Freelance Engineering or Freelance through the eyes of a design engineer

    So Tuesday comes and maybe someone is ready to land in the office chair next to the messy colleagues and dream about how to stop working for an uncle and start living ... and become a free mason, so to speak. This will be discussed in this article. True, this time we look at freelance through the eyes of a person more remote from the IT industry.

    Internet technologies are gradually and inexorably entering our lives, and judging by my top secret data, more and more engineers not directly related to the IT industry are becoming avid readers of Habr. Therefore, I decided to briefly share my little experience of freelancing, since the author of the article in his “hungry” youth hacked as a “web master of all trades”, along the way I will make some comparisons of the specifics of the activity, and I will certainly tell you what awaits the novice engineers on the freelance field.

    I don’t really like to write articles that are not reasonable, kind, eternal, and I promise to write in the near future something related to science and technology, but for now, if a respected reader is interested in what it would be like to be a design engineer in freelance, I ask for a cut.

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    So, since there is no absolutely correct judgment in the world, so that you can imagine and try on yourself what I will tell you about the initial data.

    "Given"

    1) In the past, the Web Master was a self-taught person with an “extravagant” concept of design and not very straightforward hands in terms of processing graphics, he worked on the turnkey basis of creating sites, did something better, something worse, but as a rule everything was very budgetary. Relevance of information 3-5 years ago. Then he surrounded himself and abandoned it.
    2) The current engineer is a designer of low-current building security systems and, to a lesser extent, electrics.
    In both cases, freelance was not considered as the only source of income, but rather as a way to temporarily turn over or earn extra money.

    Now we turn to a direct description of the process and small comparisons.

    "Come on in, hurry up, buy kalachi ..."

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    Where does a beginner freelancer start? Most likely, from a trip to the freelance exchange.
    The main domestic exchanges we have are those in the name that have free and lance where it is merged, where through a dash. And if an IT specialist, in addition to these exchanges, can still try his luck on smaller platforms or even on sites from a hub, then for a designer a maximum of three leaders will be closed by proektanti.ru, everything else is almost complete shack.
    So the first thing a novice freelance designer will have to deal with is a shortage of orders. By the way, if you can’t buy a premium account at the two exchanges named free and lance, then you may not see orders at all, so be prepared to invest right away. On the proektanti.ru exchange, in my opinion, there is no premium account at all, but there you will probably be killed by "experienced uncles" and it will also not be easy for a newcomer to get the desired order.
    It should also be noted that such a seasonal phenomenon as a student cessation of sessions, then orders for term papers, diplomas, etc. appear on the market. Here the competition is lower because students and their teachers are unpredictable people and self-respecting specialists usually do not consider this market.

    "Do you remember how it all started"

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    I'll start with the general between IT and freelance engineering, even if you own at least the very basics of any specialization, still be prepared to feel like a guest worker. As my practice and the practice of my friends have shown. Confidence often comes gradually and at first people are possibly even less skilled than you, but more ardent ones will intercept your orders from under your nose.

    At the same time, open dumping will not be a guarantee that you will receive a project, it is likely that it will be received by someone more self-confident, albeit with big financial requests. Thus, you will probably take up any work just to feel the taste of the won tender. One of the most draft and more or less regularly appearing works is the digitization of drawings. Moreover, since both students and uncles with a large portfolio do not disdain this work, there is a possibility that by the 17th minute from the moment the project is opened, 24 applications will be submitted. Here, in case of victory, it is quite appropriate to feel like a happy sperm.
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    I don’t know how it is now, but in my experience, I can say that there are many times more orders for developing websites, writing scripts, typesetting, promoting, content, writing programs, consultations and so on. I just checked now at 02:41 Moscow time, on one of the major freelance exchanges there are already new orders for WEB and IT, and there are more than 5 in each of the areas, no new orders have yet appeared in engineering.
    Separately, I want to note, I'm not talking about the fact that in the IT sphere orders are better or worse, there are plenty of bad orders everywhere, just in IT there are more of them than in engineering (even if we consider engineering + architecture in conjunction).

    “He left only his card ...”

