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As a freelance developer, the big opportunities lies in sectors outside of internet startups. (manufacturing services, clothing, import/export, finance, constru

As a freelance developer, the big opportunities lies in sectors outside of internet startups. (manufacturing services, clothing, import/export, finance, construction, home services, agriculture). Those are the areas where a skilled programmer can provide the greatest needed value. Most of the time, you pick your own programming languages and the clients trust your expertise. Plus, these jobs are often less demanding than working for startups. Personally, I still find Rails as one of most efficient and fastest tools for developing web apps.

bentcorner 12y ago
How do you usually meet up with these people? Asking this in another way, how do non-tech sectors find programmers? How do they know the need one?
- rebelidealist 12y ago
  That's a blog post of its own. I suggest going to networking events outside of the tech bubble. Many people in other industries aren't technically backwards or technophobes. The smart ones understand the value of an efficient IT system. Just like us, they enjoy the latest gadgets. They just haven't met many developers in tech that tried to engage them.
- josephjrobison 12y ago
  I'll speak as a marketing director that has just enough of an experience with languages (JS/PHP) to keep up so I'm not a complete dunce, but I/we can't do the work internally. I found my current outsourced team from a very strong recommendation. Why are recommendations so powerful? Because we're lazy. It's hard to weed through random proposals from strangers when someone you trust has used someone successfully. But referrals only happen after you, excellent developer, have a few jobs under your belt. And that's given that you have past clients that aren't trying to hoard you. Would they recommend you to their friends if you're slow on the projects you're working on with them? As a marketing director at a small travel company if I want my Magento website upgraded for speed, or if I want the current theme made responsive, where do I go? Well the CEO wants ROI, so I'm under pressure to find the balance of cost and quality output. So that means I try to outsource to developing countries for <$50/hr. What if you're a $100+/hr American developer? Well as a marketing director that reports to the CEO, I have to completely cover my ass in order to recommend something at $100/hr. Doesn't matter that the going rate for the best devs in tech cities might bill out at $500/hr - he's comparing to the Indian company from 2 years ago, to his sales team, and to his accountant. If you want to bill at market rate++ you sure as hell better propose something in such a way that the projected savings or new revenue is much higher than your cost. A CEO or Director of Marketing WILL pay what you're worth if the ROI is 125%+. You probably can't guarantee anything since so much is dependent on the company you're working with. But you have to paint the picture of possibility. In the perfect world, how well can what your proposing help the company? If you cover all the technical bases and point out the other areas of the project that the sales team, the marketing team, the customer support team has to contribute to, well that's a much easier sell. ROI, ROI, ROI. That's what people who hire you think about, especially in non-tech industries. All business people think of this first. Business people understand long term investment and don't expect your $10k project to product $20k the next month, but you have to help paint the picture. Will it pay off in 6 months? 9 months? 2 years? Make it easy for them, and the sale is easier. How do non-tech sectors know they need a programmer? There's almost always the techiest person at any company that is designated to hire the programming help or falls into it. You don't have to convince the secretary, the CEO, the accountant, the COO and the marketing director. You only have to convince the person handling the project that tends to be the most tech-savvy. A smart CEO generally won't put a 60-year-old secretary on the hunt for a genius RoR developer. He'll designate the best staff he has available. What triggers that moment where they go from mentioning it in passing, to calling a meeting and saying "we need to hire a developer in the next two weeks"? Usually it's obvious things that don't need to be uncovered by developers. The ecommerce payment system stops working; someone looks at the site on their iPad and realizes it looks like crap; they stop getting automated emails. The power you hold is painting a beautiful picture of what's possible with technology, and making they understand, then believe your vision. And a shit ton of ROI projections.
  - jevyjevjevs 12y ago
    Great feedback. How does a consultant do effective marketing/sales towards these organizations? It really seems like a consultant has to "strike when the iron is hot" and be there when there is a problem that needs a solution.
- thirdsun 12y ago
  I work for a small to mid-sized family business that existed for more than 30 years now, we have several stores and since 10 years ago have been manufacturing a physical product with mostly national recognition, but also some international interest. In terms of size I'm talking about ca. 50 employees. Our "IT-department" is me and another employee, that is currently finishing his apprenticeship (the german model) and likely to stay with us. When I started 10 years ago I got in via an apprenticeship too. We usually look to train our people and keep them for a long time, if possible. Since I haven't been working for anyone else yet, I can't compare, but it's really satisfying working for a smaller, familiar and non-tech company. As you already mentioned technology and programming is needed everywhere, not just start ups. We develope our own internal CRM, POS system, websites and experimenting with lots of new stuff - sure, you could outsource these jobs, but our company is aware of the fact unless you spent a lot, you might and up with some lackluster solution that barely managed to tick off the bullet points. Doing this in-house offers a lot of freedom - we can choose our own technology, which is Rails for us, and if an employee/user comes up with an idea that would make his life easier, we are able to make it happen fast. Plus, we feel valued, know the internal processes and requirements by heart and therefore are able to work on long-term goals, not just the current job's specs. The company is also located in a rather rural area - this might not be to everyone's taste, but rents and life in general is cheap around here, while the salary doesn't differ that much from city-figures - while the rent certainly does. Overtime is a very rare thing, I work 7 am - 4 pm. I can get to work by bike in 10 minutes, rarely seeing a car along the way. The bottom line is a very comfortable situation for me - financially and in terms of quality of life. tldr: If you look outside the usual tech-world, you might realize that your talent is needed almost everywhere and it can be very satisfying to work in your natural domain, but for non-tech companies.

