In this week’s episode we cover everything you need to know about Salesforce contracting, how to find and secure opportunities, how to get set up, and how to make yourself marketable
Ben (00:02.666)
Welcome back to Talent Hub Talk. Today’s episode is for anyone considering making the leap from permanent employment into the contract market. And today I’ll discuss some of the things you really need to think about and consider if you are planning that move. We have seen a big increase in Salesforce specialists moving into the contract market over the last few years. And it’s definitely no secret that the earning potential as a contractor can be significant. Now, contracting can be a great option for people, but it isn’t for everyone. And if you are considering making the move, here are my thoughts on some of the things you need to work through before making that leap.
So, the first one is how do your skills stack up against the market? I think this is a really important point to consider because I have seen, more so over the last couple of years than more recently, but through the COVID period, there was a real rush for people to move into the contract market and to take advantage of the boom in the ecosystem, which I can completely understand, but the market has tightened a little bit over the last six to 12 months. And I think it’s now really important to understand how your skills stack up against other people that are applying for contract roles. So when a company goes to market and looks to hire a contractor, they’re typically looking for a specific set of skills to meet a certain requirement or a certain list of requirements on a project or within a team. So they’re typically looking to fill some specific requirements rather than looking for just a Salesforce Developer with a broad range of experience, or someone that has a couple of years experience. They’re typically looking for someone that can come in and hit the ground running, and deliver on a list of requirements very quickly. So it’s really important to understand, you know, how your skills actually stack up and the experience you have, whether or not that’s actually the skills and experience people are looking for right now in the market. So as an example, as a Salesforce Developer, if you’re going for a contract role, there’s a very good chance that you’ll need good Lightning Web Component experience. Another contract might be for someone with really strong integration experience. We don’t typically see contract requirements for people that are developing their skills in these areas. And when a company is looking to hire, they’re looking for someone to come in day one and be able to deliver, therefore, if you haven’t got those skills, I’m not saying you can’t find a contract role, but I’m saying that most of the contract opportunities will be in these areas. Most of the requirements we would see for a Developer would be for someone that’s very experienced and strong in a particular area. If you look at Admin roles, as an example, you’re probably going to need to be comfortable with flows to be a contractor, because companies are going to tend to look for someone that really ticks a lot of boxes when they are going out to the contract market. So it’s really important that you’re honest with yourself, that you do a really good, thorough assessment of where your gaps might be, and then you look to plug these gaps before you delve into the contract market. The biggest risk is that if you don’t do that, you may find one contract role quickly, which would be great. But then obviously, the key to contracting is consistency of contract opportunities. So you don’t want to find that you find your first role really quickly, but then it’s a real struggle to find contracts two and three. So yeah, really, really look at where your gaps are and what the skills are in demand in the market right now. And make sure that you know, you are able to hit the ground running when you do land a contract role and or you’re able to impress people in an interview and because your skills are up to scratch and you’ve kind of made sure that the latest and the greatest in the Salesforce ecosystem is under your skill remit, I guess.
The next point is how soon can you be available? I see a lot of people that are looking to make the leap into the contract market, but they can be hampered by a long notice period in their permanent role. The typical notice period in Australia and New Zealand would be four weeks, which is usually acceptable to companies that are looking to hire contractors. In some cases they won’t be able to wait the full four weeks, so they may ask people to negotiate, or may favour candidates that are available sooner. But on the whole, four weeks does tend to be acceptable when people are hiring contractors. Anything over that does get a little bit difficult, and I know some people do have 8 week notice periods and sometimes longer. So you really need to be clear on when you can be available. If your notice period is negotiable, then great. If it’s not then just be clear upfront with any potential customers around your availability because if you do have a longer notice period than 4 weeks, it may mean that you would need to resign before you receive an offer which can put you in a bit more of a difficult situation so just really be clear and make sure you know when you are available and make sure you’re aware of all the terms in your employment contract with your current employer to know where you stand if an opportunity comes up quickly.
The next point I think you need to think about is what the shortest contract you would consider is and I think a lot of people when they’re looking to leave a permanent role, they’re looking for the longest potential contract they can secure, we speak to a lot of people that say they won’t consider anything under 12 months. But the reality is that 12 month contracts are few and far between. They do come up, absolutely, but they’re not the norm. I would say the norm for contracts is six months, but we definitely do see contracts for shorter as well. So just have a think about what you’re willing to leave a permanent role for. Be clear with anyone you’re speaking to, you know, if you’re speaking to recruiters, if you’re speaking to customers directly, be really, really clear with how long a contract needs to be for you to consider it. But if you are going to hold out for a 12 month contract, then you will miss out on a large percentage of the opportunities in the market. Because most contracts in my experience do start at kind of six months. They do have the potential to extend, but they’re often six months upfront. So that’s going to be something you need to consider and be comfortable with before you make the leap and start applying for roles.
