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I feel the same way, if I had things to do over again I would have gone into a different and likely skilled labor field. TLDR: perception, complex value proposition, dev project are not making enough money, wholesale / retail projects, & dev projects are expensive to sell. Better hours, awesome power tools, significantly less politics & frustration. I like solving problems and I spend most of my time keeping clients from sabotaging their projects and dealing with syntax & communication. A couple points I'd make:
1) Skilled labor have significant fixed costs with equipment and buildings, I have about 5k (maybe) total invested in my little home based web dev business (contact me for quality onshore+offshore web development ;). The fixed costs for skilled labor are easier to understand, for example the phrase "it was cheaper for me to higher it out than buy the tools and probably mess it up the first time". 2) Most software projects are losing money, get on a project where your work is within the direct profit stream and rates are higher, as are expectations. 3) One of the many difficult things about tech projects are that it's really difficult to understand what is hard and what is easy. Estimates are rough even after over 10 years of programming, non technical stakeholders have no idea, that goes double for the ones that tell you about all the cool tech stuff they did in the 90's. With plumbing, and almost any other skill, the value proposition is easier to see. 4) Dev's do not do a good job of appearing to be important. Like it or not perception is a big deal, I loath working with suits, and do what I can to avoid looking like them because looking professional has become synonymous with high quality hair product and low quality work. I realize if I look expensive, act like I know what I'm doing, people assume I know what I'm doing. I usually do, but I'm also usually working at home in a T-shirt, carhartt shorts, and flippy flops, but when clients seem me I dress like Bill Gates & Warren Buffet, not to slick but professional. 5) Many dev clients are not retail, they are wholesale. It's important to adjust rates based off volume & project risk. Joe Shmoe from craigslist is going to offer a low volume project, with the high risk that he's going to mess up his project and blame you because he has no idea what he's doing, those guys get higher rates. Agencies that have a good plan, reasonable volume, and a history of success have earned a lower rate. 6) Dev projects are expensive to sell compared to skilled labor projects, this means sales guys deserve a bigger cut, and since they are good at negotiating they leverage this to get as much as they can. This leaves a smaller piece of the pie for the rest of the team. |