
Ask HN: How do you feel about the future prospects of Rust? - AsyncAwait
I am currently a freelancer working across many domains, from web to Big Data analysis, using a wide range of languages and frameworks.<p>The problem is that am not really feeling passionate about any of them; they do the job, but they do not really excite me to the point of wanting to learn in depth about any of them.<p>As a result I am the &#x27;jack of all trades and master of none&#x27; type right now, but for some time now, (~2yrs), I have been programming in Rust in my spare time and I really enjoy it. Solving problems is faster for me, because I actually enjoy the language I am writing in, which wasn&#x27;t the case much before.<p>Now, I&#x27;ve been expecting this to pass after a few weeks when the novelty wears off, but the reality is I actually enjoy it even more now that I have some level of mastery of Rust.<p>The problem is, my work is keeping me busy, which prevented me to take a more active role in recent months and as a result I feel that I am slowly loosing the pulse of the community and my Rust skill set is eroding as new libraries and RFCs are adopted that I haven&#x27;t had a chance to work with.<p>As a result, I&#x27;ve been thinking recently of specialising more and tailoring my freelance business more towards Rust consulting specifically, so that I can spend more time writing it.<p>Trouble is, I don&#x27;t really have much of a pulse on the Valley scene and given that they&#x27;re usually the ones dictating tech trends, I am interested in HN&#x27;s take on whether Rust would be a &#x27;safe bet&#x27; for a freelance consultant in the near future.<p>I want to be early to the market, as I want to build a reputation as one of the original consultants to go to for Rust work, but am not sure about the timing; i.e. do it now or wait a couple of years, see how it develops, but be later to the game as a result?<p>I don&#x27;t plan an immediate switch, but rather a gradual pivot over the next year or so, but would like to start doing preparations now, so I would like HN&#x27;s opinion on this.<p>Thanks.
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steveklabnik
I won't comment on Rust's future, as I am quite biased ;)

There is already one Rust-oriented consultancy:
[http://integer32.com/](http://integer32.com/) and a few people that have done
contracting/freelancing a bit. Overall, we're still generally seeing people
add Rust to their existing teams' repertoire rather than hiring Rust engineers
specifically.

But it's all moving quite fast; [https://www.rust-lang.org/en-
US/friends.html](https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/friends.html) started less
than a year ago with five or six names, look at it now!

