it never bloody rains but it fricking POURS!

[seldear]

I have a job offer. Contract. Starting Tuesday 23rd for three weeks. One day's pay of new job = one week's pay of current job. Take it or leave it? Ooh, tough question.

I have an interview. Permanent role. Interview on Monday 22nd. About half as much again as my last salaried role. The catch? They may very well offer me the job on the spot. Which means starting Monday 29th. Which means the three week contract will have to be broken.

Guess what? I don't like breaking contracts.

It's a toss-up, to be honest. I like the freedom of contracting. I'm not an employee, so there's a certain freedom there: they pay you to do the work, so they can ask you to work 12 hours a day, but you don't necessarily have to - whereas if it's the cultural norm in a permanant role, you don't have metaphorical legs to stand on.

And then there's the whole, "I'd like to take a week off" business that permanent companies don't usually like. Or, in my case, two months off so I can wander through the US and (this time) Europe. Maybe.

GAH! And I have to let people know about this by tomorrow morning. Because I can't in good conscience take the contract role for a week and then say, "Got a better offer - bye!" It's just not a nice thing to do.

It never ever ever rains, but it pours. Now why the hell can't it rain in the catchment area for a while?

Comments

[saramund.livejournal.com]

Choices, choices... I suppose you just have to way up the pros/cons (lists! I love lists!).

what happens after the three weeks on contract? What happens if you don't get the permanent job? If you do get perm job, can you still go away?

I'll shut up now.

RAIN, dammit!

pros and cons

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

contract

PROS:
* lots of money,
* flexibility,
* no-strings attached (ie. if I screw up, then I don't have to talk to them again),
* it doesn't much matter if I like the work or not, I just do it and get paid,
* hours I have control of because I'm paid by the day,
* three weeks will just take me up to about Christmas. I can probably spend the Christmas period slobbing about with my name up for possibly contracts in January.

CONS:
* three weeks, and then quite possibly I'm looking for another job - and Janury is a sucky time to be looking for contract work

permanent
PROS:
* constant work,
* a chance to get to know people instead of just being in the office for a couple of weeks, and maybe find a workplace that's enjoyable to work in,
* a fairly high salary rate - as I said, about half again what I was paid when I was last working permanent,
* the parentals off my back about finding a nice steady job (believe me, this is a pro!)
* regularity to my life again

CONS:
* no flexibility re: holidays - possibly no holidays for the first year (or they might give me a couple of weeks by the 6 month point, which at least means Wedding!Con, but no o/s trip)
* might get stuck in another dead-end job
* regularity: when I'm contracting, with changes ahead, I'm on my toes; when I'm in a permanent role, I tend to get bogged down in the sameness of it.

*siiiiigh*

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

See, here's the thing: when I say 'contract' I usually mean "high-paying IT job" - when I say 'temp' I mean "low paying secretarial job".

The thing with a low paying secretarial job is that I need to constantly work just to manage my expenses and I don't get any extra money there. With a higher-paying contract job, I can work for, say, six months, and earn enough to reasonably keep me for another six months after I stop working.

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

I asked.

The reason they're frantically interviewing candidates is cause the previous guy was just about to take the role, and then pulled out because of family committments - he was in Brissy, the job was in Sydney.

So they want someone right now.

The only thing is that they have several candidates for this permanent job - of which I am one, while I actually have this contract job.

It's the old 'bird in the hand vs two in the bush' conundrum.

Very frustrating.

[pixiesio.livejournal.com]

Gak! That is a toughie. I say go with your gut, fwiw.