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Comment by dizzy3gg | Hacker News Reader

Contracting is pretty popular in London. Is contracting as popular in SF? I don't hear much about it. In London a decent mid-level developer can earn £500 a day, the shortage of developers at the moment, it's a no brainer for me. Obviously it's not for everybody. Any idea what a Senior/Team Lead earns contracting?

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Any idea how to go about getting those contracts? Is it all about connections or do you go through recruiters? Also how long do they usually last before you have to find a new one?

Honestly a good recruiter can get you good contracts. Then you build up contacts via the contracts you've taken.

Eventually you won't need a recruiter

In 5 years of contracting, I was never out of work involuntarily.

https://www.jobserve.com/gb/en/JobSearch.aspx?shid=6450B5D05...

.net is my day job, there is quite a lot of work in this space. Google .net contracts north west and find the recruitment consultants that get contract work and you're away. Once you've got few of them you'll be inundated with emails. They usually last between 3 months and 2 years really, any longer and there a few tax issues, but still possible. Always good to have a couple of clients on to help protect you from the IR35 Police. I'm not based in London but Manchester is catching up :)

15 years "senior" developer here. £900/day at a bank with little stress, and 9-5 hours. I've been a contractor for ten years and built up a lot of contacts, but some of my gigs I have gotten through recruiters and I'd recommend just applying for contracting positions. The hardest part when starting out contracting is getting past the recruiter (who just want to match your skills to the letter of the job specification).

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