Why I quit freelance: impressions of the backend developer after 2 years of “freedom”

A couple of months ago, a backend developer named Alex came to us at Ratio. He has behind him a traumatic experience: a man worked for himself for two years, but it was not like freelance under a palm tree.



We asked Alexei on points to compare his freelance and remote work in the state: he talked about inadequate customers and how he again got used to communicating with colleagues.

Work time

Freelance : no regular schedule. Sometimes you work 2-3 hours a day, but if a burning project comes, the load can jump up to 12-14 hours a day. But in quiet periods, you can devote a whole day to personal matters, freelance in this regard is more flexible.



Remotely in the state : working day 7 hours. All processing only on their own initiative, no one forces to close more than 35 hours a week. The start and end times are not controlled, but somehow you switch to the office schedule: from 9-10 in the morning to 17-18 in the evening. It’s more convenient to be in touch with colleagues.

Finance

Freelance : income is higher, after the transition to the state, I lost 30%.



Remotely in the state : you lose in salary compared to freelance, but the ratio of money to time spent is more profitable - an additional 30% came from processing.

Stability

Freelance : the customer does not have time to take a job, communication problems or just a bad mood - that means that today he will not pay. Sometimes payment may not be for an adequate reason. For example, a new problem has been revealed, the deadline has moved, and under the contract, payment will occur only after the completion of the project. As a result, the customer will pay more, but what difference does it make if the money was needed now.



The most annoying thing is when they throw you corny. Here is a list of the funniest excuses from my customers:

• “I have no money to pay you”
• “You did everything according to the ToR, but now I don’t need it anymore”
• “You didn’t agree with me, but with my subordinate - and demand money from him”
• “Internet banking is buggy, money is not being transferred”
• “The site is crooked in Internet Explorer 7, I won’t pay” (!)

At freelance, it makes no sense to plan something further than two weeks in advance. The client can turn off the work or it turns out that the site needs additional functions - you never know how things will go on a particular project. Because of this, holes have appeared in the family budget, which I now slowly close.



Remotely on staff : a fortnightly salary. You can plan loan installments and generally lead a more informed financial life.

Legal issues

Freelance : legally, I was almost not protected. For two years, two pre-trial claims were written in my name, in which I had to return the prepayment. And this is why these projects were not actually completed:

• The customer did not provide an accurate description of the functions.
• Designers drew layouts for six months. After the client demanded that all work be completed within two weeks. The development was evaluated at three months and in such a short time it was unrealistic to complete it. As a result, I returned 100 thousand rubles of prepayment - the client had strong lawyers, the court most likely would not be on my side.

In fact, prepayment does not save from fraud on the part of the customer. You can always put pressure on yourself, demand money back - in most cases, a person will not go to trial. Some customers use this.



But with the tax, everything was calm. Cases led through the circuit. Elba , no problems.



Remotely on staff : employment contract. Even if I get a crazy client, I always get my piece of bread and butter.

Task flow

Freelance : many problems with unexpected tasks. To make a decent profit, I had to run several projects at once: if a site crashed somewhere or urgent improvements arrived, other projects did not move at that time.



At the same time, each client treated me as if he had bought me back for a full day.



Remotely on staff : there is a clear understanding of what and in what order you need to do. You sit and calmly deal with matters in the order of priority.

Managerial load

Freelance : here you are both the boss, team leader, developer and secretary. You sell your services yourself, you communicate with a client yourself, you conduct bookkeeping and deal with pieces of paper. This gives a deep understanding of the processes in IT - I got managerial experience and figured out how tax reporting is for IP. Surely this will come in handy later on.



But over time, I realized that I’m not spending my life on what I really like. The managerial load can take from 30% to 80% of the day, so there are almost no resources for writing code.



At the same time, you cannot take a lot of money for management as such. Most customers think that if you need to write 10-20 lines of code to solve the problem, then you can pay for 30 minutes of work. It does not take into account that the problem was discussed several times in phoning, formulated TK and then tested the product. Bottom line: payment in 30 minutes, 5 hours were actually spent.



Remotely in the state : if you do not take into account the command calls, I do pure programming. For the rest, there is a manager.

