This may be easier in the UK as your healthcare is not tied to your employment.

Having worked with contractors in the US, there are some added legal cautions where employers for especially software contractors to not setup too long/close of an engagement. But, in general many contractors will end up working for a larger contractor house which carries your vacation/healthcare etc. They of course take a cut to do that. None of them are exemplary, but some are less terrible. An arrangement of a cooperative of contractors and even whole mini teams could control more of their own destiny would be interesting there.

How do you, as a contractor, find this sort of work?

From your network, and everybody has a network. However, you need to make sure that your network knows that you're available.

So: email everyone you know (also non-programmers) a 4-sentence email that you're now a contractor. Explicitly list the domains and technologies you can "hit the ground running" at, and focus on those. People need to be able to see you as "a great Java programmer" or "a great iOS programmer". People have a hard time wrapping their minds around "a great generalist" so don't make that pitch.

Set a high rate from the start. Ask around what's common in your area and go a bit above average - some of your peers are likely charging to little. You'll find that customers don't typically negotiate rates - instead they'll just assume that this must be what a proper contractor costs. You might miss a customer that way, but that's the customer you don't want, the kind of customer that will make you regret contracting. Time-sensitive customers are ok (after all, that's what you sell right? hitting the ground running?). Avoid price-sensitive customers, they're hell.

Sell by the day or week. Not by the project, cause projects always blow up and you don't want to take that risk.

That's it, really.

What if your network is mostly in a different industry than the area that you want to contract within?

Would you then use a recruiter or something like that? I don’t think I would get any gigs using my network.

Yeah seems reasonable, nothing wrong with going through a recruiter, it can just be harder to find the interesting work as recruiters. But a good recruiter is definitely a useful thing to have and it can’t hurt to reach out, if just to get a sense of the market. It can also be worth emailing companies you’d like to work with (e.g. interesting or nearby) with a quick note offering your services. Even if they aren’t hiring permanent sometimes there’s budget for a contractor.

How does the lone contractor model compare with working for a contractor company?

Personally I’ve been lucky enough to find it via word of mouth/recommendation and also directly approaching clients. Most contractors get their work through recruiters though, if you mention to a recruiter you are interested in contract work you’ll start getting a ton of phone calls and emails. It’s not uncommon for contracts to get extended several times, and you’ll probably build up a network of other contractors quite quickly.

One thing you might find is getting your first contract is hard if you are in a permanent job - companies generally are looking for contractors to start ASAP, so a one month notice period (with the risk that you get tempted to stay at your existing company) is often not acceptable to them. Some clients will wait for the right person but you might find you need to quit your job first before finding work which can be a bit nerve wracking - so it’s wise to survey the market, talk to recruiters etc. for a while before doing so!

If you’re UK based https://github.com/tadast/switching-to-contracting-uk/blob/m... may be interesting.

To get contracts as a contractor, you need to differentiate yourself from the market as best as possible.

One way is to try and get some sort of security cleared job. Once you do, you immediately elevate yourself away "from the crowd" of developers in the market and you will find major global companies want you and they pay well. And when you get your first gig, you can be sure that another company will want a security cleared engineer, so it's good for job security.

Just be careful how you say no when they ask you if you want to join on a perm basis :)

You can join a network of freelance experts, like Toptal.

you can start with a current employer

be warned: the government does not like it if you are an employee and then go directly into contracting for said same company.

you become an "employee under guise" and then you will be taxed as such. then you get the worst of both worlds.

Which government?

I assume he means U.K. (IR35 ruling) although there may be equivalents elsewhere in the world

In the UK you need to be careful transitioning from permanent to contract for the same company without a gap as it could be an IR35 risk (assuming you want to operate as a Limited Company at least). Not saying it’s not possible but you’d need to be careful and explicit that the contract isn’t just a direct extension of your permanent work.