Freelancing, half a year in.
alanhollis.com
Freelancing, half a year in.
1–10 of 62 posts
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#2As someone looking to try freelancing in a couple of years (only been programming for about 2 years) it is reassuring to see that you can make a decent amount of money with almost no network.
How do you find freelancing vs ordinary job? Do you have savings for harder times?
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#3As someone looking to try freelancing in a couple of years (only been programming for about 2 years) it is reassuring to see that you can make a decent amount of money with almost no network. How do you find freelancing vs ordinary job? Do you have savings for harder times?
Freelancing has helped me understand just how much my previous job was paying me that didn't show up on my paycheck. Health insurance, matching 401k contributions, and various miscellaneous other perks are actually quite valuable. So you really have to take these things into account when you set your rates.
The other big difference is that a salaried job means a regular paycheck, no matter how busy you might be in any given month. But there can be a lot of downtime between billable hours freelancing so that's another potential dent in your income.
Personally I prefer to bid a fixed price instead of an hourly rate for a project. This makes it that much more important to consider your initial estimate carefully but it also eliminates a lot of micro-accounting and haggling over how much a single hour is worth.
You also have to be careful not to take on more work than you can handle. Unlike a regular job there's no hard ceiling on how much you can make in a month but it's easy to get in over your head this way.
So far I'm really enjoying the freedom and variety of freelancing but I think a regular job is easier in a lot of ways.
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#4As someone looking to try freelancing in a couple of years (only been programming for about 2 years) it is reassuring to see that you can make a decent amount of money with almost no network. How do you find freelancing vs ordinary job? Do you have savings for harder times?
I do now! :) I didn't when I started, in fact I owed a considerably chunk of money to my girlfriend and so priority number one was paying her back.
In terms of the lifestyle, I love it. I honest don't feel like I've "worked" in the conventional sense since I've been back.
There are a lot of things you have to deal with which are unexpected. Finishing a project and realising you might not see the people you've worked with again ( especially if they've been great people to work with) is depressing.
There are times when it can also be lonely. I'm fairly lucky in that I'm currently living with my parents and so there's normally someone around.
In the periods between finding work ( where technically you're unemployed ) it is easy to get depressed and wonder whether you're doing the right thing. Having something else to focus on at the same time, be it a side project, or indeed finding more work is a must.
The biggest benefit is the freedom. Yes I might have work to do, but I can ( for most clients ) do it from where ever I want to do it. If I need a break from the parents, no problem I move my office to the girlfriends for a week. If I want a change of scenery, no problem I just pack my laptop up and I'm good to go!
The second benefit is the amount you learn. I now a much greater understanding of business. Tax, VAT, National insurance, invoices, marketing, chasing payments and how companies operate.
Not to mention the technical benefits of freelancing. I've taught myself backbone.js worked with node.js. Played with Symfony, Silex entered ( and come second in ) coding competitions, taught myself some AWS basics. All things I probably wouldn't have had the ability to do if I was working for someone else.
All in all the last six months have definitely been a positive experience in my life!
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#5£20k ~ $31k
To save anyone else having to do the math.
Also, yes, your rates are still very low, Mr. Hollis, although I suppose it depends on how many days you worked on billable projects. I would expect to see more like £40k for six months given your CV.
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#6[deleted]
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#7£20k ~ $31k To save anyone else having to do the math. Also, yes, your rates are still very low, Mr. Hollis, although I suppose it depends on how many days you worked on billable projects. I would expect to see more like £40k for six months given your CV.
For comparison, top† graduate software engineers (in London) will be on ~£35k/year.
†Not like "won IOI" top, but I imagine Google/Microsoft/FB etc. has a graduate starting salary around that.
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#8£20k ~ $31k To save anyone else having to do the math. Also, yes, your rates are still very low, Mr. Hollis, although I suppose it depends on how many days you worked on billable projects. I would expect to see more like £40k for six months given your CV.
For comparison, top† graduate software engineers (in London) will be on ~£35k/year. †Not like "won IOI" top, but I imagine Google/Microsoft/FB etc. has a graduate starting salary around that.
From my experience that's also the very very best graduates. I don't know of anyone who's gone in at that figure.
I was earning just less than £35k two years after graduating with a 2.1 ( not sure what the equivalent is in American university terms ). And at that point was earning considerably more than anyone else I knew who graduated at the same time.
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#9£20k ~ $31k To save anyone else having to do the math. Also, yes, your rates are still very low, Mr. Hollis, although I suppose it depends on how many days you worked on billable projects. I would expect to see more like £40k for six months given your CV.
absolutely. you should look for work on jobserve. i assume you look for php work? it pays less than js, which pays less than java, but a quick look at php contracts in london shows them between £300pd to £450pd - so as above, £40k for 6m
Re: Freelancing, half a year in.
#10So, how does one work at all with multiple programmers and no version control?
Are you creating patch files and manually merging them (like Linux used to do)?
Or are you just using a shared FTP and keeping a spreadsheet of who is using which file at any particular point?
The amount of discipline and organisation required to use either of these methods would appear to be far higher than that required to sit down for a few hours to learn a basic VCS like Subversion using a graphical tool.