Why did you decide to start working as a freelancer?
I started programming when I was in the first or second grade, pretty much as soon as I could read. As I got older, I was always working on small projects and such. Then in 2009, some friends and I joined a coding competition and won. This led me directly to an interview for the company I ended up working at for 10 years. I got to work with development, project leading and consulting – flying across Europe to help customers with their code.
Then at the beginning of this year, I felt like I had seen enough of one company, and when a few co-workers said they felt the same, we decided to start our own consultancy company. I think we all felt the entrepreneurial call and wanted to be free to choose our projects.
It’s great. We’re learning every day, and when we find new technology we’re interested in – we can just look for projects that include those. It’s a lot of work, but we divide the responsibilities amongst ourselves. And hopefully, we’ll be growing soon and have more people to share the responsibilities with.
What’s the best part of being a consultant?
The best part is probably the freedom. I know that if I, for some reason, don’t feel like (or have the possibility) to work during a period I can choose to do so. I’m in charge of myself.
Also, I get to work and build something with my friends. Few things beat that!
What’s the worst?
Right now: NOTHING. I’m enjoying it very much so far. But ask me again in a year or two.
Why Ework?
The main factor was that we were a small, newly established company and limited in our resources. Ework seemed like a good place to start since we’d used them for a bunch of projects in my old company and they always delivered. Thanks to them, we could set aside a lot of the paperwork and focus on the most critical parts – like getting business in.
Tips for aspiring consultants?
The most important thing to remember is that it’s not enough to be good at what you do. You also have to be a people person since there are very high social demands for a freelancer. You need to be able to understand the problems and how others think about them. Consultancy is not about being the smartest person in the room, but about being the person who can best find a solution. Don’t try and always be right, focus on solving things. Be compassionate, and a person that people want to work with again and again. This more than anything will help you get more projects.
Consultancy isn’t for everyone. I know a lot of skilled people who would be terrible consultants – but that’s not a bad thing. So, think about if it is something you could do, and if it is you should definitely try it for a year!
Anything else you’d like to mention?
I will shamelessly take this opportunity to say that we might be new, but we are a great consulting company that will be hiring soon, so if you think you could be a good consultant: reach out!
