Benefits of contracting

Have you considered contracting? Contract roles can offer you greater flexibility, work/life balance and the opportunity to increase hourly earnings.

As well as being specialists in their field, their strengths lie in quickly fitting in and delivering for a new team, expertly managing key projects.

Grow your skills

The variety that comes with working in contract roles increases your skills base, industry knowledge, experience and exposure to dynamic environments. It gives you the opportunity to test your capabilities in new environments, helping you to make the next all-important career decision.

Contracting while you're travelling is also a viable option and there are contract roles available both nationally and internationally.

Case of study: The contractor's point of view

"The main benefits of being a contractor are higher income and flexibility. If you work an eight or nine-month contract at a high level of pay, you can decide if you then want to take some time off, perhaps to travel, without being concerned about money.

Even if you go straight into another contract in the same type of role, you're changing your environment - you're dealing with different cultures, different sizes of company and different people, so you can keep renewing yourself. The biggest frustration on the other hand, is that you're often viewed as an outsider, or as someone who has taken a job from an existing employee. This is understandable, because you might have come in to do something that is not necessarily part of the culture of the company.

In terms of making contract workers effective from day one, I'd say that where clients have told staff about your role as a contractor and have given them the opportunity to ask questions - you are accepted much more quickly and can get on with the task you have been set. In addition, I would advise employers to make the best of all the skills their contractors possess. Contractors brought in for a specialist role often get frustrated if they're capable of more and are happy to take on additional tasks, why not take advantage of all the skills they've learnt from the many different companies they have worked for?"

Scott Burdon, AXA Insurance