Freelance Programming - Worth it or not
Rabbie13
Posts: 16
Hi peeps,
I work for myself as an independent custom installer (in Scotland, UK), mostly doing Home Entertainment System installs, i.e. residential.
Thing is, I do it part time at the moment and I'm not really earning as much as I'd hoped because I can only really devote evenings and weekends to it (not ideal for the big money making installs). Therefore, I have been thinking about other ways to grow the business, but also by working from home more. I visited a Consumer show recently and some AMX dudes told me that programming skills are in short supply, at least in the UK I think.
Just wanted to know if becoming a freelance programmer would be rewarding enough to merit the effort required in learning to program the kit.
My background is more in IT support so I guess the transition may not be too hard and I have already invested in an AMX Experience Kit and started the AMX Courses and it seems fairly simple so far.
However, is it worth continuing in my quest? What kind of salary can I expect?
Or will it promptly raise my chances of a stress related heart attack at a young age.....lol
Boab
I work for myself as an independent custom installer (in Scotland, UK), mostly doing Home Entertainment System installs, i.e. residential.
Thing is, I do it part time at the moment and I'm not really earning as much as I'd hoped because I can only really devote evenings and weekends to it (not ideal for the big money making installs). Therefore, I have been thinking about other ways to grow the business, but also by working from home more. I visited a Consumer show recently and some AMX dudes told me that programming skills are in short supply, at least in the UK I think.
Just wanted to know if becoming a freelance programmer would be rewarding enough to merit the effort required in learning to program the kit.
My background is more in IT support so I guess the transition may not be too hard and I have already invested in an AMX Experience Kit and started the AMX Courses and it seems fairly simple so far.
However, is it worth continuing in my quest? What kind of salary can I expect?
Or will it promptly raise my chances of a stress related heart attack at a young age.....lol
Boab
0
Comments
I do only commercial work for companies, government agencies, and schools. The IT background helps because you will usually be working with the IT department to get the control system equipment approved for connection to their networks.
From my point of view, the pay is as good as I had as a middle-level manager with a technical background in a large financial services company. For me the stress is much less because I am doing what I want to do, can work about half of the time at home, and can work hours other than 9-5 if I have something else to do.
When I started off with AMX, I was working for the financial services company and was a customer. I took the classes as a customer (so my company paid for them), and got to be friends with several people at both AMX and with our integrator. That helped a lot as I work mostly through the integrator as a subcontractor, and AMX will also provide my info to other customers of theirs who are looking for programmers. I became certified as an Installer, Designer, and Programmer, and have take the RMS class and plan on getting that certification as well.
What I have found is that the people who program for the integrators here as employees are also expected to do Cre$tron programming, project management, and bunches of other functions and do not get to work full time with AMX. By being independent, I get to focus on AMX and now have a good library of modules that I have written. I've found that you have to keep with it full time or you end up having to re-learn on a constant basis. I end up providing a mentoring service to the guys who are employees of the integrator in order to allow them to take up some of the maintenance load.
So, I do what I enjoy doing and don't really work under a lot of stress. I do travel quite a bit, but this is not a problem since the kids are grown. It did take a while to get used to keeping track of my time, billing the customers, and making sure that I got paid on time. Again, building a relationship with the operations manager at the integrator helped with this.
Now I have heard that the residential side of our business is a completely different animal. Corporate executives and IT departments can tend to be demanding, but they don't tend to call you up on Christmas eve complaining that their DVD player isn't working.
My advice is go for it if you enjoy it. And the most important thing is to build a relationship with an integrator who is short on programming help and can keep you busy.
I'm not sure about the needs out in the UK, but the freelance market (I'm guessing) is as competitive as the dealer market. I wouldn't expect to be rolling in the big bucks right after getting a certificate. I was also told that it boils down to getting the job finished on time, and for it to be in working order.
Mind you - this is all from a dealer-programmer's point of view, and though I said I would be comfortable making a move to freelance-programming after 7 years, I'd much rather jump into a company of 400+ employees and rated the #1 place to work for.
HAHA....Hmmmm
Wonder what company that would be???????????
You're kidding, right?
This is the most challenging programming I have ever encountered. (I love it!) I have a Computer Science degree and I've been programming since 1973.
Freelancing has all the rewards mentioned below but you are always "the contractor" so you get no respect whatsoever - work can disappear overnight, when they call it's because the project is already overdue, you don't get paid until they get paid, your work has to be perfect first time every time, every system fault looks like it's your fault.
So go for it only if you have a good level of experience in programming, AMX, quality control, and the business / project management side of things.
Prior to this life I was an independent music producer here in the US. I loved the work. I got paid well. I traveled a lot. I did it for over 20 years. I liked the fact that I was (somewhat) in control of my work schedule. The formula was very simple: Need more money? Work more hours. Need some time off? Get less money... but no one was going to fire me because I needed to take 2-3 weeks off.
However, I decided to leave it and go into semi-retirement. I'm a type-I diabetic. Consequently, I cannot get a private health insurance plan for any amount of money. My wife and I decided to try and have a baby. She was planning on staying home with the new child. So, we lost here health benefits and I (as I said) was unable to get a policy due to my self-employed status and diabetes.
In addition, the constant travel was not conducive to a good family life and being a good father.
Owning your own business has many advantages and disadvantages.
Here's a simple way to look at it at first. If you're the kind of person who doesn't mind taking risks, then it might be right for you. However, if you're the kind of person who values security, then I'd pass on it.
Hope that helps.
It is nice to get an insight into the lives of those that have already worked in the industry.
