If people are open to it, I would really love to hear some anecdotes about making the transition from working for a big tech company to doing independent consulting. It seems very hard (often forbidden by the company) to pick up clients on the side while being an employee, but quitting a job without any clients is pretty scary. And I'm not even clear where to find clients (who will pay a reasonable rate).
I saved enough cash to last me for more than a year, took some time off to chill out, think and make plans, then work found me. You know all these times someone asks you if you can do this or that for them, and you had to say no because you didn't have the energy to do it well in addition to your job? Yeah, you just stop saying no. Then you do it _well_. Word gets around. More folk ask. Eventually you start saying no again, because you're fully booked.
This is where it again gets a bit tricky - don't over-commit, you don't want to deliver bad work because you're rushing, this business is very much about reputation. And don't forget the overhead. You can and should automate the meta work (invoicing, accounting, etc.) as much as possible, but it will still take some time. Don't forget to take a break and relax either. Give yourself a 20% Friday to play with new stuff or just go swimming. Enjoy the freedom of being your own boss.
Now, if you've done it well, you can pick your projects. If you get a lot more requests than you can work on, raise your rates until things balance out. Don't be an idiot and undervalue yourself, it's an open market, use it or get exploited.
That initial cash reserve? Keep it. Rebuild it when it drops low. It both acts as a safety belt (what if you break an arm and can't type for a month, huh?) and it gave me the piece of mind I needed - I don't think I could've done it without the assurance of looking at an Excel sheet that said at the bottom "n more months before you either have to make profit or go be a wage slave again" (yeah, make a budget, you'll thank me later).
My first client was the company I left. Most of my other clients are from contacts I have made during my work life, either their side projects or places they had moved on to, or because friends they recommended me to. Networking, reputation, and a bit of luck will get you there. Or maybe not. Not everyone is cut out for it, and if you aren't loving it, maybe consider that the slightly sticky embrace of employment wasn't so bad after all. I for one can't imagine going back there.
My experience sounds fairly similar to this. I've been doing a bit of business development (mostly going to Meetups/events relevant to the kind of work I'm interested in), but I find that most of the work ends up finding me through my network. Actually, most people I talk to have been telling me the same thing.
In the UK there's a sort of middle path - contracting/consulting.
You tend to work through agents who have client companies that want someone with extensive domain knowledge to work with them (and usually exclusively with them) for short terms (several months).
The money is better than permanent work, and you get to do all sorts of interesting things, though you do need to be prepared for dry patches. I just bit the bullet, quit work and went for it. In the last two years I've worked with three different clients, and my latest client is an established consultancy in their own right who are hopefully going to keep me on their books as more stuff comes up.
This seems to me far easier than hunting down clients by yourself.
I work in London, and used to work for a FTSE 35 company. I was there for about 2 years, and worked primarily as an Android developer.
I'm not sure about the situation where you are, but here in London there's tons of Android contracts.
I made the decision to jump about a month and a half ago after getting screwed over a promotion that was promised to me. Any loyalty I had to the company died at that point.
I had a month's notice, and two weeks holiday before I quit. Two weeks before I officially handed my notice in, I let my manager know I was contemplating going contracting. She was very understanding, and tried to make me stay.
I started phoning round recruitment consultants letting them know my experience & what I was after.
After two weeks, twenty plus recruiters, 30 plus contracts, and two interviews, I landed the third interview.
The one thing holding me back the most, and probably the reason I didn't land a job sooner was that in contracting land, you're expected to start pretty much the next day, and I had a 2-4 week wait before becoming available.
I got the job, started my company the same day (£15 & 15 minutes time). Got an accountant via recommendation & started two weeks later.
I'm not going to lie, the jump was terrifying. Losing the security of permanent employment, & imposter syndrome play a big part in keeping people in perm jobs.
After a week in this job though, I'm incredibly happy.
I'm not getting full contract day rates (£400+), its more around £250, but I'm two years out of uni & doubled my salary by quitting.
That's not even including the tax benefits of getting paid via your own company.
My advice would be make damn sure you're good enough (not by validating your own abilities, but by getting other contractors to evaluate you), and start getting in touch with recruiters.
Your world isn't going to come crumbling down by having a conversation.
Oh, and don't trust recruiters. They're a necessary evil.
>> The one thing holding me back the most, and probably the reason I didn't land a job sooner was that in contracting land, you're expected to start pretty much the next day, and I had a 2-4 week wait before becoming available.
This can be true, but can also be a load of cobblers from recruitment agents. On top of that if you contract in banking, the reference/background/credit checks take at least 2-3 weeks anyway.
>> Oh, and don't trust recruiters. They're a necessary evil.
I'd change that to "don't trust all recruiters". If you can find a good one that tells you the truth, stick with them.
I was working at a startup before contracting so my advice won't necessarily be what you're looking for but since I started looking for clients about 1 month after the end of my job, I guess it still counts.
Depending on where you are (I'm in London), lots of contracts are offered through recruitment agencies so put your CV out there and you will get spammed by recruiters (several of them contacting you for permanent position in a different country and using things not even mentioned in your CV, you can safely mark those recruiters as spam).
One important thing is to not bother looking if you're not free pretty much immediately, you're supposed to be free in less than a week or immediately so if you're looking for clients with a 1-2 months notice, you won't get any.
For the interviews part, all the one I had were very simple, some without a single technical question.
As desarun said, an important thing is to get an accountant and create a company (not sure outside of the UK).
Anyway to give you an idea, my first contract was 3 days a week and I was still making more than my previous fulltime job.
I am currently doing this. What I am doing on the side or the companies I am doing it for does not compete in any way with what my day job company produces.
Edit - I do have the problem you are describing though. Where to find clients who will pay a reasonable rate. Don't mean to spam but since this seems relevant, full story here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7821974
This is, I feel, the biggest problem seen by people who want to jump ship from salaried positions to freelancing/independent contracting.
I've asked around a little bit whenever this topic comes up and the majority of people who I've talked to say that their best source of customers comes from people that they know.
Not a very satisfying answer for me, since I don't know a whole lot of people (maybe that's just my view of things, I could be wrong), and of those people, very few of them need someone with my skills and expertise (or, to be more frank, I doubt any of them would be able to match the paycheck I currently get from my employer). It's equally likely I'm not imaginative enough.
In any case, if anyone is "living the dream" in the Seattle area, drop me a line - I'd love to chat with you and maybe have a coffee (haha).
Best single sentence sound byte I can offer is unfortunately straight out of Glengarry Glen Ross: “Always Be Closing.” Which is to say, the way to develop those customers that just happen to be people you know is to constantly be putting yourself out there. I’ll go to several networking events in Seattle next week, several more in Portland, then will be back in Portland a week later. Then I’ll hit several more in Bend, Oregon a few weeks after that. I’m not a “sales guy” I’m a tech guy by training and experience, but if you want to be in business for yourself at any level, you have to take the initiative to develop those relationships.
This is exactly right. If you are a salaried developer or lead who has not had too many jobs in the past, your chances of 'people you know who know how good you are at your work AND have the authority to sign or highly recommend you for a contract' are pretty slim.
