3 ms·

Except that networking events definitely DID work because he says that the first gig he got was through someone he met at a networking event. And the rest was

Except that networking events definitely DID work because he says that the first gig he got was through someone he met at a networking event. And the rest was basically, "be lucky".

makk 9y ago
It's not "be lucky." It's "make your own luck."
tomashertus 9y ago
I think that the whole point of that was that the networking didn't scale well.
jandrese 9y ago
That gig was a lifeline, but didn't make him successful. It wasn't until he started getting visibility with the actual founders that he started to feel like he could do this as a job. Most of the don'ts are events where founders are too busy to attend or are swamped and it's almost impossible to stand out. Really his takeaway is to make a name for yourself and the offers will roll in. Figure out a way to increase your stature or you'll never make it as a consultant. That's what all of the blog posts and hacker news articles were for, getting people who matter to know his name.
- ataturk 9y ago
  I have to throw in my $.02 here. The author needs to do a better job of explaining what city he lives in and what the unique sitaution is there. In the US outside of the west coast and maybe some eastern cities, you aren't going to meet "founders" and the whole ballgame is different for indy consultants. I have had success with just going through recruiters who will work with your S-Corp and help find you gigs for an up-front fee. There's plenty of work, in fact, a recruiter whom I know got laid off not because of the lack of work but because of too few candidates to fill the roles. I do think the $$$ that employers are willing to pay also factors in. Not every place wants to hire consultants, either. Many have had bad luck with expensive jerks who promise the world but leave a huge mess in their wake. The blog post advice is iffy--he did get lucky in the sense that his post tracked here on HN. I have a blog with no traffic! My former employer (a consulting firm) has had mixed success with their blog and that's with $200 paid to consultants who write articles for it. We had a very decent corpus of articles there, but the signal to noise ratio on the Internet is not in your favor there.

Except that networking events definitely DID work because he says that the first gig he got was through someone he met at a networking event. And the rest was basically, "be lucky".

makk 9y ago

It's not "be lucky." It's "make your own luck."

tomashertus 9y ago

I think that the whole point of that was that the networking didn't scale well.

jandrese 9y ago

That gig was a lifeline, but didn't make him successful. It wasn't until he started getting visibility with the actual founders that he started to feel like he could do this as a job. Most of the don'ts are events where founders are too busy to attend or are swamped and it's almost impossible to stand out. Really his takeaway is to make a name for yourself and the offers will roll in. Figure out a way to increase your stature or you'll never make it as a consultant. That's what all of the blog posts and hacker news articles were for, getting people who matter to know his name.

ataturk 9y ago
I have to throw in my $.02 here. The author needs to do a better job of explaining what city he lives in and what the unique sitaution is there. In the US outside of the west coast and maybe some eastern cities, you aren't going to meet "founders" and the whole ballgame is different for indy consultants. I have had success with just going through recruiters who will work with your S-Corp and help find you gigs for an up-front fee. There's plenty of work, in fact, a recruiter whom I know got laid off not because of the lack of work but because of too few candidates to fill the roles. I do think the $$$ that employers are willing to pay also factors in. Not every place wants to hire consultants, either. Many have had bad luck with expensive jerks who promise the world but leave a huge mess in their wake. The blog post advice is iffy--he did get lucky in the sense that his post tracked here on HN. I have a blog with no traffic! My former employer (a consulting firm) has had mixed success with their blog and that's with $200 paid to consultants who write articles for it. We had a very decent corpus of articles there, but the signal to noise ratio on the Internet is not in your favor there.