Seeking a New Way of Working

[Dagon]

I have worked as a UK based contractor for several years. Essentially, it means sitting at a desk and working on whatever project I am told to, in exactly the same way as a permanent employee. I'm bored with this way of working: because of poor management and resource usage within the companies I work for, I seem to spend large amounts of time with very little actual work to do. That wouldn't bother me if I was at home, but I have to sit at a desk all day and pretend to be busy.

I'm looking to move away from this to a more business-orientated model where I actual take on specific projects and complete those. I accept this will probably be more financially risky, but the rewards could also be greater. One thing I have considered is using sites like elance.com, where you can bid for projects. Has anyone had any experience of these sort of sites or any other suggestions on how I get out of my present situation ? My skills are in Oracle, ETL tools and data warehousing.

 

[LadySlinger]

I've known people who have been able to pay bills and such by bidding on projects. Once you establish yourself, there are also sites where companies can bid on you to do their work allowing you opportunity for more money and even to the point that you could potentially start your own business.

The only downside to this is (and it may be different in the UK), is if you require health insurance or you run into any issues with a customer/client.
For example, this thread from the Ethics Forum stuck out in my mind:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1201153&page=2

Good luck with it though!