
Ask HN: How did you escape your 9 to 5 job? - alharbi
I&#x27;m 26, single, and I work as a developer, I like the technical side of my job, the benefits of it, but I always see it as a temporary thing, and escaping the cube farm is a key for my ultimate happiness. Alongside my job, I tried some side projects, worked as a freelancer for a while, but never reached the point where I can quit, and recently I started losing my enthusiasm about the whole idea, but I&#x27;m still trying.<p>So I guess I&#x27;m interested to hear from those who were in the same boat that I am in right now, how did you escape your job? At what point in your career? And what are the risks and obstacles you have faced during your journey? Thanks.
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WestCoastJustin
Become a contractor and work remotely. Search patio11 comments / threads on HN
about it. This probably isn't something you do overnight, but create a plan,
and hopefully in a year or two you'll be in a place to make it happen.

Maybe check out the monthly who's hiring threads posted on HN too and see what
type of jobs are remote and what type of skills they are looking for. Adapt
your skill set to fit their needs. Working remote is probably the easiest way
to do what you are asking. Starting a company is many many time harder and
you'll be working 9am-9pm 7 days a week.

It's not like you really escape the 9-5 working remotely, but you just have
more flexibility with your time and location. You need to want it bad and be
self-motivated. Find a way or make one.

~~~
silentcylon
This is very much the case. You will have to put in more work to start so you
can expect flexibility in some spots but to ultimately be working more than
you would in a 9-5 job

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itamarst
There are multiple options, and which one you choose is heavily dependent on
your goals. And your goals will change over time.

I have done remote work, done consulting, worked less-than-full time as normal
employee... depends what you want:

1\. Freelance/consulting. This requires an additional set of skills, marketing
and sales.

2\. Create your own product. Even more emphasis on marketing, and another
whole set of skills.

3\. Early retirement. Reduce expenses as much as possible, invest proceeds.

4\. A good job. Depending on your goals this may be less-than-full-time, or
work from home, or remote work.

\---

A basic skill set you need to achieve any of these:

* Ability to work independently. If you need to be told exactly what to do at work none of the above are feasible except maybe early retirement. Beyond that, in demand valuable skills.

* Savings in the bank. If you are living paycheck to paycheck you have no negotiating ability.

* Negotiation skills, so you can negotiate what you need.

I'm working on a book on the subject, which isn't ready yet, but here's an
excerpt: [https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/16/sane-
workweek/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/16/sane-workweek/)

------
silentcylon
Hi I am 25 years old and quit my job about a year ago started doing freelance
work and starting my own company. I too saw my job as temporary so I decided
to take my work life (most of our lives if you think about it) into my own
hands. I think pulling that trigger gave me motivation and forced me to push
myself much further than I would have ever been pushed in my old job.

A couple things I would recommend, do your research first and have a decent
Idea of what you want to do after leaving. Think about how you are going to
make it work and understand things may be slow in the beginning. I recommend
having atleast a years worth of money saved up and expect to burn through a
good portion of that before money starts flowing in regularly.

I worked my ass of for the first year and am still doing so. There have been
frustrating times and epic times but each time I remember I wouldn't trade my
decision and the experience for anything else.

I am now starting to build a freelance development firm and feel very
confident about doing so because of what I have learned since quitting my job.

If you are a highly motivated person. I do recommend going out on your own at
some point in your career.

~~~
existencebox
So the canonical question in these sorts of situations is "how do you build
your client base" and the canonical answer is "network, talk to past
coworkers/bosses."

