Give me the ins and outs of a contractor position.

[Jet343]

I got an offer over monster.com to get payed over twice of what I'm making at my current job but as a contractor.

I'm a total noob to this. So let me have it.

PS. When a company does a search for people looking for jobs. What can they see? Do they see your full resume? Or just like the heading and objective? I'm asking because I don't think I have the necessary skills to be working as a contractor making as much as 3 times what I make now.

 

[StageLeft]

Did you get an actual job offer? What do you mean an offer over monster?

 

[Jet343]

I was emailed by a company shortly after making my monster resume searchable. She just asked If I was intrested in a job and how much they're offering me.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Jet343
I was emailed by a company shortly after making my monster resume searchable. She just asked If I was intrested in a job and how much they're offering me.

If they are actually willing to offer you a job without having interviewed you, sorry to say that's not a job you want. It's a sham. A waste of time. A joke. Ignore them.

 

[Jet343]

This is the company that asked if I was intrested...

RHT

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Jet343
This is the company that asked if I was intrested...

RHT

If they asked if you're interested like "Hi, would you be interested in working for us? We pay around this amount. Let's talk (ie. interview)", then by all means talk to them! If however it's "Can you start on monday making this?", then it's a waste of time.

 

[DAGTA]

As a contractor, you are self employed. That means your taxes are much higher. For twice your current pay, it's worth it. But for anything less than 25% more than your current pay, it's not.

As a self employed, you'll pay the normal tax brackets (25 to 35%) and THEN you pay an additional 15.3% on your 'net' income.
Taxes suck.

 

[EagleKeeper]

RHT Contractors are not independents. They are W2 not 1099.

You are an employee of them. They withhold taxes from your pay. They just farm you out to a client.

The client is the one that says yes/no.

You will usually have to foot the costs of getting to the client site.

Depending on how you have your profile set up will determine what they can see.

They want a committment from you (up to a point) before they farm/present you to a specific slot that needs filling.

 

[Jet343]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Jet343
This is the company that asked if I was intrested...

RHT

If they asked if you're interested like "Hi, would you be interested in working for us? We pay around this amount. Let's talk (ie. interview)", then by all means talk to them! If however it's "Can you start on monday making this?", then it's a waste of time.

Yeah sorry. I worded it wrong. They simply asked if I was intrested. I then asked what type of salary they where offering since the job is 50 miles away.

I'm not sure if they saw my whole resume though.

 

[StageLeft]

They can pull it up, if you've got it publically viewable and put it online. Might as well give them a call

 

[Biggerhammer]

The money's usually quite good as a contractor. The downside is that you have just about no job security and frequently get treated as a second-class citizen by co-workers.

(edited because I sounded really whiny)

 

[torpid]

Ins - good pay, lots of variety, interesting people
Outs - generally are barely treated like a human, instability, not much of a team atmosphere, rarely have upward mobility

 

[elektrolokomotive]

Originally posted by: Biggerhammer
The money's usually quite good as a contractor. The downside is that you have just about no job security and frequently get treated as a second-class citizen by co-workers.

(edited because I sounded really whiny)

Both really true points. I worked for an outsourcing company for ten years. They have no loyalty, fired me twice in the last 3 years because they didn't want to bench me. I'm now working as a full time employee for the last company I was farmed out to (took a bit of legal wrangling about my non-compete agreement). They treat me much better now that I'm a FTE.

 

[imported_Strang]

Originally posted by: torpid
Ins - good pay, lots of variety, interesting people
Outs - generally are barely treated like a human, instability, not much of a team atmosphere, rarely have upward mobility

Not to mention that you rarely get health/dental/vision and when you do, you typically have to pay a lot more for it than an FTE.