I’ve tried hard to be a corporate employee, you know, live-eat-breathe the organization, work numerous hours “for the greater good”, volunteer your own hardware for the struggling start-up, hire your friends, and ignore your family week after week.
I bought into that lie one too many times and the perception my significance, in said organization, was of much less relevance than I had actually been lead to believe.
Twice in the past year (7 months), I have had my position terminated, both times for being told with no uncertainty that I was “Kicking butt and continue doing what you’re doing”.
In my most recent position I advocated hard on behalf of my organization to hire one of my best-friends to work in tandem with me. Within a matter of weeks my manager placed me as subordinate to my own friend, then several weeks later forced my friend into the uncomfortable position of terminating me.
Essentially, I was told that I was far to expensive of an employee for the quantity of wins, over a six month period. For context, in six months we launched head long into about ten different projects, we only completed three. This was due primarily to management’s failure to commit to a project. The projects for which there was an actual commitment… were completed. In addition I also wore the hat of, server-administrator, network-administrator, as well as, occasional help-desk.
Where does this leave me? Quite disillusioned about life as an employee.
I’ve talked about self-employment for some time, and have yearned to make that transition from moonlighter to professional independent consultant for many years. I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity right now to do just that. The market is very robust right now, and I’ve already had several colleagues indicate interest in me doing just that.
At this point I believe my experience is broad enough to cover most of the requirements in either product or business. Given my recent transition to a platform agnostic development philosophy, coupled with some short-term wins… This latest organization may have just done me the best favor of my life.
How is being self-employed working for you? I’ve been waiting for a update. Please share your experiences.
It’s good and bad…
I love the fact that I don’t have to leave the house. I have ample time to drum up more work, also, I have endless supply of latte’s 5 steps out of my office.
The thing I don’t like… I have to constantly remind my wife that I’m not the babysitter, which means I’m shewing children out of the office all day.
I think one of the most disadvantageous elements of working from home, is the technical liability of working in a tunnel. Working in teams at a day job, your work is under constant review, thus, going down the dark-path is generally rectified in short-order.
I find I have to constantly give honest evaluations of the work I’ve done and bug the shit out of Beowulf to make sure I’m proceeding properly.