Life after freelancing
Based on the dmalinovsky article "Life in freelancing through the eyes of a programmer."
Now they write a lot about what the web developer is waiting for when he goes into freelancing. They write about how to stretch the first time without orders, how to deal with the influx of work, and then how to overcome their own laziness. However, I still have not seen an article about what freelancing gives when you decide to interrupt the whirlwind of orders, prepayments, search for new clients, help for old clients and everything else that makes up the life of a simple freelancer.
Do I have the right to write such an article, perhaps it is up to you, habra users. In my own excuse, I will say that, after about a year and a bit of work as a web developer, I went free to the open spaces of the web market and sailed for almost two and a half years, without a circle and a life jacket.
')
And so, what prompted me to go into the office life of a web developer or, as many say, to work as an uncle.
I'm tired. For every eight hours at the computer a day, from two to four hours goes to communicate with customers, and these two to four hours cost me six hours spent behind coding.
Very often, arranging a day off for themselves, the brain devoured a little thought, that there was a big pile of work. This is correct when a freelancer has a job in reserve, but it greatly hinders rest. Highly.
I am a programmer, a webmaster, I do not badly make up, I own clean js at a decent level, I easily enter someone else’s code and I know a lot of other useful things for a webmaster, from drawing buttons to designing large systems. Moreover, I love to do it (although I’m telling everyone that I don’t like my work ... I'm cunning).
And I can show the client that I really can do everything described above. I am able to grasp the essence of his task and, in addition to the solution, propose additions. I am able to hook the client. And of course, set a price for your work and feel free to ask this price if the work is done. But, unlike the direct responsibilities of the webmaster, I can not stand, no, well, I just can not stand it all. Working with a client drinks all the juice out of me, probably because I work with a soul that I have a negative reaction to, and if I get an excellent charge from that computer to that very soul, then the client doesn’t care and doesn’t care.
Probably could be "Third" and "Fourth" and so on, but for me, perhaps the most important reason was that I outgrew freelancing. We are all ambitious and active. When the time comes, we ask for a salary increase, a new position, we ask for an incentive that would show us that we have grown professionally. To own opinion about personal growth, was supported by external manifestations.
As a result, the thought comes that you need to change something. Anything not to stand still. In freelancing, we are mostly left to ourselves, and man is a social being, thus, after a certain period of work in freelancing (and in any non-collective work), a person stops growing above himself. This is bad. If you have ceased to grow above yourself, then ads like this: “Creating a web page in FrontPage, 30 years experience from its 50,” which can sometimes be found on ad sites is your future.
The most interesting thing is, I understand all this now, almost a year later, how I moved from freelancing to an office chair. And all because freelancing is a run, a race when it is very difficult to raise your head and look around. And only now, having recovered my breath from this race, I see that it was undoubtedly useful and extremely important for me, as for a person, but in essence it was a race with its own shadow; that is, race, for the sake of race, ... work, for work. Very useful, as long as each new project is a new knowledge. But the more this knowledge, the more boring each new project will be.
Why did this race help me so much?
Naturally experience. Different. The experience of communication with the client, the experience of development, the experience of self-motivation, the experience of laziness and many more many other experiences. But I think this is clear to everyone.
And what else?
The most important thing is confidence. I am not afraid of losing my job. That is, I really would not like to lose the team in which I work, and everything connected with it, but the thought “I am unemployed!” Does not frighten me at all. Just because I know what to do. I know where and how to make a living for two adults and two small people, that is, for the life of my family.
The second most important thing is that I know how much my work costs. Not “the average web developer gets so much” and not that “but they promised to do it for two hundred”, but the fact that my time is worth a certain, specific amount of money, and effectively using this time is a task for the employer. And it does not bother me at all that my employer sells my time many times more. I could not, but he could. But I can sell my time to him. And all is well. Yes.
Well, not the most important, but a very useful acquisition - these are ideas. In the course of work as a freelancer, we often solve problems from a zero point , that is, when a client comes to us and speaks his idea, and together we decide how to bring it to life. And sometimes, we just listen to them (ideas ... or customers?), And then either the client refuses to implement, or some other mischief happens and we have several hours of our time spent and someone else's idea. Over time, such realized and dead ideas are gathered enough to start living their lives in your head. And they live. They are probably getting married and divorced, maybe they even love each other, and as a result they give rise to other ideas - yours. It is good when you have your own personal ideas. This is just great.
As we all know, in life all processes are cyclical. I think that this can be safely attributed to the work of a web developer. We work for an uncle, then freelance, then work again for an uncle, but at a different level. What happens next - I do not know yet, I'm in the middle of the second round. But everyone has their own turns, someone will freelance again, someone will become the uncle for whom they work, someone else will continue to catch up with his shadow, and he will surely catch up with her, I know - I once caught up with.
PS sincerely apologize, I wanted to write a small note, but it turned out as always.
I do not know how to write shortly, nature has not rewarded me with that talent which is short.
