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Comment by mcv | Hacker News Reader

I certainly recommend freelancing. It can take some time to get up to speed, but I'm currently making €95/hr on a long term project, which will probably be over €130k per year (for 32 hr per week). My rate might be the high end (I honestly don't know), but my sister who just started freelancing in test automation (which might be more in demand than developers?) is starting out at €75 or €85 per hour. €80 per hour for is not unusual at all.

Of course as a freelancer you have to arrange your own insurance and miss out on lots of benefits that employees get automatically, but personally I think the trade-off is easily worth it. Though to me the real advantage of freelancing isn't financial, but freedom; I'm less bound by all sorts of company rules and restrictions. Although on the other hand, I'm more bound by the tax service. I think it's a good trade-off.

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Man, i feel like i'd be worried about droughts of jobs.Any advice on dealing with that stress? I take a lot of value out of standard jobs and stable companies.

It's always good to have a financial buffer, but I've never really needed it. Recruiters find me on LinkedIn and call or mail me. I generally blow them off or ignore them, unless I'm actively looking or they have something that catches my eye.

I suppose I could do my own acquisition; cutting out the middle man would probably increase my hourly rate, but that's a lot of work I don't like, and this works well enough for me.

It depends on the market and your skillset. You can test the market right now by polishing up your CV & profile (LinkedIn is actually a good source of leads), getting in touch with some recruiters and seeing if you can get some offers, and adjust your rates & risk tolerance based on this.

At least in the UK, the contract market seems quite good for this early in the year, and usually peaks around summer. YMMV.

It obviously depends on your situation and whether you have any responsibilities; my opinion would probably be different if I had a family, but in my case I have little to lose even if things go sour. I won't be able to do this forever so I make the most out of it while I can still afford the risk.

Does it take a certain non-technical aptitude to market oneself better? I think those who fear interviews may find this challenging as well.

Unsure about European prices but as a freelancer in the USA it's not unheard of to charge $120-150/hr

Sure but even then it's low compared to being a senior at FAANG and publicly traded startups, no? (ie $300k+ annually when RSUs are factored in) Especially when you factor in the job risk and lack of PTO (even ignoring lack of health insurance cause in many cases your spouse can cover that)

I personally would like to get to $175-$200 an hour as then it would truly be competitive with the above, but not sure how to get there

For that, I think you'd have to have a unique and highly in demand specialisation, and become widely known for it. Then you can basically ask whatever you want.

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