Most Vulnerable

It must take courage to be a contractor or else more permanents would be contracting...

Its a big step taking your skills, training, knowledge, experience out of an environment that was known to you... and LOSE the support from systems, procedures, people you have come to know and rely on for your success... and bring that into not just one environment but numerous environments, all with their own quirks, where you are not quite certain how your skills, knowledge, training, experience will stack up, perform and deliver to the level, and standard demanded by the people who you don't yet know, who don't yet know you unsure whether your roadshow will hold together.

Additionally this means leaving behind an environment that was set up deliberately to support you, to provide you training, and to ensure you got the right exposure, experience and mentorship to fully cement that training...

leaving that behind for an environment where that is no longer... for an environment where you need to determine the holes in your own roadshow yourself... where no one will prod you... where no one will offer to fill them... where you need to determine how best to plug them yourself... where you need to provide your own training... where you need to access the relevant experience and mentorship opportunities to cement that training in order to be called.. in order to be hired... in order to stop spending longer times on the bench between contracts... indeed to stop your higher rate from evaporating. On top of that you have a taxation office trying to make out you are operating just like an employee.

So taking the big step requires careful consideration with eyes wide open.
(dare I say 'decision'... dare I say knowing your 'values' to avoid making a wrong decision)

Stepping out with your eyes open means knowing you have weaknesses... means knowing what they are.. means knowing how to create opportunities to overcome them and means knowing how to profit from them and is the most effective path that is the path followed by contractors with roadshows that last.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves... lets get back to the beginning... and open our eyes for a second... and ask

where do you think an employee feels most vulnerable, most insecure when stepping out as a contractor?