2e:null 2f:["$","title",null,{"children":"First Month as a Freelance Software Engineer - January 2021 | Alex Garcia | Observable"}] 34:T47b,md`## Background I graduated from UCSD in December 2019. I did a few software engineering internships at big tech companies in the Bay Area and Los Angeles while in college. I started working full-time at Facebook shortly after graduating with Oculus (their VR work) in Los Angeles. I've been somewhat active in the Observable notebook community for a couple of years now, I have some projects on Github, I'm very interested in data journalism, data visualizations, data engineering, web development, and self-hosting tools. I mention all this because I didn't just pull "freelance software engineer" out of nowhere. I've been slowly building my niche and my expertise for a few years now. Of course, there are many other freelancers with way more professional experience and expertise, but for what I like to do and for the work that I want to do, that is what it took to get here. Of course, this isn't the only path; having fancy jobs at big-name places and doing unpaid open source work isn't required to do the freelancing that I do, but I would find it difficult to do any freelancing software work without at least some prior experience.`35:T64e,md`## Freelancing ### "How did you get your gigs?" To get this right off the bat: I got my currently freelancing gigs through luck, privilege, and connections. And skills, I guess? Imposter syndrome hits hard idk I mention this first is because if I was someone considering freelance and I came across this post, my first question would be "How do you even find a paying gig?", so answering that with "my experience may not be like yours, but here's a few tips" right off the bat is what I would want to hear. My first gig is from a friend I met through [Code2040](https://www.code2040.org/) and lived with for a time. He reached out after [I tweeted](https://twitter.com/agarcia_me/status/1339993714651885568) that I was looking for freelance gigs. So a lesson here is to tell your network (Twitter, LinkedIn, friends, group chats, etc.) that you're looking, and you may be surprised. My second gig is a little more interesting. A while ago, I wrote [an Observable notebook](https://observablehq.com/@asg017/datasette-client) about a tool I made that makes it easier to query [Datasette](https://datasette.io/) instances from Observable notebooks. It was on the front page of observablehq.com for about a day, which is super cool! Someone working on a project related to the tool I made (Observable notebooks, data visualizations, Datasette, etc.) reached out to me asking if I was looking to freelance. Since I was leaving my job, the timing worked out well. So lesson here, if you do create content related to the work you do (developer content in my case), always have a way for someone to contact you! `36:T795,md`### Goals from January I didn't write down any exact goals, but since this was literally three weeks ago I can approximate what my goals would have been and decide how I did. **Have enough gigs to sustain myself:** ${goals(5)} Having two part-time gigs at the rate I'm charging is fantastic, and I am very grateful. I don't have high financial goals at the moment (living at home with my parents, in a pandemic where my spending is very low, and my student loan payments have been deferred), so my current situation is sustainable. I also currently own exactly 5 shares of Build a Bear Workshop so I'm riding that baby to the moon 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 **Have a reasonable work schedule:** ${goals(2)} Budgeting my time has been difficult. I have found context-switching between gigs on the same day is very tiring, and I don't do my best work. I often didn't work a full 8 hours every day during the week, so I spent weekends catching up, which isn't sustainable. **Practice writing content:** ${goals(0)} I like writing Observable notebooks about random things I enjoy. With no full-time job taking up my attention, I was hoping to spend more time on that. But I didn't write anything, so booo me. **Work on personal projects**: ${goals(1)} I have a handful of pre-existing open source projects and a long list of new projects I want to make, but I didn't spend much time doing either the past three weeks. I converted an old laptop of mine to a makeshift Ubuntu server with a fancy new 1TB SSD that I plan to use as a media server and remote development machine. I've been reading [r/selfhosted](https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/) a lot the past few months (and I'm extremely envious of the rigs I see on [r/homelab](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/)), so this was a very satisfying project personally. But it's not something you can blog about or teach people about, so hopefully my next project will be more share-able! `37:[] 32:{"id":"25cb264904adb053","slug":"2021-jan-freelance","title":"First Month as a Freelance Software Engineer - January 2021","thumbnail":"69f93d204dda3bc8965d7973ba44d7779e6464ce27acf62777a52a5ffc6adb0b","access_level":"public","create_time":"$D2021-02-02T06:31:48.451Z","update_time":"$D2021-02-05T01:31:52.631Z","view_time":null,"first_public_time":"$D2021-02-05T01:32:22.333Z","has_unpublished_edits":null,"fork":false,"stars":7,"starred":false,"owner":{"type":"team","id":"512cbe7209990c30","login":"asg017","name":"Alex Garcia","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/fa4015f63c3a56af76b90247b0b0f8a98019b671f135157d746d3924eda27c07","tier":"starter_2024"},"version":308,"publish_version":308,"role":null,"authored":false,"authors":[{"type":"individual","id":"113fc3dc69e1f893","login":"asg017","name":"Alex Garcia","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/fa4015f63c3a56af76b90247b0b0f8a98019b671f135157d746d3924eda27c07","tier":null}],"members":[{"type":"individual","id":"113fc3dc69e1f893","login":"asg017","name":"Alex Garcia","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/fa4015f63c3a56af76b90247b0b0f8a98019b671f135157d746d3924eda27c07","tier":null,"role":"editor"}],"comments":[],"custom_thumbnail":false,"trashed":false,"lapsed":null,"subscribed":null,"forks":0,"collection":{"id":"de74bd9f59bed54a","slug":"freelancing","title":"Freelancing","owner":{"id":"512cbe7209990c30","login":"asg017","name":"Alex Garcia"}},"type":"notebook","body":{"title":"First Month as a Freelance Software Engineer - January 2021","cells":[{"id":0,"value":"md`# First Month as a Freelance Software Engineer - January 2021`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":209,"value":"md`On January 8th of this year, I left my job and started working as a freelance software engineer. `","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":251,"value":"md`This is a new series I'm trying out—a new post every month on the progress I have made from freelancing and my newfound free time. I don't know how long this will last since I'm not actively applying for many jobs (but still hit me up if you're hiring!). Something may come up a month from now, and this series ends after two posts. It's also possible that I'm in this for the long run, and most of my 2021 ends up here.