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Many IT professionals are resistant to contracting.  However, when you’re looking for new roles, IT recruiters would strongly suggest that you consider contracting roles.  Especially in the tech field, contracting can have a lot of benefits that permanent roles don’t.  Here are 3 reasons why IT staffing firms suggest you seriously consider contracting in your next role.

1. You can expand your technical skills and experience. Contracting means moving around more, but it also means getting exposed to new technologies and skills as you move.  As opposed to a permanent job that you may spend years at, contacting lets you move on to work with new software, programming languages, etc, sooner.  This translates to faster growth in your career and a resume that is more enticing to employers and IT recruiting companies.

2. You might make more money. IT staffing companies often find their contractors have a higher income when they can go on their partners’ benefits. The biggest differences between contracting and permanent roles are usually the benefits (most contracting roles don’t provide benefits).  However, this isn’t actually much of a problem for some people.  If you have a spouse or long term domestic partner, you can often get benefits through their job.  (It’s worth noting that the cost per partner may actually be cheaper this way.)  Most contracting jobs pay more money to help you buy benefits completely on your own (often expensive).  You’ll be making more money, but spending less of it on healthcare, dental etc.  Thus you’ll find yourself with a fatter paycheck.

3. You can get hired faster. IT recruiting firms find that the hiring process for contractors is often less time-consuming and stringent.  If you need to move on from your current role quickly, contracting is a better way to do this.  Perhaps you need to move to a new area of the country, your current role is at a toxic workplace, or you need to make more money soon.  Being open to contracting will help you land IT jobs much faster to solve these problems.