My next point is how many days do you need to work per year to cover your current pay and benefits? So one of the biggest reasons that people will look to move into the contract market is obviously pay, because you’ll see a lot of the high level figures that people say they earn, typically based on a daily rate can be very significant. But the one thing I would make clear is that in a contract role, typically you won’t be paid for any sick leave, any annual leave or any public holiday. And so it’s really important that you consider the overall package that you’re getting now, because contractors typically don’t get paid any benefits on top of the daily or hourly rate that they earn. And so if your current package, let’s say is $150,000 plus Super, plus, you know, health care plus a bonus. What you really need to do is work out the, you know, in the best year, the current package, so if you get your complete total bonus, your benefits are obviously consistent, and you work and are paid your salary, what that looks like, and then break that down into what that needs to be in a daily rate. I always advise people that they work out their daily rate based on a 46-week year, because you’re not going to work every single day of the year, you’re going to have potentially some leave, potentially some sick leave, also public holidays and things like that. So if you work out what your daily rate would be over a 46 week period, then that gives you the equivalent of if you typically work 46 weeks with your current employer, which means taking away the annual leave of four weeks and the 10 days sick leave in Australia that you’re entitled to, carers leave, then that will give you kind of the equivalent. So, yeah, work out the daily rate on 46 weeks and work out what that actually means. And if that covers your current pay, your current benefits, obviously it’s your decision whether or not that’s going to be the right figure for you to move for if you’re going to look for more. But then also be really clear on actually, what’s the market paying and speak to people in the market that know. My recommendation here is obviously is going to be speaking to recruiters because they actually have their ear to the ground, they’re speaking to people day to day, they understand what people are earning and what companies are paying. So yeah, although you need to work out what the minimum figure is that you’re looking, that you could leave your current role for, obviously speak to people in the market that know what actually your skills are worth in the market right now, what companies are paying for your skillset, and then work out the figure that you’re going to quote to potentially other recruiters and employers around what you’re looking for. Yeah, really, really consider what the overall package in your permanent role is, not just what the base element is, not just what the Superannuation element is, but other benefits you may be getting that you wouldn’t get when you’re contracting, and then work out your minimum expectations from there.
My next point is to consider how you will feel about a shorter notice period and potentially less security. So as I said earlier, in most permanent roles, you’ll have typically a four week notice period on both sides. So if you decide to leave, you need to give four weeks notice. If the company decide to let you go for any reason, there’s also four weeks notice in most cases, obviously gross misconduct may mean that isn’t the case. Redundancy might mean that you get more or sometimes less depending on how long you’ve been with the company, I believe. There are some situations where four weeks notice would be more or less, but typically with a contract role You’ll see that a notice period will be anything from you know, no notice I’ve seen with some New South Wales government departments through to four weeks But the norm would probably be around one to two weeks notice for a contractor. So yeah, how do you feel about that? Let’s say on average the notice is probably one to two weeks. How do you feel that a company could let you go and you’d need to find another role in one to two weeks? Historically, contracting has been seen as less secure. I would say that’s probably less of a thing since COVID. I think we’ve seen companies letting people go at short notice in permanent roles. Obviously, companies that you would have thought would have been very secure were affected by downturns and the market through COVID.
And yeah, I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily the perception that Permanent is any more secure than Contract now, but you just need to be comfortable with the fact that, you know, if you are contracting, a company doesn’t necessarily have to make you redundant. If they are to let you go, they can just utilize the notice period in the contract. So these decisions can be made far quicker than going through a redundancy process with an employer. So you just need to be comfortable that potentially there is going to be a quicker turnaround if anything goes wrong on the contract. If you’re deemed to not be performing or if the company’s project is canned or their budget is pulled, these decisions can happen quickly and yeah, potentially you’d need to find a job a lot quicker than if you were in a permanent role.
That leads me into the next point around how long can you go without work. So, if you are unfortunately let go from a contract. If the project is canned or the budget is pulled and you are given notice, how much money do you have saved? How much do you have that will cover your expenses and how long will they cover your expenses for? Because yeah, there’s no guarantee obviously that another contract is around the corner. I would like to think that if you’ve got the right skills and there isn’t a massive downturn any further in the market, then there’ll be opportunity out there. But you can never guarantee that another contract is going to come around in one week, two weeks, three weeks or four. You can never really predict when the next contract is going to be. So it’s really important that you consider how long you can actually go without work for before you would need to be in employment, need to consider going back into a permanent role. Ultimately, how big is your safety net to cover those expenses that you have, that you will continue to have, and then work out how feasible going into the contract market actually is for you. I don’t have any kind of suggestion around how many months worth of expenses you would need to have covered. This is all down to kind of personal risk preference and how you feel about that. So yeah, only you can answer that, but it’s really important to know what your expenses are and if everything goes wrong in the market, how long you’ll be able to continue paying those expenses.
