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Getting Busier: Day 6
Oct. 11th, 2011 10:20 amI had intended to make a short post last night to catch up since I posted so late the day before, but I was so tired I just went to bed.
Ever since I left the full-time telecommute job, it's been a struggle. I feel fortunate that I have a marketable skill, but trying to build my own business was not something I planned on.
Originally I had hoped to find something full time, but as I discovered as the recession deepened, companies were getting so many applicants that often they didn't even write back to acknowledge receiving my resume, let alone send a rejection letter.
Still, I'm a decent programmer, so I started frequenting some of the freelancing sites. One of the first things I discovered is that there are a *lot* of overseas coders competing. This can make things really difficult--I actually saw a post for a coding job that flat out offered three dollars an hour!
As time went on, though, I've been noticing a shift, and this is confirmed by one of the people I often do work for--some are giving up on overseas coders.
Too many times, the code produced is not up to standards. This is of course not to say that there aren't overseas companies that do a good job, it's just to say it's often hard to find them. Sometimes the problem is the language barrier and difficulty in communication, but I've worked on several sites that were missing basic security protocols such as sanitizing any input from the user (which prevents SQL injection attacks).
As a result, I find I'm getting busier, which is a good thing. I'm still in that "first three years" of business, which is when a new business is most likely to fail. It's been painfully slow, but my income is beginning to rise. If things continue as they have been, we will graduate from "hand to mouth" to "money is a little tight" within the next year--assuming, of course, there are no new disasters.
After seeing so many people lose their jobs and lose everything, I feel very fortunate.
Ever since I left the full-time telecommute job, it's been a struggle. I feel fortunate that I have a marketable skill, but trying to build my own business was not something I planned on.
Originally I had hoped to find something full time, but as I discovered as the recession deepened, companies were getting so many applicants that often they didn't even write back to acknowledge receiving my resume, let alone send a rejection letter.
Still, I'm a decent programmer, so I started frequenting some of the freelancing sites. One of the first things I discovered is that there are a *lot* of overseas coders competing. This can make things really difficult--I actually saw a post for a coding job that flat out offered three dollars an hour!
As time went on, though, I've been noticing a shift, and this is confirmed by one of the people I often do work for--some are giving up on overseas coders.
Too many times, the code produced is not up to standards. This is of course not to say that there aren't overseas companies that do a good job, it's just to say it's often hard to find them. Sometimes the problem is the language barrier and difficulty in communication, but I've worked on several sites that were missing basic security protocols such as sanitizing any input from the user (which prevents SQL injection attacks).
As a result, I find I'm getting busier, which is a good thing. I'm still in that "first three years" of business, which is when a new business is most likely to fail. It's been painfully slow, but my income is beginning to rise. If things continue as they have been, we will graduate from "hand to mouth" to "money is a little tight" within the next year--assuming, of course, there are no new disasters.
After seeing so many people lose their jobs and lose everything, I feel very fortunate.
