Hi, I notice that I received more and more software engineer position which is contract-type rather than permanent. Is it due to my age or is it a trend? I am 44 this year.

The job offer pay is actually not bad and MNC companies. Just that, the majority are contract type and the payroll is from a local company but the work/clients are MNC companies.

Unless you're actively bringing in revenue, it's not unusual for companies to hire devs based on contact for service

If the position is not bringing revenue, the position won't be available also.

Actually, these contract job offer higher salary than the permanent position.

2 reasons,
1. The project or job dont need u for long period
2. Ur age too old, better contract so easy to lay you off. Old age is never in favour for programmers when you keep need to learn new stack every 3 years. Older = burden

I believe its due to the covid and recent news about tech lay-offs, It is expected now that if it is a project based position - contract based workers are easier for employers to lay off once the project is completed or when the demand is low
Unless you are dev-OPS, then due to nature of OPS [routine maintenance patching + app support] work, then it is much easy to justify it to be a permanent role

If Dev-sec-ops ? Wow you should fight for highest pay and permanent job with the best benefit bro

This post has been edited by stinger: Jun 28 2023, 09:58 AM

actually it is a development role. i think you have said make sense. but for development role, won't they want the developer to enhance the system once it is completed also? As we know, software always needs enhancement and never sleep

They need to. But not someone with high pay.
Maintenance mid level engineer is suffice.
High pay means new project new system, start from scratch.

Basically these sort of roles are quite common. For example, a large MNC say Shell wants to work on various projects here. THey don't want to hire permanent staff and hence they want to go through a contracting route. Now MNC companies don't want to deal with multiple contracts for each individual. For example, if they hire 20 contract staff, it means 20x negotiation and contracting basis to deal with. Instead, they would go to a local company which provides contracting staff to the companies. The MNC would agree on a certain rate and treat it as a procurement contract to the contracting company instead of a full time hire staff.

One of the reasons why my previous company (a bank) did this was that our department, which wasn't tech related, couldn't get a tech headcount. We wanted to launch several digital projects and there weren't enough resources within IT to help deliver the project. So we hired contract staff through a contracting company in order to complete the project and get it delivered. Not just tech, but also my UIUX staff as well. Overall, we used them for about 4 years in total.

Back when SAP was really super in demand, these SAP contract staff constantly had the best pick and choice of companies/projects to join and they commanded very high salaries as well.

If you are in my position, will you consider a contract job with higher pay or a permanent job with lower pay? The difference is about let's say 30% of the base salary.

To be very honest, I was in your position in the past when I was in the SAP field. I decided to decline the offer and continued within my own firm which sort of changed my career trajectory (I am now out of SAP). Whether or not that is better or not, I thought it ended up well overall for me to not take it. I do have ex-colleagues who went through that route and then eventually ending up joining larger firms as a permanent staff as well. They shared with me that the psychological factor of it, is that you need to be strong because here is what you would face every day.

1/ Depending on the contracting company and their contract with the larger firm, if you take MC, it basically you don't get paid because if the contracting company charges by man-day rate, the rates are based on the days you actually work.
2/ Performance has to be consistent and always be delivering. You don't have the down times, meaning you are always held to a higher standard
3/ Depending on the work environment, you might be cast aside and definitely not treated as a staff. Some of my colleagues are happy with that and some of them I have seen taken a toll on them.
4/ Every year is a stressful year during contract renewal period. The ones most stressful is being able to justify your existence and your deliverables

All of the above depends on a number of factors, there are cases where the entire project team is on contract so there is less of a chance to face this.

If you decide to go to a contracting company, please ensure that the company contributes to EPF and to the tax, otherwise you would have another administrative headache of doing that yourself as well.

Thanks for sharing your honest thoughts. It helps me to visualize what is ahead if I choose to take that contract path.

Ya they did mention that there is a chance to convert into a permanent position at the end of the contract if my performance is very good and consistent.

Higher pay always comes with higher stress

For me, besides the pay, what attracts me is the opportunity to gain experience in the modern tech stack needed for the position.

Has been struggling to make this complex decision for some time.

no, just some junk company. avoid those roles as a way to protest. they will soon switch back to permanent.

If take contract better make sure pay is high.