me 3 months to get a role, how will we survive?

What if I only get a 6 month contract and it ends after that?

5) It’s just not worth it any more with regulations like IR35 in play

Whilst it’s true that many people left the world of contracting when IR35 kicked in (especially in the private sector recently), there are many positive signs that the situation is improving, and that the contract market is flourishing.

Many people returned to perm work, but many did so as a stop-gap until the market corrected itself (which it invariably does), and I believe many will return to contracting over the coming months.

But contracting for me is about more than the amount of money you receive versus taxes paid, so it’s not all bad in my opinion.

Summary

All 5 of these misconceptions can in fact boil down to one common factor…

Fear

Fear of the unknown, fear of getting it wrong, fear of messing up, looking bad in the eyes of your family, friends or peers.

Fear of making the wrong choices in life, quitting a decent perm role to fly the nest and go it alone in the wilderness, or so it might seem...

But unless we face our fears and face the realities (rather than perceptions) of contracting we will always remain stationary, we will stay where we are, often stuck in the hamster wheel of working for someone else.

Only then can you make an educated and informed decision on which action to take.

And of course, if you change nothing, nothing changes.

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About the Author:

David Gerrish has been an IT Contractor since 1996, working all over the UK, Europe and further afield in locations such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

Dave's?IT Contracting Academy?Facebook ?&?LinkedIn ?groups have thousands of contractors and aspiring contractors as members, making them invaluable communities for IT professionals seeking advice, support and to network with one another.?