Freelance or a Second Contract?
As one of those people who seems to always be doing something - read, study, projects, freelance and contracts, etc - I’ve been very lucky to have a disability pension as a backstop. If it weren’t for the Pensioner Education Supplement I would still be that bogun chucking fish down the wharf in sixteen to twenty hour irregular shifts. There’s something incredibly wrong when you’re stuck in the socio-economic poverty trap that pits your back against younger footballers just to afford a few steaks and a beer.
Since mid-2001 I’ve done a serious shit-load of schooling, too. I’ve done industry level certification in Web Design and Web Administration and I’ve made the Dean’s Honour Roll of Excellence for my Faculty through a Bachelor of Computing. I have only one project unit left at University to achieve my undergraduate degree. At the same time I’ve taught myself best practice front end web development methodologies (started with an Idiot’s Guide to Creating a Web Page, no less). I’ve spent long hours researching issues such as accessibility and usability, pushed my boundaries into working with PHP, and blogged like a mad banshee into the wee bloody hours. It was to prove a point - I am better than that man who stood on the wharf at 4am in silky fish soaked boxers totally exhausted (and exploited).
I actually have a brain regardless of being labeled in my twenties as “of below average intelligence” and apparently having “no communication skills whatsoever”. I’m bigger than that, and those people who said that. My worth is not measured in licks of a pick or the sweat and blisters of using a crowbar.
Did you watch Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness. A lot of that movie struck a chord with my own life, especially when he said that as a kid every exam he did well in made him happy to think of all the things he could oneday become - but he never became any of them. I think that was always true of me. There’s a certain amount of luck and opportunity in life which can pass you by simply through the tide of life’s passing. So I’ve invested heavily in becoming smarter and stronger and doing better than my peers.
What would I say my worth to an organisation is at this point? Without being arrogant I think I’m worth every penny that I charge. I think if you were a company looking for a full time web employee for your team then you could do a lot worse than hiring me. Of course I’m not the best but I’m a genuine product and I actually get the best practice picture.
At the moment I’m in a strange position with contract work and the pension. You see, I want to say goodbye to social security entirely (because it sucks). The problem is its structure - if my contracts disappear I have to wait six weeks to get back on welfare and my family and doggies starve. We have no savings, naturally. Both Linden and I have invested many years in gaining degrees (she’s currently finishing an MFA in Printmaking).
Along the way I’ve worked in web related roles for a number of smaller organisations, freelance and in-house, as well as for the Tasmanian Department of Education, TAFE Tasmania, DEPHA and GAC World. My contract work is taking up two to three days per week, and it pays very well.
So I need to think about this carefully. Do I look for another contract that’s solid and in-house paying good regular semi-secure income? Or do I take the risk and freelance? I don’t particularly like freelancing - maybe I’m not a people person. What is a given though is we need to transition off that backstop.
Which direction would you go (given we don’t have a bank account)?
