I'm happy I'm not a consultant. I value job security, and therefore a financially secure life, over any of the benefits this consultant has.
- Most of the consultants had new gigs within weeks.
- It was the permanents with 6+ years at ACME corp on their resume that had a harsh time finding work even months later.
So take it with a grain of salt, it highly depends on context, but true job security is mostly an illusion.
As someone who has done contract work for most of my working life I think it's kind of the opposite.
When doing contract work you have the option of having multiple part time jobs. Not everything is based on full time yearly commitments.
You might choose to do 15 hours a week for 2 different gigs, or maybe 4x 10 hour ones. Or maybe you have a few where you do 2 hours a week (code review type of stuff) but you have 3 of them.
Any of the above combos could be range from 1 off things to sticking around indefinitely. I've had so many multi-year contracts, those I like because it's quite stable and lets you maximize your hours on doing work instead of finding new clients, reading new contracts, etc..
You're diversifying your income streams. If one goes away you're not left scrambling to find another one as soon as possible and you can continue paying bills with your income instead of dipping into your savings.
Absolutely. Personally I try to keep any savings and investments as a 1 way street. I treat it as an untouchable deposit-only fund unless something really bad happens or I make an explicit decision to do something big with it (like retire or temporarily go off the grid for a few years).
To me security is being able to live without taking out those funds during my working years but knowing they exist if I really need them.
I know this is all anecdotal, but the pandemic has been a huge boom to tech consultants. Yes, some companies fired theirs, but also a massive influx of companies seeking help with completely new systems and procedures, especially by people who are familiar with remote work. 2020 and 2021 were my two best years by far (like one order of magnitude).
Even in tech, here in the UK the government decided to push through some tax reforms aimed squarely at extracting more money from freelancers and contractors. The change in the rules had some unfortunate and possibly unintended side effects: many large clients got nervous about new potential liabilities and simply shut down those kinds of outsourced work altogether around the same time, which actually created downward pressure on rates for a while. I know several people who had been independents for a long time but went permanent instead as a result of this new environment, though it seems like the situation has started to stabilise now and a more "normal" market is operating again.
They even asked me to do the same and I refused. They needed me so they complied but I started looking around anyway for peace of mind in case they axed me - and found a better job.
It was pretty hard to deal with my sudden leave knowledge-wise so once the previous management got axed a few months later and replaced with new bots I went to offer my services at double my previous rate.
Instead of worrying about the type of position you're in, you should worry about getting as much money as you can and being useful to the company you're working for.
I can't remember what I said, but something really funny and my friends consultants can't hold the laugh in.
Our Indian colleagues are screwed because their visas depended on them being employed.
We just went to another client, great company, our rates got bumped up.
Really sad situation.
On the other hand, sometimes when they want to save money, they would fire me, usually because I am most expensive of all. But then again, more often then this, they would keep me last, because I can do most work.
As a consultant you can have two or three clients in different sectors and diversify.
You will be sorely disappointed if you think getting paid w2 vs 1099 (in the us) gives you job security.
Job security is your drive, skill, and luck living in an area that has work for you. (If you live in the us consider yourself lucky - in tech)
If I were an employee I mostly likely would have been let go.
That said, you can be axed as a FTE as well when things go south.