Maybe I should have mentioned that I already make a fairly decent living working for IBM (yep, big Blue), but I just hate the work. I have a complete passion for all things about creating the perfect digital environment, at home or in the workplace and working as an installer has given me the drive I haven't had for years.
I'm just not financially stable enough to make the jump full time, at the moment, but it is my plan.
Danny, your input was very encouraging.
Jeremiah, I am under no illusions that I can become a proffiecient programmer overnight. Although I am a very keen learner.
Mark, thanks for the reality check. I only meant the non-programming part was simple.....lol
and Eric, I think we are mirrored lives in seperate continents. I feel for you. Myself and my wife have been dogged by bad health for some ten years, just wishing to see the end to it all. In fact the move in career is one way that I am trying to make my life more enjoyable.
I thank you all again and I think from your comments the best advice will be to continue as I am, but focus on promoting the AMX kit to my customers. That will give me some scope on selectively choosing the complexity of the project as I learn the technology.
Then, maybe someday, after IBM have given me a big fat voluntary redundacy cheque, (as they tend to offload people about every 2 years) I'll have the backing and the skills to make a jump into AMX full time.
Ah, what a dreamer you might say, but that's me, always looking for something better to do.......
Anyway, if there are any others that would like to keep up this thread and blog a little about there experience, I would be very keen to here it.
Oh, and I will be starting to dog you guys a lot. I've a lot of kit that I paid good money for, so my first project will be to use it my own home, which is full of kit just begging for the AMX treatment. As am I.....lol
And by all means - do post your questions here on the board, ask as much as you can, and read as much as you can. Although not required it's recommended to do a "search" on the forums first before you post, you may just find the answer and more than what you were looking for. But - I know we'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have regardless.
Welcome to the club!
I'm guessing you haven't taken programmer I yet, just the bootcamp (designer/installer)?
Actually, I did the AMX Control Systems course at AMX UK in York.
It's an integrated course that includes Installer, Designer and Programmer 1. Kind of an alternative to doing the AMX Essentials and Programmer 1 courses on the AMX Learning Site. It was the only way I could do it in the UK.
I actually felt that the first day and a half was a little slow for me. I had learned as much just from reading AMX material and playing around with the kit and software for the past year or so.
However it got a little more interesting once we got into the programming part of the course, although again it only brushes on the basics.
I'll admit I am a novice when it comes to programming, as I took the networking support route after gaining my Computing Diploma. However, I wasn't too bad at programming back then (Pascal and COBOL, nothing like AMX), so I pick it up fairly fast.
I kinda wish I'd stuck to software design route through my career now as all my old college buddies that did Software Design are very well off now and I'm not....lol
I see everyone saying this stuff, I thought Programmer I and II were both fairly simple courses. Maybe its me. I've been waiting for AMX East to offer Programmer III and a TP Design 4 class for a while now.
For those independent programmers out there, I'm curious, how do you get into Freelance programming? I have a full time job during the day, so I would have to work on things nights and weekends, but I would be very interested in doing Freelance work. I live in Washington DC, where there is always new construction and new government work happening, but I don't really know where to start . . .
J
In my experience, most freelancing is in support of local branches of large organisations which do AV integration. They are certified at national level as AMX installers but they don't have a full time programmer locally.
Sometimes I work for endusers but it's a political nightmare. The AV integrators that they deal with are very uncooperative as they regard the freelancer as (a) competition for service revenue (b) introducing risk and uncertainty as to whether the system works - lots of fingerpointing (c) unhooking the client from their (secret) source code and therefore allowing them to shop around for gear.
I've been to AMX 3 times. They didn't call it Programmer III. It was more of an informal 4 day program in which we covered some advanced stuff with Peter. It was a great class. For some (like myself) that missed some elements of programmer II due to time constraints in the class, it was a chance to get a better explaination of things.
Most of us in the class were working on bigger systems. So, we also covered and discussed some areas that were specific to that. We also had what amounted to a gripe session.
As far as I know, they still do the class on occasion. if AMX is reading this, I'd be interested in coming again to catch up on what's going on.
ejm
Programmer 3 and TPD4 classes had been missing from the class schedule for too long. AMX University updated and released a TPD4 UI Design class this year, and will be offering that in the AMX East office in October. We also are planning a Programmer 3 in the East in December. Both classes are being scheduled at each AMX University location before the end of 2007. Specific dates are currently under review, but I anticipate posting the remaining 2007 schedule by the end of July. Please check the AMX University schedule at http://amx.com/training/lms/calendars/amxall.htm or visit http://amx.com/training/enter.lms.asp to register.
Your continued interest and support of AMX is appreciated!
Paul Bohnsack
Training Manager
AMX University
The money can be ok but in the end you are limited by the number of hours in a day. You can only charge so much an hour and after working for 12-14 hours a day you will reach a maximum of what you can make. Keep in mind that instead of having one boss telling you what to do each of your clients thinks that their job is the only thing important in your life. They don't care if their delays push your schedule into other jobs that you already had booked. They don't care if you are supposed to be done with a job on the 10th of the month and the construction delays have pushed the installation back so far that you didn't even get into the room until the 12th. The end user is looking at you like the whole delay is your fault because all of the other contractors are gone. And clients think it is their job to keep from paying you as long as humanly possible. So count on having a nice nest egg built up because it might be well over a month in between checks coming in.
Overall there are some advantages to working for yourself, but it takes a certain mentality and mindset to be able to handle it. Yes it is more risky so if you need security then don't even think about it.