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Well, I recently quit to become a fulltime freelancer and I'm absolutely loving it. Here's a quick brief on my background: Until about 8 weeks ago I was an ac

Well, I recently quit to become a fulltime freelancer and I'm absolutely loving it. Here's a quick brief on my background: Until about 8 weeks ago I was an academic neuroscientist. For a variety of reasons, I quit and started working as a fulltime web developer. I had just about $8k in my bank account at that time. This may seem low (it is!), but it was about 1/4th of my yearly salary so it is a lot for me. I'm don't need a lot of money to survive, so other than taking the girlfriend out every now and then I can live on a fairly tight budget. I've found several clients through Hacker News, which is pretty awesome. I'm charging a low rate right now to make up for my unorthodox background and lack of professional experience. I imagine you'll have a much easier time since you have real experience to put on your resume, whereas most of mine were side projects. I'm not sure what else to write, but if you have any questions feel free to ask!

aymeric 15y ago
I am curious to hear how you found your clients in a place as competitive as HN?
- polyfractal 15y ago
  Not sure! =) I have a handful of side projects in both programming and "soft" skills such as running a newsletter. I got some leads through various HN posts about my side projects, and a few from the "Freelancer?" monthly thread. You can see the projects that I listed if you search last month's thread. But yeah, I find it a little surprising myself. Probably some combination of the following: -public projects -right skill set (PHP instead of more trendy Ruby, etc) -cheaper price -good environment for developers right now -luck If you think about it, there are a lot of brilliant people on HN...but many of them already have jobs. Of those freelancing, a lot probably already have a solid client load. Of those that still need clients, not all are going to be working in a specific skill set, and I'd wager many don't want to work with PHP.

aymeric 15y ago

I am curious to hear how you found your clients in a place as competitive as HN?

polyfractal 15y ago
Not sure! =) I have a handful of side projects in both programming and "soft" skills such as running a newsletter. I got some leads through various HN posts about my side projects, and a few from the "Freelancer?" monthly thread. You can see the projects that I listed if you search last month's thread. But yeah, I find it a little surprising myself. Probably some combination of the following: -public projects -right skill set (PHP instead of more trendy Ruby, etc) -cheaper price -good environment for developers right now -luck If you think about it, there are a lot of brilliant people on HN...but many of them already have jobs. Of those freelancing, a lot probably already have a solid client load. Of those that still need clients, not all are going to be working in a specific skill set, and I'd wager many don't want to work with PHP.