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Getting Started With Part-Time Development Work?
fortapocalypse writes "I'm getting paid a good salary as a Java developer and the hours are great. It is also very stable, which means something in today's economy, especially with a family to feed. However, I'm very unmotivated both because of the work that I do, which is boring, and because the organization I work for is highly political, disorganized, and lacks accountability. I've done what I could to try to change things at work and have pretty much given up on that. I want to go out on my own, either starting my own company or just working as a contractor doing Java development, but I'm not sure of the best way to get started, and my family needs the stability of my current job. I'd really like to start out part-time at 5-15 hours a week to use it as supplemental income (which my family could really use at the moment), but I really don't know where to start. I doubt many contracting agencies would be interested in a part-time worker. What would you suggest for someone in my position?"
First: keep your day job: it provides the cash your family needs. Second: forget about traditional part-time work, it usually either pays really low hourly rates, or the work consumes much more than the 5-15 hours you say you have.
Instead, look at fairsoftware.net (hey, if I invented it, I can brag about it). You won't earn immediate cash, instead you'll be getting equity into whatever fun software project you find. Or start your own and get more geeks to join you, also for revenue share, not upfront cash.
Financially, it's the right thing to do: have most of your base covered with salary, and an upside based on equity so that the sky's the limit. Plus it's fun.
Have you checked out Craigslist? Look at both the jobs and the "gigs" sections. I see ads for single-project development all the time as well as some ongoing stuff. I know a few people who do this sort of thing freelance full time and make a pretty penny too.
I live in one of the more tech-active areas in the country (Boulder, CO) so this may or may not apply...
My company needs Java developers. We're looking to build a list of available contractors to do work over the next year as demand for our services grows. If you want to work in S. Florida, e-mail me.
I'm sure there are similar opportunities elsewhere. You just have to find them. A recruiter might be a good place to start.
What you're saying pretty much translates into 'I want to work more and get paid less.'
You forgot one important part: "while not being driven fucking insane". Being able to actually get things done without a lot of bullshit is worth a lot of money to me, and plenty of others.
Sweeping up crap after one managerial elephant parade after another can pay quite well, because jobs like that suck and really good people rarely want to waste their time like that. Taking less money for more satisfaction and less stress is, for a lot of people, a great trade.
And if the original poster is one of those people who doesn't mind being a human pooper scooper, then he should certainly become a contractor or consultant. I know one contractor who for the last 5 years has been cleaning up other people's spaghetti code at a large internet company, and grossing over $300k/year for it. And he can do that as long as he wants, because the permanent employees can always tie things in knots faster than he can untangle them.
This will help you out in many ways...after all, this is a business. With incorporation, you can protect your private assets legally. And if you are wanting to 1099 contract, well most places for tax purposes, are very nervous about doing that to an individual, but are more protected by corp-2-corp contracting. This came about largely from an old MS case, where contractors came back and successfully sued for employment benefits..etc.
Another reason...TAXES...with a corporation, you get to write off many, many, many things. For example...I have an "S" corp. With this set up, I pay myself a "reasonable" salary according to IRS guidelines. I only have to pay employment taxes (SS and medicare) on this portion of the money I bring in, the rest falls through at EOY to my personal income. This can save you a great deal of money. For example...say I bill out and collect $100K a year. I pay myself a reasonable salary of say, $40K (some go lower than this). Now, I only have to pay SS and medicare on that $40K....the rest of the $60K is only subject to state/federal taxes.
You also get to write off mileage driving to/from jobsites...and many many other things lowering your 'profit' and lowering your tax rate overall.
You can also do some neat things like for health insurance...get a private policy...if you get one with a high deductible ($1200 this year?)...you can set up a Health Savings Account...and this year, you can sock away $2900 PRE-tax...pay your normal every day medical needs with this money...and what you don't use...can be invested to grow, and it is not use or lose...this money keeps going for you, and can be accessed even for non-health related expenses at retirement.
And get a CPA you trust....they can show you how to do the paperwork...it is a PITA the first couple times, but, once you get it down...no big deal. Just use something like Quickbooks pro....and do your own entries...at EOY...just send a copy of your QB stuff to your CPA...and let them deal with it (you get to write off their fees too).
Anyway....that should be the first thing you look into. Do it now if you are just considering going indie...set it up now, you don't have to use it right away...my company sat essentially dormant for 3-4 years before I started seriously using it...and all the time, I took tax breaks (quite legally) for losses in those years without income from it.
