Freelancer for life – 5 reasons why this works

https://antonsten.com/freelancer-for-life/

by antonsten • 11 years ago

2 5 11 years ago

I hear quite a lot about how freelance design works well for freelance designers.

But I'm a software consultant; mostly I do "Greenfield Development", that is, writing entire applications completely from scratch. It's fascinating work but so painful that I would not wish software consulting upon my worst enemy.

For quite some time now I've been struggling to get out of consulting, and into a regular job where I can work in and office among coworkers.

Just making that statement in an interview, in reply to their query as to why I want to give up consulting, is absolutely all I require to be turned down for the job.

It is profoundly frustrating.

antonsten2• 11 years ago

What is it that you find so painful about the work? Not having coworkers or the actual work?

MichaelCrawford3• 11 years ago

In recent years, it has become not having coworkers.

I'm a better coder than I used to be, so the software development itself is easier than it once was. But what was very hard was that after the dot-com crash, the clients always demanded fixed-cost contracts, they were never willing to pay hourly any more.

If I ran into an unexpected obstacle, I'd have to eat the cost of it. I always completed on my deliverables, as I regard that as the ethical thing to do. Even if I didn't, I had my reputation to consider.

Freelancer for life – 5 reasons why this works

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