In terms of networking: I get all my clients from recruiters reaching out to me LinkedIn. I've "SEO"d my profile to make sure all keywords (and every variation)

In terms of networking: I get all my clients from recruiters reaching out to me LinkedIn. I've "SEO"d my profile to make sure all keywords (and every variation) for the tech I specialise is in my profile. In terms of making money without being in a supervisory role: Become really good at operating / devopsing niche enterprise software. Try and specialise in software where: * There aren't many users (and therefore few competing specialists) * The users are large, rich enterprises * It's "legacy" and therefore the pool of competing specialists is shrinking (but importantly the pool of customers is shrinking at a slower rate than the pool of specialists) * It's complicated * The software provides enough value to its users such that paying an incredibly expensive contractor to look after it is much cheaper than not using the software and having to pay the salaries of the dozens/hundreds of jobs the software automates away.