IndieRails Podcast Interview
I joined Jeremy Smith and Jess Brown on the IndieRails podcast to talk about how I managed the transition from stained-glass master to freelance software engineer.
Here are my notes:
The importance of a well-crafted pitch
I already wrote about the differences between my story and my history – or how I had crafted a pitch to present my convoluted professional path – but it bears repeating the benefits of a pitch:
- It allows the people you talk to to verify you’re not a complete fluke.
- It hooks your audience and gets out of the way quickly so you can focus on what makes you a great hire / freelancer.
- It filters out the clients/teams with which you’re not compatible: mindset, values, etc.
The pitch came from a place of being tired of faking a competency in software engineering I did not have at the time (circa 2018). So, in a sense, it was a way to own my story and to celebrate what I had learned in the previous 10 years of my professional life.
It’s also a great punchline – from stained-glass master to software engineer sticks in the brain and you become memorable.
The value of transferable skills
My first work in tech – as part of a tech start-up marketing team – was due to my ability to convey complex topics to average people. Namely, I worked with an agricultural professional syndicate to explain the PAC through drawings and infographics. This specific experience, quite far from tech, got me through a door which later led to becoming a programmer.
Software engineering is a lot like this:
- You take a complex set of problems that you need to intimately understand.
- You organise and explain them to shareholders / clients.
- You translate these into specifications then into code.
My first piece of writing – tech wise – was about APIs. I wrote it, while being a marketer, mostly because the CTO of my then-employer had started his explanation with these very words:
An API is a contract.
An explanation that had left me more confused than ever.
Throughout all my various careers, I acquired a lot of skills I now transpose to building software.
Writing is learning
Ever since I started learning programming, I have written about my learnings. It’s scary to show the world what you (don’t) know – or a slice of that, to be honest – but it also shows an appreciation for learning and contributing to the community.
Most problems we tackle as software engineers are not that uncommon. So writing about our findings allows other developers to solve the same problems faster.
Using my website as a worry stone is a good way to convey the care I take in my practice. It helps me refine my craft, whether it takes shape as words, page layouts or illustrations. Writing is also a great way for me to properly store what I learn in my brain.
All in all, my writing has opened more doors than it has closed.
Reflecting on my first freelancing gig
In a previous post, I briefly touched on my first experience as a freelancer, some 15 years ago. Jess’ question about this part of my life was a great way to do a bit of a retrospective on it. What changed between then and now is mostly that I became an all-round better human. Sure, I added a few processes to my freelancing practice, but the game changer was simply growing and learning as a person. Less maturity issues.
We should learn to share more publicly the things that are wrong or imperfect. Serving clients is not always about being perfect, but about learning how to do it. Focus on building a good attitude on top of a good skill set, and you’ll love working for yourself. Shift the focus from the end goal to the daily practice.
We talked about so much more: finding support as a freelancer, decoupling value from time billed, trying to build a first small-scale product just for fun, etc.
Thank you so much to Jeremy and Jess for having me on the pod. It was a blast!
Cheers,
Rémi - @remi@ruby.social