4 ms·

I'm a freelance fullstack dev (laravel + vue), probably intermediate-senior level. That's more than I've ever made. I live in utah and Rent is $1000 for a 4-5 b

I'm a freelance fullstack dev (laravel + vue), probably intermediate-senior level. That's more than I've ever made. I live in utah and Rent is $1000 for a 4-5 bed house, and I under-price my services cause I suck at marketing. ($40-60/hour, when most freelancers get $100+).

harlanji 8y ago
I live in SF and am charging $15/hr for Clojure exclusively. No bites yet. My budget is $1,500/mo total, $600 being food. Awe yea. I charge what the market will bear, starting at minimum wage. China is about $45 fyi, last I paid—good talking point.
- hirundo 8y ago
  > My budget is $1,500/mo total, $600 being food. How do you pay for housing in SF with $900/mo or less?
- geobmx540 8y ago
  Do you mean 150/hr?
- gremlinsinc 8y ago
  If you're trying to do only clojure and nobody is biting, you might want to pivot to a less obscure framework/platform... I picked vue because I prefer it's templates to jsx, and I like vuex and it's sort of well documented for use with laravel. But if I hadn't picked vue, I'd have gone with react because of market domination. I'm currently even thinking of pivoting from laravel to node based backends because it seems js devs make all the $$... and I'm not so locked into laravel that I can't move or jump to other frameworks. The more you know the more you can charge...I have many friends who target a specific vertical like Fintech that charge between $100-200/hour for js/node development as freelancers. Working on teams I've made around $35/hr, solo depending on the client I've pitched 40-60... I work w/ a lot of small businesses who that's on the high end for them --they're used to wordpress devs at $25 or less per hour on upwork. Clojure being a bit obscure though, I think freelance would be harder to secure, but a full-time gig at a shop/agency or startup who's apps are built on that framework would be easier, as long as you have a good portfolio and very active github showing activity w/ that.
- slow_donkey 8y ago
  If someone approached me as a clojure dev charging $15/hr I'd think they were a scammer.
- nradov 8y ago
  Don't orient your career around a particular programming language. Focusing on languages makes you a replacable commodity. What industries do you understand? How can you add business value?
ABCLAW 8y ago
Underpricing your work sends a strong signal about quality, or the lack thereof. I opened with charging well above my peers (we're talking 150%+ of their rates) when I started practicing law, and not a single client balked. In comparison with my more experienced co-workers that were offering cut-rate deals, I garnered more respect and support, had higher client satisfaction, and almost every client I had decided to stay in my book of business during transitions. Charge a lot. Be good enough to deserve it. Use that impostor syndrome to up your game.
- gremlinsinc 8y ago
  Hey thanks for the advice. I'm trying to be 'good enough', pivoting a little to focus more on JavaScript back and front ends, always learning and what not. I think if I take a chance and land a few North of $80/hr clients I'll get the confidence. I'm just not sure where those type of clients exist... Part of my issues also were ADHD made it really hard to stay on task and focus but now I'm on meds for that and I'm super focused when I'm in my office, I'm also really neat and orderly around the house lol.

harlanji 8y ago

I live in SF and am charging $15/hr for Clojure exclusively. No bites yet. My budget is $1,500/mo total, $600 being food. Awe yea. I charge what the market will bear, starting at minimum wage. China is about $45 fyi, last I paid—good talking point.

hirundo 8y ago
> My budget is $1,500/mo total, $600 being food. How do you pay for housing in SF with $900/mo or less?
geobmx540 8y ago
Do you mean 150/hr?
gremlinsinc 8y ago
If you're trying to do only clojure and nobody is biting, you might want to pivot to a less obscure framework/platform... I picked vue because I prefer it's templates to jsx, and I like vuex and it's sort of well documented for use with laravel. But if I hadn't picked vue, I'd have gone with react because of market domination. I'm currently even thinking of pivoting from laravel to node based backends because it seems js devs make all the $$... and I'm not so locked into laravel that I can't move or jump to other frameworks. The more you know the more you can charge...I have many friends who target a specific vertical like Fintech that charge between $100-200/hour for js/node development as freelancers. Working on teams I've made around $35/hr, solo depending on the client I've pitched 40-60... I work w/ a lot of small businesses who that's on the high end for them --they're used to wordpress devs at $25 or less per hour on upwork. Clojure being a bit obscure though, I think freelance would be harder to secure, but a full-time gig at a shop/agency or startup who's apps are built on that framework would be easier, as long as you have a good portfolio and very active github showing activity w/ that.
slow_donkey 8y ago
If someone approached me as a clojure dev charging $15/hr I'd think they were a scammer.
nradov 8y ago
Don't orient your career around a particular programming language. Focusing on languages makes you a replacable commodity. What industries do you understand? How can you add business value?

ABCLAW 8y ago

Underpricing your work sends a strong signal about quality, or the lack thereof. I opened with charging well above my peers (we're talking 150%+ of their rates) when I started practicing law, and not a single client balked. In comparison with my more experienced co-workers that were offering cut-rate deals, I garnered more respect and support, had higher client satisfaction, and almost every client I had decided to stay in my book of business during transitions. Charge a lot. Be good enough to deserve it. Use that impostor syndrome to up your game.

gremlinsinc 8y ago
Hey thanks for the advice. I'm trying to be 'good enough', pivoting a little to focus more on JavaScript back and front ends, always learning and what not. I think if I take a chance and land a few North of $80/hr clients I'll get the confidence. I'm just not sure where those type of clients exist... Part of my issues also were ADHD made it really hard to stay on task and focus but now I'm on meds for that and I'm super focused when I'm in my office, I'm also really neat and orderly around the house lol.