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I was a freelance/contract developer for 2 years, went back to full time. And I had a golden ticket (a company had full time amount of work avail, I only did an

I was a freelance/contract developer for 2 years, went back to full time. And I had a golden ticket (a company had full time amount of work avail, I only did and billed for 20h/wk, paid every other week). Now that almost all dev work is going to be remote friendly, The only advantage to freelancing that I can see is the flexibility to work less than 40 hour weeks, or take more time off than vacation time you're allotted. That freedom is purchased with a lot of stress and uncertainty, and may not actually result in that much freedom if you're semi-actively always looking for leads. Ultimately I found the type of work companies go to freelancers for is terribly uninteresting most of the time.

indymike 5y ago
> Now that almost all dev work is going to be remote friendly, The only advantage to freelancing that I can see is the flexibility to work less than 40 hour weeks, or take more time off than vacation time you're allotted. Oh, there's a few more reasons: taxes (paid in arrears, after expenses), carry your own insurance/benefits (can work really well if you are young & healthy), business can own property, corporate veil, separate business finance from personal, have more than one client, etc... > Ultimately I found the type of work companies go to freelancers for is terribly uninteresting most of the time. Sometimes. Other times it can be better.
- sjf 5y ago
  Health insurance is not pro. At a big four I am paying ~$50/month for great health insurance, freelancing it was 650 from Covered California and involved repeated heated calls to every party involved.
  - indymike 5y ago
    > Health insurance is not pro. At a big four I am paying ~$50/month for great health insurance, Most employers aren't passing through the whole premium. With my current company, we're covering 85% of the premium for our employees, so they see some token amount out of their paychecks, but the actual premium is a lot bigger than $50/month. It's hard to beat HC insurance from a big employer. When you have to buy your own, it can work out as you usually can get a higher hourly rate than an employee by 25-30%. You also avoid double deductibles when your employer changes the plan changes mid-year. You also avoid COBRA if you quit or are fired.
- wnolens 5y ago
  Personally glad to be free of complex taxes and insane health care costs on individual market. Being a developer is too cushy a job full-time.
xwdv 5y ago
You can go further and say there is little to no advantage in freelancing. A lot of remote dev work isn’t even 40/hrs a week of constant work. You can pick a low stress job working from home and still make six figures, more than most freelancers with far less stress. I’ve given up on ever pursuing freelancing because I realized I actually didn’t want to be self-employed, I just wanted to work from home and be in control of my time.
- baobabKoodaa 5y ago
  > You can pick a low stress job working from home and still make six figures, more than most freelancers with far less stress. Where are these low stress remote jobs making six figures? Asking for a friend.
  - Ostrogodsky 5y ago
    Onlyfans
  - wnolens 5y ago
    Most US tech companies, except the trick is that you have to put up strong boundaries to overworking and be okay with level stagnation. Most folks I know in FAANG/equivalent are not that stressed once you give up the race for promotions and accolades.
    - lostcolony 5y ago
      Even then, I've found setting boundaries can actually help with promotions. Making it clear that your time is valuable to you can help force others to value your time. As long as you're spending the rest of your time on the right stuff (80/20 rule totally applies), you can have stellar performance AND a 40 (or effectively less) hour work week.
  - xwdv 5y ago
    There’s plenty of jobs that are just heads down coding, cranking out tickets and attending a couple zoom meetings a week. Once you find such a job, just stick to it. Don’t go getting promoted to some higher position where you have to endure more meetings or become responsible for more things and have a bunch of people depending on you. When you want more income, pick up a second job that is also similar. You should easily clear a quarter million dollars or more a year this way, and all you’re doing is writing code and going to some meetings. Easy.
scottwick 5y ago
> The only advantage to freelancing that I can see is the flexibility to work less than 40 hour weeks, or take more time off than vacation time you're allotted. I've been doing contract work exclusively for the past 9 years now and this is exactly why I continue with contract arrangements. If I could find a "permanent" position with flexibility like this I would likely consider transitioning away from contract work.

indymike 5y ago

> Now that almost all dev work is going to be remote friendly, The only advantage to freelancing that I can see is the flexibility to work less than 40 hour weeks, or take more time off than vacation time you're allotted. Oh, there's a few more reasons: taxes (paid in arrears, after expenses), carry your own insurance/benefits (can work really well if you are young & healthy), business can own property, corporate veil, separate business finance from personal, have more than one client, etc... > Ultimately I found the type of work companies go to freelancers for is terribly uninteresting most of the time. Sometimes. Other times it can be better.

sjf 5y ago
Health insurance is not pro. At a big four I am paying ~$50/month for great health insurance, freelancing it was 650 from Covered California and involved repeated heated calls to every party involved.
- indymike 5y ago
  > Health insurance is not pro. At a big four I am paying ~$50/month for great health insurance, Most employers aren't passing through the whole premium. With my current company, we're covering 85% of the premium for our employees, so they see some token amount out of their paychecks, but the actual premium is a lot bigger than $50/month. It's hard to beat HC insurance from a big employer. When you have to buy your own, it can work out as you usually can get a higher hourly rate than an employee by 25-30%. You also avoid double deductibles when your employer changes the plan changes mid-year. You also avoid COBRA if you quit or are fired.
wnolens 5y ago
Personally glad to be free of complex taxes and insane health care costs on individual market. Being a developer is too cushy a job full-time.

xwdv 5y ago

You can go further and say there is little to no advantage in freelancing. A lot of remote dev work isn’t even 40/hrs a week of constant work. You can pick a low stress job working from home and still make six figures, more than most freelancers with far less stress. I’ve given up on ever pursuing freelancing because I realized I actually didn’t want to be self-employed, I just wanted to work from home and be in control of my time.

baobabKoodaa 5y ago
> You can pick a low stress job working from home and still make six figures, more than most freelancers with far less stress. Where are these low stress remote jobs making six figures? Asking for a friend.
- Ostrogodsky 5y ago
  Onlyfans
- wnolens 5y ago
  Most US tech companies, except the trick is that you have to put up strong boundaries to overworking and be okay with level stagnation. Most folks I know in FAANG/equivalent are not that stressed once you give up the race for promotions and accolades.
  - lostcolony 5y ago
    Even then, I've found setting boundaries can actually help with promotions. Making it clear that your time is valuable to you can help force others to value your time. As long as you're spending the rest of your time on the right stuff (80/20 rule totally applies), you can have stellar performance AND a 40 (or effectively less) hour work week.
- xwdv 5y ago
  There’s plenty of jobs that are just heads down coding, cranking out tickets and attending a couple zoom meetings a week. Once you find such a job, just stick to it. Don’t go getting promoted to some higher position where you have to endure more meetings or become responsible for more things and have a bunch of people depending on you. When you want more income, pick up a second job that is also similar. You should easily clear a quarter million dollars or more a year this way, and all you’re doing is writing code and going to some meetings. Easy.

scottwick 5y ago

> The only advantage to freelancing that I can see is the flexibility to work less than 40 hour weeks, or take more time off than vacation time you're allotted. I've been doing contract work exclusively for the past 9 years now and this is exactly why I continue with contract arrangements. If I could find a "permanent" position with flexibility like this I would likely consider transitioning away from contract work.