The other thing...well, get contacts....networking is your best friend. Start NOW getting in good with people. You need to have people skills.
You might also look into being a contract employee first. This will give you the taste of both worlds...and with this if you are a US citzen, you might can get into govt/DoD contracting, which is gravy. You can get LONG term contracts this way...starting out with an established place as a contract employee (make sure you get paid hourly, not salary)..they often will pick up the price of getting you a clearance. THAT can help you later on for jobs, and pay.
Anyway, good luck. ONe thing...before you make the total leap to inde...save, save, save money! You need to have some serious "Fuck You" money put back...and keep it back while contracting, not only for dry periods....but, for times when you just wanna take off 2-4 months, to do fun things or be with your kids if you like.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
We're at the beginning of the Second Great Depression.
And you know this ... how? Yeah, things aren't rosy. However, things were worse in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And Japan may not have recovered from its housing bubble, but it's hardly in the midst of a depression either.
While I like the idea of RentACoder or Guru, the people posting jobs on those sites are mindbogglingly cheap rubes. For example:
You have been invited by the buyer to participate in a project on http://www.rentacoder.com/ for the following bid request:
Title:Java web application, jdbc, jsp, payment integration.
Description:Type: Web app.; Using: Java, J2EE, JDBC, JSP, MySql, Javascripts, all browsers.
Requires completing a non-disclosure agreement, NDA, to obtain full project details and percentage of deposit held in escrow to hedge against and minimize project risk.
Some of the project deliverables are:
* Integration of live/real-time payment processing
* Multi-Account registration
* Various user groups with varying access levels
* Site navigation hyperlinks
* Region specific clock and news updates
* Content management interface
* Administrator console/panel
* Dynamically generated pages and panels with scrolling content
* Password reset utility/Account lockout security feature
* Directories
* Newsletter feature
* Triggers, Auto-notification, Stored procedures
* Built in Node-aware sniffer and product licensing
* Software update-deploy utility
* Packaged executable interfacing with web application
* Search, sorts, queries and data manipulation utilities
* Consistent page design and theme
* Database design normalized for optimal performance
* Language conversion utility
* Thorough documentation
Categories:Web, Microsoft Windows, Database, Language Specific, Java, Requirements, Operating Systems / Platforms, UNIX, Internet Browser, Security, Web Services, Linux, MySQL, Java Server Pages (JSP), Search Engine Optimization, Javascript, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Software Related (Includes Websites)
Max Bid:$250
Like hell. That's a representative sample. Don't even get me started on the requests for clone sites.
Yes, I am a smart ass; it's better than the alternative.
Conventional wisdom is that an economic downturn is the best time to start a new enterprise. If you can succeed in a down economy, you're golden. Initial success in an up economy may prove to be illusory, which leaves you far more screwed when it finally goes belly up.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
It's basically impossible to time the market. Some will cry victory after the fact, but the losers (ie most folks) don't wish to think or talk about the large sums of money they lost from bad timing.
Do you think the market will go down some more? How do you know? Maybe it'll just stay flat for half a decade, possibly with some high inflation mixed in. Are you going to wait for the S&P to drop to 650 before plonking down all your cash in a lump sum? Well maybe you'll miss the boat then and the party will be over before you realize it happened. There's no way to tell, and if it were easy, then equities wouldn't carry the risk premium they do.
This is my first year ever investing into the market. Before this I was in debt, or simply didn't make enough to worry about, or just blew the money (in my early years, yeah). Then I started saving up as much as I could (over 60% of my net income) by living frugally and kept it in bank CDs... not the ideal investment but it saved me from the great crash of 2008. Of course I had to start investing at some point... first into bonds because they're fairly safe and every asset allocation needs some. But then I fucked up a bit on the equities because I invested about $10K at the end of September '08, right before *another* 25% drop in the market. I still have quite a bit left sitting in a money market fund (maybe $60K now, more as time goes on) but I'm all too aware that I'll never get the timing right, and I'm glad that my first experience was a bad one, because those are the ones you learn from.
There are strategies you can use to invest, like DCA, DVA, checking P/E ratios, etc. They won't tell you exactly when to invest a big lump sum, but they'll help minimize the risk.
BTW, the stock market tends to recover before the economy does, historically. And re: the Japan scenario... there's nothing stopping you from investing into the global stock market as a whole instead of overweighing your own country. VTWSX is a good place to start, especially if you have to have a taxable account in addition to whatever you can cram into an IRA (as most 401k's are apparently chock-full of high fees and low in good funds).