bentcorner 12y ago

How do you usually meet up with these people? Asking this in another way, how do non-tech sectors find programmers? How do they know the need one?

rebelidealist 12y ago
That's a blog post of its own. I suggest going to networking events outside of the tech bubble. Many people in other industries aren't technically backwards or technophobes. The smart ones understand the value of an efficient IT system. Just like us, they enjoy the latest gadgets. They just haven't met many developers in tech that tried to engage them.
josephjrobison 12y ago
I'll speak as a marketing director that has just enough of an experience with languages (JS/PHP) to keep up so I'm not a complete dunce, but I/we can't do the work internally. I found my current outsourced team from a very strong recommendation. Why are recommendations so powerful? Because we're lazy. It's hard to weed through random proposals from strangers when someone you trust has used someone successfully. But referrals only happen after you, excellent developer, have a few jobs under your belt. And that's given that you have past clients that aren't trying to hoard you. Would they recommend you to their friends if you're slow on the projects you're working on with them? As a marketing director at a small travel company if I want my Magento website upgraded for speed, or if I want the current theme made responsive, where do I go? Well the CEO wants ROI, so I'm under pressure to find the balance of cost and quality output. So that means I try to outsource to developing countries for <$50/hr. What if you're a $100+/hr American developer? Well as a marketing director that reports to the CEO, I have to completely cover my ass in order to recommend something at $100/hr. Doesn't matter that the going rate for the best devs in tech cities might bill out at $500/hr - he's comparing to the Indian company from 2 years ago, to his sales team, and to his accountant. If you want to bill at market rate++ you sure as hell better propose something in such a way that the projected savings or new revenue is much higher than your cost. A CEO or Director of Marketing WILL pay what you're worth if the ROI is 125%+. You probably can't guarantee anything since so much is dependent on the company you're working with. But you have to paint the picture of possibility. In the perfect world, how well can what your proposing help the company? If you cover all the technical bases and point out the other areas of the project that the sales team, the marketing team, the customer support team has to contribute to, well that's a much easier sell. ROI, ROI, ROI. That's what people who hire you think about, especially in non-tech industries. All business people think of this first. Business people understand long term investment and don't expect your $10k project to product $20k the next month, but you have to help paint the picture. Will it pay off in 6 months? 9 months? 2 years? Make it easy for them, and the sale is easier. How do non-tech sectors know they need a programmer? There's almost always the techiest person at any company that is designated to hire the programming help or falls into it. You don't have to convince the secretary, the CEO, the accountant, the COO and the marketing director. You only have to convince the person handling the project that tends to be the most tech-savvy. A smart CEO generally won't put a 60-year-old secretary on the hunt for a genius RoR developer. He'll designate the best staff he has available. What triggers that moment where they go from mentioning it in passing, to calling a meeting and saying "we need to hire a developer in the next two weeks"? Usually it's obvious things that don't need to be uncovered by developers. The ecommerce payment system stops working; someone looks at the site on their iPad and realizes it looks like crap; they stop getting automated emails. The power you hold is painting a beautiful picture of what's possible with technology, and making they understand, then believe your vision. And a shit ton of ROI projections.
- jevyjevjevs 12y ago
  Great feedback. How does a consultant do effective marketing/sales towards these organizations? It really seems like a consultant has to "strike when the iron is hot" and be there when there is a problem that needs a solution.
thirdsun 12y ago
I work for a small to mid-sized family business that existed for more than 30 years now, we have several stores and since 10 years ago have been manufacturing a physical product with mostly national recognition, but also some international interest. In terms of size I'm talking about ca. 50 employees. Our "IT-department" is me and another employee, that is currently finishing his apprenticeship (the german model) and likely to stay with us. When I started 10 years ago I got in via an apprenticeship too. We usually look to train our people and keep them for a long time, if possible. Since I haven't been working for anyone else yet, I can't compare, but it's really satisfying working for a smaller, familiar and non-tech company. As you already mentioned technology and programming is needed everywhere, not just start ups. We develope our own internal CRM, POS system, websites and experimenting with lots of new stuff - sure, you could outsource these jobs, but our company is aware of the fact unless you spent a lot, you might and up with some lackluster solution that barely managed to tick off the bullet points. Doing this in-house offers a lot of freedom - we can choose our own technology, which is Rails for us, and if an employee/user comes up with an idea that would make his life easier, we are able to make it happen fast. Plus, we feel valued, know the internal processes and requirements by heart and therefore are able to work on long-term goals, not just the current job's specs. The company is also located in a rather rural area - this might not be to everyone's taste, but rents and life in general is cheap around here, while the salary doesn't differ that much from city-figures - while the rent certainly does. Overtime is a very rare thing, I work 7 am - 4 pm. I can get to work by bike in 10 minutes, rarely seeing a car along the way. The bottom line is a very comfortable situation for me - financially and in terms of quality of life. tldr: If you look outside the usual tech-world, you might realize that your talent is needed almost everywhere and it can be very satisfying to work in your natural domain, but for non-tech companies.