Tough Decisions
August 28th, 2008
Clarifications
Reading what I wrote below I see where my mind was just a few days ago. I wasn’t entirely wrong to talk about where my mind was but, I did trivialize the job offer quite a bit in an effort to get people to backup the idea of consulting.
That was kinda stupid of me to do though. It actually *is* an interesting job with a company in a field I’ve wanted to work in for a long time. It’s a solid group of passionate people and anyone that knows me knows seeing passion for what you’re doing is a big deal for me. These people don’t just have passion though, they seem to have the talent to implement their vision.
So, I’m leaving the post as is for posterity’s sake but, as you read, keep in mind I don’t even agree with a fair bit of what I wrote myself.
I’ve been an out of work Ruby developer for about three weeks now. When I got word that my paychecks would stop coming I immediately reached out to some friends and colleagues for a few contracts and this is what I’ve been doing the last few weeks.
Three Weeks
In those three weeks I’ve been working on some truly interesting projects and learning a ton. I’ve been working with other people’s code that borders on pure poetry and some code that appears to be an implementation of “Brainfuck on Ruby on Rails”.
In just three weeks I’ve worked in multiple languages with several technologies I hadn’t touched before. I’ve even found and used a respectable PHP ORM.
More importantly, I’ve gotten a crash course in the contracting business from some smart people that have been doing this for years. I’m also playing “Do The Hustle” on a perpetual loop, thanks Obie.
Doing this for just three weeks of course means I’m still absolutely horrible at the sales process but, it’s a start.
No Plan
So far, I’m loving the contracting thing and I want desperately to make my living doing this for a while. The problem is, I didn’t plan this.
I planned on sticking with JamLab and seeing that through. I planned on a successful launch and supporting a truly awesome product. I planned on getting a steady paycheck and health insurance.
I have all the usual responsibilities of someone my age. I have a wife, a daughter, a mortgage, etc. All these people and things generally want to eat and/or get paid on a pretty regular basis.
Had I planned this and had all the research done and proof that I could handle my responsibilities consistently I wouldn’t be so nervous. I’m fine now but what about tomorrow? The day after?
Is there really that much work for a good developer but horrible sales guy?
My Dilemma
I got a job offer today. Not a great one and not a horrible one. I would still get to use Ruby, which is great, and the work looks interesting. The job does strike me as having the potential of being one of those perpetual crunch time environments though. Really, this post isn’t about this job though, others will come, it’s more about full-time v. contractor.
It would pay the bills though and, I’m assuming, on a pretty regular basis. I just honestly don’t know what to do.
Three weeks ago it was easy, I was a cog in a wheel and didn’t know what I was missing out on. Now I’ve got a taste and I do like it.
So all ten of you that read my blog, tell me what to do. Help me map out my future. Direct me on how to balance my happiness.
Or just post lolcat images, that’s fine too.
9 Responses to “Tough Decisions”
Sorry, comments are closed for this article.
August 28th, 2008 at 08:33 PM
Wish I could tell you what to do. I’m suffering from the same dilemma though, just sans the job offer. And sans the contracting work. So the same, really, just fuckeder.
I think were it me, right now, my instinct would be: go for the security. At the same time, I wouldn’t tolerate a perpetual crunch time environment for very long. Not like you can’t be working somewhere and looking for something somewhere else though.
I feel particularly unqualified to counsel you right now though, seeing as I’m partly why you’re in this dilemma. So I’ll pipe down and see what other folks say.
August 28th, 2008 at 09:49 PM
You shouldn’t feel bad.
In the interview for this job I was asked what the biggest risk I took in the last year was. I cited JamLab. Right after that I was asked what the best decision I made in the last year was. I cited JamLab.
It didn’t end the way I’d have liked but I loved every minute of it. Even with the shitty boss.
August 28th, 2008 at 09:51 PM
Though decisions for sure. I think I would go for the job, especially considering the status of the economy. You can always look for something better or even drop out again and go back to freelancing.
Of course to quit a full time secure position in favor of freelancing is not easy. So one can say you got the initial push, use it to your advantage.
Perhaps you can hang on just a bit more while you shop for a really good offer. I am not sure what I would too. It is a really difficult decision to take.
