It's been exactly 1 year today since I quit my permanent role as a Senior Full Stack Developer. I still remember the day vividly - being told (again) I didn't have the skills needed to get the promotion I felt I very much deserved. Sigh. Let's go back a year.
Background
I already decided if this meeting didn't go the way I wanted, I'd throw in the towel. For the previous 9 months I'd done everything I believed was needed and more. But it wasn't enough apparantly and so this was it - the end of the road for me at this company. It was honestly a relief to finally say during the meeting "I quit" and it didn't appear to come as a surprise to my superior. We both knew I'd had enough.
Despite the awkward stalemate, it was an amicale split and there was no bad feeling whatsoever. They just wanted me to be something different to what I was and I believed I was doing enough to justify the role. We didn't agree on each others point of view and that was fine, not everyone agrees and things aren't always destined to work out.
Cool. So, I'd now quit. What next?
Be cool and do good things!
My first thought was for my employer and current role. That may seem weird, but I'm a professional and taking care of my current work was crucial to me. I wanted to leave with my head held high, knowing I'd done great work right up till the end and handed over all info & knowledge needed for a smooth transition.
There was zero point leaving on bad terms or doing a bad job, plus that just wasn't me.
Trust in thyself
I didn't have a role to go onto, but knew what I wanted to do - I wanted to go contracting. I've previously ran my own web design & dev agencies for 12+ years, plus with 24 years straight industry experience I had not just the tech skills and experience, but business sense and drive to go it alone.
Working on contracts was going to be a little different to running an agency however, so there was some learning to do, as my new focus would be on lengths of time rather than set projects. I'd for the previous 2 months studied hard to read up about contracting and it just sounded like "me", so I'd immersed myself in all the reading I could do on it and knew what differences to get used to.
My employer was kind enough to let me go at a shorter notice if I found a contract I liked, which I did within just a few days and a couple of weeks after that, I was gone. From memory, from the time I said "I quit!" to working on my first contract was just 3 weeks. There was no downtime, I finished on a Friday and starting my next adventure on the Monday.
So how did it go and what did I learn?
Looking back
I'm very pleased to say just about everything has gone perfectly, thankfully I can only think of a couple of very minor items I could have done better. But it's been 99% awesome really.
Firstly, my stress levels dropped almost instantly. I no longer needed to prove my worth for a role I was chasing, that fight was over. I could now focus on being the best contractor I could. I only had to prove myself to myself (...plus of course my clients, super important!).
I decided early on to be entirely cloud based, compared to how I ran my agencies which were a hybrid of cloud and on-prem based. I love my new approach of having everything available for myself entirely online - it makes for very convinient updating of just about anything; from finances to accounting, legal to documentation, code to collaboration and more from any device.
One of the very best additions I have this time is a "to do" app. Previously I'd worked from paper lists and calendars, but a great app to handle my scheduled tasks has been game changing. I now know exactly what to do daily and often work in "circles" of repeating tasks to keep ontop of ever changing aspects of running my business. It's pretty much my new boss. 😆
I'm a little better off financially. Not much, but a little, so that's great. But quitting and working for myself was always about being happier each day and I've certainly achieved that.
So - I'm much happier, more independent and financially a little better - what are the downsides?
Downsides - some, but not many!
The biggest downside, which is likely very obvious, is the responsibility. I'm now responsible for so much more than just the tech side of my role. I'm a director and so there's now the financial, legal, sales, documentation and more to contend with. But, running my own companies for many years, I knew all this already and all those years were great training for to really do things perfectly this time.
Having no team mates is a drawback I guess. But really, I have a team I work with, they're the fantastic people I collaborate with daily. So I'm not isolated at all, in-fact I'm very much engaged with others every day, maybe even more than before. I work on an amazing app, learn something new almost every day and have people to bounce ideas off, help and ask for help.
I could say there's no personal growth plans, development plans, training etc? However, that's not true - they're no longer set out for you by someone else, but you can set your own ...and most definitely should! Don't get stale by just doing your job - learn, achieve and grow every day. Set yourself goals.
The right decision?
I knew quitting and going contracting were suitable for me. I am highly driven, have experience with running businesses and a lot of experience in the industry. The big unknown was if I could get a contract fairly quickly and I did, plus quicker than expected.
I'm thankful I've made great decisions for the last year, but it wasn't without preperation, working extremely hard (especially the initial 3 months). I feel I've through through 3 big stages so far of (1) survival, (2) stabilisation and now onto (3) evolving. I'm certainly proud of all I've achieved, but there's ever more to do. I know it never ends and that's something to not just be comfortable with, but relish in.
Final thoughts
Is what I did right for everyone? Absolutely not! Do I recommend it for you? That's not my call to make, it'd be up to you. But, I would say, there are independent approaches to being a professional, you don't have to be a permanent employee.
If you're considering going it alone as a web dev, with the right circumstances and attitude, it can be very much worthwhile.
As a contractor, success depends only on you.
What about you? Are you considering carving your own path? Maybe you're already a contractor? How have you found things and do you have advice to give?
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