Well, I’m not doing well in “retired” life. I’m did make the decision I don’t want to work FT anymore, but only PT. I haven’t been that aggressive in looking for that either…but there’s really nor much out there in the finance/accounting work. I contacted an independent recruiter that came highly recommended. Just me him, and he got me an interview today in the exact field I work at. There looking for someone that is happy working varied hours as needed. Right now FT, but will probably drop to 10 to 20 , then sometimes maybe nothing. They’ve never done this either. Pay is almost what I was making hourly…I was paid a Salary before. I guess I actually work for the recruiter…he will take a cut…that ok, can’t believe I got this so quickly. Does anyone know how much they take, just curious.
Anyway…I’m excited, but scared. Starting a new job after 28 years.
A reputable recruiter would never take a direct cut of your pay. The company usually pays the recruiter either a % of salary or a lump finder’s fee. Beware that your pay is not going to be the same - you will be responsible for the portion of social security tax paid by the employer as well as your own. That’s the downside. The upside is flexible work schedule. Good luck!
CC editing function is too slow… Are you saying that you are going to be a part-time employee of the recruiting company but will be doing the work for another company? Or are you going to be a W9 contractor for the company that will be using your services?
We may have to disappoint you but unless you will be working on 1099 you are not a contractor. If they make you fill W4 and take taxes/fica out of your pay - you are a temporary employee of a consulting company.
“Pay is almost what I was making hourly…I was paid a Salary before.”
This is wrong - you should be making more per hour than before to compensate for irregular earnings and loss of benefits.
The good thing - if the client likes you - you may be able to dump the greedy consulting company and start working directly for the client as a real contractor. Then you will open your own company and hire additional personnel to work for you and you will get a cut from their earnings. Now sky is the limit. :-*
Sounds like the temp agency my D2 worked for. They found you a job for a company but your pay came from them. In my D2’s case, I seem to remember there were even some fringe benefit options from the temp firm.
After 1 month my D was told by the company she was placed with that they wanted to hire her full time and working for them. Her pay went up considerably because the temp company was no longer getting their cut or share.
If she had not been offered a full time permanent job, the temp agency would have found her another temp or part time job after this one was over.
It seems to be a win/win. My D got to find out about different jobs available and try them or not. She turned down at least one offer. The company lets the temp agency filter applicants for them and allows them to try out an employee before offering a full time job. Kind of like a summer internship.
BUT, regarding your original question about variable hours: (I think that was the original question --)
I work part-time, from my house, in a part-time variable capacity. There is a busy season – August through November – and during that timeframe I might average 20 hours a week. Occasionally it’s as much as 30 hours a week. Other times, it’s more like five hours a week. And sometimes there’s no hours at all. I love the work, love the fact that I work at home. I wish the hours were more regular – eg, 12 hours on average and therefore 12 hours each and every week – but I really can’t complain.
ETA: Especially because my hourly rate is really nice. No complaints there at all. And, I love what I do. I actually enjoy it. Lots of time, it doesn’t even feel like work to me.
I contracted through a recruitment firm a number of years ago - recruitment firm paid me and there were benefits that came along. I negotiated the salary with the recruitment company so that there was some parity to what i was previously earning. I don’t want to even think what they were charging the company for me. I rather enjoyed the fact that my hours varied and because I was not an employee or contracted by the company directly there was some freedom regarding hours. I did not drive in on icy, snowy days for instance at the crack of dawn. I’m almost ‘done’ with the full time, go to an office, etc. etc. and am slowly starting to look for either something with flexible hours or a remote/work from home job. Makes total sense to me to end my career that way and move more formally toward retirement.
That just isn’t true that a reputable recruiter for CONTRACTORS won’t take a cut out of your pay. In the IT world, that is pretty much how they all work. I have been an independent contractor for 17 years. Typically if they find the contract, you give up around 25% of the rate charged to the client, give or take maybe 5%. Best deal is if you can find your own contract through people you know, then just use the recruiter as a billing agent (then they only take like $5/hour). This is all when I go corp-to-corp (my S-corp typically contracts with the recruiter’s company for my services). A 1099 or W-2 contractor might give up more of their rate.
Also, regarding “dumping” the recruiting company, a lot of times your contract with them will have a clause saying you have to go through them if you contract at that client for given period (often a year or two). Read that clause carefully – I have seen consulting companies who tried to get you to sign that if you go to ANY of their clients (not just the one you are going to contract at) for a period of time you have to go through them. Unethical, but the guy I caught with that clause would not budge. I ended up not taking the contract, as I knew I wanted to be able to talk to some of their other clients on my own or go through other consulting firms to some of their other clients.
Intparent, it is possible that it works like that in the IT where the “contract” is a pre-defined job. In fields like biotech, where help comes as needed, without a defined project, the company pays the finder’s fee and then deals with the contractor directly (or the contractor is a temp directly employed by the agency like LabTemps and does not get to negotiate the pay with the actual employer at all). Been there myself, negotiated my own hourly rate and got a fat 1099 in the end - nobody took a cut out of it. If conmama has not been told how much the guy is going to get out of her pay… it is a HUGE red flag for me.
Never used any billing agents either! I sent my own bills to the co and got my pay. Why should I pay someone 5% out of my hard earned money for a job (i.e., billing) that takes 5 minutes?
Because most of the companies do not want to hire people on 1099 directly due to IRS scrutiny. If you open your own company then you will have to become “an approved vendor” and this is not always easy. So the majority of the contractors are hiding behind some already approved vendor that takes a cut of your earnings.
“Because most of the companies do not want to hire people on 1099 directly due to IRS scrutiny.”
Not my in my experience. If they hire me directly, they do not have to pay someone for the luxury of avoiding some minor inconvenience. The benefit outweighs the risk big time.
Again, the fact that conmama has to ask how much she will have to pay the recruiter is a red flag for me. I would run from anyone who is not upfront about the “fees.”
The IT consulting companies generally do not volunteer how much they are taking, although I have always been told if I ask the vendor (I usually ask what rate the client is actually paying, I can then do the math). The contracts aren’t really for pre-defined jobs – they might have a title, like project manager for X project, but it is not uncommon for the client to decide to assign me to something else instead or at the end of project X. It is very open ended. So it is quite lucrative to supply contractors in the tech industry, although they are also then responsible if the contractor performs poorly.
Regarding approved vendors, I have an S-Corp, but most clients still make me go through an approved vendor (they don’t want to contract with a one-person company). Maybe because IT uses a lot of contractors, companies have a more mature purchasing process. 15 years ago I could avoid the preferred vendor situation, but it has been ubiquitous for the past 7-8 years. If the vendor comes to me with a position one of their clients wants filled, that is when the vendor gets a bigger cut of the hourly rate. If I find the contract, but just need to bill through a preferred vendor, then they take a little cut. But there is no avoiding billing through a preferred vendor at any of my recent clients.
I worked on 1099 twice and both times I did not know how much the intermediary charged the client for my services. I really did not care as long as my rate was competitive. The real red flag should be a non-competitive rate that is below the hourly earnings of a comparable full-time employee.
I make a lot more than an FTE. But I provide my own health insurance & disability insurance, pay both sides of social security, often pay my own training expenses, and have down time between contracts (sometimes unplanned).
And sometimes there’s no hours at all. I love the work, love the fact that I work at home. I wish the hours were more regular – eg, 12 hours on average and therefore 12 hours each and every week – but I really can’t complain.