Anyone moved from perm to contractor / interim roles and regretted it? Finance / accounting.

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Participant

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Caporegime
Joined
13 May 2003
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Location
Warwickshire
I just don't think I'm a good fit for permanent positions. I crave variety and hate office politics. I also dislike managing people and don't like the expectations on salaried staff to get involved with every team building event and waste of time meeting.

I'm in a position where I can instantly choose between a 6 month FTC role where everyone is friendly and it's a fairly easy ride, and a permanent job where my boss is a bit of a swearing table thumper. Short female with something to prove in a male-dominated industry, I think.

I'm in a massive dilemma with this tbh. I love contracting because of the variety and lack of politics, but don't want the job insecurity as I have a huge mortgage and young family that depend on me. Overall compensation between the two is basically the same.

Everyone says they don't know any decent contractors struggling for work so I should be fine, but I'm still nervous. However I don't think I'll ever be happy in a permanent role because of who I am.

Oh and in the contract role I only have to go into the office once per week whereas for the perm role it's office based, 25 miles each way.

I'm minded to become a career interim but terrified of it too!
 
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Well I've plumped for the permanent role as I just can't afford a period without work. My mortgage is now £2.5k per month on a £466k balance, so until I can pay it off, I've decided that no matter how much I prefer interim / contracting, it's just too risky at the moment.
 
I'm three months into the perm job I moved to above and really dislike it.

I had my appraisal and probation review yesterday and although I passed, my boss spent most of the review complaining about my team never being in the office and how it was getting embarrassing, it's not a hybrid role, etc. I don't think she had a single good thing to say about what I'd done in the probation and was absolutely fixated on moaning about my team, all of which were hired by my predecessor.

I was thinking - wow you're so old fashioned, but of course toed the line.

I hate wasting 2 hours per day 3-4 days per week commuting and getting home just in time for dinner, if I'm lucky. Being paid well, but I'm just not happy and spend most of Sunday dreading the next day.

I've been offered a 6 month FTC in a completely different sector and different to my normal work, in transformation / systems implementation rather than a more normal accounting job, and only 2 days in the office per week (though I get the impression this is flexible too). Similar total compensation.

I am desperate to take it and get out but am actually terrified of not having anything decent to jump to when the project is delivered. Dilemma.
 
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