I resigned: 5 weeks later

Just 5 weeks ago I posted my story about how I resigned from my job and started as a freelancer. I casually shared it on hackernews and my facebook and went to do other things. The response was really overwhelming. Hartwarming. I got some great feedback. A lot of comments on my blog and on hackernews. A lot of people contacting me how they would like to do the same. I even reconnecting with old contacts. My server crashed several times and last week I got a 6 EURO bill for the 31 GB of traffic a used on top of my fair use policy.

Thank you all very much for your comments and advice! You really made my day!

So how am I doing?

I’m doing good. I’m on my first contract. It’s a parttime asp.net / jquery job till the end of the year. Building educational software (which is my preferred domain) and on a 10 min bike ride from home. It’s a nice team of highly skilled people, working hard on a nice project.

Before  I started freelancing I had a lot of fears. I had the fear that I would not be able to find work, that I’m to socially awkward to connect with other people and that I overestimate my own skills. All where rendered untrue in the first weeks. I have had several offers for projects. I managed to be part of a new team within days and receive praise about my work and I’m able to contribute very well. And best of all: it’s very long ago that I’ve been so relaxed. I’m providing for my family and they have a happier dad and husband.

Off-course it only has been five weeks. But the outlook is good. Feeling verry happy about my decision at the moment!

How did I start?

On of the first things I did when I decided to resign was to call the people I know that have done the same. Two former co-workers started freelancing a while ago. I called them with two questions: “Would you do it again?”, “How are you doing it”. They both answered with a very convincing: Hell Yeah! And very different ways in how they are doing it. They both gave me the same important advice: get the word out. Change your  linked-in profile, your twitter-account get the word out. Make sure people know what you can and what you do.  And secondly: pick a niche … eventually.

Take two years of starting up and making some name and make sure you are an expert in something. So that when people say: “If I only knew an expert [windows debugger, jQuery guru, App developer, drupal OTAP specialist, ...] my day would be saved”. Fill the dots for something. What do you get complimented on by your co-workers, your boss? That might be your thing! But if you don’t like what you are best at, what do you do?

At my goodbye speech my former boss said it very well.

“It’s a shame, the thing [he] is the best in, he doesn’t like doing at all”

According to my boss my talent is to explain technical things to non-technical people in a non-threatening way. And that makes me a good seller apparently. But boy do I hate that.

And that is my next hurdle. I need to find my niche while I’am a generalist at nature. I have broad interests and want to learn everything. I find an interesting topic, delve deeply into it. Even buy some books … and then my interest fade quickly.

So what will my expertise be?