Nerve rack

Freelance : constantly under stress. The first reason: endless communication, the client can call at 6 in the morning or at 11 in the evening. After trying to explain that this is inappropriate, the termination of cooperation most often follows. But adequate customers also came across.



The second reason: it is necessary to knock out materials from the customer. It is impossible for some to explain that without the upload file, site structure, images or their sizes, it is impossible to realize the required functions. You have to make a prototype based on your vision, and then redo it when the client deigns to give the necessary information.



Third reason: inadequate customers. Some allow themselves insults, even obscene obscenities. I had a client who promised to "come and talk in person" due to the fact that I demanded to provide materials for development.



In two years I completely lost my nervous system. Began to break down on others for the slightest reason. We can say that a little more, and one could go to a madhouse.



Remotely on staff : objectively less hassle. But there are days when there are urgent tasks that need to be done as quickly as possible, leaving everything else behind. You also worry about not letting down the team, but these are the usual working moments.

Health and relaxation

Freelance : There were health problems in the form of headaches and high blood pressure - a consequence of sleepless nights and uncontrolled use of coffee and energy.

I have not been on vacation for 2 years. I forgot what a weekend is (now I remember). My wife saw only my back in the evenings, we practically stopped talking.



There was no time for the gym. Because of sitting at the computer for 10-14 hours a day, I gained about 25 kg.



Remotely in the state : Normalized sleep, less often headache, pressure stabilized. There was time for sports: now I am doing exercises at home, but I will soon start going to the gym.

Task level

Freelance : degradation as a specialist. The projects were mainly obtained typical: business card website, online store. There was little interesting, so professional growth stopped.



Remotely on the staff : in two months at Ratio I learned more than in two years of freelance. My team leader and development department constantly messing with me, answering any, sometimes even the most stupid, questions. A great advantage of teamwork is the ability to share experiences. They give me tips, suggest how to make the task faster.

I started using design patterns, I figured out the syntax of the latest versions of PHP. The code as a whole began to turn out to be better structured. It's also nice to work together on code: I used to write alone, often without a version control system.

Socialization

Freelance : run wild, spent almost all the time at the computer. I got out of the house two or three times a week, I could not do anything but work. It was normal for me not to get a haircut for 2-3 months, I grew a beard - a complete set. I also rarely bought new clothes, but I never went anywhere.



Remotely on the staff : regularly communicate with colleagues, on planning meetings and in chats. After work, my colleagues and I talk on abstract topics that are not related to development. Although virtually, but I keep in touch with living people, and not just sit alone all day at the computer.

Since now work does not take all my time, I began to communicate more often with my friends in real life. I try to leave my house every day to spend at least an hour in the fresh air.

How I adapted to the state

My schedule at the time of going to work was knocked down, because in recent days on freelance I have maxed out on current projects. The first week I worked at Ratio wildly wanted to sleep during the day, I could not sleep earlier than at 2-3 o'clock in the morning.



It was difficult to rebuild the perception: at first, the management seemed to be the same customers who would tear at the slightest jamb. With my mind I understood that this was not so, but subconsciously anyway such thoughts surfaced. At first, the simple question “how are you / what’s the problem” caused a panic attack - right up to soldering with a valerian, I was very afraid that they would get fired. Later it was understood that the team leader asked this in order to prompt and help if difficulties arose somewhere.



I simply zadolbal all who can, with questions, whether there are complaints about my work. They told me that, in general, everything was in order, and again I asked after a week. At first, any comment on the code was perceived as a catastrophe of universal proportions: it is urgently necessary to correct it by abandoning everything else. Now I frankly do not understand how people could give feedback so patiently.

Freelance is not for me, but you hold on

Summing up all of the above, freelance, of course, gave me experience: I would never have stepped on such a number of rakes. But it seems to me that the time of loners is passing, I need to unite in order to take more serious and interesting projects into work.



I think freaking out can be done if there is no family and you are not responsible for anyone but yourself. But with responsibility for loved ones comes the understanding that it is better to have a little less income, but predictable - it will give confidence and the opportunity to at least relax a bit. Work should not take all the time, as it was when I was freelancing.



The freelance, as I had it, is a swamp, in which there is no desire to return. But you may have a different experience. Tell us about him in the comments!