4 ms·

A relevant side note: If you're getting into consulting, here are my suggestions for writing a good Statement of Work https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-so

A relevant side note: If you're getting into consulting, here are my suggestions for writing a good Statement of Work https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-sow/ https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-sow/

putnam 9y ago
How did you get into consulting? What do you do?
- kirubakaran 9y ago
  Thanks for asking. To be reductive: I mostly build webapps for my clients, but of course it's a lot more than just that. I got into it quite intentionally because I wanted to trade lower variance for higher pay and flexible lifestyle. That is, I'd rather make $3x one month and $0x the next (where I work on my personal projects or read a good scifi novel in the sun), rather than $x one month and $x the next. When I started consulting, I was living in Seattle and I had a single long term client. Now that I live in San Francisco, there is high paying work everywhere.
  - putnam 9y ago
    What is the most painful aspect of consulting for you?
    - kirubakaran 9y ago
      The trouble with working for yourself is, your boss can be an asshole. It's hard to take that vacation when there is billable work available. You can burn yourself out quite fast. After having done this for a long time, I've learned to be zen about the intrinsic variance in income. But it is still hard psychologically. While rationally I know that I make more per year as a consultant and have more interesting work as a result etc, it's still painful to see the numbers in the spreadsheet go down when I'm not working for a few months, even if it was a deliberate decision that I made.
Xc43 9y ago
Thank you! I am getting into consulting and while I found a client, I know this is just the start for me. So I estimate a probability of 70% I will read everything about consulting on your blog.
- kirubakaran 9y ago
  Wishing you all the best!
dominotw 9y ago
How do you go about finding clients? I see an outline here https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-outline/ https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-outline/ Curious if you have any recommendations.
- kirubakaran 9y ago
  In retrospect, I have to say that making friends has been the most significant bit in this regard. I didn't make those friends with the ulterior motive of getting more work of course. Though I used to be painfully introverted, I'm a friendly person and I made friends sort of organically, through my roommates etc. The great thing about loving programming is, when you talk about your mutual interests with your programmer friends, though you're just hanging out and having fun, it is also naturally a "work meeting". That's probably not a very useful answer, but that's how I got most of my clients, who then referred me to their friends etc. If I were new in a city, I'd find a way to accelerate that by going out more and meeting new people doing activities I enjoy. One of my friends made a lot of connections at the climbing gym, for example, and he got a few consulting contracts that way. The conversations for him were as simple as "What do you do?" "I'm a software consultant" "Oh, we need someone to do x at our startup. Do you know about that?" "Sure, let's talk more". I'm sure there are other ways to jump start your connections... make something shareworthy and posting it on HN, for example.
bastijn 9y ago
Your example reads like a programmer wrote it instead of a consultant. - Would not expect to see a "such as" in statement of work in the locations you used them. - Would not expect typos in statement of work. - Consultant will push commits to source control.. I have other employees to code, I would pay an consultant to consult. Define strategy, architecture, coach. Not type code, you are way too expensive for that. Are you taking yourself serious? What I read is a freelance software engineer.
- kirubakaran 9y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. Could you point me to the typos please? I'd like to fix them.
  - bastijn 9y ago
    Noticed the word "design" was written as "degsin".
    - kirubakaran 9y ago
      > Noticed the word "design" was written as "degsin". It isn't. For reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20170927012427/https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-sow/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170927012427/https://kirubakar...
      - bastijn 9y ago
        It is, though it was desgin not degsin. "desgin assets such as color palette and images to be used". Under 1.3. Also in your reference.
        kirubakaran 9y ago
        Great, thanks! Fixed now.
- putnam 9y ago

putnam 9y ago

How did you get into consulting? What do you do?

kirubakaran 9y ago
Thanks for asking. To be reductive: I mostly build webapps for my clients, but of course it's a lot more than just that. I got into it quite intentionally because I wanted to trade lower variance for higher pay and flexible lifestyle. That is, I'd rather make $3x one month and $0x the next (where I work on my personal projects or read a good scifi novel in the sun), rather than $x one month and $x the next. When I started consulting, I was living in Seattle and I had a single long term client. Now that I live in San Francisco, there is high paying work everywhere.
- putnam 9y ago
  What is the most painful aspect of consulting for you?
  - kirubakaran 9y ago
    The trouble with working for yourself is, your boss can be an asshole. It's hard to take that vacation when there is billable work available. You can burn yourself out quite fast. After having done this for a long time, I've learned to be zen about the intrinsic variance in income. But it is still hard psychologically. While rationally I know that I make more per year as a consultant and have more interesting work as a result etc, it's still painful to see the numbers in the spreadsheet go down when I'm not working for a few months, even if it was a deliberate decision that I made.

Xc43 9y ago

Thank you! I am getting into consulting and while I found a client, I know this is just the start for me. So I estimate a probability of 70% I will read everything about consulting on your blog.

kirubakaran 9y ago
Wishing you all the best!

dominotw 9y ago

How do you go about finding clients? I see an outline here https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-outline/ https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-outline/ Curious if you have any recommendations.

kirubakaran 9y ago
In retrospect, I have to say that making friends has been the most significant bit in this regard. I didn't make those friends with the ulterior motive of getting more work of course. Though I used to be painfully introverted, I'm a friendly person and I made friends sort of organically, through my roommates etc. The great thing about loving programming is, when you talk about your mutual interests with your programmer friends, though you're just hanging out and having fun, it is also naturally a "work meeting". That's probably not a very useful answer, but that's how I got most of my clients, who then referred me to their friends etc. If I were new in a city, I'd find a way to accelerate that by going out more and meeting new people doing activities I enjoy. One of my friends made a lot of connections at the climbing gym, for example, and he got a few consulting contracts that way. The conversations for him were as simple as "What do you do?" "I'm a software consultant" "Oh, we need someone to do x at our startup. Do you know about that?" "Sure, let's talk more". I'm sure there are other ways to jump start your connections... make something shareworthy and posting it on HN, for example.

bastijn 9y ago

Your example reads like a programmer wrote it instead of a consultant. - Would not expect to see a "such as" in statement of work in the locations you used them. - Would not expect typos in statement of work. - Consultant will push commits to source control.. I have other employees to code, I would pay an consultant to consult. Define strategy, architecture, coach. Not type code, you are way too expensive for that. Are you taking yourself serious? What I read is a freelance software engineer.

kirubakaran 9y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Could you point me to the typos please? I'd like to fix them.
- bastijn 9y ago
  Noticed the word "design" was written as "degsin".
  - kirubakaran 9y ago
    > Noticed the word "design" was written as "degsin". It isn't. For reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20170927012427/https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-sow/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170927012427/https://kirubakar...
    - bastijn 9y ago
      It is, though it was desgin not degsin. "desgin assets such as color palette and images to be used". Under 1.3. Also in your reference.
      - kirubakaran 9y ago
        Great, thanks! Fixed now.
putnam 9y ago