morehawesWeb Development And Me
Posted on 15/08/2013 under Travelling, Web Development
Not working in Yosemite National Park. This year has given me plenty of time to reflect
Transitioning to freelance… and then not
My first job after university was as a web developer at an adult shop in Cardiff. Passion has a store in Cardiff as well as a large online presence. My job was to look after the website and in this role I learnt a lot about not only life as a web developer but also about business and myself. I have Faith, the owner of the company to thank for this as she taught me a lot about setting up and running a business – she also helped me find the confidence I needed to go self employed. So I did it. At the start of 2012, after a year of being full-time self employed (I was able to built up my freelance work gradually over several years thanks to Faith) I decided that it wasn’t for me. I was stressed, burnt out and it was seriously affecting my health so I decided I had to stop. It was a pretty big deal for me going full time self employed – as long as I can remember I have wanted to run my own business and carve my own path in life, so the fact that I wasn’t enjoying it really got to me. I have spent a lot of time over the last year trying to figure out why I wasn’t happy doing freelance web development. I can’t really put my finger on one specific thing that was causing me to not only not enjoy it but created so much stress for me. I have spoken to a couple of friends about this recently and having some time away has helped me take a mental step back. I think the main thing that got to me was that I could never get confident in my own skills. In some professions you work really hard at it and after many many hours you become an expert. The more you do it the better you get and the more confident you become. With the web every day there is something new to learn, new considerations, something new the client is asking for (whether they understand what ‘it’ is or not) and lots of new problems. This sounds like an exciting challenge, but for me this meant I could never tell how long a job would take because there were always parts that I had never done before – and there always would be, no matter how many jobs I did. I know people that thrive in this kind of environment but for me it was not a good mix. I’m not a bad web developer – but I need to feel confident in what i’m doing. I was always on the back foot and this stressed me out… quoting was a nightmare. It got to the point where I was turning down work left right and centre just to avoid the stress. Which is s shame because the demand was there. Also – web jobs are never finished and there was rarely a job that I did that was simple to get signed off. There are always so many changes and stupid bugs that almost every job dragged on to the point where you don’t care any more – you will do anything to get rid of it. Which is a shame when you slave away on something and are proud of what you have achieved. Once it is signed off you can then start chasing payment… sometimes for months. This isn’t me venting and badmouthing my clients – I have worked with some amazing, very talented people over the years and there were jobs that were a pleasure to work on. However web jobs seem to have a habit of creeping into very patience testing territory. Once I decided to stop freelancing I started doing a few days a week at a great little design studio in Cardiff. I knew that tackling these big jobs alone was part of the reason I was getting so stressed and I hoped that working with someone to share the load and handle the parts of the business I wasn’t comfortable with could be the answer. The situation was perfect – working with a great designer, in a sweet studio, on cool jobs, earning good money and part time… but I realised that despite all of this I still wasn’t enjoying the actual work. That’s when I decided to call it a day. Something that made this decision easier was that I had some money coming in from an online tool called Auction Nudge which I started a few years previous which was not only doing well, it zero stress and it was my baby – something I started from scratch and I enjoyed every part of the process.So what have I been up to?
After realising that building websites for other people wasn’t something I could make work for me I decided to dramatically change things up and move to Canada for a while. Other than my love of travel and a desire to live in another country, a big part of my trip to Canada was to do some soul searching about what I wanted to do next if freelance web development wasn’t for me.
Days chopping wood on Saltspring Island. Good for the mind… and the guns!
What’s next for me?
At the moment things are going well enough that I can have an excellent work-travel balance, but I am aware that this may not last forever. At present the majority of my income comes from a single source, which isn’t an ideal situation to be in – after all things change… especially online. My dream situation right now would be to have a few eggs in different online baskets which would enable me to weather any storms on the horizon and have some sort of job security (if there is such a thing) and travel.
I spend lots of time in cafes!
Hi Joe,
Interesting view on web development, something I do/did as well, and also found the constant learning of new stuff, was a bit stressful. Every job basically had large unknown factors.
You need to check your site Hot Officing
It looks like it was taken over -> This domain was previously held for the sale of alleged Counterfeit Products.
Thanks Peter, good to hear I’m not the only one. Thanks for pointing out the link, I let the domain go after that project didn’t work out. I’ll correct the post.
Joe
Work, play and amazing in one sentence…seems to me that you’ve got the basis for a pretty good life already worked out!
That was all very revealing and interesting to me. I do hope something wonderful comes out of the “mix”. You are a “special” person and I’m sure you have a great deal to give to the world yet. love, Grandma’