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Those companies were willing to hire me. Hopefully this doesn't arrogant, but those companies can't hire someone of my caliber. They're mediocre companies that

by leros 5y ago

Those companies were willing to hire me. Hopefully this doesn't arrogant, but those companies can't hire someone of my caliber. They're mediocre companies that can only hire average/mediocre people. I wouldn't want to join a company like that full time, but I could see it being fun to hop in and help them out with a big project. For example one company was a media company that you've probably heard of. For their next growth phase, they have two separate legacy PHP systems that they need to integrate and they need to modernize their front end. Their development team isn't capable of doing that project. They've been spinning their wheels for a few years. I thought it might be fun to go in to that company, understand their systems, architect the new solution, lead/coach their team through building it. I could also help them set up automated build systems, introduce React and coach them through learning that. Maybe help them hire some more modern developers as well. That kind of thing. I've got a lot of experience doing complex architecture and also training up junior developers, so it sounds like projects like that could play to my strengths.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> Hopefully this doesn't arrogant, but those companies can't hire someone of my caliber. Well obviously if they can’t pay market rates, and you didn’t even think it was worth asking, then it’s not exactly a great example of a consulting client. I’m not sure what these hypothetical contracts that you didn’t even pursue because you don’t think the companies could have afforded add to the conversation, though. It doesn’t sound like these clients were typical or even remotely competent.
akerl_ 5y ago
I’m not sure why you think a company that wanted to hire you for a leadership role would pay you as a free-lancer to do that role. Generally consultant and full-time hiring pipelines and roles are fully separate, for a variety of reasons. Also, just in case it wasn’t obvious, this comment does read as extremely arrogant. A company wanted to hire you, you didn’t want to work there because they’re “average/mediocre”, so you’ve decided w/o engaging with them that it might be fun to pop in and just solve all their problems for them. As parallel comments have pointed out, networking is crucial to contracting, because it’s the primary way that clients connect with you and decide to work with you. If your mindset is that you’re a rockstar saving crappy companies from their mediocrity, you’ll quickly find yourself with a poisoned well.
- ushakov 5y ago
  yeah, pretty hypocrite that the author doesn’t work to work for a company, because it’s not his caliber, but then accepts a freelancing gig if you don’t want to work for a company for any reason, why did you accept the offer?
  - convolvatron 5y ago
    why is that so hard to understand? this has been a good source of clients for me. i dont have any faith in your product or your leadership - you really seem to be chasing your own tail, and working for you is just going to be pointless and frustrating for both of us. however, you want to hire me because i'm an expert in X. actually I am, and if you give me the go ahead I'll basically fix all your X problems in 3 months and be available for ongoing work if necessary later. you really dont need a full time X guy, I promise you I'm going to be bored after that first little bit. i want the money, the engagement, and the opportunity to grow my network. that works for me. hanging out on slack with your team all day and having a weekly zoom where I remind you yet again that if you dont test you can expect problems later doesnt.
    - zoomablemind 5y ago
      > ...i dont have any faith in your product or your leadership Sounds as not a good proposition for me as a client. It breaks the trust in your effort being for the best of my interest. No that different from a mercenary's logic. Even then some loyaly to the payer is expected. How would you go on supporting the product past completion of your work? Saying that it broke in the part that you did not write? Well, you touched it, you "own" it... at least in client's mind.
      - convolvatron 5y ago
        sounds like you really dont want a contractor. i try to be available for followon work, but i cant promise anything really. instead of trying to find another senior X person to come on fulltime, maybe you should pay someone to pick up X?
glitchc 5y ago
You may have to prove yourself by building your own successful product or a stellar reputation of doing similar heavy lifting at other companies before a company will trust you with that kind of role as a freelance gig. There are folks who become “fixers” but they have a long history of being fixers and have usually worked in multiple different orgs achieving similar results regardless of org structure, strategy and cruft. It sounds like you are itching for such a career, but it requires starting somewhere. Many fixers also take full time leadership positions at the company for a period of time and then move on once the problem is fixed. The leadership position also gives you direct authority over the process and resources, which you will need as both likely need to be tweaked. That the project is failing is likely a combination of poor process and some bad apples, and both usually need fixing. It’s rarely that “everyone on the engineering team is incompetent.” Without the leader title you will not have the organizational authority to fire/hire or change process. You may want to consider the offer of the leadership position seriously: The company sees the problem within itself, sees you as a fixer and is willing to hire you to do your magic. This is how you build your reputation in this market space. Give yourself three to five years to implement the changes, then move on to a different company with a different problem to fix. It’s also a great way to find out if you’re truly as awesome as you think you are :).
Schnitz 5y ago
> legacy PHP system That's Yahoo right? :)
crucialfelix 5y ago
Then once you start working with them you discover that the tech and architecture are a reflection of their management structure, and then you find out they really don't want a port/rebuild, they want a new product (but this only becomes apparent half way through the rebuild). Green field projects are much easier, but you really need to have a great product owner/manager. Tldr: It's not just coding, it's people.
texasbigdata 5y ago
Just be mindful sometime adding frosting to a terrible cake doesn't make it taste good. And the failure to pivot looks really bad to you. So your $300 hourly rate is not really deeply utilized. Consider project billing and also think about internal barriers (including humans that might be resentful or threatened) and how you might clear them. If you're doing strategic work it still needs to get implemented. And you're not doing that work. But the result is what the CEO will convey as your reputation to your next client referral reference check. Just some thoughts.

