Ask HN: Should I go full time in my main job?

[simopaa]

For the past three years I've been working part time (0 hour contract) as a developer while completing my studies. Now that I'm graduating, I have a choice between going full-time or continuing with the current style of contract.

I've been loving the freedom that the 0-hour gives me - and the boost in productivity compared to the 8-hour day - and the possibilities in improving myself in the spared hours. However, considering our current projects, I would still probably keep putting in about 6h/day.

There are benefits in full time as well. If I were to take it, I would gain access to paid holidays (meaning Christmas, Easter etc. I do get actual holidays the same as everyone else) and sick-days, as well as maybe improved guarantees and rights. The company argues that it would be easier to manage the bureaucracy as well as estimate the times for each project.

If anyone has had any experience in a similar choice, or has any opinions either way, it would be most appreciated.

[brudgers]

Random advice from the internet:

Get a full time job and build your professional network and learn from more experienced people and gain experience within a business. Doing what you are doing now is not growing. And since you will be doing less than you are doing now because you will not be in school, it might even be the opposite of growing.

Keep in mind, zero hour contracts have a low net present value. 6/hrs per day should be discounted by the probability that the contract is gone in two months...perhaps without warning and perhaps without final payment.

  And companies that contract with students often
  replace graduating students with current students
  because their practice is Using Student Contractors.

Finally, it makes sense to look at employment opportunities beyond your partner in the current contract. That may vastly increase your professional network, opportunities to learn, and your diversity of business experience.

Good luck.

[DamonHD]

I think 'full time job' is overrated and I've only had one for about 6 weeks since university. On the other hand I have worked some sort of freelancing and startups for 30 years often putting lots of hours and doing what we'd now called 'networking'! And a lot of 'diversity of business experience' too. And I've considered myself to be fireable on a days' notice almost all of that time.

[brudgers]

My advice is worth, at best, half what I charged.

Thirty years ago, freelancing probably involved more face to face interaction than it does today just because how 300 baud shaped the world of 1987...it was well into the 1990's before the turn-on-your-modem-and-even-or-odd-parity phone conversation became less necessary.

Thirty years ago working on open source projects (an alternative to full time employment proposed in the question) probably meant being part of a small cutting edge community working on something important. Today, the median open source project is one one person repository on Github.

I've also done a lot of freelancing and consulting over the past 25 years. I'd be better at it if I was better at networking because that's much of what consulting is and it suits personalities that are inclined to enjoy networking or feel its importance more than personalities that are not so inclined. It might have been useful to me had someone pointed that out when I was young...though might not have listened.

Anyway, some people consider a zero hour contract with maybe six hours of work per day to be perfect. After 25 years consulting/freelancing/contracting I prefer a big retainer check that has cleared the bank. YMMV.

[simopaa]

Solid advice, thanks!

Hadn't really considered that the company might like to replace me with another, cheaper student. I do, however, consider my position guaranteed for at least the year's end, but I suppose that's what everyone says before they get let go..

One of the main advantages that I see in zero-hour contracts (=less time spent on the job) would give me more opportunities to participate in i.e. open source, since I'd probably not be too exhausted after a work day. This, I think, would contribute more to my growth than stagnating in the current job too much. Of course, there is the risk that the increased spare time would not be spent on anything even remotely useful.

I agree that it might make sense that it could be best to change the company, but that's something I'm not ready to do, at least in the near future. The current projects are too cool for that

[brudgers]

The reason I considered that the company might just hire another student is because experience has taught me that businesses tend to have consistent practices.

Cool projects make it easy to attract students. Hiring a new student increases the odds of finding someone who will go full time after graduation.

Again, this is random advice from the internet. To me, the most important piece of it is to expand your professional network, learn new things, and get business experience.

[paktek123]

I'd say do whatever you are comfortable with. If you enjoy your current setup, why change it unless you have to ?