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by femto
5252 days ago
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Talk to as many prospective clients as possible, face-to-face, in the geographical area in which you want to work. Explore their problems and what you might do to solve them. The ideal contract will have you and the client fitting each other, limited experience and all, and the only way you will find this ideal opportunity is to get out there. Keep in in mind that technical is only half of it. Communication in the other half. The client wants someone that they can talk to, feel comfortable with and trust. If the client and you are comfortable, you're a long way there, even with limited experience. So again, talk to people. If you do get online work, great, but I think you will have a better chance of getting yourself established by starting locally. Also, only take work you can comfortably handle, especially when building a reputation. Don't get desperate and say yes to bad jobs. Clients value dependability over heroic efforts. |
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Technical, imo, is about 20% of it. Communication, presentation, professionalism and responsiveness are the other 80%. I recently had a friend bring on two contractors for a project. One senior - years of tech - sr level by any measure - and one juniorish.
The sr guy spent all his time refactoring stuff that didn't need it, ignoring established tickets, not answering phone calls, ims and emails in a timely fashion, and missing deadlines. The jr level guy checked in every few hours, did the work on time and answered every question the client had.
Guess which one the client wants back for more projects? The technical stuff - you can learn that quickly. And in fact, much of that changes or is 'new' anyway so you can't be expected to be an expert at everything. You can be expected to be professional. Acting the part, and being available when a client needs you, is about 80-90% of the business.
That's not to say you should lie/fake credentials and such - you will be found out if you lie about stuff eventually, either by the client or someone in their network. My point is generally, with most client/projects, it matters less whether you're an SQL expert or CSS guru and more about whether you show up when you say you will, and deliver what you promise.