I never ask, but the TH-cam lords suggest asking for a 'thumbs' ... if you like the video. And leave a comment too! This helps me to gauge what type of content you guys like. Thanks! Stef
More content about freelancing. If you run out of stuff to talk about, maybe you could interview other people who has successfully gone down the freelance route and let them tell their story :)
Some case stories would be great. For example, as mentioned above, interviewing people with experience would be very interesting. But I would suggest interviewing people across all four domains; someone who has built a caterer at a large company, someone who built a career at a small one, someone who freelances and someone who built their own company. I appreciate you have built your own but other people's stories can be insightful and inspiring.
I rejected a Google job offer a few months ago. Nothing against them but I love doing my own thing. I do not want my energy and time to build someone else's dream but my own. I also do not play well with hipsters :)
Traversy Media, good move! A friend of mine a few years back told me working there (she was some sort of developer) was hell, more suited for ambitious twelve year old boys than for the thirty-two year old woman and biologist she was. When you are there, you are a slave behind gold plated bars. I imagine it's worse now that rent is impossible in Frisco, which diminishes the ability to save escape money. She said that even back then she lived in fear of being fired (they enjoyed firing, apparently), and ending up sleeping on the streets, setting up house with her cat inside a discarded Chinese takeout box that still smelled of lo mein, or something.
Work for big company, learn from them, leave them after a year. Work for small company, have fun and start a side job. When i side job gets big, quit your small company job and enjoy life.
Stef, I was at Barnes and Noble tonight and couldn't believe it, but I saw one of your books on the shelf! I was like, "Hey, I sort of know that guy..." LOL! Nice job!
I've been working in IT for decades. When I started I never questioned what type of career I wanted. I was just told to try to get a job at a big company. It has been a great career. But lately I've realised I would have preferred smaller companies, freelancing or building my own company. It's not too late to change. But it's important for people to realise you need to manage your own career. It doesn't just happen on its own.
It’s been two months since I decided to transition my carrier into software development, and I think I’ve learn more in these 19 minutes than in the rest of my time spent in looking for information about this interesting world. You have so much wisdom Stef I really appreciate your content. So valuable and reliable!
Stefan is the man to listen to! I wish there were channels like this when I was starting out 10+ years ago. It would have saved me from many headaches. His advice keeps me focused on what's important vs all the hype and distractions. I'm currently investigating worker-based co-ops, as in wanting to start one. I think the concept would work exceptionally well in the software industry, since many developers are already inclined to freelance. If developers work together (and share the profits equally), we could take on more/larger projects. Of course, the co-op business model won't be the right choice for everyone. Many will still prefer traditional employer/employee arrangements, freelancing on their own, or having full control of their own business. As for technologies, like Stefan has mentioned, Laravel/Vue and WordPress plugin development would cover a lot of ground when taking on freelance or contract work.
Very well said. Sometimes working in smaller company also have some problem like one of my friend is over working in his office. As i never worked big company like Google I do not know how it feels. But doing freelancing or having small startup gave more freedom. Being an indie mobile apps developer and working from home I can give more time to my family and kids which is really precious moment.
I started my career in a large company. Everything Stef says has been true in my experience and of my colleagues. After 20 years the ones who have stayed are the ones who have either specialised or advanced into leadership roles. Many leave within a few years and have more of a variety of jobs. Some have started their own ventures. In the UK there is an apprenticeship levy and big companies will often move individuals around whilst they study so they can find something they are suited to which can be a good option if you are not sure which path is right for you.
I really appreciate this content Stefan, talking about things as they are and not sugarcoating them, it gives me (and probably others) a small insight into how thinks work. I have been planning myself in opening a business (hopefully next year) within web development for almost 2 years, but in the time between I have been thinking about starting as a freelance and then moving up the ladder to open my own business. As you have stated, working as a freelance gives you the sense on how to work and manage clients, projects and time itself!
I worked with a jerk for a year. Im very laid back and keep things to myself, but i put up with him for too long. he was belittling me and making me feel stupid all year, this one day he really crossed a boundary and I snapped. I attempted to put him in a lions kill and I lost my job. it was a toxic working environment and its probably for the best I am no longer there.
I know it was the best solution, because i di it the other way. Tried to keep a bad job als long as possible, because there was no way to get another job.Which was the most stupid decision in my life. When the horse is dead, get off. Endig up on the wrong ship can be much worse than ending up on the sea bottom.
Just Graduated from uni in 3r world country, I started my job as a React Native developer in a local company and I'm planning to start my own business with freelancing , I was gaining as much knowledge as possible so that I can make good decisions in the future , And Uncel Stefan just nailed everything in 18 minutes, Watching u from a long time , u are honestly a great person and mentor. Thankew SooO much for this piece of Information.
The title of the video was kind of interesting, but the content giving much more than the title promises, very good I enjoyed it so much, you are like a bible of software development business.
