For most of my career I've been a full time employee (W-2 in the US) or worked for myself with my own business. I've rarely been a consultant or contract (1099) employee, and what experience I had with those situations didn't suit me. I don't like the lack of security and certainly don't like being responsible for the sales portion of finding work. Many people like contracting, and in fact, some make a career of it. There are companies that help you find work, and many large companies employ people for years as contract workers. There's an interesting article on the impact of this at Ars Technica. It looks more at hotels and other service work, but this is common for technology workers as well, especially at many of the large, common names. If you look through the comments, you'll find a few examples. Read the rest of The Challenge of Contracting