#Advice for freelancing on the side?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

distant vessel
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I’ve been thinking about getting into freelancing on the side.

My FTE is at Google as a SWE (3-4 YoE) doing backend non-web work, but I’m willing to pick up a more freelancing-friendly skillset if needed.

I’m trying to reliably get decent paying (past ramp up period, $40/hour at a minimum, preferably higher) gigs that won’t detract from my day job (mainly this means it’s easy to logistically separate from working hours).

Is this realistic? If so, does anyone have any tips? Thanks!

vague gate
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Define freelancing-friendly skillsets?

distant vessel
# vague gate Define freelancing-friendly skillsets?

technical skills that freelancing clients tend to want. I’m not an expert (clearly since I’m asking about this haha) but a lot of postings seem to be for web development, and sometimes mobile development

vague gate
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I think you could charge way higher than $40/hr. I once had to do research to determine the best price I could get for a single textbox, single button API post request. The average cost was 3-4k, for probably 40hrs of work.

steady fossil
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^^^^

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In an ideal world, charge for your output for side gigs.

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Don't charge for your time. With side gigs, if you charge by the hour/day (honestly) it means if you do a faster job, you get less $$$.

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One of my big goals is to also do side gigs where I charge for output vs time.

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Charging for output is much healthier. One of the reasons that companies like fulltime employees is because companies capture the "upside" of your labour.

autumn iron
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general freelancing while at FAANG doesn't make sense unless you have a specialty that you can charge for.

if you're doing general SWE work, google should be paying you enough so that you don't need to think about freelancing. if consider putting that extra time or brainpower into your work, maybe you'll get higher perf marks that will lead to refreshers or promotions that will dwarf any side money you might make by being a SWE on the side.

if you want a coding hobby, do it for a purpose that's not extra cash. learn something. help a friend or a non-profit.

distant vessel
# autumn iron general freelancing while at FAANG doesn't make sense unless you have a specialt...

if i could eventually work my way to $70/hour, 10 hours a week for like another 36k a year, seems like that could be worth it in a vacuum without detracting from my main work

but that would be assuming there isn't too much context-switching penalty or general stress/unpredictability/etc. If all I had to do was narrowly defined software tasks without having to worry about other things, then it seems like that would be OK, but I'm guessing it's a lot more taxing than that...

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(maybe tutoring would have less of that)

distant vessel
steady fossil
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Google is unique in how if the project goes off the rails you shoulder zero responsibility.

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From the outside.

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At a company I'm not supposed to mention, that's "your sleep schedule gone in all nighters."

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When you consult, you need to give estimates you can hit. There's so little margin for not meeting the estimate when you are paid by the day.

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So it becomes very important to get the details to quote accurately.

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If you were a fulltime consultant you can charge day rate.

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I don't think that works for part timing.

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And yeah, Statico's google advice is probably correct.

autumn iron
# distant vessel if i could eventually work my way to $70/hour, 10 hours a week for like another ...

thoughts:

  • another 36K/yr sounds great, but what percentage of that is of your TC? is it worth it? what if you concentrated on your full time job and earned a refresher worth 20-30K/yr? i understand that it's not that cut and try, but i'm strongly in the position that i'd like to not be moonlighting unless it sets me up for something that could pay more than my FAANG salary, which is unlikely
  • 10 hrs/week is really low. as a manager/lead, i'm not sure if i could handle an IC generalist working 10 hrs/wk on a project. it just doesn't seem like there's enough context.
  • if you're at google, you signed a PIIA/CIIA, and google "owns your brain." anyone serious that's hiring you will ask, "you cleared this with legal, right?"
  • 10 hrs/week isn't just coding. you have to source gigs, find leads, etc. if you're thinking of just using upwork or toptal to source gigs, they might deny you based on this.
steady fossil
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IMO, this is something Javascript devs really get.

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If I want to learn Angular... having someone on Upwork pay me to learn Angular while doing a project for them is a cheat code for life.

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I've got a whole bunch of stuff I want to find small projects on.

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If those could be projects I get paid money to do, that'd be far better than me doing tutorials etc etc.

distant vessel
steady fossil
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It depends. That's why I'm asking the question. There's a few big downsides to the way Javascript devs do it.