One thing I would consider is using this opportunity to leave FL and move to a fun, hurricane free state.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:01 AM
take the job. freelance on your terms when you’re ready and comfortable with it. More importantly when your family is ready and comfortable with it. no insurance and no steady paychecks is tough on a family.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Going to JamLab may have been a good decision. But that little boss of yours, common. :-)
August 29th, 2008 at 11:28 AM
Well, as you know, I currently make a living as an independent. It’s not a side job and it’s not a “I have a real job and my real real job” thing.
There is a certain amount of freedom associated with being a contractor, of course. However, there’s also a lot of added responsibility and stress. I can’t say I don’t miss getting into the mindless drone once and a while. That’s just not possible. Even if I have a full load of things to do right now, I have to be thinking about what the landscape will be like in a few months.
Having said that, and since the posters above have already endorsed going the full-time route, I’ll give some alternative points just to round out the options.
The unique thing that I love about being independent is the ability to establish your own brand in the market. Your clients get to know you and you get to be involved in their shit for a certain amount of time – and then get out of their shit when it gets too thick. If you’re really excited about a project from a client but not so excited the next time, it’s easy to move on and stay agile. I like that aspect as it keeps things fresh.
Furthermore, the feeling of building something wholly your own is unmatched in the “employed” world.
One misconception is that you’ll need to be hounding all these people for jobs and talking to 100 companies at once. Right now I basically have 1 client: Warner Bros. Records. I have some other obligations here and there, but there are enough artists and enough new projects to keep me relatively busy. It’s a bit like working full-time for them, except I can do it in my underwear and watch The People’s Court.
True, you do need to find those special clients but it looks like you have one already with this interview. They may have their reasons to hire someone in-house but it’s your job to convince them otherwise. If that example doesn’t make sense, I assure you that there’s a lot of companies out there that don’t want to be married to one developer.
When my friends ask if I can come out to their cities, I say that all I need is my laptop, phone and an internet connection. It’s hard to find that outside of freelancing. Most clients don’t even know you’ve moved HQ temporarily.
At any rate, there are pros and cons. Right now, as Bruno mentioned, the economy isn’t exactly great. Health insurance for a family is going to be no-joke but a lot of companies are making employees pay higher and higher percentages of it anyway. I can recommend some companies that have good self-employed plans.
If you read freelancing/self-employed books there are 50% that say you should ease into it over a few years and 50% that say nothing really happens unless you go at it with everything you’ve got. You have to decide what’s better for you.
August 29th, 2008 at 03:53 PM
Contracting is great but it comes with a different set of rules. You need to be good with biz and I am sure if you take it on you will need to apply the same skills you used at learning to code to learning to be a deal maker but it is a learning curve. If you already at the top of your game it might be a hard jump to take the hit on income the first could of years untill you build up a client list and the grass is not always as good once you get there. Then at some point you need to hire in order to maintain previous clients but they only want to pay you for yourself and they never understand why you have to double your rates to support new staff and added costs. Angel clients can be good.
If you still want to do it. Take the amount of money you want to make. Add 20k in equipment costs. Account for 30-40% sales time. Add overhead like subcontractors etc in. Then try to convert “jobs” into angel clients by offering them deals.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:44 PM
If your heart is telling you to consult for a living you must listen to it Rich. It’s like that girl you should’ve asked out in high school - there isn’t a day that goes by when you don’t regret it.
As far as job security don’t worry about that. “Practical” people may disagree with me but I’ve always believed that when you combine passion and talent there’s nothing that could stop you.
As corny as that sounds I know you fit that description.
Cheers and Good Luck,
Dylan
September 3rd, 2008 at 03:17 PM
Rich - I had subscribed to your blog a while ago, and when I read this, I thought “hey - this sounds like that guy I met at the Boca Ruby Meetup”. Surprise, surprise!
We have Rails consulting work we need done in September and October, between 60 and 100 hours. More to come in November and December. If you’re interested, please give e-mail me.
My feeling is that there’s plenty of work out there for solid Rails programmers - it’s just a matter of getting your name out there - and from what I hear you are very talented.