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Has anyone tried freelancing part time as a developer while starting their new career? I am considering freelancing so I can focus on making and selling shoes.

by 65 4y ago

Has anyone tried freelancing part time as a developer while starting their new career? I am considering freelancing so I can focus on making and selling shoes. I don't need to go all in on making shoes right off the bat, but having an extra 4 hours a day to do the non-tech thing I enjoy doing would be great. I would still be making enough money to cover the bills while I work on the new career.

jderiksen 4y ago
I worked as a contractor for many years working 20 hours per week and using the rest of my time to work on my music career. I highly highly recommend that lifestyle if you can find a long-term contract and don't have a huge amount of expenses.
themodelplumber 4y ago
I worked just like that for a while, and eventually decided tech work was more reliable for me than my equivalent to your shoes concept. As part of that experience, I did a bunch of personality theory research that tipped me off to this reliability factor (in myself! Not saying shoes won't work for you), and then it made sense. I switched my hold on the non-tech side to a more flexible improvisatory one. I do that whenever it strikes me as fun. If I could go back in time though, I would have called myself a business owner sooner and dropped the freelancer label. For one, there's very little practical difference from a maintenance POV. For another, the freelancer label is like broadcasting that you're probably not in it for long, and this limits your access to clients who are looking to show their boss they've hired a reliable resource. With regard to hours, you can make tech and business ownership whatever it needs to be for you. I definitely didn't understand this principle in practice: Develop a working schedule spec for yourself and work to spec. The spec isn't based on wishes or ideas. It's based on looking at your average work hours and effort last week, month, long before you got worn out. It's based on your realistic comfort level. You will always have to push back gently when people invite you to out-do yourself (features, timelines, whatever), and if you give in, that state of things can definitely make you hate tech. It does take some refinement over time. IMO everybody who does this for work should deploy a stable, specification-focused version of themselves at work, and a dev version at home. You should get to work each day knowing you have awesome boundaries in place to protect your stress levels and also help you make your clients more successful. And you should have tech stuff to look forward to that's just for you. Good luck with the shoe business by the way, that's really cool.

by 65 4y ago

jderiksen 4y ago

I worked as a contractor for many years working 20 hours per week and using the rest of my time to work on my music career. I highly highly recommend that lifestyle if you can find a long-term contract and don't have a huge amount of expenses.

themodelplumber 4y ago

I worked just like that for a while, and eventually decided tech work was more reliable for me than my equivalent to your shoes concept. As part of that experience, I did a bunch of personality theory research that tipped me off to this reliability factor (in myself! Not saying shoes won't work for you), and then it made sense. I switched my hold on the non-tech side to a more flexible improvisatory one. I do that whenever it strikes me as fun. If I could go back in time though, I would have called myself a business owner sooner and dropped the freelancer label. For one, there's very little practical difference from a maintenance POV. For another, the freelancer label is like broadcasting that you're probably not in it for long, and this limits your access to clients who are looking to show their boss they've hired a reliable resource. With regard to hours, you can make tech and business ownership whatever it needs to be for you. I definitely didn't understand this principle in practice: Develop a working schedule spec for yourself and work to spec. The spec isn't based on wishes or ideas. It's based on looking at your average work hours and effort last week, month, long before you got worn out. It's based on your realistic comfort level. You will always have to push back gently when people invite you to out-do yourself (features, timelines, whatever), and if you give in, that state of things can definitely make you hate tech. It does take some refinement over time. IMO everybody who does this for work should deploy a stable, specification-focused version of themselves at work, and a dev version at home. You should get to work each day knowing you have awesome boundaries in place to protect your stress levels and also help you make your clients more successful. And you should have tech stuff to look forward to that's just for you. Good luck with the shoe business by the way, that's really cool.