Apple

Good technologies to work on.

The FTEs you work with are really talented people.

As a contractor, hours are mostly fixed.

As a contractor, there are not too many meetings, so time spent is productive.

The cons mainly because of the contract position. These are not valid for FTE roles.

• Contractors have limited or no access to most of the documentation, defects, plans, etc. So even if you are technically capable of doing better work, sometimes you will be limited by these constraints.
• Contracts are for a maximum of 1 year, with no extensions beyond 1 year.
• Compared to FTEs, expectations from contractors are low. If you are a person that likes to work on challenging assignments, this probably would not be that.

Consider extended contract terms or absorbing contractors as FTEs. A lot of money and time of the FTEs is spent getting contractors up to speed, passing on information to and fro to help contractors be productive. But most importantly, you have a person with you working a full year – this is the best assessment you can do for any resource. Please think of giving preference to previous contractors for FTE roles, as you already have performance feedback for them.