

Work for my project or join a company? - desushil

I want to know that what was your age when you first started earning from this field?<p>I have been working with Php/MySql/WordPress for a while now, may be like a year. I am an student, so I don't have alot of time, but I have enough free time to do a job too. Do you guys think I should join a company which offers me some money for what I do for them, or should I keep on working on my own as freelancer?
======
VuongN
I completely agree with arkitaip. Focus on school and forget about money for
now. What you want to do is spend half your free time learning new (web)
technologies AND the other half formulating "dreams."

You're in school so you can afford to dream bigger and thrive to solve bigger
problems. Learn to be a great person, not a mediocre developer. Learn how to
think and everything else will follow.

If you want to run your own startup some day, then you should start today.
Find a problem that interests you now and look for ways to solve it in your
own way. Domain names are cheap, hosting is also cheap, work on a project for
yourself.

Also, try to refine your development process, php is fine, but you must
combine it with patterns such as MVC. Build a cheap computer and create your
own development server. Learn Python/Django or Ruby/RoR and more (NodeJS
etc.). Host your own version control system (Git, Hg etc.).

Young one, you need to learn to be a hardcore dreamer and level up like mad.

I've been doing web for 10 years and every time I look back, I always think
that I learned more this year than many years before combined. Every project I
worked on, I always think that I've learned more from it than many before
combined. I am 28 now, but I am forever searching and learning.

Good luck and always, stay a hard core learner!

------
arkitaip
Prioritize school, especially since you are freelancing and not doing a
startup.

People generally choose freelance work over employment because it means (1)
more freedom, empowerment and power over their work and life (2) more money.
If you get a job that offers you equal or acceptable levels of (1) and (2), go
for the job. If you get the same amount of money, you need to decide how
importance (1) is for you. If you by any chance happen to get the amount of
(1) but less money, you need to think about how passionate you are about your
work and how less money will affect your daily life.

Now, maybe you're really ambitious and still want some of the benefits of
employment. If that's the case, get the job but make it clear that you will
continue to do freelance work on the side, maybe during nights and weekends.
The nice thing about this is that you keep building your portfolio, incredibly
important for freelancers, and can pick projects and technology stacks that
interests you.

------
desushil
Thank you guys for awesome suggestions. I really loved it.

------
desushil
Note: I am thinking of building my own startup some day.

