Permanent Thinking in a Contract World
This year, I found myself stepping into the world of contracting after being made redundant. I’d been in my role for less than two years, following 13+ years at my previous company, so to say that it completely blindsided me is an understatement; I was literally hit for six.
Initially, your confidence takes a hit, which in my case was exacerbated, because they couldn’t find anything for me. No alternative to consider, no other role to trial, I simply didn’t fit into their plans, and had to go round the business asking to be taken in; a very humbling experience that puts you back at square one.
So, I left. No real plan. No idea what was next. Just reassessing whether I was good enough.
In the months after, for fear of further rejection I was selective: recruiters, speculative outreach, focused applications, conferences and networking, until eventually a role came my way.
To Take or Not to Take
The opportunity was a short term contract with PwC in their Operate Managed Services function, supporting Barclays with a Market Data Transformation project. Market Data has always been a part of all my previous roles with Operations and processes underpinning it, so I was confident I had the transferrable skills to do it and do it well. The thing I had to weigh up was waiting for something longer or more permanent vs the opportunity to have two very reputable companies on my CV — consulting giant PwC and british banking royalty Barclays, even if it was just for 4-5 months.
However, after much consideration, it felt like the right opportunity so I took it. Because sometimes in life, you just have take what’s put in front of you and see where it takes you.
The Shift in Mindset
Whether by choice, by circumstance or a combination of the two, I realised that contracting brings its own unique set of challenges and opportunities. Whilst the core principles of doing well at work remain the same i.e. showing curiosity, building trust, and adding value, there’s a fundamental difference when you’re a contractor: you have to make an impact, quickly.
And with that said, this was probably my first hurdle to overcome.
Because, in a permanent role you often think in terms of long-term improvements: building new processes, influencing culture, and delivering change that compounds over time. As a contractor, you have to balance that instinct with the reality that your value lies in delivering on your book of work and what the business needs right now.
I still wanted to fix and improve things that mattered because I could see how they were connected and understood what the impact would be downstream, but I had to prioritise what could be done fast and well. Because from the minute I logged on, the clock was always ticking, but that did allow me to focus my priorities and impact.
The 48-Hour Diagnostic
Success as a contractor is often determined in the first two days. It’s your first opportunity to not only understand the assignment, but also to make an impression, tease out your experiences, find out who the main contacts are, and demonstrate how much of the processes you can patch together with limited information. Which is why I developed my 48-Hour Diagnostic to ensure that I wasn’t just “busy”, but effective from the outset:
Access & Systems: Don’t wait for an invite. Get connected and introduce yourself to the relevant people and systems, both internal and external from Day 1. Every hour that passes by is an hour that you’re not delivering.
Key Stakeholder(s): It’s important to ask your key stakeholder(s) what they need from you, what does success looks like, and over what timeframes. The brief is just words on paper, which doesn’t necessarily translate to what is really needed.
Knowledge: this can be quite vast, but identifying who has the knowledge, who has the data and who understands the history is essential, because they can save you a lot of time in understanding who does what and the downstream impact.
Operating Model: if you can get some visual aides or start to map out the data flows, processes and where the friction points are, this will give you a great overview of the landscape and assess where you can get some quick wins.
If you can get these under your belt and quickly, then it really does set you up for success and puts you in a really good place to hit the ground running, as soon as possible.
The Trade-Offs
Let’s be clear: contracting is not for everyone, and as I go into my fourth month I periodically flip between whether it is or isn’t for me, because you lose the traditional safety nets. It doesn’t offer the same sense of stability or built-in career development that comes with full-time employment. And ultimately, you are only as good as your last deliverable.
But the upside is a different kind of security: the security of high-demand skills. In my case, I’ve been able to (1) gain exposure to immediate senior decision making and have some level of influence, (2) guide and direct working groups, (3) bypass elements of corporate red tape because of the necessity to deliver quickly, and personally, (4) start to shape my career based on actual tangible results and impact rather than length of service.
Although it’s a trade-off worth considering, the reality is that it’s not all glitz and glam.
You’re ultimately at the service of the business; brought in to deliver, often at speed, and with clear expectations from day one. If targets shift or budgets tighten, contractors are often the first to go. So it’s vital to go in with confidence and clarity: make sure you fully understand the assignment, the timeframes, and what success looks like from the perspective of your stakeholders.
Final Thoughts
I’ll admit, I was initially hesitant about contracting. Having built my career in permanent positions, the idea of a short-term contract felt uncertain. But the reality has been the opposite: the exposure, learning, and breadth of work I’ve experienced in a short time, are new skills and a type of critical and commercial thinking that I may not have gained as quickly in a longer-term role.
Some highlights include:
Conducting competitor analysis new services and products as part of multi-year strategic partnerships
Putting together proof concepts for market data workflows and process enhancements
Connecting with established external market data vendors including Expand, Substantive Research and 3Di
Gaining exposure to the GenAI and TradAI landscape, and how these technologies are shaping data and research models
It’s funny how things turn out, because what felt like a setback in one moment has now become something quite valuable. On top of this, the contract has been extended for another couple of months, which gives me further opportunity to make a good impression, build my CV of tangible deliverables, and continue to develop new skills.
The increase of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructures, and the rise of AI reshaping how we work, is posing all sorts of questions to businesses and people. Business are reassessing what and how they need to deliver, and challenging themselves around who they need to do that. For people, it’s forcing us to upgrade our skills, how we think and where we can add value.
However, in my short amount of time contracting, I’ve realised that I have all the tools and I’m more ready than I think. The key is understanding the rules of engagement and then what I do from there on in.