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    Portfolio Oddly enough, I noticed that for an engineer a portfolio is far less important than for example all the same webmasters. I remember how I am every govnosaytic, and carefully kept every little thing in my portfolio, it was swollen and brought me quantitative preferences. Apparently, after gaining some critical mass, even if it was of poor quality, the level of trust in me increased.
    But in engineering, it turned out to be enough for me to place a couple of screenshots for those specializations that I did, just so that people would know that I was doing this. Moreover, from my own experience on the part of the customer I’ll say that a couple of screenshots of drawings are also enough for me, and a person with a bunch of 3D pictures in a portfolio and a bunch of projects like “here I made a specification”, and “here I made a cable magazine” will not have significant preferences for a person who has only a couple of screenshots of thematic projects in his portfolio.

    “The First Kiss: Fears, Questions, Advice and Exchange of Experience”

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    So here came a happy moment when the first project fell into your hands and then you will be surprised: “How is it that I have been drawing some heresy for 200 rubles for 8 hours, but in the end I still get comments?” And the worst thing is that if at one moment you kick back, then the customer is not particularly scared, because there are few projects, and there are a lot of rough workers. And since an advance of 100 rubles was ridiculous to ask, you can even draw your 8 hours for free.
    In general, the “sandwich man” gets more for his work.
    The same applies to other common specialties, for example, a low-current project costs more than digitization because it is still an activity requiring some knowledge, but again there are many competitors and everything said above is successfully extrapolated.

    Then I remembered only the first order, this does not mean that all your orders will not be profitable, it is quite possible to catch on a good order, then get connections and generally no longer climb onto the exchange. It’s just possible that the FIRST order will be flawed in all respects, because there is a possibility that you will want at least some order to gain confidence. And he really will be "somehow"

    “And I will go to work as a locust”


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    In the last paragraph we touched on the subject of specialization. I’ll say what I see purely in engineering (excluding architecture and designs). The hierarchy of prestige of honor and earnings, in ascending order.

    In the comments, amarao also reminded me of electronics, there are not many orders for electronics on the sites listed above, they are usually either from students or from people with low incomes, so labor often is higher than profitability.

    1 Without specialization.
    2. Student assistance, uncomplicated electronics
    3. Weakness in terms of OPS, ACS, SCS, SVN, etc.
    4. Automation engineering and Fire extinguishing automation also estimates for SS
    5. Electrics, electric lighting and air conditioning, as well as estimates for other sections (about the same place in the rating of AR and KR and metallic structures).
    6 Hydraulics (heating, water supply), surveying.
    7 Rare specializations, for example RPA and TM and other projects of high complexity.

    This rating is made by eye, but in principle the alignment is really such that a good hydraulic will get more than an automatic machine, and that one will receive more than a clean low-current one. Moreover, electrics and hydraulics are quite in demand, so if you own them you can safely try your luck at freelance.

    "Going through the agony"

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    The main problems of freelance in other areas are also relevant for the design of engineers.

    Inadequate customers, labor-intensive and low-paying projects, constantly arising customer wishes, cancellation of initiated or almost agreed projects, elementary kidalovo. Vaccinations are the same as for everyone: clear TZ, advance payment, do not take on anything.
    Another problem can be called low customer return.
    If you wrote a person a code, a database, a website, drew a logo, it is likely that he will come back to you simply because he is too lazy. The situation with the engineer in this regard is worse, partly because most customers can independently master your activity, for example, an electrician can get a well-executed project from you once and then replicate it from apartment to apartment, replacing machines and placing outlets. Still, people who, after receiving the logo, will not be able to correct it beautifully or having received the site, will not be able to install the module for the CMS without burying everything for substantially more.

    Summary

    In my opinion, freelance in the field of engineering design is good only in two cases.
    If you are a super specialist and already have a certain client base, or if you consider freelance as a training session before starting your own business, because without licenses and access to SROs, you will most likely be 2 or 3 or even 4 in the intermediary chain , respectively, funding will be minimal, and the number of people making claims significant.

    Therefore, think about the same simple draftsman or specialist of a low level, as a freelancer can simply die of starvation. In this case, working for an uncle will be much more profitable, and freelance should be seen more as a way to learn something and not get bored.

    Just in case, I’ll say again everything written above that is only my experience and the experience of my colleagues, other people may have a different experience. In fairness, I’m telling you that after a large number of crowded cones, freelance became an income-generating hobby, but in the first 4 months it brought only moral and material losses, so I suggest thinking about whether it’s good where we are not and whether it’s worth dreaming about Draw schemas on beaches under palm trees.

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