A good friend of mine got tired of the grind and "working for the man". Especially after having been burned by a sour grapes situation. So he started his own company. At first, it was 4 people. Then 10. Then 20. Now his company has 500 employees.
Another friend of mine went into contract-for-bid consulting. Also meant starting his own company, even though it was a "one man show". He was much happier consulting rather than doing the grind. The biggest benefit was not being involved with any business's politics; he was just there to get a job done, and then move on to the next contract. (The hard part being keeping the contract pipeline full enough.) Alas, he was lured back into being an employee, but he was happier as a consultant.
+1 for the politics. As a contractor developer/BA/PM you get paid a premium for your expertise and opinion which means you tend to get listened to. Most of the time you can be on more money than the senior management team, and if they p*ss you off, you know you only have to put up with it a few more months.
Where do I find that type of contracting? xD In a previous role I was a 'contractor' but at the end of the day I was doing regular coding and the whole thing was basically waterfall...
I'm in the UK so I find most if my roles on Jobserve via agencies (coz I'm too lazy to do my own marketing)
I've also been doing this for 30 years so life experience has some effect.
Specialisation and nicheing down also helps. Front end is not a niche. Responsive design using React and tailwind for designing affro-carribean mobile hairdressing websites is a niche.
I think it was a combination of factors. In particular, he had a contract at the place, and then the company wanted to keep him on as an employee and made him an offer. He was (I'm assuming) going to try it, and then if he didn't like it he'd just quit. But it turned out he didn't like it, but he had the golden handcuffs (i.e., incentives and investitures).
He has since retired. He's happy again. Now he's doing woodworking, for fun. Which is the best way to get into woodworking: 1) get into programming, 2) burn out, 3) start woodworking.
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A good friend of mine got tired of the grind and "working for the man". Especially after having been burned by a sour grapes situation. So he started his own company. At first, it was 4 people. Then 10. Then 20. Now his company has 500 employees.
Another friend of mine went into contract-for-bid consulting. Also meant starting his own company, even though it was a "one man show". He was much happier consulting rather than doing the grind. The biggest benefit was not being involved with any business's politics; he was just there to get a job done, and then move on to the next contract. (The hard part being keeping the contract pipeline full enough.) Alas, he was lured back into being an employee, but he was happier as a consultant.
+1 for the politics. As a contractor developer/BA/PM you get paid a premium for your expertise and opinion which means you tend to get listened to. Most of the time you can be on more money than the senior management team, and if they p*ss you off, you know you only have to put up with it a few more months.
Where do I find that type of contracting? xD In a previous role I was a 'contractor' but at the end of the day I was doing regular coding and the whole thing was basically waterfall...
I'm in the UK so I find most if my roles on Jobserve via agencies (coz I'm too lazy to do my own marketing)
I've also been doing this for 30 years so life experience has some effect.
Specialisation and nicheing down also helps. Front end is not a niche. Responsive design using React and tailwind for designing affro-carribean mobile hairdressing websites is a niche.
Great to hear about stories like that! In the second story, do you know what lured him back to being an employee?
I think it was a combination of factors. In particular, he had a contract at the place, and then the company wanted to keep him on as an employee and made him an offer. He was (I'm assuming) going to try it, and then if he didn't like it he'd just quit. But it turned out he didn't like it, but he had the golden handcuffs (i.e., incentives and investitures).
He has since retired. He's happy again. Now he's doing woodworking, for fun. Which is the best way to get into woodworking: 1) get into programming, 2) burn out, 3) start woodworking.