<story><title>Ask HN: How to start working as a contractor?</title><text>I was offered a job as a contractor by a big company in Canada. The pay is good, around $100,000 CAD ($55&amp;#x2F;h). But so far I have only worked as permenant employees. What are your experiences working as contractor? What are to be expected?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>aliencat</author><text>The flexible hour and no much supervision sounds excellent! Does that mean you can come to work late or leave work early as long as you work for 8 hours a day?</text></item><item><author>ztoben</author><text>I contracted for about 8 months through a large staffing firm. A few things I liked:&lt;p&gt;* Hours were fairly flexible&lt;p&gt;* Not too much supervision, was mostly given things to work on and expected to finish them in a certain amount of time&lt;p&gt;* Didn&amp;#x27;t get pulled in to as many meetings in the office&lt;p&gt;* The pay was excellent&lt;p&gt;Some things I didn&amp;#x27;t like:&lt;p&gt;* No&amp;#x2F;little vacation&amp;#x2F;pto&amp;#x2F;sick&lt;p&gt;* If you don&amp;#x27;t work, you don&amp;#x27;t get paid (if you&amp;#x27;re paid hourly)&lt;p&gt;* No&amp;#x2F;little job security. I was around for 2 rounds of layoffs and had a young child at home, so this wasn&amp;#x27;t ideal&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day it made more sense for me to go back to a normal employment role due to family and a few other factors with job security. I did enjoy my time as a contractor though. Enough so that I still pick up hours through some old employers occasionally.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>goatlover</author><text>I think it means you work whenever you want as long as the job is done on time. If you&amp;#x27;re working remote with little supervision, then it makes no sense to stick to an 8 hour 9 to 5 schedule, unless that&amp;#x27;s your optimal working window.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How to start working as a contractor?</title><text>I was offered a job as a contractor by a big company in Canada. The pay is good, around $100,000 CAD ($55&amp;#x2F;h). But so far I have only worked as permenant employees. What are your experiences working as contractor? What are to be expected?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>aliencat</author><text>The flexible hour and no much supervision sounds excellent! Does that mean you can come to work late or leave work early as long as you work for 8 hours a day?</text></item><item><author>ztoben</author><text>I contracted for about 8 months through a large staffing firm. A few things I liked:&lt;p&gt;* Hours were fairly flexible&lt;p&gt;* Not too much supervision, was mostly given things to work on and expected to finish them in a certain amount of time&lt;p&gt;* Didn&amp;#x27;t get pulled in to as many meetings in the office&lt;p&gt;* The pay was excellent&lt;p&gt;Some things I didn&amp;#x27;t like:&lt;p&gt;* No&amp;#x2F;little vacation&amp;#x2F;pto&amp;#x2F;sick&lt;p&gt;* If you don&amp;#x27;t work, you don&amp;#x27;t get paid (if you&amp;#x27;re paid hourly)&lt;p&gt;* No&amp;#x2F;little job security. I was around for 2 rounds of layoffs and had a young child at home, so this wasn&amp;#x27;t ideal&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day it made more sense for me to go back to a normal employment role due to family and a few other factors with job security. I did enjoy my time as a contractor though. Enough so that I still pick up hours through some old employers occasionally.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mdocherty</author><text>That is pretty specific to the role. I have done contract work where I just had to get stuff done in and couldn&amp;#x27;t bill more than 40 hours a week. Other roles were up to 45 hours a week but had to have ass in seat in office mon-friday 8-5</text></comment>