Switching to Contracting?

SoonToBeWorking asks: "I recently did a telephone interview for what I thought would be an absolutely wonderful job. It is primarily embedded Linux, with a stable employer that was less than 10 miles from my residence. The interview went extremely well, until the end. The position was listed as full-time but they want me to come on as contractor because the approval is easier to get. Then, I am told they would move me to full-time. I'm recently married, and looking for stable income because I have more than myself to look out for now (kids are not present or on the way for several years yet). I've never contracted before, so I am in unfamiliar territory. I hear a lot of good things -- 3-day work weeks and crazy amounts of money, but is the lack of stability worth it? I know I need my own health & life insurance, but what else? How do I convert my base salary to a contractor rate? Without a 401k or a 403b, how do I take care of retirement?"

Re:don't do it!

[karmatic]

Maybe it's just you [despair.com]

Note: This is intended to be funny, not flamebait.

Re:Just Do It doesn't have to be blind= go visit s

[graphicartist82]

I was applying for an internal position at my employer and to treat me as equally as the other applicants, my co-workers sat in the conference room and gave me a phone interview while I was in my office a few hundred feet away.

Re:Salaried employees are free!

[bani]

You work at Electronic Arts, don't you.

Re:He's right, sorta...

[orderb13]

We only have 5 programmers in my division of the company, and we are ALL looking for new jobs. The corp just doesn't realize that if you treat employees like shit, they'll leave. It's going to be fun too when I leave, I'm going to be pissing on the ashes of this bridge.