I've worked as contractor (60%) and a permanent employee (40%) over the last 30 years, and I have to say I like the contractor side better in most cases...When I started in this business, I ended up contacting for 9 years at one company, on various projects with different departments, simply because when I started there, they knew who I was, knew how I worked, and after the first interview to start there, I didn't need to interview for any of the other jobs…which was great as I hated interviewing back them. Same thing happened for several years at the next company I went to, and then I went back to the first company for several more years – all as a contractor. In the job previous to my current one, I started as a contractor and took their job offer after 2 years. While I enjoyed working for them, the benefits were great and so was the travel, the management changed drastically after about 6 years and the last 6 years were torture; the last 3 of the 6 being even worse. The biggest difference I found between contracting and being an employee was that, as an employee, they disregarded what we said, even though that’s the job they were paying us for. My job satisfaction came from helping project teams achieve what they needed to, under budget and on time, and keeping us in compliance globally. When management interfered with us doing our jobs well, this not only resulted in way less job satisfaction, but product/software that shouldn’t have gone out the door at the point it did and compliance issues. As a contractor, those who pay for our services appear to take us a bit more seriously and to actually listen to what we have to say. This not only benefits them, it makes the work environment a lot less stressful for me.
And Wes, I like your idea of a thread for us gray-heads
Since the time you originally posted it, I feel it's an even more pertinent subject for discussion today.