Hi Devon,
Your interview on the Code Newbie Podcast resonated with me because I’m currently freelancing in the tech industry and I’m looking to really solidify my place in the tech community.
Long story short, I used to teach Kindergarten ESL students first in Houston, and later overseas in Abu Dhabi, for a 7 years. I burnt out and decided to make a career change into technology because it’s something I truly enjoyed in my personal life as well as in professional life.
I moved to New York City and completed a coding bootcamp in December 2017 and I’ve been searching high and low for full-time employment in the tech field ever since. If I’m real with myself, I know I’m no coding genius or master web developer as I just started coding about a year ago, but I do feel as if I should be further along in my tech career. I’ve had several interviews, both over the phone and in person, but I’ve yet to land a full-time tech job like my coding bootcamp assured me I would.
At the beginning of September, I started freelancing for Getty Images as a Marketing Email Design Developer and I absolutely love the brand, the company, my manager, the office, just about EVERYTHING! (“Sounds awesome, so what’s the problem, right?” - that’s probably what you’re thinking, right?) Freelance work varies from week-to-week so some weeks I’ll work 30 hours and others I may only work 10-15. The point is, it’s not enough to cover all of my expenses so I’ve been substitute teaching in addition to freelancing because…New York City is expensive AF but I truly don’t want to live elsewhere at this time. (Also, I can’t stand teaching anymore and I really don’t want to get sucked back in.)
I’ve been trying to finesse my way around Getty by attending their office events, going to Yankee games, having lunch with colleagues, offering to help out when I can, and I even attended a Classical Indian Music concert with my boss and her hubby (sidenote, Classical Indian Music is dope). I’m making myself known around the company and people have asked me about my career plans, where I’m working, etc, but no one has offered me a full-time position (yet). I’ve also slowed down my job hunt at this point because my freelance hours vary and I feel like this opportunity could become something bigger if I’m patient. (Orrrrr am I selling myself short and being unrealistic? I can’t decide.)
Although it has only been about three months since I started this freelance gig, I’m in dire need of financial stability, proper health insurance and benefits, consistent and reliable working hours, and the tech job I envisioned myself having. During my second round of interviewing for Getty, I was asked if I would be interested in a full-time position if that meant learning Sketch. I enthusiastically answered YES but I haven’t heard much about that opportunity since the interview.
How do you suggest I turn this freelance gig into something full-time without jeporadizing my current position? Or should start job searching hardcore again. I’m very interested in your mentoring sessions as well to help me sort out my career path.
Sincerely,
Valerie
Code and design academy
Contract with Getty up in January
Interested in WordPress. Gave her some information about that.
Asked about ongoing maintenance. Gave her some ideas about that and hosting.
Followed up with this:
It was a pleasure chatting with you, Valerie!
The host I mentioned, Flywheel, has a white label hosting service if that’s interesting to you. You’ll become an agency partner (free, about half-way down the page) first to get access to the white labeling.
It’s a little tough to get started with the Flywheel white labeling because it’s 15/month to them. Then, once you have 10 clients, you can think about switching over to the white label service if that makes sense for you.
One thing I would caution you about with WordPress: don’t necessarily sell yourself as a WordPress developer for a couple of reasons. First, it puts you inside a box. What you really are is a problem-solver who sometimes solves problems with WordPress. Second, depending on the clients you’re looking for, WordPress may or may not mean anything to them. For example, if someone has a boutique and wants to sell items online, they may not know about WordPress. If you respond to them by saying, “yes, I will build you a WordPress site for that,” they now have something new to evaluate but without the proper tools or experience to do so. If you respond instead, “yes, I can build that for you,” and talk to them only about the parts they care about (e.g. it’s going to cost Z/month), the decision becomes easy. Instead of new questions (i.e. Valerie’s going to build a WordPress site. What does that mean? Is that what I want? Maybe I should ask my nephew. He knows about computer stuff. 😜), she has an assurance you can solve her problem (i.e. I want to sell my stuff online. Valerie can help me with that. Awesome!).
You’ve still got to build trust, but that’s true in either case. This just frees you up to make the technical decisions without a lot of second-guessing and frees up your client to worry about the business problem, which is how it should be.
If you can get your freelance practice really rolling, you could buy your own insurance and might not have to depend on an employer to hire you. I know that’s not the path you’d prefer, but keep your eyes open to it.
Good luck as you move forward, Valerie! Keep me posted how I can help. 🙂