Pros and Cons Of Consulting vs Full Time Employment
Before I was a full time employee of my current employer I had previously been a computer consultant. There are a great deal of differences between consulting (temping) and being a full time employee. Each has its advantages and disadvantages and I will clearly state that this consulting is neither worse nor better than being a full time employee they are equal. It just depends what you’re looking for.
Consulting Pros and Cons
I think computer consulting is far more exciting than being a full time employee. You get to travel and live in different areas of the country and get exposure to a wide variety of environments and technologies. The pay also tends to be quite a bit higher. That’s not to say consulting is perfect though. There is the occasional down time of a up to few months between projects. It may be bad to some but you can always update your skills while job hunting. Though I still made 20% more last year not working 2 weeks of the year than I’ll make working this year. Also there are some companies that will treat consultants like crap from what I’ve read about but have never experienced.
One last advantage I can think of is if you ever get sick of the company your working at you’re never under any obligation to continue working there after your contract end unless you’d like to (and your contract gets renewed).
Full Time Employee Pros and Cons
The one major advantage to being a full time employee is job stability. Companies may say they benefits are great but I disagree. I’ve found that even if you were to pay for benefits on your own as a consultant you’d still make more money per year getting your own benefits. I suppose it depends on just how great your companies benefits are.
Sunday, April 6th, 2008