Home-based contracting possible/What to specialise in?

**nomadd** · 22 April 2014, 16:57

Originally posted by rurallife View Post

Dear all

first of all, thank you very much for all the information provided here, that's fantastic. I'm a Java software developer with 15 years of development experience as an employee and am currently starting out contracting.

I have a few questions that I can't answer by searching the forum. Would be great if you could help me with advice:

a) Is it possible at all to work as a contractor from home AND get decent rates? As you all probably know, Elance or Odesk are definitely NOT great for people wanting to earn more than 10/20 hour. I would love to work from home for various personal reasons (no commute, kids, I like the countryside), but I don't know how people manage to get well-paid contracts by working from home. So are there people who do well-paid IT contract work from home and how did you get there?

b) How do I find out what to best specialise in? I have a strong background in Java and have had experience with several other technologies, but I'd like to further specialise as I am hoping that this will help me get work-from-home jobs/make me indispensable/raise my daily rates etc. I have done a search on google, but even though I found a few articles mentioning buzzwords like "big data", "cloud computing" etc. but I still feel very much in the dark. It may sound funny, but are there books about what to train in? How do you strategically plan your career? Sorry if this is really a dumb question.

Any help greatly appreciated! Thank you very much for sharing your experience.
All the best!

No.

Next.

Sockie?

**eek** · 22 April 2014, 17:01

Its quite simple, people want to physically see the people they are paying and to be able to talk to them.

You can if you are exceptionally good (Alan Cox say) work from home but most people are replaceable with others willing to work in an office and so are replaced by people willing to work in the office.

**SpontaneousOrder** · 22 April 2014, 17:16

Originally posted by eek View Post

Its quite simple, people want to physically see the people they are paying and to be able to talk to them.

You can if you are exceptionally good (Alan Cox say) work from home but most people are replaceable with others willing to work in an office and so are replaced by people willing to work in the office.

What he said. Why pay the same rate for someone at the end of the phone when you can get someone sat in the office.

Not saying that it should necessarily be a problem, but I know I'd much rather grab someone to come and look over my shoulder than get someone remote to share a screen & VOIP with me.

**jamesbrown** · 22 April 2014, 17:19

Yes, if you're highly specialised and have a global client-base. Probably not as a code monkey though. Perhaps 1-2 days WFH is achievable as a known quantity to the client? I'm not in IT, so my experience probably isn't that useful to you. As a regular/long-term option, I'd guess it's highly unlikely in the majority of IT roles where you're, essentially, another brick in the wall.

**stek** · 22 April 2014, 20:05

I remember one place I worked at where one guy somehow got 100% WHF, network guy...

Used to call him, 'quick we need xx ports open from yyy to zzz' and he'd answer, 'I can't I'm at B&Q' or 'I can't, I'm at the airport dropping me mate off'.....

People take the pissssss.....

**d000hg** · 23 April 2014, 00:00

Yes you can.

You either need to start on-site and wean yourself to WFH once you've proved you can deliver. Or you need to get more creative finding clients.

I WFH and have two clients, one in each category. The first I worked with onsite in the past and they trust I can do the work. The second I found online on a technology forum, advertising work. They're in another country so all communication and work is done remotely. I've done similar with several projects... hanging around on forums can be advantageous especially if it's a a bit niche e.g. particular libraries/frameworks you know well.

**TheFaQQer** · 23 April 2014, 08:27

Originally posted by rurallife View Post

a) Is it possible at all to work as a contractor from home AND get decent rates?

Yes

Originally posted by rurallife View Post

So are there people who do well-paid IT contract work from home and how did you get there?

Reputation and luck with client location. I've had the last two contracts working from home - one I was recruited by reputation, one I was recruited by a friend of mine. In both contracts, the client has been scattered across the globe, so there was no logical office to go to. In the first contract, I never met anyone from the client in the 18 months I was contracting there; in the current one the UK-based team get together every couple of months just to touch base.

Originally posted by rurallife View Post

b) How do I find out what to best specialise in?

I don't think there is a silver bullet here that means that you will be able to work from home. There are some skills which really don't lend themselves to home working - DBA in certain sectors, for example. Government work is out as well.

**borderreiver** · 23 April 2014, 08:36

Originally posted by d000hg View Post

You either need to start on-site and wean yourself to WFH once you've proved you can deliver. Or you need to get more creative finding clients.

This.

I do 100% WFH at the moment, but they're all clients I have worked alongside (on site) in the past, or clients I have gained through personal recommendations, i.e. networking.

For all the talk in the news of how WFH is the future, most British firms just want bums on seats, I'm afraid.

**MojoDog** · 23 April 2014, 09:13

Originally posted by nomadd View Post

No.

Next.

Sockie?

So you treated a perfectly reasonable and politely worded question with absolute contempt.

Would you have the cojones to do that in real life?

I somehow doubt it.

Home-based contracting possible/What to specialise in?