That being said, as someone a bit older than you and hoping to follow your
same path, I've utterly failed at building a sufficient network to go
freelance, and I'm amazed that you've managed to accomplish this so quickly.
Do you have any tips for someone floundering in that part of the process? (I
have lots of friendly ex-coworkers, but only one or two in the position or
with the resources to actually spend money on me, most working for bigCos that
already hire out contract work primarily to large agencies)

~~~
silentcylon
Lately I have been finding that is the most common question I receive.

To start I do a fair amount of networking from friends, past co-workers, CEOS
I have worked for and so on. This part is continuous and you can reasonably
expect to be doing it for as long as you are working.

I advertise with a website and my vision to almost everyone, even though they
may not be in the position to hire me, they may come across someone who is and
remember that they met an enthusiastic contractor who they know could do the
work. This will pay off long term as people will start contacting you.

Lay down a vision for yourself and for your services. Where do you see
contracting taking you? What can you provide to companies? Do you want to grow
into a team of contractors? Do you want to only contract alone? What kind of
contracting will you focus on to start, and what kind will you do further down
your road map? These questions will help you strive to your long term goals
and help you be more targeted in your short term goals. When you get going,
don't forget to take time, take one day off from work and dedicate it to
reflect on these questions and re-paint the picture so that it stays up to
date with you and your goals.

Target one customer at a time to start. If you can live off of one small
contract job, do it and do it well. References and Quotes are everything to
start. These will help you land new customers and will become proof points. It
also grows your network by large margins!

Be patient, it is expected to take a long time and a lot of effort to grow a
network. I have met and worked with people that have spent their whole lives
building their networks where most of their work is still focusing on that
network.

I found it helpful to find a friend or co-worker that shares in your vision
and is willing to share the journey with you side by side. This has not only
validated decisions but kept me from losing enthusiasm too.

A good many things have lined up for me so far. It has helped that I know a
few people in the recruiting industry and I have been able to gain insight
from them about jobs around the country and how they work with customers and
what customers are looking for. The job I left also has provided some
opportunities for work as a co-worker of mine and me were valuable to the
company and they wanted more work from us post leaving. The other option is to
of course join a starting firm that is just starting out and enjoy doing the
contract work with them and for their customers. Maybe its 1099 work maybe its
W2 work but remember that if you take this option, learn as much as you
possibly can from them and when you are feeling confident, take it on
yourself.

~~~
existencebox
Significantly more actionable of a braindump than many prior answers I've
seen, thank you for the motivation and direction to push harder on this :)

~~~
silentcylon
No problem, I hope it helps and motivates you! Love to see developers take it
upon themselves.

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Jemmeh
One potential path is to gain FI, then you can do whatever you want. It can
happen pretty fast on a dev's income.

My current favorite early retirement blog:
[http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/)

~~~
flaviuspopan
FI: Financial Independence

~~~
pitaj
Thank you!

------
codegeek
I wanted to escape the usual 9-5 for a long time but never got to finish a
side project from scratch even though my /projects folder had many unfinished
ones.

So I changed strategy and started looking for an existing side project that
was bringing in at least some revenue (to prove customer and market
validation). I found one such gem and bought it (thanks to some savings I had)

Since then, I have not looked back and now finally trying to actually work on
my own new project that I am building from scratch. I am a lot wiser now so I
know what to focus on :)

~~~
fspear
Can you share any resources about how to buy/where to find existing side
projects that are profitable or at least have potential to be profitable?

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jventura
It may not fit your case, but I quit from a previous job on a startup and I'm
now teaching web and mobile development in a local technical university. Some
people do not like to teach other people, but I like it mostly because it
forces me to think things throughly, and I learn a lot about the inner details
of things..

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acucciniello
Well, I think that the most important question you need to as yourself is why
do you want to be free from the cube? Unfortunately, happiness might not be
enough of a motive. Getting free would talk you plenty of work, giving up some
fun things you do right now for the possibility of a great future. The problem
here is if you WHY is not strong enough, it will be easy to give up and not
complete the small actions you need to complete daily to stick to your goal.
Once you have your why strong enough ( usually, this means that it's for a
greater cause than just benefiting yourself) then you can focus on the
strategy to get you there.

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zhte415
Asked for regular hour contract with flexible hours wherever I go.

My first employer did this: Core hours were 10am to 2pm, and everything around
that could be scheduled at the discretion of manager and employee.

Just carried that as a habit and example. As a people manager, lead by
example. I've gone back to individual contributer so some days don't visit the
office. Don't need to make the distinction of work at home vs. work in office,
make it a bond on deliverables between yourself and your employer.

That doesn't not mean working until midnight or later because a deadline is
imminent and I need to get the PPT perfect, but that's more a personal choice
on quality.

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bbcbasic
Just do it.

Can you save up $5k? Then you can live for a year in some parts of the world
and work remotely :-).

If you fail, you would have traveled at least.

~~~
flaviuspopan
$5K seems immensely optimistic for a year, even if you exclude airfare. Do you
have any links/blogs where people were able to pull that off?

~~~
DebasishPanda
Yes one can live with US $5k in a small city in India for a year, but not
including the air fair to get here.

~~~
redmaple
unless you're planning on living near poverty levels, to recreate US lifestyle
in India you will need min. $1k/month (INR 70k).

~~~
rtcoms
I live in Bangalore spending Rs 20k a month. I live in 1 BHK with my wife and
give Rs 10k in rent. Other expanses are around 10k or less.

One can have lavish lifestyle in Rs. 70k per month.

If you see yearly expanses , It will come at around $5000 , equivalent to Rs
350000

