>I recently became a contracter, telecommuting from home.

Congratulations!

>It was _hell_ finding work, even though I'm an experienced C++ and VFP programmer and technical writer. I sent out 42 resumes to local (Central California area) businesses. I got about five calls, none of which amounted to anything.

Ok, this is _not_ a confidence-building approach.

>When I finally did get work, it was from contacts I already knew. But it only takes a couple. If you do a great job (which goes without question for you and me, of course:), one client will tell her friends and associates about you. You do good work for them, they tell more, and so on exponentially.


I don't have any local contacts, but I know a lot of people from the net. And who knows what will happen the next 5 years.

>At least that's how it's beginning to seem now. After a couple of months of sheer terror, I finally have to start turning down projects. Whew! :)

Wow... I'm glad it's working out for you.

>VFP is a good skill to have, I think. No, there's not as much call for it as VB. But there's less competition, too.

That's true. One thing I'm learning from the UT is where VFP is better than VB. So if I needed to, I'd have a good chance of being able to justify it to a client who wasn't sure.

>One good way to slide into this is to start contracting for your current employer. Odds are, they'd go for that, rather than lose you altogether.


That's an interesting possibility. There's also the possibility that he'd let me telecommute, which might mean staying on regular. What I'm worried about is that we only have one product. While I realize that software is never done, I think it's going to reach a point where he can't justify keeping a full-time person working on it. At that point, maybe contracting would work out.

>If you're going to dive into the contracting world, be prepared for a dry spell. Ideally, have six months' income in liquid assets to tide you over. Make friends. Be nice. Don't argue (like I do). :)

I like making friends. I'm too shy to do much of that IRL, but I get along great with people online. The nice thing about being married (well, one of them) is that I have a husband with a job to tide me over. :)

Thanks,

-Michelle