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Freelance Programming
Hi, I am a very new beginniner, but I was just thinking ahead...
Is programming a good career to get into?
What would a freelance programmer do? Would he make programs for buisnesses? Does anyone have any examples?
Also, which is better, being an employed programmer or being a freelance programmer?(As far as payment and dependency/stability.)
Is programming a good career to get into?
What would a freelance programmer do? Would he make programs for buisnesses? Does anyone have any examples?
Also, which is better, being an employed programmer or being a freelance programmer?(As far as payment and dependency/stability.)
good career? well if you enjoy it yes. I enjoy my work still.
freelance usually does anything. Can be anything.
I've gone to regular employment recently after freelance for 15 years.
It's been quite a difficult market the last few years, in England, for me anyway.
All my recent contracts have been for 3 months. It's an employer's market.
too much time sitting at home looking for work.
I would say take some employment first.
freelance usually does anything. Can be anything.
I've gone to regular employment recently after freelance for 15 years.
It's been quite a difficult market the last few years, in England, for me anyway.
All my recent contracts have been for 3 months. It's an employer's market.
too much time sitting at home looking for work.
I would say take some employment first.
Being with an employer you usually have a team of people to draw on for support. Different people know different stuff and you learn to rely on each other to get your jobs done.
With freelance no one has your back. You have to be capable of delivering to contract on a deadline and to spec. You have to get used to learning on your feet with no one there to explain what's what. Your colleges are also, sometimes your competition. In my experience most people are reasonable, friendly and chilled but occasionally you will meet someone who will cut you up. That is by no means the norm but it does sometimes happen. Most employers are easy to work with and provide good specifications. However employers differ widely, some are expecting you the be the "super expert" and to solve all their technical problems that they didn't warn you about. Others are very bad at communicating what they want from you and you have to become skilled at asking the right questions. Some don't even know what they want and you have to learn to steer people in a sensible technical direction. I have found that freelancing requires many more skills that just programming.
I would recommend getting some solid experience with an employer before considering entering in to the 'wild west' of freelancing. It is also good to have a bunch of different computer languages at your disposal.
With freelance no one has your back. You have to be capable of delivering to contract on a deadline and to spec. You have to get used to learning on your feet with no one there to explain what's what. Your colleges are also, sometimes your competition. In my experience most people are reasonable, friendly and chilled but occasionally you will meet someone who will cut you up. That is by no means the norm but it does sometimes happen. Most employers are easy to work with and provide good specifications. However employers differ widely, some are expecting you the be the "super expert" and to solve all their technical problems that they didn't warn you about. Others are very bad at communicating what they want from you and you have to become skilled at asking the right questions. Some don't even know what they want and you have to learn to steer people in a sensible technical direction. I have found that freelancing requires many more skills that just programming.
I would recommend getting some solid experience with an employer before considering entering in to the 'wild west' of freelancing. It is also good to have a bunch of different computer languages at your disposal.
Right.
Okay.
I am 18, senior year of high school starting up now.
So my first question; Should I study this in college?
My second question; Lots of different languages. I got this idea.
What other languages would you recommend? I've heard Visual Basic is VERY quick and easy to do. Is visual basic a web design language?
Thanks,
-Benjamin
Okay.
I am 18, senior year of high school starting up now.
So my first question; Should I study this in college?
My second question; Lots of different languages. I got this idea.
What other languages would you recommend? I've heard Visual Basic is VERY quick and easy to do. Is visual basic a web design language?
Thanks,
-Benjamin
I would be tempted to do whatever interests you most at college. No point spending the rest of your life being bored...
For languages it depends what kind of work you are going to be aiming for. I can't comment on Microsoft solutions as its way too many years since I used Windows, although I assume C# has some traction.
For web stuff then PHP is very common server side and Javascript in the client. Regular expressions are very useful too. For server work you might find bash and perl useful. In fact a knowledge of Linux can be useful because a lot of web-servers run on linux. Also for the web XML and HTML/CSS are important. Java is good to know. And python might come in handy.
For languages it depends what kind of work you are going to be aiming for. I can't comment on Microsoft solutions as its way too many years since I used Windows, although I assume C# has some traction.
For web stuff then PHP is very common server side and Javascript in the client. Regular expressions are very useful too. For server work you might find bash and perl useful. In fact a knowledge of Linux can be useful because a lot of web-servers run on linux. Also for the web XML and HTML/CSS are important. Java is good to know. And python might come in handy.
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