This post is the second part of a series about my journey as an Independent AWS Cloud Architect.
Status
As I already told you in the first part, I started my own business in early January 2020.
After the first 6 months of being an Independent AWS Architect in France, I’m very happy with this move, no regret, and I don’t see any upcoming U-turn to come back as a full-time employee.
Today, I have the chance to work on large-scale projects with a broad impact. They mostly have a “purpose” (to me), as I’m working for a company that is driving renewable energy adoption worldwide. My mission is a long-term engagement (1 year + 1 year in option) with room for extra small engagements for other customers.
COVID-19 💉
During this difficult situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was confined to home like almost everyone on earth, with my wife (also working from home) and my three daughters 👸👸👸.
At the beginning, it was difficult to set up a new organization with the girls’ homework, meals, occupations, and the rise of numerous meetings that could be an email ;).
But after a few weeks, we found the proper schedule thanks to my wife Wonderwoman.
I have the chance to work for a large company during this period that let me continue my engagement naturally from home without any impact. I’m still cautious as this engagement could be cut quickly due to the current crisis and budget cuts 🤞.
The Good 👍
- Freedom:
- No more: manager (only customers), bi-annual reviews, endless HR discussions, asking authorization for whatever you need to get your job done.
- To choose your laptop setup, mobile phone, chair, desk, tooling,
high-technerd stuff (tax-free) for your business. - To be able to buy any training or books without asking anyone, to ramp up on some trending new tech.
- To choose my engagements, and say no to missions that are not relevant to your business.
- To select your business model: paid consulting, sell products, offer training, write books, place consultants, etc.
- My compensation is higher (by at least 20%) than in a full-time employee position at consulting firms.
- No more internal promotion races, competition between co-workers, or political aspects.
- Feeling outside of my comfort zone, which allows me to give even more to my customers.
- Lots of days off (5 to 9 weeks). This is a great work-life balance.
The Bad 👎
- You’ll have to justify every cent spent for your business. It’s normal but can be time-consuming, and you will need to be very precise and rigorous, keeping all receipts and invoices for later audits by the (French) administration.
- With proper automation and good tooling, I’m spending 2 hours a week on admin stuff, with a peak at the end of the month: invoicing & time-tracking period.
- As said before, during this difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IT professionals most at risk are freelancers, as we are the adjustment variable for customers; we need to be very careful.
The Ugly 🐵
- Time tracking is boring. I need to do this exercise at:
- Project Level: time tracking for projects I’m working on (by the hour): > 3 currently for a single customer.
- Customer Level:
- Global time tracking for my customer.
- Time tracking for the intermediate company, used for billing large companies to simplify internal procurement procedures.
- Track kilometers spent on the road.
About the loneliness
I don’t feel that lonely. In fact, not more than before. I’ve created a small Slack Workspace with some friends working on DevOps/AWS stuff, some of whom are freelance as well. I’ve also joined several well-known platforms with their own Slack to exchange and get feedback from other independent folks. I also participate in meetups and talk to DevOps friends regularly on Twitter.
Let me know if you have any questions regarding my journey as an Independent/Freelancer.
Interested in talking about automation and AWS security best practices? Hire me on zoph.io.
That’s all folks!
zoph.