\n\nI do have some inspirations for this, like Simon Willison's [Weeknotes](https://simonwillison.net/tags/weeknotes), Tom Macwright's [\"Recently\"'s](https://macwright.com), and Michael Lynch's [Retrospectives](https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/). I don't want these posts to be too technical, or for me to come off as an annoying male tech blogger. Monthly because any other cadence would tire me out or I would forget about it. `","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":132,"value":"md`There are three main reasons why I want to start this:\n\n1. **Someone might find it helpful.** I've been considering trying freelancing for quite some time now, but there weren't many people out there talking about it. I know my freelance experience is unique and niche, but it can still help someone.\n\n2. **Practice my writing.** I've been self-conscious about my writing for some time. Having very little practice writing during a computer engineering degree in college undoubtedly didn't help. I hope that publically posting some of my written work will jump-start a habit. \n\n3. **Accountability.** I want to some goals with my work, and with no professors giving me deadlines or product managers asking me to keep my jira tasks updated, there's not a lot of accountability in my life right now. Even though I don't expect a big readership, just the thought that someone out there might be disappointed that I don't complete a goal is motivation enough for me.`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":245,"value":"md`Ok let's get into it!`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":144,"value":"$34","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":7,"value":"$35","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":169,"value":"md`### \"What do you even work on?\"\n\nThe freelancing gigs I have are programming based. I spend most of my time coding, writing technical documentation, and working with other software engineers. It's important to point this out since even though I'm interested in data journalism, the gigs I have now aren't newsroom-related work. My current gigs are not consulting, a popular avenue for self-employed software engineers. I'm also not selling a product or a SaaS, so no [indie hacker](https://www.indiehackers.com/) label for me.`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":19,"value":"md`### \"How's the work itself?\"\n\nSo far, I am working with technology and tools that I like and am familiar with, with people I enjoy working with, and on problems that I find interesting. Which is fantastic! Nearly every job I've had in the past has marked off only two of these boxes; having them all is exciting. Of course, I'm only four weeks in, so it's a bit of a honeymoon phase, but it's a pretty sweet honeymoon so far.`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":109,"value":"md`### \"How much do you charge?\"\nIt depends 😞 . In the past, when I read freelancer's blogs, I hated it whenever they responded with \"it depends,\" but oh boy is it true. The range of work I do goes from general web development that many people could do, to very specialized data visualization tooling and libraries work that very few people could do. What I build could be a proof of concept that's shared with a few people or a live product that many people need to use. Then there's how long a project will take, what I currently have on my plate, who I would work with, and a ton of other factors that determine how I would charge. So it's tough to answer that generically.\n\nIf you genuinely want to know because you're thinking of hiring me, email me [alexsebastian.garcia@gmail.com](https://alexgarcia.xyz/) for a quote, but if you're someone who is considering freelance work and wants to compare, then DM me on Twitter or email me and I'd be happy to chat!`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":22,"value":"$36","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":71,"value":"md`### Goals for February\n\n**Have enough gigs to sustain myself**: I expect my current gigs will continue into most of February (and most likely past that), but if something happens or if I find either will end in March, find a new place/team to work with\n\n**Have a reasonable and sustainable work schedule**: Work 5 days per week and complete all hours needed. Don't work weekends, don't work late nights. \n\n**Practice writing content**: Write a blog post about something technical - something about Observable, a project I have, or a dataset I have. Purposely vague, just publish something.\n\n**Work on personal projects**: Work 5 hrs/week on a personal project that's not self-hosting related.\n\n**Read a god damn book**: cmon man do you need stickers or something`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":212,"value":"md`## Keep in touch!\n\nIf ya wanna stay updated with these monthly logs, You can subscribe to my Observable page's [RSS Feed](https://api.observablehq.com/documents/@asg017.rss), follow me [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/agarcia_me), or email me at [alexsebastian.garcia@gmail.com](https://alexgarcia.xyz) and I'll keep you updated. Or if you want to chat about anything relating to freelancing, data visualizations, Observable notebooks, newsroom development, feel free to email me or DM me on Twitter anytime!`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":198,"value":"md`---`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":23,"value":"goals = n => {\n const on = \"#3c3\";\n const off = \"#ccc\";\n return html`

${Array.from(\n { length: 5 },\n (_, i) =>\n html`

`\n )}

${n}/5

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