Contracting is not easy but it can pay more. I find finding clients the easy part but all the surrounding stuff is nuanced and complicated (as soon as you start contracting you are literally essentially running your own business).
Before jumping ship (if you decide to), pay close attention to the no-compete clauses etc in your current employment contract.
It's pretty easy to get contracting gigs for technical work - development, solution architecture, etc. A lot of companies are super happy to outsource risk. It generally costs more to place a human at a physical desk in an office than outsource to a contractor who brings their own devices and pays their own taxes and has their own public liability insurance. As long as you can show someone a portfolio of work that impresses them, and takes the problem off their desk, you'll find work.
There is no magic to networking. A lot of the finding work process just boils down to hanging out with the right people at the right time. Go to industry events. Cook BBQ's for coworkers. Remember the birthdays of coworkers' past and present. Put yourself in front of people who might need you in the future and make sure they remember you fondly. This is a decades-long process.
Pricing-wise just find your average local wage, add taxes and benefits, and that's your centre point to aim for. Bump it up a bit if you are actually a high achiever.
Honestly whether it's better to be contracted or employed, I think it's a personal preference. I can't stand the corporate buy-in that comes from being an employee, and value my independence. It burns me greatly at times when I find myself broke and scrambling to find a gig, so if it's assurance you're after then full time employment really is a good thing, but for me being able to jot down that I won't agree to my IP being owned by the company that's hiring me today is a pretty powerful incentive not to become a standard employee.
Before jumping ship (if you decide to), pay close attention to the no-compete clauses etc in your current employment contract.
It's pretty easy to get contracting gigs for technical work - development, solution architecture, etc. A lot of companies are super happy to outsource risk. It generally costs more to place a human at a physical desk in an office than outsource to a contractor who brings their own devices and pays their own taxes and has their own public liability insurance. As long as you can show someone a portfolio of work that impresses them, and takes the problem off their desk, you'll find work.
There is no magic to networking. A lot of the finding work process just boils down to hanging out with the right people at the right time. Go to industry events. Cook BBQ's for coworkers. Remember the birthdays of coworkers' past and present. Put yourself in front of people who might need you in the future and make sure they remember you fondly. This is a decades-long process.
Pricing-wise just find your average local wage, add taxes and benefits, and that's your centre point to aim for. Bump it up a bit if you are actually a high achiever.
Honestly whether it's better to be contracted or employed, I think it's a personal preference. I can't stand the corporate buy-in that comes from being an employee, and value my independence. It burns me greatly at times when I find myself broke and scrambling to find a gig, so if it's assurance you're after then full time employment really is a good thing, but for me being able to jot down that I won't agree to my IP being owned by the company that's hiring me today is a pretty powerful incentive not to become a standard employee.