Freelancer vs. Employee as a Web Developer
In today’s economy, (web) developers are sought after like water on Tatooine. There is a lot of us out there and even more, people jump on the train, switching careers from jobs like barista or chef, but the demand of the market does not seem to get satiated any time soon. That puts us developers in a comfortable position to choose what type of work we want to pursue and how we live our life. Anything from a super personal startup environment in the heart of Berlin, playing foosball (we Germans call it Tischkicker) in lunch breaks to working as a freelancer remotely for a company in California and traveling the world is possible — at least if you’re good at what you’re doing! Let’s have a look at the reality in today’s development industry and help you decide what mode of work you want to choose.
My story as a developer
To give you a little bit of background information and some credibility for the ability to judge about this topic, I’ll go over my history as a (web) developer briefly.
Originally, I studied business administration at University but dropped out after a couple of semesters (luckily). I got into web development to build my own projects and liked it. Also, I built up a small client base in my hometown to do basic websites. After some time, it was time to move to a real job, given that my projects weren’t taking off as planned. I sent out a couple of applications in the form of sample websites (hint: if you are looking for a web development job and you are new in the industry, this is a great way to convince potential employers). I got hired at a small web development agency and stayed there…
…for a full 3 months. Working for somebody else really wasn’t anything I could do for a longer period of time. I moved back and started working on my own projects again. The problem was: life costs money. There must be a way to earn money without selling your soul to an employer. I started looking on major freelancing platforms and quickly found a gig for a 2-man startup. I started working there and things were going pretty smoothly. Eventually, I became co-founder and we moved to Berlin, where we hired a bunch of people and I tried to build a team as CTO. After some time and something that you could probably label as a minor burn-out, I left the startup and took some time off.
After a 2-month hiatus, I joined Ironhack Berlin as a Lead Instructor for one Bootcamp, officially as an employee (I later came back for 2 weeks as a freelancer). I hired 2 of my students and I tried to build a small agency/startup factory myself, but here again, things were a bit complicated and I moved on.
Then last year, I worked as a freelancer for the Hasso-Plattner-Institut (4 days remote, 1 day on-site), as well as a company from California (fully remote), which is my ongoing commitment.
In addition to that, I still have 2 side projects that I work on, feel free to check them out and give me some feedback:
Work as a freelancer
Even though I worked in different companies as an employee, I would consider myself more as a freelancer nowadays, also in terms of work that I am looking for. As a freelancer, you are fully responsible to find work and you are subject to the market’s fluctuations — meaning if there is a recession and companies are stricter on budgets, freelancers are mostly the first ones to feel that effect and it will be harder to find new gigs.
Finding Work
Finding gigs — independent of the market situation — can be a bit tricky and also tedious work. There are mainly two ways of finding work as a freelancer:
- You build up your client network and try to get recurring gigs from those.
- You sign up for one of the freelancing platforms that provide jobs for you (see below for links).
Once you find a gig, it can vary quite a lot. You might end up doing hourly work, e.g. fixing some part of a website/web-app/server or you can find a job where you have an ongoing full-time commitment and get paid on a daily basis. Everything is possible and it mostly depends on the client. In case you go with option 1, you will most likely be able to influence the engagement mode a little bit since you have a more personal relationship with the client. With option 2, you will usually go with what the platform and the client expects.
Finding a job will be heavily dependent on your skillset. A client won’t spend much time and pay you to learn a certain skill. For example, if you don’t know about React.js and a company needs a React.js developer, they won’t get you on board, whereas being employed might be different.
You are very much responsible to deliver a good job as well. It won’t take clients too long to fire you. This relates a lot to getting a job that matches your skillset. The reason is there is no attachment to the company. The company usually gets freelancers onboard because they need help for a short period of time (there are exceptions) and there is not enough manpower in the company itself. Therefore, the company needs somebody who can do the job quickly and well.
Being a freelancer is a simple equation: work(time) in exchange for money. There are no other strings attached and if the exchange doesn’t work out for either side (client/freelancer), the engagement ends. If you have this in mind, freelancing can be great and gives you a lot of freedom! There is nobody that holds you responsible for taking part in team-building events or expects you to work on the weekend unless you’re getting paid for it of course.
Platforms to find work as a freelancer
- Toptal: I started my first Toptal project about half a year ago and I am pretty happy with it. It is obvious that they take some margin of your work, but the process is very smooth and there is tons of jobs worldwide. Use this link to join Toptal, we will both get a little bonus :)
- Malt: Is available in Germany, France and probably a couple of other European countries. I didn’t work through Malt yet, but it looks very promising and it seems that they are serious about establishing the platform in Europe.
- Fiverr / Upwork: I can only recommend these for starting out. There is a lot of competition going on and compensation is probably not the best.
Work as an employee
Maybe I gave off a slightly negative view of being an employee, only lasting 3 months in my first job. In recent months, I started re-evaluating being an employee, once you have a job that you like, you can relax a little bit more and settle in!