UPD: Transferred to "Freelance . "
Now they write a lot about what the web developer is waiting for when he goes into freelancing. They write about how to stretch the first time without orders, how to deal with the influx of work, and then how to overcome their own laziness. However, I still have not seen an article about what freelancing gives when you decide to interrupt the whirlwind of orders, prepayments, search for new clients, help for old clients and everything else that makes up the life of a simple freelancer.
Do I have the right to write such an article, perhaps it is up to you, habra users. In my own excuse, I will say that, after about a year and a bit of work as a web developer, I went free to the open spaces of the web market and sailed for almost two and a half years, without a circle and a life jacket.
')
And so, what prompted me to go into the office life of a web developer or, as many say, to work as an uncle.
First of all
I'm tired. For every eight hours at the computer a day, from two to four hours goes to communicate with customers, and these two to four hours cost me six hours spent behind coding.
Very often, arranging a day off for themselves, the brain devoured a little thought, that there was a big pile of work. This is correct when a freelancer has a job in reserve, but it greatly hinders rest. Highly.
Secondly
I am a programmer, a webmaster, I do not badly make up, I own clean js at a decent level, I easily enter someone else’s code and I know a lot of other useful things for a webmaster, from drawing buttons to designing large systems. Moreover, I love to do it (although I’m telling everyone that I don’t like my work ... I'm cunning).
And I can show the client that I really can do everything described above. I am able to grasp the essence of his task and, in addition to the solution, propose additions. I am able to hook the client. And of course, set a price for your work and feel free to ask this price if the work is done. But, unlike the direct responsibilities of the webmaster, I can not stand, no, well, I just can not stand it all. Working with a client drinks all the juice out of me, probably because I work with a soul that I have a negative reaction to, and if I get an excellent charge from that computer to that very soul, then the client doesn’t care and doesn’t care.
In the last
Probably could be "Third" and "Fourth" and so on, but for me, perhaps the most important reason was that I outgrew freelancing. We are all ambitious and active. When the time comes, we ask for a salary increase, a new position, we ask for an incentive that would show us that we have grown professionally. To own opinion about personal growth, was supported by external manifestations.
As a result, the thought comes that you need to change something. Anything not to stand still. In freelancing, we are mostly left to ourselves, and man is a social being, thus, after a certain period of work in freelancing (and in any non-collective work), a person stops growing above himself. This is bad. If you have ceased to grow above yourself, then ads like this: “Creating a web page in FrontPage, 30 years experience from its 50,” which can sometimes be found on ad sites is your future.
The most interesting thing is, I understand all this now, almost a year later, how I moved from freelancing to an office chair. And all because freelancing is a run, a race when it is very difficult to raise your head and look around. And only now, having recovered my breath from this race, I see that it was undoubtedly useful and extremely important for me, as for a person, but in essence it was a race with its own shadow; that is, race, for the sake of race, ... work, for work. Very useful, as long as each new project is a new knowledge. But the more this knowledge, the more boring each new project will be.
Why did this race help me so much?
Naturally experience. Different. The experience of communication with the client, the experience of development, the experience of self-motivation, the experience of laziness and many more many other experiences. But I think this is clear to everyone.
And what else?
The most important thing is confidence. I am not afraid of losing my job. That is, I really would not like to lose the team in which I work, and everything connected with it, but the thought “I am unemployed!” Does not frighten me at all. Just because I know what to do. I know where and how to make a living for two adults and two small people, that is, for the life of my family.
The second most important thing is that I know how much my work costs. Not “the average web developer gets so much” and not that “but they promised to do it for two hundred”, but the fact that my time is worth a certain, specific amount of money, and effectively using this time is a task for the employer. And it does not bother me at all that my employer sells my time many times more. I could not, but he could. But I can sell my time to him. And all is well. Yes.
Well, not the most important, but a very useful acquisition - these are ideas. In the course of work as a freelancer, we often solve problems from a zero point , that is, when a client comes to us and speaks his idea, and together we decide how to bring it to life. And sometimes, we just listen to them (ideas ... or customers?), And then either the client refuses to implement, or some other mischief happens and we have several hours of our time spent and someone else's idea. Over time, such realized and dead ideas are gathered enough to start living their lives in your head. And they live. They are probably getting married and divorced, maybe they even love each other, and as a result they give rise to other ideas - yours. It is good when you have your own personal ideas. This is just great.
As we all know, in life all processes are cyclical. I think that this can be safely attributed to the work of a web developer. We work for an uncle, then freelance, then work again for an uncle, but at a different level. What happens next - I do not know yet, I'm in the middle of the second round. But everyone has their own turns, someone will freelance again, someone will become the uncle for whom they work, someone else will continue to catch up with his shadow, and he will surely catch up with her, I know - I once caught up with.
PS sincerely apologize, I wanted to write a small note, but it turned out as always.
I do not know how to write shortly, nature has not rewarded me with that talent which is short.
UPD: Transferred to "Freelance . "
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/55143/
All Articles