There’s a version of IT contracting that looks and sounds like freedom, but actually feels like a never-ending grind. Chasing job openings on job boards, trying to negotiate on your own, dealing with the long dry spells between contracts when you’ve got no one to turn to, and figuring out the financial and legal side of things as you go along, often with some pretty expensive mistakes along the way. But
a growing number of seasoned IT pros in Australia are saying “no thanks”. They’ve decided that there’s a different way to do independent tech work, one built on trust and shared knowledge with a community of fellow contractors. And from all accounts, they’re never going back.
Why Deliberate Contractors Are Choosing Independence?
Stats from the ABS confirm that IT contractors are a stable and significant chunk of the Aussie workforce and that tech is one of the areas where people are embracing contracting in a big way. And the pandemic basically levelled the playing field for remote and hybrid work, making it a lot easier for contractors to do their thing in pretty much any region, not just in the capital cities. The contractors who’ve made the switch to independence these days are often people who’ve had a good run in permanent roles, they’ve compared and contrasted the two and made a deliberate decision to go it alone, with communities like Umbrella Club Australia supporting them through that transition. Autonomy, variety in their work, and being able to build a specialist rep at a pace that just isn’t possible in a salaried job, that’s what most of these contractors tell you are the main reasons they made the switch. And the extra dosh is nice, but it’s rarely the whole story.
What a Professional Community Provides That a Recruiter Cannot?
Traditional IT recruitment is all about making a deal. But a community-based model is built on something entirely different. Word-of-mouth referrals from people you trust carry way more weight because your mate is putting their rep on the line and they’ve every reason to get it right. Within a close-knit community of contractors you get the lowdown on client culture, management quality and how contracts really work in the trenches, info that never makes it into the job description. And your mates will share the inside scoop on rates, contract terms and shifting market conditions in a way that just won’t happen on a public platform. The difference in knowledge between someone who’s well connected and someone who’s flying solo is huge, and over time it’s got a real impact on your earnings and the quality of your work.
The Operational Realities Nobody Warns You About
The right of freedom to contract is genuine. True are also those operational challenges that have never been necessary before in the case of permanent employment but that are faced by too many novice contractors much later than they would have wanted to.
- Rate negotiation is a skill set that technical professionals are never properly trained to do, and the manner in which it is done has a cumulative effect throughout one’s career; usually each successive contract begins at the level defined by the previous rate.
- Managing the gap between the contracts, which includes both pipeline development and financial sustainability, is something that requires certain self-discipline which feels uncomfortable for people who have spent years of their careers in organisations where these were somebody else’s responsibilities.
- Comprehension of the difference in taxation and legal aspects of ABN contracting as compared to PAYG arrangements is something that contractors who do not have access to experienced colleagues learn the hard way.
Why Peer Mentoring Makes All the Difference?
Access to experienced contractors ready to mentor in practical skills is one of the most underrated advantages in an independent career in technical professions. Learning about how to deal with a problematic client engagement from somebody who has dealt with the same situation before is far more useful than any kind of theoretical training. Learning about how to manage a portfolio of professional relationships as opposed to dealing with each contract separately is a skill that experienced contractors develop gradually. Contractors who transition to contract employment with the experience of peers surrounding them make this change easier, avoid obvious mistakes that they would otherwise make, and achieve sustainable momentum faster than those who figure everything out on their own.
What Organisations Get Out of This?
Community-based contracting is not something that only contractors benefit from. Organisations who hire through professional community referrals spend less time looking for candidates and get more reliable results. In addition, a contractor who gets referred to an organisation comes with the peer approval already gained, which makes the first conversation very different in tone, as well as eliminates certain uncertainties that the hiring manager usually has at the beginning of an engagement. Moreover, for difficult-to-fill positions in specialised technical disciplines, the network of contacts of the whole professional community is more extended and accurate than any individual recruiter’s database, especially in areas where the shortage of contractors is more pronounced.
