Left job due to RTO and now working part time as a contractor

[Anonymous]

I quit my in house attorney job earlier this year basically because of RTO. I have tried to land something else but have not been successful.

In the meantime, I have picked up contracting work that pays $100-150/hour through some of the online remote employer firms, and also through a few of my existing contacts.

While it can be challenging (some months I have only made $2k, but others I have made $15k without even working full time!), I am finding this to be bliss compared to the last 15 years of working for firms/government where my boss essentially had ownership over my time from 8-5, Monday-Friday (at least).

I have gotten a couple of interviews lately, but now I am thinking I don't even want to go back to my old way of working. I have a child with SN and am also ADHD/introverted/lower energy myself, and this has been the most amazing 6 months of my working life. The max I have worked (even in the month when I eared $15k) was 25 hours/week. I have been able to drop my kids off from school and pick them up and fit all of my working hours in between. It has been absolutely life changing for my family, my child with SN, and my physical and emotional health.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Is this too good to be true? I do need to make more money, but I am not sure I can bring myself to go back to the old way of life, even if that means we have to make other difficult decisions (like downsizing our house or cutting back on other things). I am just thinking maybe I can grow this contractor work, too, and maybe it will become more steady and maybe even higher paying?

I would love to hear from other people who have had a similar experience.

[Anonymous]

I have an attorney friend who has worked contracts for many years. She is always worried about securing the next contract. I think she enjoyed the variety and flexibility before, but now that she is older and single, she would prefer more stability. Unfortunately, she has not found anything permanent despite looking for quite a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an attorney friend who has worked contracts for many years. She is always worried about securing the next contract. I think she enjoyed the variety and flexibility before, but now that she is older and single, she would prefer more stability. Unfortunately, she has not found anything permanent despite looking for quite a while.

OP Here. Ugh. Yes that is another consideration. I think my prior jobs were definitely more prestigious than the work I am doing now. I don't care about the prestige at all but I should think about where I want to be and if I want to keep doing this forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an attorney friend who has worked contracts for many years. She is always worried about securing the next contract. I think she enjoyed the variety and flexibility before, but now that she is older and single, she would prefer more stability. Unfortunately, she has not found anything permanent despite looking for quite a while.

I went the other way. I needed stability when my kids were younger. But, most of my career has been as a contractor, though I'm in the tech field.

[Anonymous]

My husband switched to being an independent contractor in 2019 and never looked back. Says he will never work for anyone but himself ever again. There is always the concern about finding clients, but the pros are still quite strong. The financial benefits at tax time are also really good.

[Anonymous]

Do you Emma $15k before taxes? Do you have health insurance through your spouses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you Emma $15k before taxes? Do you have health insurance through your spouses?

Op here. Yes spouse has benefits. $15k was before taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband switched to being an independent contractor in 2019 and never looked back. Says he will never work for anyone but himself ever again. There is always the concern about finding clients, but the pros are still quite strong. The financial benefits at tax time are also really good.

OP here. I didn't expect to like it as much as I do. It has just been so so so heavenly. I am content to make less money and deal with the uncertainty to a point.

To make things even more complex, I was just offered a job as a Fed. Which I know, in theory, should be flexible. But I worked as a Fed attorney for 5 years and I did not find it to be flexible. The workload was immense.

[Anonymous]

The only thing I would worry about is stability. I have a lot of friends who did contract work after their children were born and after a few years, the work dried up. There was only so much they could do for their existing clients and their POCs moved away, switched industries, no longer had leads, etc.

I was in a different situation in that I was already working full-time, but I work part-time now and really enjoy it. I work 20 hours a week and don't take meetings before 10:00am or after 3:00pm.

[Anonymous]

How stable is your spouse's job? Do you have sufficient savings if he gets laid off and loses benefits? Do you have large bills, any debt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How stable is your spouse's job? Do you have sufficient savings if he gets laid off and loses benefits? Do you have large bills, any debt?

Op here. Spouse’s job is extremely secure. Our savings has been wiped out and we do have some debt that we are very slowly paying down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing I would worry about is stability. I have a lot of friends who did contract work after their children were born and after a few years, the work dried up. There was only so much they could do for their existing clients and their POCs moved away, switched industries, no longer had leads, etc.

I was in a different situation in that I was already working full-time, but I work part-time now and really enjoy it. I work 20 hours a week and don't take meetings before 10:00am or after 3:00pm.

Op here. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic but I’ve put zero effort into business development. The work just keeps materializing. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky but I feel like there is work out there and I’m landing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I quit my in house attorney job earlier this year basically because of RTO. I have tried to land something else but have not been successful.

In the meantime, I have picked up contracting work that pays $100-150/hour through some of the online remote employer firms, and also through a few of my existing contacts.

While it can be challenging (some months I have only made $2k, but others I have made $15k without even working full time!), I am finding this to be bliss compared to the last 15 years of working for firms/government where my boss essentially had ownership over my time from 8-5, Monday-Friday (at least).

I have gotten a couple of interviews lately, but now I am thinking I don't even want to go back to my old way of working. I have a child with SN and am also ADHD/introverted/lower energy myself, and this has been the most amazing 6 months of my working life. The max I have worked (even in the month when I eared $15k) was 25 hours/week. I have been able to drop my kids off from school and pick them up and fit all of my working hours in between. It has been absolutely life changing for my family, my child with SN, and my physical and emotional health.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Is this too good to be true? I do need to make more money, but I am not sure I can bring myself to go back to the old way of life, even if that means we have to make other difficult decisions (like downsizing our house or cutting back on other things). I am just thinking maybe I can grow this contractor work, too, and maybe it will become more steady and maybe even higher paying?

I would love to hear from other people who have had a similar experience.

A friend of mine did this years ago. She got board certified in her area of specialization and hires herself out for motion practice in that specialty area. I think it sounds like the best of both worlds as long as you don't need health benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing I would worry about is stability. I have a lot of friends who did contract work after their children were born and after a few years, the work dried up. There was only so much they could do for their existing clients and their POCs moved away, switched industries, no longer had leads, etc.

I was in a different situation in that I was already working full-time, but I work part-time now and really enjoy it. I work 20 hours a week and don't take meetings before 10:00am or after 3:00pm.

Op here. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic but I’ve put zero effort into business development. The work just keeps materializing. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky but I feel like there is work out there and I’m landing it.

I thought with contracting, BD is the biggest part of the job?

[Anonymous]

I would be concerned that these 15K months don't outweigh the 2K months. You're in debt with no savings. It sounds like you can't afford to not have a reliable income.