Freelancers mostly work intermediated assignments rather than direct assignments. These intermediators have put up what are essentially job boards. If you are well connected, you can get direct assignments via your contacts, or by reaching out like traditional sales work. If there are some avenues to get leads for direct assignments, I would be really interested to find out!
In the USA, if some big and usually "non tech" company like McDonalds or T-Mobile wants to staff a whole project with programmers, they will usually have a relationship with someone like Infosys, Tata, Slalom, perhaps even Hitachi or Tech Mahindra or Accenture/Deloitte. These companies all pay you like a regular employee so you don't need your own drafted employment contract or business entity.
If you howver have a github/youtube channel/website where you make and release your own software, and someone contacts you saying "hello we want to pay you to add more features and or fix some problem for us", then you will need a contract and usually a business entity unless you don't mind being personally sued into the ground.
Such reachouts are very very rare unless your software has gone viral in the right circles, but I personally know at least 20 people who make a full time living this way. It seems pretty unenviable, and corporations whose email domain you would recognize routinely pull support or play egregious games with the definition of done. No cure for life, I guess :)
Large consultancies like Tata also operate in Finland + we also have a bunch of our own consultancies that operate in this manner (their consultants are regular employees of the consultancy). Earlier when I mentioned job boards for freelancers, it is particularly these large consultancies that subcontract down to freelancers via job boards (they try to fill positions from their bench, and when they are unable, they subcontract to other consultancies or freelancers).
Nice! In the US that still happens a fair amount too but I think as the industry has developed it has become much more rare than before. Athe keyword would be "corp to corp" employment, where you as the programmer either have an LLC, s-corp, or c-corp.
But with the amount of accountant overhead and government fees you have to pay per year (including to shut down your entity when you are done), it becomes a bit pointless and there aren't really magical tax savings to achieve that I know of unless you are like, really good at deducting things and surviving IRS audits. In any case, it is rare for corporations to even offer it, but maybe in some super niche areas I'm not aware of, there could be good advantages.
Still I think the hardest part is making and maintaining quality connections with people who value your skills :)
> Such reachouts are very very rare unless your software has gone viral in the right circles
Another anecdote. I had job offers coming out of my ears while I was posting videos of my indiegame on twitter. Only one video had substantial reach -- near the end of my time actively twittering. I think what helps is doing something as well as you can, and be persistently visible.
Freelancers mostly work intermediated assignments rather than direct assignments. These intermediators have put up what are essentially job boards. If you are well connected, you can get direct assignments via your contacts, or by reaching out like traditional sales work. If there are some avenues to get leads for direct assignments, I would be really interested to find out!
Thanks for your feedback on this :)
In the USA, if some big and usually "non tech" company like McDonalds or T-Mobile wants to staff a whole project with programmers, they will usually have a relationship with someone like Infosys, Tata, Slalom, perhaps even Hitachi or Tech Mahindra or Accenture/Deloitte. These companies all pay you like a regular employee so you don't need your own drafted employment contract or business entity.
If you howver have a github/youtube channel/website where you make and release your own software, and someone contacts you saying "hello we want to pay you to add more features and or fix some problem for us", then you will need a contract and usually a business entity unless you don't mind being personally sued into the ground.
Such reachouts are very very rare unless your software has gone viral in the right circles, but I personally know at least 20 people who make a full time living this way. It seems pretty unenviable, and corporations whose email domain you would recognize routinely pull support or play egregious games with the definition of done. No cure for life, I guess :)
Large consultancies like Tata also operate in Finland + we also have a bunch of our own consultancies that operate in this manner (their consultants are regular employees of the consultancy). Earlier when I mentioned job boards for freelancers, it is particularly these large consultancies that subcontract down to freelancers via job boards (they try to fill positions from their bench, and when they are unable, they subcontract to other consultancies or freelancers).
Nice! In the US that still happens a fair amount too but I think as the industry has developed it has become much more rare than before. Athe keyword would be "corp to corp" employment, where you as the programmer either have an LLC, s-corp, or c-corp.
But with the amount of accountant overhead and government fees you have to pay per year (including to shut down your entity when you are done), it becomes a bit pointless and there aren't really magical tax savings to achieve that I know of unless you are like, really good at deducting things and surviving IRS audits. In any case, it is rare for corporations to even offer it, but maybe in some super niche areas I'm not aware of, there could be good advantages.
Still I think the hardest part is making and maintaining quality connections with people who value your skills :)
> Such reachouts are very very rare unless your software has gone viral in the right circles
Another anecdote. I had job offers coming out of my ears while I was posting videos of my indiegame on twitter. Only one video had substantial reach -- near the end of my time actively twittering. I think what helps is doing something as well as you can, and be persistently visible.