| Fair point :) Some reasons I don't like being an employee: - Schedule constrains - Politics and certain dynamics within/between teams. I'm getting tired of those. - Money. I'm close to the ceiling (for my location and role) unless I pivot into management - I'm a bit disconnected about what delivers real value within the company, I feel I'm just a small piece of a big machinery. It's a bit abstract the work I do - I can influence but I don't own my career path What I believe a freelance route could give me: - I can pivot until finding what I enjoy doing - More flexible schedule - Feeling that I'm providing tangible value - Money ceiling - My efforts would give me a sense of investing in "my own business" - Freedom. Choose who to work with or not (ideal scenario of course) - Learning new tech |
The way it worked out for me was contacting someone senior at a startup incubator and telling them I wanted some kind of consulting role (few hours a week) to explore more flexible work. They are always hard up for experienced people. That put me in touch with a bunch of startups and I picked one where they had a small project but no one free to work on. That was the door opener and being in a setting with multiple companies all around, it was easy to make contacts, hear what issues different companies had etc. Whenever it aligned with something I knew or was interested in techwise I would try to get involved or help them out.
If you are not a big networker like me the key is to put yourself in environments where you are constantly bumping into people who are telling you their problems :)
Good luck!