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Contracting as a Career

When I first met the Crackerjacks team, I entered a mythical man into the conversation. He lived at Piha, didn’t have to drive into an office everyday, could go surfing at lunchtime and would sit on the deck in the sun with his laptop doing work. This was a cliché that we referred to from time to time and it became a bit of an ongoing joke. The thing is, as I write this, it’s a Wednesday afternoon and I’m sitting on a deckchair in the sun on the deck at Piha with my laptop typing this. True story. Events transpired to make my dream a reality.

Now the “Dream” is not all it’s cracked up to be. Unfortunately I have to go into the city most days, I work long hours and it’s still stressful. But now work is on my terms.

Once upon a time I worked for large businesses. I was relatively underpaid, I started at 8 everyday, finished at 8 (on an early night), generally visited the office during the weekends, was continually tired and strung out, and my time at home generally consisted of cleaning up unfinished work for the next day. I was living to work.

I don’t begrudge that time at all though. I got great experience, added awesome names to my CV, worked with amazing people and fantastic clients. But one day I decided to make work work for me. I made the call to go contracting fulltime.

Contracting is scary. When you’re on a salary or fixed income you have a pretty good idea of what you’ve got coming in when. It’s easy to budget, it’s secure and comfortable. With contracting there are a lot more fluctuations. Sometimes you can go a week and make nothing, other weeks you can be stunned with how much you make. You have to take the upside reward with the risk. You’ve got to have the guts to make the jump

If you’re considering contracting you need to figure the volatile nature of income into the equation. You have to plan ahead to work out where your next job is coming from before you complete the current one, and its essential that you are able to budget sensibly. Contracting as a career isn’t a safe option, so you need to have confidence in your ability to sell yourself, and know that you are able to go in and get the job down with minimal hand-holding.

The rewards a contracting career brings are literally priceless. Yes you can potentially make more money, but in my experience that tends to be the least of the benefits. I thrive in environments where I have the flexibility and freedom to structure my time the way I want. I love that with a contracting career you get to work in a multitude of companies with a large host of people. I’m a bit of a networker so I lap that side of things up. With contracting, if I want to take a Friday off to go away for a long weekend, or afternoons off to indulgence in one of my ridiculous hobbies that nobody else appreciates, then I have the flexibility to do so. How do you put a price on doing the things you love?

Contracting has made my life more enjoyable and flexible. I can’t promise you’ll have exactly the same experience, but if you’re already contracting or considering leaving the darkside, then explore Crackerjacks and all it has to offer. The calendar function will help you plan for the future, there will be an ever increasing resource section, and the site will be a valuable conduit to finding new work.

That’s enough for now, I’m off to practice what I preach. I’m going to use my life wisely and go get some sand between my toes.

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Piero has contracted to Crackerjacks since early in the sites gestation period working on the branding, communications and advertising via his agency The Whisper Shop.