Updated June 6
I mentioned in my last post that I was planning on becoming a software consultant/freelancer developer soon. It is my great pleasure to announce that I am now available for hire as a freelance software developer! I should have a separate website for it available to view soon. In the meantime, you can email me at vazquez.technologies@gmail.com. UPDATE: The website is now live! Check it out here. In this post, I will tell the story of how this choice will affect Semi-Structured Thoughts, why I decided to start freelancing, and what services I will be offering.
Changes to the blog
Don’t worry! There will be no major changes to this blog. I plan on keeping this as a personal blog and will continue to use it for any posts I deem worth writing. It will not become a tech-only blog. That being said, as I explore new technologies to solve challenges for my clients, I may find something I feel needs to be written about. Overall, however, the content will remain the same.
Freelancing? Why?
Let me start by saying that I have actually done a less-official version of this with some of my friends and other people in my network. I love the idea of freelancing for a few reasons.
Choose my own hours
I am still a student (and a busy one at that) and don’t have time to maintain a normal job during the school year. With freelancing, I can be selective of my clients and make sure I don’t take on projects during the busiest part of the year.
Gain experience with something I love
I love programming. I plan on pursuing a CS degree when I go to college. The way I look at it, I will be programming regardless of whether or not I’m working on a project for a client. Since I’m already going to be programming, I might as well make money doing it. I also think it will give me valuable experience preparing me for if (Lord willing) I enter the software engineering industry.
Work during the summer
I wanted to find work this summer. However, I found it hard to find work in my area. Combining this lack of options with the points above just made it seem like freelancing was the perfect option for working this summer (and hopefully in the future).
I am very excited to expand my freelancing work this summer and gain valuable knowledge about various technologies.
Services I offer
This information will be available on my freelance website once I release it.
UPDATE: The website is now live! Check it out here.
Wed Design and Development (Full Stack)
Since going to those two hackathons in the Spring, I’ve been learning HTML, CSS, and some Javascript. Combined with the knowledge I already have of GoLang (for use on the backend) and Inkscape (for design and asset creation), I think I am well-enough equipped to offer full stack web development services. I have also been studying design principles, since that is probably the thing that will take me the most time to learn well.
Mobile Design and Development
As mentioned in my last post, I’ve been using Flutter a lot and loving it. In fact, I have already used Flutter to produce an app for a client. I will probably make a post about it later, but let me just say that Flutter remains a joy to work with.
Miscellaneous
I tend to be a very quick learner, and am open to creating solutions that use a technology I might not be the most familiar with. Also, I like to think I can write, so I am also available as a content provider.
Well, there you go. How freelancing affects Semi-Structured Thoughts (it doesn’t), why I decided to do it, and what my services are. If you have a project you think I can help with, feel free to email me at vazquez.technologies@gmail.com.
Do any of y’all have experience freelancing? I’d love to hear any advice you have. Do you have a project idea? Feel free to reach out to me and we can chat.
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