How hard is freelancing as a Software Engineer

[Chumbimba]

Like how long does it take to get off the ground enough to quit my 9-5 job. Is it over saturated ?

[Average Investor]

No experience with it here, but some insight on starting a service type business. 

You can enter any industry you want and make money. Even the worst software engineer could make money. What will really determine how quickly you free yourself is the quality of your work. You will want to start off with higher prices than what you think. If you price yourself too low, then you will never be able to keep those customers as your raise your prices. I would rather offer discounts off a high price, than offer initially at a low price. Really shop around for the prices and see what you will find. 

I highly recommend that you take a few gigs on for free and don't expect to get much besides maybe a good review from them. This is really going to help you get a good understanding of what the customer is looking for and how to do your transactions. Plus you never know you could end up finding more clients that way. 

Ultimately it will come down to how often and how well your work. Balance out a good amount of time to watch pros in your industry and read some really good quality books on it too. Have a good balance of that mixed with actually getting in some work. 

As you start to build career capital it will get easier and easier. I highly suggest you try to find a 9-5 as closely relating to this work as possible to help boost the amount of experience you get in this field. As close as possible even if it is not the actual position. 

Sadly, it won't happen over night. This is why most people end up getting stuck at their jobs. Have the foresight to see how drastically this will influence your life and the amount of free time that you have in the future. 

 

[supremeyingyang]

I've seen this: There was these asmost master level programmer in the place I work. He studied and got a bachelor, worked 3 Years at his first Job and then 1 Years at our Place. When he left to make his own Business he was so valuable that he got a really got a offer to get more money for half of the work time. He was very conscious how much he is worth and was cool to leave everything without nothing because he could go everywhere... this is an Ideal I try to embrace for myself in my work life some day when I start working as a freelancer

Edited June 17, 2020 by supremeyingyang

[tesla]

I'm a self-taught freelance software engineer. It takes quite a lot of work to become proficient, but once you are, it's not that hard to find work. The key is to just become super good at your job and market yourself well for inbound leads (create a really good portfolio, create profiles on LinkedIn/Angel List, etc). The average rate for a senior software engineer is very high.

As for how long it takes, that depends on how much time you spend learning, how effectively you learn, and how dedicated you are. It took me about 6-7 months to get a job as a junior developer when I was 17 years old (I quit school). I also didn't go to uni and basically taught myself everything online and from building my own projects, which is the fastest and best way to learn. If you do it that way, you can become a pretty decent developer within a few years or less if you're committed.

Edited July 10, 2020 by tesla
missing info

[Space]

@Chumbimba a great channel for the kind of stuff you're asking about: 

 

[supremeyingyang]

@Space

more an overall case study of 'How to not do it'