Well, I'm not really turned off, just overwhelmed. The unrealistic part of me wanted everyone to say it's easy as pie and I could do it with just a year of VFP. The realistic part of me is now laughing and saying "I told you so!"

Telecommuting would be the key to me. I'm good at working without a boss looking over my shoulder, and really prefer it that way. I'll admit to spending a bit more time on the thread when he's not around, but the work gets done and I've learned a lot of helpful things on here.

I guess I'm just the opposite of you. I don't want to travel, and I prefer long-term contracts. What I really like is the idea of taking on a whole project and making it into something. Programming is like art to me. Sometimes like playing God. You get to create something new that didn't exist before. This can be a good attitude, and it can be bad. I guess it depends on the client.

4 months off a year sounds nice, but I'd probably end up doing a project of some sort in that time. I've become too addicted to programming.

Thanks,

-Michelle


>I really didn't mean to turn you off to the idea...just honest about how it has been in my life. There are opportunities everywhere (I'm sure even including La Crosse) and you can do a lot by telecommuting. Many contractors I know work local, I'm one of the few who like the travel and choose short-term contracts around the country. Just like developers, there are many different personalities of management style. I came off of one contract where the client was over my shoulder the entire time and most of what I was doing was debugging legacy code. My current client has allowed me to learn as I develop and, within a basic framework, I have almost total freedom in how I approach my project. You really won't know until you try. If you want to learn the most, become the best and be in better control of your financial viability, then you should definately try it. Did I mention that I usually take about four months off a year and play?
>
>Don't rely on just me and John...there are many different breeds of contractors and you should wait to hear what they have to say...
>
>Renoir