I consulted for around 7 years as an independent and my feelings align pretty much 100% with those of the author.

People are disposable resources on par with other equipment and machinery in today's business world. Getting paid anything less than full market value (including cost of benefits and a premium for being disposable) just doesn't make sense. The only company I work for is Me Inc.

However, after attaining pretty much the highest level I could as a consultant (i.e. running teams of employees who reported to me) I hit a ceiling.

I found myself at a level within the company from which I could never advance if I didn't become an employee. I stayed at this level for several years and decided it was limiting my growth as an individual.

So, I've been working as an employee for the last 4 years with mixed emotion. My sentiment remains the same but at least I have advanced far enough now that my compensation is on par with when I was a consultant. Dream of going independent again every day though.

I can see this being an issue the longer you work as a consultant. My intention was to eventually shift into self built products that bring in continuous income, or found a venture backed startup. I think that is the general sentiment of most consultants in the bay area.

Yes, that's what I do at night these days.

The trick to getting around this cap is to be running teams of your own employees.

As a product company, any day! As a consultancy, never.

Going on vacation as a consultant makes you acutely aware of how consulting revenue scales like crap. I've literally had 2 week vacations which cost me $20K+ ($5K in travel and $15K in lost revenue).

I'd frequently joke with my wife that she should really enjoy sipping that $100 bottle of beer on the beach.

Dude, I'll take 1st world problems over 3rd world problems any day.

@dreamweapon,

I see your point and I actually agree with it. It was a total whine post and yes, I am very privileged as compared to most of the world.

However, amortized or not, the true cost of taking vacation becomes so explicitly apparent when you are consulting that it's difficult not to think about while ON vacation.

I find that I also look at life differently when I am consulting. Anything that takes time suddenly has an implicit price tag. I believe that the original commentator was making a light statement.

In terms of amortized vacation, yes. Employees pay for it throughout the year, and then can draw on it like a small bank account. One of the reasons I went into consulting was for more free time to travel. I don't know of any full time positions that would let me spend 1/4 of the year traveling.

The linked article by David Brady, "Loyalty and Layoffs", is also a good read:

http://heartmindcode.com/2013/08/16/loyalty-and-layoffs/

Brady's article was also posted to HN 10 months ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6240495

If you are going to read one article, it should be David's. It's the article I used to send around when people asked me this question.

> With minor advertising and effort, I have more inbound work requests than I can personally take on.

I'm very much interested in moving more towards contract-based employment, so I would love to hear more about the mechanics of getting off the ground, and any recommendations for advertising my services etc.

I've been a contractor since 2010. I've never had any problem finding work. I have received 1 job through my website, everything else has been through contacts. Before contracting I had 10 years as an employee of various companies. I think it is much harder to do contracting with less than about 5 years experience, you just won't have the contacts.

There is no trick to what I do, whenever I run into an old colleague, I tell them I'm contracting now. They will either have or know somebody looking for my skills. I've even gone back to companies I worked as an employee and helped them during crunch time.

I think when you are employed full time, people are reluctant to make you offers, but as soon as you are a available the offers seem to appear.

AngelList is a great resource. Fill out your profile, connect with people you know, and list yourself as a contractor. Then go through jobs looking for contractors and hit "Yes." This is how I've found 90% of my contract work over the past 3 years (in the Bay Area).

I just watched a webinar about freelancing. Although it's not specifically about getting off the ground, it is touched on a bit.

http://doubleyourfreelancingrate.com/w/clientsfromhell.html

You should get a link to the recorded webinar when you sign up.

Try the HN freelancer posts every month, just respond to requests that fit your skill set, compete on price and over-deliver.

I might write a new post about getting started, but essentially I just strung up a portfolio website on strikingly.com and a google apps account. FigBug is right, most of your work will end up coming through people you know, you can augment that by hitting up meetup groups and hackerspaces.

I've recently made the decision to go full-time consulting after a year of balancing contract work on the side with full-time employment.

In my experience one of the biggest reason to avoid being a full-time employee is the difficulty in climbing the value chain. As a consultant, I'm a trusted advisor that helps my client bring their business to the next level. As an employee, I'm just maintaining the ship.

I'm sure you can guess which one brings in more money :)

Perhaps we should define what is full-time employee. I am consultant, but I have only single customer/employer who reimburses my expenses without much questions. And I make similar money compared to my old corporate 9-5 job, adjusted for taxes, insurance and holiday.

I think after you hit certain level of specialization, being self-employed is the only option.

Careful spouting that off (if you're US based), it sounds like, though you're both ok with it, your employer could be liable for incorrectly classifying you as an independent contractor. You may have been aware already but if not I'd take a look at it if you're in the US.

EDIT: Checked the link in your profile, just leaving my comment so US folks are aware.

I live in Europe and my client is American company. That is pretty much only possible arrangement since they have no presence here.

Also being employee would mean to give-up my copyright, which I am not that keen to do.

I'm a fairly new addition to the world of software contracting and I often have trouble trying to express my feelings about full-time work and the justification of the amount I charge (which so far has been below normal contractor rates). Thank you for explaining your point view in an eloquent way, it's helpful :)

Thanks! I actually came up with the idea for this post so I would have something to respond with in recruiter emails.

Do you get a lot of work through recruiters? I never know if it's worth responding to them. Any tips in that area?

None so far. Generally they are only interested in trying to convince you to give up consulting.

Sometimes they will pitch you on a contract-to-hire position, but most companies want to hire engineers on the cheap.

I've had a few (1/10) recruiters help me get consulting gigs. I prefer to pull my own however. You are better at selling yourself to the right gig than any recruiter could be.

How do you handle contracts?

Assuming each client has their own terms, and you have your own... Have you found any tricks to reaching a quick agreement that maintains your freedom?

In my experience, this is something you can learn as you go.

To get my first major gig started, a 1-page proposal that outlined how my services would help the client fulfill their goals was enough. A formal contract came later and we have been working together for a year now.

In fact, the client was asking "Where do I sign?" before I even mentioned the formal proposal.

What I learned was that the right clients care about their results and whether you can get them there first and foremost. Pricing and contracts are afterthoughts.

In general, most clients use a template contract. An accountant and a lawyer are going to be required if you become serious about consulting.

Because "full time" most likely means 40+ hours per week.