成为独立开发者

In the past 10 years I worked on many different teams. I started out as a freelancer, thinking I’d work alone for a small business doing for example websites and little frontend stuff, but I eventually found lots of teams that needed different things from me. Every time I joined a team, I found different dynamics and I felt different empathy levels. I was part of some great times, and some less great ones.

在过去的十年中，我曾在许多不同的团队工作。 我最初是一名自由职业者，以为自己会独自从事一家小型企业的工作，例如从事网站和前端方面的工作，但最终我找到了许多需要与我不同的团队。 每次加入团队时，我都会发现不同的动态，并且会感受到不同的同理心。 我曾经是一些美好时光的一部分，而在一些不太美好的时光中。

But I always worked independently, meaning I was never hired. I just worked as a contractor, with its perks and its downsides.

但是我总是独立工作，这意味着我从未被雇用过。 我只是当承包商的工作，它的好处和缺点。

自由 (Freedom)

The best thing about being independent is freedom. If you are an employee, you have a boss. If you are a contractor, you have a client. You can have multiple clients, too. I never had multiple clients because I always wanted to build my own business on the side. As an employee, in some countries depending on the contract your employer might have the rights to everything you create in your spare time. That’s madness. As an independent contractor you can work on side projects with all the freedom you want. Actually, the more things you have, the better: your portfolio grows, your perceived value grows, your personal brand grows, your next contract will be better paying.

独立的最好的事情就是自由。 如果您是员工，那么您就有老板。 如果您是承包商，则有一个客户。 您也可以有多个客户端。 我从来没有多个客户，因为我一直想在一边建立自己的业务。 作为雇员，在某些国家/地区，根据合同，您的雇主可能有权使用业余时间创建的所有内容。 那太疯狂了。 作为独立承包商，您可以自由地从事副项目。 实际上，您拥有的东西越多越好：您的投资组合增长，您的感知价值增长，您的个人品牌增长，您的下一份合同会得到更好的回报。

灵活性 (Flexibility)

One degree of freedom is flexibility. Flexibility is awesome. As an employee, companies give you like as low as 2 or 3 weeks of vacations in the whole year. Imagine this: you take 3 weeks off during the summer, then you have no other single day off for 344 days. In some countries, for example EU countries, things are better for the employees, but still if you need a day off you need permission.

一种自由度是灵活性。 灵活性很棒。 作为员工，公司全年给您的假期只有2到3周。 想象一下：您在夏季休假3周，然后在344天中没有其他一天可以休假。 在某些国家/地区，例如欧盟国家/地区，对员工来说更好一些，但如果您需要请假，则仍然需要获得许可 。

A job is a well paid cage. There are various personality types, some like that, especially because in a job there is some kind of social network implied (your coworkers, your boss), some hate it. I’m in the latter group.

工作是高薪的笼子。 人格类型多种多样，尤其是因为在工作中隐含某种社交网络(您的同事，老板)，有些人讨厌它。 我在后一组。

The first flexibility perk is hours. You can have a very flexible day depending on your client (hint: choose your client wisely). I need a day off? I might work next Saturday to make up for the lost hours. Next week I’m off, I’ll take a 25% pay cut.

第一个灵活性特权是小时。 您可以根据客户的情况灵活安排一天(提示：明智地选择客户)。 我需要休息一天吗？ 下周六我可能会工作，以弥补损失的时间。 下周我下班，我将减薪25％。

If you decide to work remotely freedoms compound and there’s a whole new level of flexibility. You client might be in the US and you’re in the EU, so you can take all your mornings off, establish you work 5 focused, deep hours every day instead of 8 sloppy hours and you can work from 2PM to 7PM. Or 5PM to 10PM if that’s better for you.

如果您决定进行远程工作，那么自由复合便会带来全新的灵活性。 您的客户可能在美国，而您在欧盟，因此您可以放假一整天，确定每天工作5个专注的深小时，而不是8个马虎小时，并且可以从2PM到7PM工作。 还是从5PM到10PM，如果这对您更好。

您提供价值，而不是时间 (You provide value, not hours)

But as a contractor, do you really work hourly? Or the value you provide is independent from the hours worked? Maybe you are so good to perform in 1 hour the job some junior or mid developer can do in 5 hours. And do it better, because of your experience and skills.

但是作为承包商，您真的每小时工作一次吗？ 还是您提供的价值与工作时间无关？ 也许您非常擅长在1小时内完成一些初级或中级开发人员在5小时内可以完成的工作。 由于您的经验和技能，请做得更好。

您的价值 (Your value)

Another perk of being independent is that you are unlikely to stay years working for a single client. You are more likely to develop a network of contacts and get bigger opportunities as your career path flows.