The next one is around what engagement structure is best for you. So I’m giving insight to this one based on the Australian market, but if you’re listening in the US, the UK, or wherever really, you need to consider the different engagement structures that are available to you and speak to an Accountant. So in Australia, we have the option of being PAYG, which means that you go on to either the recruitment company’s payroll, or in some cases, potentially even the employer’s payroll, and you’re paid a daily rate, but you’re paid as an employee. So they would pay your Superannuation, they would pay your tax, and then you’re paid a net figure, whether that’s on a fortnightly or monthly basis, or in some cases weekly. So that’s PAYG, and then the other option is PTY Limited. So you would set up your own PTY Limited company in Australia and you would invoice the recruitment company or the customer, and they would pay you the daily rate often plus GST depending on whether or not your PTY Limited company is GST registered and then you would be liable for payments from there. So whether or not you’re paying Superannuation, again, you need to speak to an Accountant over what your liabilities are. So Superannuation and also tax would be the company, the PTY company’s responsibility and not that of the recruitment company or the company you’re contracting to. So here I can’t advise which is better. I’m not qualified to do, I don’t have the experience to do so only an Accountant can really advise you on that. But there definitely are benefits of each. We do have a blog on our website written by an Accountant that really does go into detail around the different options and why potentially PTY might not be the best option for everyone, and PAYG maybe if you’re just getting into contracting and you only have one customer at this time, that PAYG might be the least expensive and the better option for anyone in that situation. But yeah, again, you really need to consult with an Accountant to get that advice. And then look at the costs of each as well because, you know, if you’re only just going into the contract market for the first time, you might want to dip your toe first and keep your costs down and, you know, as time goes by and you have more and more customers and different customers across the same year, then there might be different options available to you. So yeah, which engagement structure is probably the next thing you need to work out before you actually start to look at moving into the contract market.
And then the next point, how will you market yourself? So the difference between contract and permanent is obviously that when you’re in a permanent role, you might keep your eye on the market. You might keep in touch with recruiters and keep your eye on what’s going on. But you’re typically not applying for roles as regularly as you will be as a contractor. So I guess worst case scenario, you take a contract, it finishes in three or six months and then you’re back on the market and you’re looking again. So it’s really important to be visible in the market, to be connected to the right people, to be kind of top of people’s mind when a new opportunity in your area of expertise comes up and also to be in touch with previous employers, peers, employees, different people that potentially are going to be in the same market still and potentially would need someone like yourself in the future. Because yeah, it’s really about keeping contracts flowing, if that’s what you want to do, if you want to be, you know, contracting for the majority of the year. It’s about being seen and visible so that when anyone has an opportunity that you could deliver on, they reach out to you and you’re made aware of the role. So you really have to think about, you know, how do you keep in touch with people, how do you keep yourself front of mind? Are you posting online? Are you keeping yourself marketable in terms of getting certifications and upskilling and training and things like that? Because obviously you’re not going to have the benefits of potentially the training that you would have got with a permanent employer. So are you paying for these yourself and are you using that as a way to market yourself so that when people are looking to hire they’re reaching out to you? So it’s just about being more consistent and more connected, I would say, because you’re going to be looking for contract roles more regularly than if you’re in a permanent role, where you might only change every kind of 18, 24 plus months. A lot of people stay in roles a lot longer than that, but the typical duration of a permanent role has definitely come down over the years. But yeah, you’re not going to be looking for work as often if you’re a permanent employee as you would be as a contractor. So it’s just a different way of thinking and yeah, a different, I guess, challenge of marketing yourself and staying relevant and visible and making sure that you’re speaking to the right people all of the time. So there’s a lot to think about there. Like I said, contracting isn’t for everyone. It can be an amazing opportunity for people out there to earn really well and to get some different experience across different clients over a period of time.
We have seen the contract market in Australia and New Zealand grow considerably over the last several years. There has been a bit of a dip in terms of contract opportunities more recently, but the contract market definitely isn’t going away. So, definitely something to consider, but don’t just make that decision hastily. Definitely do your research. Make sure you’ve got the skills that are in demand, that you have a safety net that you, you know, when you’re available, and you know what kind of things you’re going to be open to, what the structure that’s going to work best for you is, and then also think about how you market yourself moving forward.
If you have any queries regarding contracting or want to ask any follow-up questions based on today’s episode, I’d love to hear from you.
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