

Ask HN: Non-obvious pros/cons of contracting vs. full time work? - mcrittenden

I've been contracting full time for a company for the past four months or so. I get paid pretty well, but of course have to pay self-employment taxes and have to handle my own insurance, etc.<p>It looks like there's a good chance the company will offer to hire me full time. This will presumably mean less taxes and some decent benefits, which will be nice, but will probably come with a pay decrease to even it out. Thats's all fine.<p>My main question is this: what should I consider besides all the obvious stuff (taxes, pay, benefits)? For example, this is a fortune 500 company, and I'm a little worried about being sucked into the politics of working for a company that large, whereas I've been able to stay out of any of that as a contractor. Is this a valid concern? What else should I consider before making this decision? What are the non-obvious pros/cons of full time work for a large company vs. contracting for it?
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edabobojr
How many hours a week are the employees expected to put in versus the number
of hours you were billing? I've been places where the employees were abused
and the contractors were expected to work not a minute more than 8 hours per
day.

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mcrittenden
Excellent point. I bill 40 hours/week exactly. I have no idea if employees are
expected to work more than that. I'll have to try and find out if I get the
offer.

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stray
For some reason, we seem to get more respect as contractors than we do as
statutory employees.

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th0ma5
I think this is incredibly true on technical expertise, but as for advocating
organizational change instead of a technical solution, being an employee has
seemed to offer more respect for me. Granted there are business process
consultants that do that exact thing, but I do feel there is some kind of line
there with technical experts employed vs. consulting.