独立的另一个好处是，您不太可能会为单个客户工作多年。 随着职业道路的发展，您更有可能建立人脉网络并获得更大的机会。

Every time an opportunity arises, you gain all the experience from past projects and you are able to charge more.

每次机会出现时，您都将从过去的项目中获得所有经验，并且可以收取更多费用。

There’s a lot to say about your value. Your perceived value, to be precise. In a team of employees, there can be a blurry line between the effort of each team member that led to the final result. As a skilled contractor your value can be much clearer. But it all depends on you, on how you build the perception of you. There’s little place for the shy developer when you go independent. You can think you are the hacker type, hard on the code until 3AM and everyone knows what you’re up to, even if you’re silent in the Slack chat. No, there’s lots to be said about communication, especially when working remotely. You need to be hyper active in this regard, and if you need to do so with your team, you need to do this 10 times more with the outer world.

关于您的价值，有很多话要说。 准确地说，您的感知价值。 在一个员工团队中，导致最终结果的每个团队成员的努力之间可能存在模糊的界限。 作为一个熟练的承包商，您的价值会更加清晰。 但这一切都取决于您，取决于您如何建立对自己的看法。 当您独立时，害羞的开发人员几乎没有地方。 您可以认为自己是黑客类型，直到3AM为止都要编写代码，即使您在Slack聊天中保持沉默，每个人都知道您在做什么。 不，关于通信，尤其是在远程工作时，有很多话要说。 您需要在这方面保持高度活跃，并且如果您需要与团队一起这样做，则需要与外部世界进行十次以上的交互。

个人品牌 (Personal brand)

Building a personal brand is key in today’s world, and it’s never been easier. You just have to show up. YouTube, blogs, podcasting, social media, sites like dev.to and others, it’s just a matter of picking the right tool for your personality trait.

建立个人品牌是当今世界的关键，而且从未如此简单。 你只需要露面。 YouTube，博客，播客，社交媒体，dev.to等网站以及其他，只是选择适合您个性特征的工具即可。

A personal brand is a big factor when it comes to deciding what’s your value, and so what’s your price when the client asks you. How do you decide that? That’s hard. That’s almost as hard as estimating project times, except it’s not as hard! All it takes is you being self conscious, and self confident. And knowing your value, and the value you provide to your customers. Prices also vary considerably depending on the country you live in, and the country your client lives in. Maybe you live in easter Europe and your client is from San Francisco. Is it ok to get a SF hourly rate? Should you get peanuts compared to the same yourself living in Silicon Valley? Good questions to ask, but I’m afraid I don’t have an answer.

在决定您的价值时，个人品牌是一个很大的因素，因此，当客户问您时，您的价格是多少。 您如何决定？ 辛苦了 这几乎和估计项目时间一样困难，除了不那么困难！ 您所要做的就是保持自我意识和自信。 并且了解您的价值，以及您为客户提供的价值。 价格也根据您所居住的国家和客户所居住的国家而有很大差异。也许您居住在复活节欧洲，而您的客户来自旧金山。 可以获得SF每小时费率吗？ 与住在硅谷的花生相比，您是否应该得到花生？ 要问的好问题，但恐怕我没有答案。

这个很难(硬 (It’s hard)

It’s hard, and you might not be ready for it. Yet.

很难，您可能还没有准备好。 然而。

To make a living independently you have to find clients. All the time. Do you have a network of people that can recommend and refer you to their own network?

为了独立谋生，您必须找到客户。 每时每刻。 您是否拥有可以推荐并推荐您自己的人脉的人脉网络？

Do you have skills people want to pay for? Do people know you have those skills?

您是否有人们想要支付的技能？ 人们知道您具备这些技能吗？

If you don’t feel confident and you don’t have a safety net, do this on the side. For your own ideas. Or start with charities and other work you can do for local do-good organizations.

如果您没有信心，也没有安全网，请从侧面进行。 对于您自己的想法。 或从慈善机构和您可以为当地的公益组织做的其他工作开始。

Another easy way to start is by getting in touch with local development agencies and companies which might be very interested in getting a contractor rather than hiring someone full time.

另一种简单的开始方法是与当地的开发机构和公司联系，这些公司可能对吸引承包商而不是全职雇用人员非常感兴趣。

这值得么？ (Is it worth it?)

Yes.

是。

翻译自: https://flaviocopes.com/independent/