Becoming An Independent Consultant
After one year of a working with an amazing team and a great company at TrackAbout (well, 361 days. 4 days shy of a year), I am moving on. Starting on Monday, November 15th, I will be a self-employed consultant!
My First Gig: Learning Ruby On Rails, Full Time
The on-ramp to my new career is the contract that I’m taking which will land me square in the middle of full time Ruby on Rails development. I’ll be joining my former TrackAbout coworker and former LosTechies member, Joey Beninghove, working for the same client on the same project. I’m honored to be working with Joey again and to be given the opportunity to spend the first significant portion of my consulting career in Ruby on Rails.
No, I’m Not Abandoning .NET
Yes it’s true that I have issue with certain things in .NET and I am excited to be moving into full time RoR work. But don’t lump me in with the other ‘abandon ship!’ people, just yet.
I have no intention of leaving behind the technologies that have supported my career so well, for the last 8 years. My plans for the future as a consultant include a fair amount of .NET work for many reasons, including the market in central Texas. I will continue to work on Albacore and other open source projects in .NET and I am likely to have various jaunts back into paying .NET work.
I am recognizing that I have a desire to be more than just a .NET developer, though, and I am doing something about it. Anyone that has followed me on this blog or twitter for the last year has seen the work I’ve done with Ruby and how I’ve learned more about what I’m doing with .NET by exploring that language. I hope to continue my learning and growth in more than just Ruby and I know that everything I do will serve to strengthen my abilities in any language I am working with.
My intention is to become a developer that actually can use the right tool for the job, instead of just say it and stick with .NET and a side of Ruby now and then.
Living The Dream
Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into a waking nightmare. 🙂
As with anything new, I’m scared out of my mind at the moment. I’m sure there are going to be rough times ahead, but I have great expectations at the same time. I’ve been told time and time again, over the last 5 years or more, that I should go independent. I’ve finally made the move and I’m excited about the possibilities and what the future holds for me.
A New Company Name And More, Later
I’m in the process of reviving my old LLC, AvocadoSoftware. But I’m also working on a new company name and will be renaming AvocadoSoftware at some point in the near future. I’ll make some general announcements about that stuff as things happen. One of the benefits of having a contract in hand as I start this journey, though, is not having to fret too much about those details at first. I can take my time to get things set up right and move forward as I need to.
P.S. – I promise not to spam the LosTechies readers with my company or blatant marketing. You may see me mention something now and then but I’ll have a separate blog for that, soon. I do expect to continue blogging here at LosTechies, though, continuing to talk about the tools and technology that I am learning.