4 ms·
Super off topic, but how many years experience did you have when you started consulting? How long before you started making equal or more income?
by jammygit 7y ago
Super off topic, but how many years experience did you have when you started consulting? How long before you started making equal or more income?
- stephenr 7y agoIt depends what kind of experience you mean. I started working in a 'classic' (i.e. windows desktops and Novell servers in a private WAN) network/systems support+admin role in 2003, moved into web development in 2006, and then gradually got more involved in ops again until about 2013-14, when I started taking on new clients directly (only the very first job was I an employee - in every other position I was essentially a contractor - initially through agencies and then directly invoicing the company). The income question isn't as easy to answer - my rate varied a lot from roughly what I'd been contracting at for some 'mates rates' clients, up to nearly 4x the price for others - but as is expected it wasn't consistent. It's been a couple of years of pretty steady work at a reasonable rate so I guess the "TLDR" answer is 3-4 years. Keep in mind, apart from the first 2 or 3 jobs I had (2x government and then one at a Telco) everything else has been 'remote', and I've been geographically remote (I live in Thailand) since before I started this business. I have no doubt this has affected the number of potential clients, but it sure beats commuting into a city every day. I hope that helps and isn't too much of a ramble. Feel free to email me if you want to discuss it further, my address is in my profile.