Becoming my own boss.
This past month, as well as relaxing and enjoying my time away from work, I’ve been considering what I want to do next. When I wrote my last post I had some vague notions on what I would like in my next role, but I hadn’t really contemplated the specifics. I’ve decided to do something I haven’t yet done in my career. I’m going to work on a contract basis.
Throughout my career so far, I’ve only worked in permanent positions. This has allowed me to grow and build up my experience while having a strong degree of stability and support. I’ve had the opportunity to work on interesting challenges, technical and interpersonal, while working in highly regulated environments. I now have built up a portfolio of experience that means I can help businesses with a variety of challenges.
Contracting to companies to help with technical and culture transformation is something I used to talk to my friends and colleagues as a “sometime… when…” ambition. It used to be something I saw as a far off fantasy, whereas some of my close colleagues saw it as an inevitability for me. I enjoy my work helping companies with strategic change, infecting engineers with enthusiasm and driving purpose in my engagement with teams, leaving places in a better state than when I arrived. I love problem solving and supporting people in identifying and understanding their challenges and developing a plan with them for the implementation of a solution. I’ve now got a lot of experience of doing just that at different levels.
Documenting the journey
Moving from permanent positions to contract is a little daunting. It’s new for me and change always brings with it a degree of uncertainty. I tend to find pushing myself out of my comfort zone results in positive outcomes, unexpected opportunities and lessons learned. I will tackle this challenge the way I do most things: with structure, research, planning and reflection.
There is a lot of information about what you need to do and consider when taking the step into moving into contract/consultancy work and the many options available. I won’t be writing all of that up. It’s readily available and mostly quite dry reading. What I will be writing is my experience.
For those who are interested, I plan to write about the practical steps, but also what I’m doing personally to set myself up as a contractor. This will include understanding myself as a product, what my service offerings will be and high-level insights into what I was expecting versus the reality of working for myself.
Maybe it will make the idea of going contracting less daunting to someone considering doing the same, and help them feel more confident in taking the chance. I certainly will be asking advice from those I know who have taken this path themselves, so to pay it forward in some small way would be nice.
Plan for the next month
I have a “To Do” list for the end of March, which will also give you and idea for what to expect in upcoming posts.
Certifications
Study for and pass AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-CO3) and Professional (SAP-CO2) exams. I plan to do some Azure certifications in the future as well but not in the coming month.
Getting ready to contract
There is a lot of little tasks I need to do but it will include getting set up with an accountant, setting up the business, structuring a service offering, marketing, talking to companies about potential contracts and setting up expectations and commercial terms documents.
Think you might have work for me?
I don’t plan to be ready to jump into work until April, but if your needs aren’t immediate and you think I might be able to help your organisation please do reach out. I’ll be adding details to this site soon about how I can help and what services I offer but I am more than happy to discuss any opportunity.
The best way to contact me is using LinkedIn.
Wish me success.
J.
