A Programmer’s Journey (Part 3) – Working Abroad to Freelancing
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This is my programming journey story. If you like stories, please kindly read through. Otherwise, if you want to jump start your software development career without wasting time like I did, download your FREE copy of my Software Developer Compact Career Guide.
Introduction
In part 2, I got my first real programming job and went jumping from company to company. In this last part of the series, I will tell you my huge transition. From working overseas, working remotely, and finally (so far), freelancing.
Working Abroad
Again, I’m not actively looking for another job but got a call. It turns out that one of my previous colleagues who transferred to the calling company referred me to them. Unfortunately, it was a work abroad. I never intended to work overseas but our financial situation calls for it. So I accepted the job. I had to stay overseas for 8-10 months. And then go on a 2-week vacation until my assignment is done.
I worked as a Database Engineer. It was a per-project assignment. Meaning I had to travel every few years from country to country. Although I worked extensively with databases, I am always learning something new. Oracle APEX, Silverlight, WPF among others. I learned by creating tools that I would think will help me and others do their job better. I will then share what I made with my workmates in our home base in the Philippines as part of a presentation. When I learned about Agile methodologies, I tried to convince my boss to adapt it. But they are not interested in it. After all, we were really not a software company but only software support for construction projects.
Getting a College Degree While Working
During this time, I applied for an education equivalency in order for me to get a degree based on my work experience and other training. After the evaluation, I only need to take 4 subjects including a thesis to be able to graduate with a Computer Science Bachelor’s degree. If I were to choose IT, I don’t need to take up anything. So I took the subjects online while working and acquired my diploma in 2011.
I noticed that some of my workmates have been working abroad away from their families for 15-20 years. I told myself I will not be like that. Because I just want to, and no concrete plan in place, I bought my own domain (codefrost.com and several others) around 2010 and set up a blog website. I did some blog posts before but then I was just experimenting so it did not last.
I’m continuously learning something new in my free time. In 2013, I developed my first Android app and deployed it in Google Play Store and then created another one. I don’t plan on monetizing those apps. But I think they are useful for me and for others. I haven’t updated them ever since but that’s on my todo list.
After working on a couple of assignments more, I decided to resign after 8 years. I don’t want my 2 children to grow without me with them. I also planned on becoming a freelancer someday.
Back to Makati
With my experiences, I was able to quickly get a new job in Makati. The travel this time is worse than before. Even if I bring my car or commute, I’ve always felt tired everyday. In this company, we were using Agile methodologies, doing daily stand-ups, we had chapters, etc. But code-wise, we were not doing TDD. I like the job but I cannot stand the travel. After a few months, I decided to transfer to another company. This time, it was full-time remote work for a US-based company.
Work From Home
This new work is fantastic. I worked as a Senior Software Developer using C# and I only need a 4-hour overlap with US time. I can spend the remaining hours anytime of the day. My priorities then changed and I now wanted to work part-time. I resigned in order to be a true freelancer after 4 years. I thought that I was already a freelancer. Soon, I realized that I’m still an employee working remotely. That is why I have this feeling that I never have complete control of my time.
Freelancing
In 2018, I started this very scary transition. I have no clients. Upwork keeps rejecting my application to join. But I tried to join many other freelancing platforms. I even thought of coming back to work full-time. In fact, I tried to apply for it a couple of times.
Upwork accepted me after a month or two. I got a few clients there. And then Freeeup accepted me where I got my long-time client that I’m working with at present. Another freelancing platform also accepted me. But since my priorities have shifted, I never got a client there.
What’s Next?
Working as a freelancer forced me to learn a lot more new technologies and frameworks. But I know that this is not the end for me. I have my time in control most of the time. But I still feel that I was tied to work. Nevertheless, as much as I could, I will not go back to work away from home anymore.
I have more than 20 years of programming experience now. Although I learned a lot in my corporate jobs, I just wished that somebody told me to go straight to freelancing as soon as possible. I never thought that what I was doing at the early stage of my career when I’m taking side projects is the right track. Perhaps I was afraid that it wouldn’t be enough. But if somebody told me that it could be done, I would’ve gone for it.
I will still be a freelancer but I aim to become an entrepreneur next. I hope you will support me in my next journey. And I hope that you learned something in my experience.
PS
It took me 20 years to figure out what I really wanted to do to my career. It’s mainly because I don’t have a guide on which track to follow.
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