by leros 5y ago

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> Hopefully this doesn't arrogant, but those companies can't hire someone of my caliber. Well obviously if they can’t pay market rates, and you didn’t even think it was worth asking, then it’s not exactly a great example of a consulting client. I’m not sure what these hypothetical contracts that you didn’t even pursue because you don’t think the companies could have afforded add to the conversation, though. It doesn’t sound like these clients were typical or even remotely competent.

akerl_ 5y ago

I’m not sure why you think a company that wanted to hire you for a leadership role would pay you as a free-lancer to do that role. Generally consultant and full-time hiring pipelines and roles are fully separate, for a variety of reasons. Also, just in case it wasn’t obvious, this comment does read as extremely arrogant. A company wanted to hire you, you didn’t want to work there because they’re “average/mediocre”, so you’ve decided w/o engaging with them that it might be fun to pop in and just solve all their problems for them. As parallel comments have pointed out, networking is crucial to contracting, because it’s the primary way that clients connect with you and decide to work with you. If your mindset is that you’re a rockstar saving crappy companies from their mediocrity, you’ll quickly find yourself with a poisoned well.

ushakov 5y ago
yeah, pretty hypocrite that the author doesn’t work to work for a company, because it’s not his caliber, but then accepts a freelancing gig if you don’t want to work for a company for any reason, why did you accept the offer?
- convolvatron 5y ago
  why is that so hard to understand? this has been a good source of clients for me. i dont have any faith in your product or your leadership - you really seem to be chasing your own tail, and working for you is just going to be pointless and frustrating for both of us. however, you want to hire me because i'm an expert in X. actually I am, and if you give me the go ahead I'll basically fix all your X problems in 3 months and be available for ongoing work if necessary later. you really dont need a full time X guy, I promise you I'm going to be bored after that first little bit. i want the money, the engagement, and the opportunity to grow my network. that works for me. hanging out on slack with your team all day and having a weekly zoom where I remind you yet again that if you dont test you can expect problems later doesnt.
  - zoomablemind 5y ago
    > ...i dont have any faith in your product or your leadership Sounds as not a good proposition for me as a client. It breaks the trust in your effort being for the best of my interest. No that different from a mercenary's logic. Even then some loyaly to the payer is expected. How would you go on supporting the product past completion of your work? Saying that it broke in the part that you did not write? Well, you touched it, you "own" it... at least in client's mind.
    - convolvatron 5y ago
      sounds like you really dont want a contractor. i try to be available for followon work, but i cant promise anything really. instead of trying to find another senior X person to come on fulltime, maybe you should pay someone to pick up X?

glitchc 5y ago

You may have to prove yourself by building your own successful product or a stellar reputation of doing similar heavy lifting at other companies before a company will trust you with that kind of role as a freelance gig. There are folks who become “fixers” but they have a long history of being fixers and have usually worked in multiple different orgs achieving similar results regardless of org structure, strategy and cruft. It sounds like you are itching for such a career, but it requires starting somewhere. Many fixers also take full time leadership positions at the company for a period of time and then move on once the problem is fixed. The leadership position also gives you direct authority over the process and resources, which you will need as both likely need to be tweaked. That the project is failing is likely a combination of poor process and some bad apples, and both usually need fixing. It’s rarely that “everyone on the engineering team is incompetent.” Without the leader title you will not have the organizational authority to fire/hire or change process. You may want to consider the offer of the leadership position seriously: The company sees the problem within itself, sees you as a fixer and is willing to hire you to do your magic. This is how you build your reputation in this market space. Give yourself three to five years to implement the changes, then move on to a different company with a different problem to fix. It’s also a great way to find out if you’re truly as awesome as you think you are :).

Schnitz 5y ago

> legacy PHP system That's Yahoo right? :)

crucialfelix 5y ago

Then once you start working with them you discover that the tech and architecture are a reflection of their management structure, and then you find out they really don't want a port/rebuild, they want a new product (but this only becomes apparent half way through the rebuild). Green field projects are much easier, but you really need to have a great product owner/manager. Tldr: It's not just coding, it's people.

texasbigdata 5y ago

Just be mindful sometime adding frosting to a terrible cake doesn't make it taste good. And the failure to pivot looks really bad to you. So your $300 hourly rate is not really deeply utilized. Consider project billing and also think about internal barriers (including humans that might be resentful or threatened) and how you might clear them. If you're doing strategic work it still needs to get implemented. And you're not doing that work. But the result is what the CEO will convey as your reputation to your next client referral reference check. Just some thoughts.