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The Hidden Costs of Going Freelance
snydeq writes: IT pros lend firsthand advice on the challenges of going solo in Bob Violino's report on the hidden costs of going freelance in IT. 'The life of an independent IT contractor sounds attractive enough: the freedom to choose clients, the freedom to set your schedule, and the freedom to set your pay rate while banging out code on the beach. But all of this freedom comes at a cost. Sure, heady times for some skill sets may make IT freelancing a seller's market, but striking out on your own comes with hurdles. The more you're aware of the challenges and what you need to do to address them, the better your chance of success as an IT freelancer.'
I'm seeing all this as though it's a choice. Like there's some guy with well combed hair, checking his watch and driving a lexus who makes the choice to begin an exciting new chapter in his life.
Do you stupid fucks seriously think I want to work like this with no insurance and dental and being afraid of starving?
THERE'S NO FUCKING JOBS YOU IDIOTS
Subby needs to get his teeth knocked the fuck out with a clue stick.
IT work is for people who couldn't cut it as programmers. Every IT worker I've ever encountered is incredibly anal about the systems they manage to cover up the fact that they're not competent when it comes to actual technical stuff. IT workers shouldn't go freelance because they're just not competent enough to run their own business. The last thing this country needs is failed entrepreneurs collecting welfare checks every month. Linux admins are the worst because they think they're better than everyone else for running Linux when they really don't have a clue about Linux. They think they're great when they're really using a cheap ass clunky OS full of source code stolen from SCO. IT workers shouldn't freelance, especially when they specialize in Linux. It's just a bad idea.
The Slashdot header says cost, TFA header says "pitfalls". One I've seen that is either (or both) is sales. When you are freelance, you have to spend time bidding, designing for bids, building client confidence, and other things that aren't billable.
If you aren't prepared to spend 20% of your time on unpaid sales, you aren't ready to go freelance. Yes, that's a high number. But in a down/slow time, it'll not be far off. When things are good, you'll be spending a few spare minutes on the next job, but if you only plan for the best, you'll only get the worst.
Learn to love Alaska
Couldn't find it on the list: time for getting new client.
I've been doing the contracting thing, where the client hires me to extend their on-site team. Recruitment agencies call me, I have an intake over the phone with the client and then meet them face-to-face. So I don't recognize the things mentioned like "fixed-price contract", I just have an hourly rate. You can spend anything from a couple of months to a couple of years working for the same client.
I very much like it, but I work 4 days a week. That one day a week is really useful when the contract ends, because then you'll have to start emailing recruiters, looking for the next project. The phone and face-to-face interviews take hours, and it's hard to stuff that away in the usual 9-5 business hours.
The iOS job market is great currently, so it's not hard finding a project.
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Because its the degree that matters...ffs
The degree demonstrates two things:
(1) A base level of knowledge, which does not necessarily indicate talent in the field so its not the sole qualification.
(2) An ability to **complete** a long bureaucratic process that includes some uninteresting tasks. That may be the more important thing demonstrated.
Could you please tune down the slashdvertisements?
You automatically rank in the highest tax category as a freelancer. Of every buck you make, 60 cents go to the state.
You have to keep your own pension in mind, and let us face it, most programmers are not that good at selling themselves. While exceptions are there, once you start as a freelancer, you might start to appreciate those pesky sales droids a lot more.
When I read some blogger bragging about the great joys of freelancing, I want to beat them over the head. Sure, you can make a living, for a while... and if you have the right skillset you might even make good money... for while! but skillsets change over time and although you can reskill, you'll never be as good at tomorrow's tech as what you are with today's.
What counts most in business is connections. Freelancers by definition don't have connections. When work dries up, no one has has their back.
These freelancing is greeeeeeat bloggers are like some guy bragging he picks up lots of babes. Maybe he does. Maybe he doesn't. So some harsh truths:
> the freedom to choose clients,
Truth: You will beg for work, take anything thrown your way, and be thankful for it.
> the freedom to set your schedule,
Yeah. Lots of time to do what you want "between jobs"
> and the freedom to set your pay rate while banging out code on the beach
Truth: Payrates are pretty low. You are competing with guys in third-world countries. Some of them write sucky code, sure, but others are very good, and they can live very comfortably on what for you is a meager wage.
Freelancing can mean varied work and even good pay... for a while! but there are many advantages of working for the man: job security, safety in numbers. and being able to fallback to a career in management which has good pay and doesn't demand you're up to date with the latest tech.
So next time someone brags about being a freelancer, wonder why if business is so good he is able to waste time blogging, and while you ponder this question, give him a wedgie.
thats got to be the worst.... really nasty. Someones got your hard worked on code... and wont pay for it.... piss me off,
Who has the luxury of casting around for jobs? Get a job, lock it in, and stay with it - you never know when you'll get another.
The life of the IT contractor is always intense.
Yes, those things listed in TFA are important but they are not that difficult to handle. The worst thing about TFA is that it mostly does not offer the obvious solutions.
1. Getting to work remotely is straightforward. Don't ask for it till you have done an onsite contract first. Prove that you deliver. Then you can be trusted.
2. NDA. Yes, insist on the "standard exceptions" or walk away. There are plenty of other fish in the sea.
3. Yes, you have to educate people you work with. Also true when an employee.
4. Riding out storms. It's not hard to build up reserve money in your business - simply park some of the profit. I always had 6 months worth. You have to park quite a lot anyway, so that you have it ready when tax payment day comes.
