[Edit - when I first wrote this I missed that my trip to the US also took place in this month, which changes the sense of this quite a lot. Some changes now made to fix that]
When I left my regular job, I've mentioned that I negotiated a contract with them to keep working as an occasional contractor. The specific work that was first mentioned was a trip to visit one of their clients in the States. I remember this seeming to be delayed forever.
However, I had made a contact with another branch of the company in the UK. They wanted me too, and they had fewer obstacles to arranging it. Hence my first contract work at the start of February was in the north of England where I spent two weeks on-site with that team - the first of several visits.
However, I had made a contact with another branch of the company in the UK. They wanted me too, and they had fewer obstacles to arranging it. Hence my first contract work at the start of February was in the north of England where I spent two weeks on-site with that team - the first of several visits.
While on-site, the US trip was confirmed on a couple of weeks notice. Because I had so few commitments, that was no problem. With nary-a-break but one week's preparation in-between, I flew off to San Francisco.
Choose your Clients
I still consider myself very lucky indeed with the clients who I have ended up working with. Actually, I suspect in hindsight that it is not really luck.A few factors helped:
- A large initial network of contacts I knew well
- who helped me find work and who were a basis of trust in those new clients
- Optimism and perceived lack of constraints
- which encouraged me to take contracts I thought I'd enjoy when they came up, rather than desperately chasing any work
- Willingness to base things on trust
- it's a lot easier than trying to ensure it with legal agreements
- Judgement of how far I could rely on someone
- However well-meaning someone is, they can only help you out in business while their interests align with yours. A sense of that, and how quickly it might change, really helps.
Even if those things helped, I do consider myself very fortunate in the clients I've worked with. If the first few had been different, perhaps I wouldn't have made it. Having said that, I am an optimist, and in fact you'll hear that I had a pretty hard time in my first year. I tend to see the silver lining in the few jobs that went badly, as much as I try to avoid repeating the mistakes - and perhaps that is a good recipe for success in itself.
You're not Special
These were formative and sensitive times, when my confidence was fragile and I often felt a bit of a fraud. Here I was, jaunting around and exploiting my knowledge and experience and being well paid for it, when really I was no better than anyone else in the daily grind. For that first contract in the UK office, it was all the more obvious to me because I was working within the same company I'd worked at for years. There were a lot of very talented people there and often I would look at the performance and feel inferior.These thoughts and attitudes did at least help remind me to be humble about my perceived success - and that is very helpful if you want people to like you.
In 2012, a conversation with my mother made me realise that this kind of stance had served me well for a long time. At school, until I reached university, I tended to always be at the top of the class and I was not humble, but my ego was at least tempered by an acute sense of embarrassment - I didn't actually want my classmates to realise I was doing so well. This was probably key to my making such good friends during that time.
Your early contracts might well, like me, be in your original company, with people who already know you, and if you play it badly they may well resent you, which would be poisonous to your new career. You may be able to command better pay and privilege, but at this stage you skill set is likely to be very similar to others and your experience probably less. Many of them will realise that.
It may also help to remember that most of them would not choose your life. For one thing, they know where next month's paycheck is coming from.
First Experience
Given my relative lack of confidence, the team on this first, UK-based contract were really ideal.The programmers themselves were extremely skilled and creative, and helped inspired me to look for clever solutions rather than accepting the mediocre. But they were also quiet, humble, friendly and simply nice. They were very glad of my specialist help and they made be feel welcome. The larger team welcomed me similarly. Instrumental at that time was that I was viewed as a conduit of knowledge from the main branch, a kindof proxy for that team. In a sense, some of my clients now still view me the same way.
The first two weeks on site were free of distractions; welcoming; different but familiar. I stayed in a nearby hotel - the first of many! - and walked into the office each morning - as I have always done since, in various cities. I socialised with the team over lunch and in the evenings I usually chilled out in the hotel with a film or a book, or went running.
I did go away for the weekend and visit friends in a nearby city for a night. That was fulfilling in itself - after being out of the UK for so long, friends being just a train journey away was a great pleasure.
Focus on your Client
While I was in the office, I focussed on the job, conscious that this could be a regular arrangement, or if it went poorly, the work would dry up. Let me emphasise that advice: on every single on-site visit, focus on the client.You're there for a short time, you should be paid well for it, and one reason you can ask those rates is because you show a level of dedication and intensity above the salaried employees. I'm not saying you work longer hours - though sometimes that is required - and I'm not assuming they lack dedication. I mean that because you just drop in and drop out, you can see things afresh, put your whole mind to something and then afterwards take a break for a few days - which they cannot. You have the opportunity to shine for a short time - which is part of why they will hire you again.
However, you do have worries that they don't: such as arranging the next contract or following up on the last. My strong advice is not to allow yourself to be distracted by that or anything else while you are on-site. You'll hear more on that later.
Straight on to San Francisco!
When I first wrote this, I forgot just how hectic it had been. Straight after those first two weeks on-site in England, I traveled back to my parents place where I spent a week preparing for a second trip this time to San Francisco. When making contract proposals, always consider building in some paid preparation time: you will likely need to use it either way, it lets you hit the ground running, and it's quite possible the client will agree to it, then not find time to send you any prep material, making it easy money.In this case, I was putting together tutorial material on my specialist area, building on the various material I'd gathered before leaving. Having this contract lined up meant I'd been perfectly justified in taking copies of a lot of my own notes and material. In fact, they even kept my old work email going for a long while afterwards, which was a searchable treasure-trove.
I didn't have a laptop or even a decent PC - I put a fairly low-spec one together for this work. In retrospect, a laptop would have been a great idea, but I didn't have time to decide on one. I did buy an iPhone - my first smartphone! In fact I'd never regularly used a phone until this point, and it was for business communication that I finally got a phone contract (expensed, of course).
The week on-site was pretty intense, with no time for sightseeing. I was joined by several people from the main office and we all had screwed up body-clocks, though the fairly luxurious hotel helped. Since we had all flown out for this, and I knew them all beforehand - indeed, was great friends with some! - I didn't feel the outsider at all, no different to anyone else.
I did get a first taste of presenting to clients, even if technically they were someone else's. My preparation was a good start, but the feedback reinforced to me the gaps in the product. In my old role, in principle I could address those, though I'd rarely be offered the time. In my new role it felt quite off-limits - though I strained to see improvements in it for a long time, all the same.
By the end of the week, we were exhausted but in high spirits, with an apparently happy client. The stress caught up with me and I found a thing or two to panic about. Then we were done.
I remember floating in the hotel basement jacuzzi, quite alone, feeling a perfect peace. It was one of the high moments of the year and a feeling I still try to return to.
My colleagues would fly back in just a day or two, but I could stay to enjoy San Francisco. Which is where we start the next, very different month.
YMMV
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