Advice for a free lance programmer with limited experience, please help.

Question

I have one year of experience in programming. After getting laid off in cuts I managed to get a job in telecommunications planning. I'm good at my new job and don't want to leave it but I miss programming. I'd like to be able to code in my free time (which is about 4 hours every evening 7 days a week.)

I can code pretty well in C#, reasonably well in SQL and poorly in a unix shell.

What sort of job should I get on the side? Would anyone hire me as a free lancer? Should I focus on making apps for phones (android) instead?

Answer 1

With only one year of experience, unfortunately, it will be hard to get many places to take you too seriously -- at least, not the kinds of places you would want to work for.

Luckily this profession is pretty meritocratic; you don't need to be officially hired to either develop your skills or make money (assuming we give you the benefit of the doubt that you actually have some skills after only a year...). Working for an open-source project or developing your own applications on something like iOS or Android are low-barrier ways to prove yourself.

All this is under the assumption that you actually have something to prove yet. It may be that your best bet is to go back to school and get some more experience.

Answer 2

What makes you think you need to get another job in order to do programming?

Why not find an open source project which interests you, and help out on that? Or start your own one?

Working every available minute of the day is likely to burn you out - although you miss programming now, I suspect you would grow to hate it if you had to do it, with no time for yourself. You've got another job which presumably earns you enough to keep you going... so why not program for pleasure instead of money? The experience you gain can definitely still be valuable if you end up applying for programming jobs later - particularly if the fruits of it are public.

Answer 3

If you want to make money by programming, a way is to develop for iPhone. You can sell your applications in iTune store. Thats the only possible selling point for free lancer. But then you need attractive apps that can be bought by other people.

Answer 4

karim: iTune store is hardly the only choice. For mobile apps, you could develope for Nokia Ovi Store or Android App Store too.

As for the original poster, I suggest you start learning web programming and make yourself a really good web-app based homesite (as to show your skills) and introduce yourself there as a freelance programmer. Then start developing some open source projects, maybe make one of your own and mention that on your website.

Answer 5

Is it possible for you to do some programming for your current job? Maybe some department in the company needs some kind of application that you could do? Maybe the company needs a new website? Maybe a part of your current job can be made simpler by creating a support application?

If any of those things is true, you could try to arrange a deal with the company for you to develop that application/website in exchange for a raise or other kind of compensation.

This would also give you more experience which would help in the future if you change your mind and decide that you want to work as a full-time programmer.

Answer 6

Hi tech credo,

check these sites (and lots more on google .. search for freelance project or something of that kind ..

http://www.freelancefree.com/ http://www.net4manpower.com/ http://www.freelancer.com/

ATB!

Answer 7

Hello,

I was really pretty good at ActionScript, and I found I could make about $10 an hour hustling on rentacoder.com, now vworker.com. If I decide to focus on my consulting and contracting business and quit my 9-5, I will use that site to help me survive, but I also basically have the lifestyle of a broke-@ss graduate student, even though I'm done with grad school. If you have bills to pay, this might not work out so well for you. I've found that that site is really, really focused on specialized skills. If you have extremely specialized skills, and can work QUICKLY you can probably make enough to survive if you don't have any expensive bills to pay. I see this site as an opportunity to gain additional experience and to stay flexible and free, but the trade-off is that you will be making substantially less than a normal job in the United States. These sites require no presence in the United States to complete the work, which means it is unreasonable to expect United States working conditions (mainly in terms of wages, everyone was very friendly and honest in my limited experience).

My recommendation is to find another full time job, which will pay you more and allow you to focus on things you enjoy and quit your existing one. The above site helped me a great deal with meeting contacts for other consulting gigs, but I don't think it's a good way to survive. I have found that the successful freelancers, consultants and business owners I have met have already been successful in their field - then they decide to walk their own path.

The other recommendation that might work is to find a part time job programming. Depending on which state you live in, this would allow your employer to avoid having to provide you with benefits, which would make you more attractive. However, unless you have a lot of experience, the part time status means that you wouldn't be at your maximum productivity for a while, and you would probably have to spend a lot of calendar time getting up to speed.

The most important thing I have observed in these sorts of situations is to think of a way to sell yourself and your abilities to someone that would like to pay for it. Hopefully my analysis of the different possibilities above gives you some ideas of how to do that, and gets you thinking in these sort of terms. I hope this post was helpful.

-Brian J. Stinar-