5. Keeping up to date. Yes, that's tricky - but you do NOT need to chase the Flavour-of-the-Month like employees do. I only needed to change direction once in 20 years - plenty of earning opportunities always there
6. Reconcile agile and fixed-bid? That's ridiculous FUD. No freelancer is so stupid they do fixed-bid with open-ended requirements, surely? Leastways they only do it once. Every freelancer I have ever worked with was on time and materials.
7. Communications gaps. This is not a threat, this is an opportunity! This is where the freelancer can shine, by doing the internal communicating that the customer is themselves is incapable of. I have done this on every project, and got kudos for being helpful.
8. Time management. Ho hum. Everybody, freelancer or employee, has to manage their time.
Time needed for handling getting requirements and doing proposals? You call that non-billable? No, Dorothy, you roll that into your daily rate.
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
Today, Brennan Dunn posted a nice related article:
Is becoming a freelancer right for you?
He offers two courses, and as a contractor, I signed up for one of them.
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My employer of 10 years was acquired and I was "downsized" when the group I was in was deemed redundant and eliminated. I was 51 years old -- to ancient to be considered for fulltime employment as far as most HR departments were concerned, so I became an independent. I was an independent for 19 years (my wife convinced me to quit when I hit 70) and never worked less than 50 weeks a year.
My first hurdle was finding work.
Fortunately I was able to ask some independents I knew and was given the phone numbers of some brokers who specialized in IT personnel contract work. The tradeoff is you either plan on spending 25% of your time looking for work or you go with a broker who takes 20 - 25% off the top.
Next problem keeping current.
When I first started in IT the languages of choice, which I learned, were COBOL, RPG and FORTRAN. Over time other programming languages displaced them and new technology such as Data Bases, Communications, and System Administration appeared on the scene. My first jobs involved COBOL, but I could see the handwriting on the wall. I purchased a PC, picked up a copy of Oracle for DOS (Windows was still a dream in Bill Gates' eye) and proceeded to learn enough about Oracle and SQL to become dangerous. I then added the new skills to my resume. When Unix first became available for the PC I installed it on my home computer and taught myself Systems Administration. I then updated my resume.
Pick a specialty that is in demand, set it up on your home system and become proficient. Equipment has become inexpensive enough so that you can replicate anything short of a supercomputer in a spare bedroom.
Problem 3. Social Security and fringe benefits
There are two possible solutions to this. First, have a spouse with a full time job that includes benefits. Second, make a deal with your broker to be a W-2 employee of the broker for the duration of your current contract. Of the two, an employed spouse is better because there are no gaps in insurance coverage. If you are dealing with larger brokers (I used more than one) your hourly rate may be the same if you are on a W-2 or 1099 basis. If that is the case always go for the W-2 because your net pay will be roughly 7.5% higher since you won't have to pay the employers (including the self-employed) part of employment taxes.
Problem 4 An acceptable hourly rate.
Here is where it pays to work with a good broker. Your broker will know the going rates for your various skills and also know which local employers have a need of your skills. Your broker will also know what skills will be more marketable and command higher rates in the near future. With your broker's help you can determine what you have to learn in order to keep busy and get better rates. If you do good work and make your clients happy you will get repeat business and often will be able to earn an extra 5 or 10 dollars per hour because they know your worth.
Problem 5 Interviews
Before you go out on a client interview your broker will be able to fill you in on who will be doing the interview, their likes and dislikes, their knowledge level and provide some useful background on both the organization and the people you will be working with.
If your client interview is with the technical people and you know your stuff you will be okay unless you run into a techie who knows squat about your area of expertise, but has been selected to be the interface between client and consultant. If you run into one of these types be sure to emphasize that you will document your work in detail (Ugh!) and bring the interface person up to speed.
If you interview is with management and HR types you have to look professional. Here the two concerns of the client are getting a system up and running and once it is being able to manag
Or maybe it only shows that you already have a constant revenue stream (AKA well off parents or credit rating for student loans)
I worked 25-30 hours a week while in school. By my sophomore year I was able to get entry level part-time programming work that paid pretty good for a college job. Some friends and I rented and shared large houses with 4-5 bedrooms near campus. My part-time programming job paid for school and rent and food and gas. Working full-time during breaks and the summer allowed me to cover car insurance and have spending money throughout the year, some beer money on weekends. I didn't have much left over at the end of the year but I graduated debt-free and had real-world experience that made getting that first high paying software development job pretty easy.
Admitted getting that part-time programming job sure helped and had I had a typical unskilled college job then yeah, some debt would probably have been in my future. But not the stupid debt piled up by financing a college lifestyle on loans and not working at all. About that college job, guess what helped getting it, doing a bit of programming on my own time. Things unrelated to class and school, things that were satisfying my curiosity and broadening my skills. So it wasn't pure luck. Luck was involved in learning about the job but preparation was just as important. The job was at a small shop making embedded devices, privately owned by its founder who was an EE himself. My learning x86 assembly on my own set me part from other college students. The devices didn't use x86 but the owner felt I would have an easy time transitioning to the microcontroller being used given what I did outside of class.
"Luck" often involves preparation and smarter decision making.
You know, before slashdot turned into a circle jerk of low level programmers complaining about how they could totally do their PHB's job a million times better than their PHB (yet strangely nobody else notices), this article would be laughed into oblivion. Hidden costs of going freelance? Could that sound more naive?
You probably did not see the movie.
Highly likely.
if I had a dollar for every time I chased after a car driven by mad scientist with aliens in the trunk, I'd probably have 3 dollars.
Do you work for border patrol? And what was the scientist so mad about?
Why should the skill of self-promotion be any different?
For one thing, self-promotion appears not to be taught well in school. For another, somehow the tech field tends to attract people with disabilities that affect social skills.