Are contract jobs worth it?
The ever-changing work landscape in the Great Resignation era has forced many job seekers to rethink what they want out of work. As a result, many factors now play a vital role in how employees choose jobs. These factors may not have been held in such high priority before the pandemic but are now front and center among prospective job seekers.
Your company’s human resources team must be able to recognize and capitalize on these shifts. While the talent market has remained competitive, one job category can provide prospective employees and you as hiring managers mutual benefit — contract jobs.
Contract Jobs: Working as a Contractor
What is the difference between a contract employee and a permanent employee?
A contract employee refers to an employee hired for a particular job under specific terms and only for a fixed period. A contract employee is not permanent and does not receive the benefits otherwise accorded to a permanent employee.
Under contract work, your duties and responsibilities are clearly outlined in a contract or statement of work. These duties and responsibilities have a specific beginning and ending, subject to extensions or renewals.
At the onset, many prospective employees tend to shun contract positions because contract roles tend to be equated with fleeting, unstable employment. Furthermore, contract employees are also connected with small businesses and short-term stints.
Benefits of Contract Work
It’s time to look at contract jobs in a different light. Many job seekers fail to realize that contract jobs uniquely possess a myriad of benefits. In fact, contract jobs are often misunderstood and are usually perceived to be less valuable employment.
The fact is that while full-time jobs work for some individuals, they do NOT work for everyone. Moreover, there are many reasons why a significant number of job seekers are now looking for contractual employment versus full-time work.
Below are just some of the many advantages of assurance jobs and why some people should seek contractual employment over full-time jobs:
Contract Jobs Help Grow Your Portfolio
Accepting a contract job is a good way of diversifying your skill sets! As you work through several companies and gain exposure in a wide array of sectors and industries, you also learn more skills than the average employee who may have only worked with one company or role all their life.
Contract employees are also exposed to different management styles, company cultures, work processes, and office practices. This broad range of work experience is easily transferable to your next job. So, naturally, a prospective employee with a diverse work background has more options during the job-hunting phase.
A recent study from the Harvard Business Review shows that employers preferring employees with diverse skill sets is rising exponentially. This simply means that your diverse skill sets would be hugely attractive to a prospective employer, even if you are a contractual employee.
Contract jobs also give you plenty of opportunities to boost your portfolio because you can work for more than one company at any given time as long as your schedule allows it.
Contract Jobs Provide Autonomy and Greater Control
Indeed, one of the top benefits of contract jobs is the sense of independence it provides. Being a full-time employee entails working for your company for an entire day. This automatically limits what else you can do during your little spare time outside of your full-time work.
Fortunately, this is not the case for contract workers, as contract jobs are less demanding than full-time ones. This is why contract workers pretty much “run their own business,” so to speak. As a result, you enjoy more freedom when it comes to how you render work – as long as you produce good results.
Most contract workers are also not locked in a rigid schedule with their employer. This gives them a better handle on their time and daily and weekly schedule. What’s more, is that many contract workers may also render work from anywhere. Remote work? Work from home? Workcations? Contract workers get to tick all these boxes.
So much so that the latest research from ADP revealed that 72 percent of independent contractors consciously choose to work contract jobs instead of working full-time. Somehow, being “your own boss” just reaps its unique rewards.
Contract Jobs Provide Flexibility
Essentially, if there is one thing that contract workers have that permanent employees just don’t have is flexibility.
Whether you are a consultant, a freelancer, or a temporary employee, contract workers may work for multiple companies instead of just one. You may even personally arrange your daily schedule to cater to and work for as many clients as your time would allow. However, this benefit is very rare, if close to non-existent, for those working full-time.
Having more flexibility also means having more opportunities to have that elusive work-life balance. This also enables you to prioritize certain tasks over others and choose what you want to do and what truly matters most to you.
Moreover, hiring managers and analysts have realized that full-time employment simply does not work for everyone. There really are people who thrive and flourish more by engaging in contract work. This is also why many companies increasingly engage skilled individuals for contract work.
Contract Jobs Fulfill Your Short-Term Goals While Preparing You for Long Term Goals
You may be quite hesitant to consider a contract job because it offers less financial stability than a full-time job. A full-time job may assure you of salary and benefits regularly. However, long-term financial stability is not very far behind, even if you are pursuing contract jobs.
Consider this. Use the flexibility and autonomy you have in a contract job as leverage to learn a specific set of skills that would increase your marketability sooner or later. Build an excellent portfolio of skills that would make your work experience undeniably attractive to prospective employees.
In other words, make the inherent benefits of contract employment work for your own personal development. Plan the contract jobs and gigs that you will accept. Be deliberate with the sectors and industries that you apply for, and have an open mind on what other skills you can learn one job at a time. This is how you make contract jobs work for you in the short term and even in the distant future.
MINIMIZE RISKS AND GET A STEADY STREAM OF CONTRACT WORK WITH DAVIS COMPANIES.
This also highlights the importance of partnering with an expert recruiter that can give you a steady stream of projects to keep you going. Additionally, collaborating with a professional recruiter to help you minimize the risks of contract work is also ideal for making the most out of every professional engagement you enter into.
Reach out to Davis Companies to give yourself an added boost in the competitive contract job market out there.
