My experience is once you step off the path, you're done with corporate W-2. HR will blacklist you if you didn't work 40 hrs in the same job title or one step down last week. Its all about risk minimization and blame minimization for the hiring team, never about "finding someone who can do it" or "finding someone who has done it". Maybe the way to put it is we all know what it takes to work and do a job is not what it takes to get hired. I haven't worked W-2 in some years and its probable I'll never be allowed to work W-2 again beyond McDonalds-level jobs. If you step off the path once, you'll never be permitted the risk of stepping off again.
Staffing-type companies work MUCH better. Someone in IT dept is on maternity leave until March, do whatever you can to help them for two months.
Shockingly you can sometimes get 2x to even 3x their "regular" pay for temp. Plenty of companies have never read their Fred Brooks and think if a project is late they can throw talent at it and it'll get done quicker (spoiler alert, more bodies = later due date every time), regardless I don't mind profiting off their project management inexperience. A permanent-ish "grind away at the desk for years" at the corporate job is probably completely off the table; look for big upgrade projects, 2am maintenance/upgrade projects, etc. Baby sitting server upgrades at 2am is not glamorous, but it can be very profitable... Even less glamorous is taking the on call shift at 2am, but when you bill per hour it feels better... I could never work on call permanently, just a few months will burn most people completely out, but this contract ends on march 31st so I can wait it out.
Recruiter-type companies are hit and miss. They usually take a HUGE percentage cut (so you're taking a huge pay cut) but its usually a fixed-ish percentage so they want you billing 40+ hours every week to maximize their cut. Its the same hoops for them to jump thru for a 3-month part time contract at $75 as for a 12-month full time contract at $175 so you're at the back of the list unless they're infinitely bored. Spoiler, they're almost never bored.
Its kind of important to note if you need to report income monthly or annually. Monthly could be tricky, annual would likely be pretty easy. The work tends to be feast or famine; think of your relationship with your car mechanic, either you want it done yesterday and him working 24 hrs/day or you have zero interest in paying him a penny; this is how your clients will look at you. So if you're close to your income budget it'll be pretty easy to not sign a short term contract for awhile or until next year or whatever. On the other hand if you have to report income monthly that might be painful as you'll run into places that bill net-30, net-90, net-seems-like-forever and you'll suddenly get a check large enough to buy a car, but it'll be one and only one check. Here's two totally different phrases "So I see your monthly income is $30K" vs "Once, one month I got a single check for $30K, but that was the only check I got for about half a year".
Staffing-type companies work MUCH better. Someone in IT dept is on maternity leave until March, do whatever you can to help them for two months. Shockingly you can sometimes get 2x to even 3x their "regular" pay for temp. Plenty of companies have never read their Fred Brooks and think if a project is late they can throw talent at it and it'll get done quicker (spoiler alert, more bodies = later due date every time), regardless I don't mind profiting off their project management inexperience. A permanent-ish "grind away at the desk for years" at the corporate job is probably completely off the table; look for big upgrade projects, 2am maintenance/upgrade projects, etc. Baby sitting server upgrades at 2am is not glamorous, but it can be very profitable... Even less glamorous is taking the on call shift at 2am, but when you bill per hour it feels better... I could never work on call permanently, just a few months will burn most people completely out, but this contract ends on march 31st so I can wait it out.
Recruiter-type companies are hit and miss. They usually take a HUGE percentage cut (so you're taking a huge pay cut) but its usually a fixed-ish percentage so they want you billing 40+ hours every week to maximize their cut. Its the same hoops for them to jump thru for a 3-month part time contract at $75 as for a 12-month full time contract at $175 so you're at the back of the list unless they're infinitely bored. Spoiler, they're almost never bored.
Its kind of important to note if you need to report income monthly or annually. Monthly could be tricky, annual would likely be pretty easy. The work tends to be feast or famine; think of your relationship with your car mechanic, either you want it done yesterday and him working 24 hrs/day or you have zero interest in paying him a penny; this is how your clients will look at you. So if you're close to your income budget it'll be pretty easy to not sign a short term contract for awhile or until next year or whatever. On the other hand if you have to report income monthly that might be painful as you'll run into places that bill net-30, net-90, net-seems-like-forever and you'll suddenly get a check large enough to buy a car, but it'll be one and only one check. Here's two totally different phrases "So I see your monthly income is $30K" vs "Once, one month I got a single check for $30K, but that was the only check I got for about half a year".