Being an employee means you are an asset (hopefully) for the company you work for. Your employer will spend a lot of time and money to get you to a point where you work efficiently and effectively for the company. Sometimes, companies hire junior developers, knowing that it will take at least 6 months of training until the developer actually starts to output work that justifies the money being spent on him/her.
Another big part of being an employee is being part of a culture and a team. You become friends with your co-workers and you spend a lot of time with them, probably more than with your partner. If everything goes well, this is a big plus. If not, you dread going to work and you wish to change jobs maybe. It definitely requires you to be more open to other people that work on the same project and nurture these relationships.
Companies have long-term goals — employees are there to help achieve these goals, so you probably end up working on one thing for a longer period of time. Once you achieve that goal, it can be very gratifying. Have a look at this video of the Falcon Heavy Launch, being celebrated by SpaceX employees. Being part of something bigger can definitely be great when it comes to achieving milestones and successes.
Finding a mentor
We are constantly learning new things and improve our skills. Having somebody who shows us certain things and guides us as we grow — a mentor — can be very helpful. As a freelancer, it is possible to find mentors as well, but as an employee in a company, it will happen naturally. If you don’t know a solution to a certain problem, you will go and ask a colleague in your team or company.
Finding a full-time job
There are tons of places to find full-time jobs as a developer. As mentioned earlier, people in the industry are in high demand and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change soon. Here are a couple of examples:
- LinkedIn — You can find a lot of headhunters and HR people trying to find the best talent. Start connecting with others and reach out to them. If you want to connect with me, here’s a link to my LinkedIn Profile. Feel free to send me a request.
- Honeypot — I used it back when I was hiring some developers as CTO. It seems like the process is thought through and a good amount of companies are hiring through the platform.
- Talent.io — Never used it myself, but heard good things about it. Feel free to try it out.
- Glassdoor / Indeed / Monster — Traditional job platforms, have a look and maybe you’ll find something.
Financials
At first sight, freelancing might look like the more lucrative options. Normal rates probably end up being around $70–$120 (depending on location). More or less than that is also not uncommon. It really depends on your experience, skillset and your ability to market yourself.
When you calculate the hourly rate for a whole month, you will think “Holy cow, this is quite something”, so you might be inclined to start finding work as a freelancer. But not so fast, you forgot about some stuff:
- Employment Gaps — In case you are a freelancer, chances are you aren’t working every day of the week for a whole year. Sometimes, a contract ends abruptly or there is no great gig available for a couple of days/weeks.
- Vacation / Sick leave — These are usually included in your salary as an employee. That means if you get sick or you want to go on vacation, you will usually receive the same salary as when you are working. When you are a freelancer, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.
- Taxes — The company does not pay taxes for you when you are a freelancer, so you have to manage everything yourself. That includes saving some of the money you make until the government collects it. In most countries, taxes are directly deducted from the salary you receive as an employee.
- Health Insurance — Depending on where you live, healthcare might be paid by an employer, meaning if you go freelance, you will have to deal with that yourself.
- Pension — Often times, pension payments might already be deducted from your salary as an employee or are being promoted. As a freelancer, again, you have to sort this out on your own. This is easy to forget when you rake in good money as a freelancer, but you should definitely think about that!
- Equipment & Office — Chances are you have to buy your own equipment to get the job done as a freelancer. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because you can also use it personally, but it is something to keep in mind. As for office space, if the client requires you to work on-site, it is not necessary to spend money on that. However, a lot of freelancers do have an office for themselves to get some work done — be it for a client or not, for example in a co-working space.
In the end, it comes down to how motivated you are and how good you are at finding gigs as a freelancer. If you actually work most days of the year and you don’t take many days off, you can earn a lot. As an employee, you can simply rely on a monthly salary and a lot of benefits are included (depending on country & company).
Conclusion
Whether you decide to seek out employment in a company or set yourself up as a freelancer depends on your preference for freedom and belonging. If you are all about independence and living (work-)life on your terms, freelancing is probably better for you. Be aware that there are more things that you have to deal with and it is not all roses and a high hourly rate! Also, if you are just starting out, it is probably wiser to work as an employee for 1–2 years before trying to make it as a freelancer.
If you want to have a team that you can grow with, work on long-term goals and want to be part of a family, being an employee is a great option! Finding a place where you feel that you belong is obviously also possible as a freelancer, but you have to consciously work towards it.
There are lots of companies that are hiring developers, but these also include bad ones — in terms of work culture. Make sure you make your research, talk with existing employees and try to feel out how the overall situation is at the company. If you end up at a company where you are not happy, don’t be afraid to move on.
Let me know what you prefer and what you think is the better option. Just leave a comment with your opinion.
Bonus: Remote Work
Working remotely is viable for both employees, as well as freelancers. I am currently traveling and working full-time, so if you are interested in the topic, please let me know in the comments and I’ll write another article about it!
