Why move from a permanent role to a contract role?

When you are looking to move to a new role, what is important to you about finding a new role?

Not just any role, but ensuring that it will be the right move for you in the short, medium and long term?

Can a contract role be the right move?

Contract roles can offer many advantages over a similar “permanent” position including the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ both for you and the company and the opportunity to gain experience in new clinical / therapeutic areas. 

Working for a company for six months can give you the opportunity to try the role to see if it is something you like. If it is, great, if not, then you can move onto something else. 

Worst case, if it does not work out for you, you can return to your prior career / market as it was a six month contract to look at a career option and therefore does not ‘damage’ your CV (in fact it can often enhance it by giving you valuable experience / skills / contacts). 

For some people, the only way to move up the career ladder is to take a contract role.  For example, you are currently working as a KAM but wanting to move into the next level of management. Sometimes the only opportunity is an interim / contract Regional Manager role, but this would then give you the experience you need to move into a permanent position.

When you are looking for a new role, usually the most important aspect is the job and job security – how much different is the job security between a contract and permanent role? Most “permanent” roles have a 6 month probation period and, prior to completing 2 years employment, you do not have full employment rights.

There are an increasing number of senior level people who have made a career out of interim or contract roles.  For these individuals, the challenge is making a difference to sales / culture / strategy in a relatively short term period and then moving on to the next challenge, leaving behind them a team / region / company that is in better shape to meet the demands of the sector than it was before.

Interim CEOs of large multi-national organisations have for years been seen as having to be highly skilled, flexible, adaptable and capable individuals with the skill sets, energy and capacity to make a significant impact on the business and its people in a relatively short timescale.  They are respected, valued and admired. Why should an interim role at a lower level be viewed any differently?