I actually started my career in programming by contracting. A friend at my coworking loft needed the prototype for a project made. I told him I had no clue wha

I actually started my career in programming by contracting. A friend at my coworking loft needed the prototype for a project made. I told him I had no clue what I was doing, but I'd give it a shot and he said he'd pay me. The prototype was super rough, but it was sufficient for him to raise money on, and 4-5 years later its still rocking. And I was off to doing contracting/freelance after that. Really for contracting I find you've either got to get yourself in with a consulting/design company who will hire you hourly, or be incredibly social and just network your ass off. I've rarely had consulting gigs that were because of some random email online- almost always people I've known.