I worked to two large corporations in my career. Both were Fortune Top 100 (possibly top 10, even). In fact, these were the first two companies that I worked for after university. After these two experiences, I honestly considered giving up coding as a career altogether. My belief, in retrospect, is that large corporations attract a lot of people with mediocre skills and intelligence. Such people see large corporations as a great place to stay for life. I would not say that such places do not value people with serious ability, but there were certainly a lot of people that felt threatened by it. The political machinations were out of control in both companies. One of the companies ever had a prominent "no office politics" policy, yet there politics were worse that most companies. Luckily, I was raised in a family that taught me to put a serious effort into everything you try, but if it's not right try something else. I gave both companies a fair shot, but ultimately decided to do contract work. Back in the 1980's this was a extraordinarily lucrative field in you were any good at all. These days, I think 'tribalism' is the proper term for what was going on in these corporations. Tribalism is just a primitive form of monarchy. Who has time for such games? I know, I know. You can't just blithely ignore office politics. Every company has some. Another thing to consider is that most corporations these days are not at all loyal to you: these was a time when large companies were loyal to employees, e.g., AT&T back in the 1970's. Today, corporations still put out the propaganda line to their employees about loyalty, but the reality is that they will drop employees in a heartbeat in they decide that they no longer need you.
Stefan, can you talk about the actual businesses you built ? And how you made your money ? please give us some ideas and real life experience not just concepts. thanks.
I think he has a platform where people can learn things through an interactive methodology, in his case he uses it to help people learn how to code and so on. But I believe he also sells the platform for all kinds of use cases like learning math. It is similar to those of codecademy and brilliant.org. But I am not sure, this is just speculation from what I have heard Stef speak on.
Well a case study is just a story of how something worked out for someone in specific set of circumstances. It does has anecdotal value and gives you some concepts to fallback on when you find yourself in similar place. What I learned from Naval Ravikant is that I want to look for algorithms. They can be applied to different situations and produce results for you. In that sense, they are much more universal and powerful.
To give you real life experiences, there needs to be some. He only gives concepts because that is what he memorised from the books he read. There are no engineering or software design videos here. These are hustling videos.
I never dreamt of working in a large corporation, always wanted to know all my colleagues and work in a small, family-like environment. I never thought this wish of mine could come true, but luckily one small company in my city agreed to taking me in. It is how I wanted it to be.
I think the majority of the people want to work at Google for the most obvious reasons: Money, status (can help get other jobs later), benefits (vacations, car, restaurants, discounts etc), stability (sure, you can get fired, but as long as you work there you have a steady income, unlike being a freelancer). Those are all very important points to consider when thinking about becoming a freelancer.
I love all your videos, every one I've watched so far. I'm always learning something new. As soon as I feel that it's the right time to jump into a new course I'm picking up one of yours. I especially love the detail you put into your videos, your answers are very in depth.
This is so true Stefan, now people know what google really is , a hotub for 4 to 5 years to get the experience and then just move on , start own company or got another path. Me myself looking to my experience i say working for myself was right decision, learning new stuff each day.
Coming from a background in statistics/epidemiology, im looking to build my on SaaS in statistics/epidemiology in a few years, im currently learning coding. Wish me all the best 😆
Had a feeling this would be about large corporations. I'm working at one right now for 1,5 months. So far I am quite enjoying the experience and the red tape kinda weighs against the securities, conveniences and handholding especially so early in my career (and being absolutely broke, to the last penny haha). I do think eventually I want to get into freelancing, as it seems to be quite compatible with family life as well as my desires to do full stack development eventually. I'm a big graphics design nerd, used to be at least, and while I am a full-time frontend engineer currently, I am learning a bunch of backend stuff in my spare time and I'm having an absolute blast doing so :) (LAMP stack for who's wondering, starting easy hehe)! My dream is eventually to be able to work with all 3, earn a comfortable income, and be a good dad ;D. Anyway, thanks Stefan for making this kind of content, it's helping me weigh things against each other and decide and plan on what fits me and how I see my future more concretely. It also has helped me be more confident about where I want to go, that it's not entirely unfeasible or anything :P. It's worth a lot to me!
I think the ideal situation is to start at a larger company so you get a lot of experience from people who know good processes and good practices. Use that experience to then go freelancing around large and small companies. While freelancing look out for products and services which they would find useful. At the end of this you will have strong business domain, process and communication skills. Then start your own SaaS company.
When you own your own business, everyone becomes your boss. Instead of having 1 or 2 bosses as you would working for a company, you may have 30, 50, or 100, any of whom can fire you for any reason. This is a reality all business owners need to be prepared for. When you're a business owner, you're the ultimate servant. Your mission is to serve your clients' needs and wants, cater to them. They are who you have to answer to when your product or service doesn't meet their expectations. Your job is to learn how to listen to your customers and take the appropriate action. As a business owner, you're going to need to have excellent people-relating skills, high-quality negotiation skills, and top-notch communication skills, both verbal and written. You want your clients, supplier, and contacts to like doing business with you. And very important: your brain and mind need to be healthy, sharp, adaptable and able to absorb and process large amounts of information in a very short amount of time. To this end, it's critical to make investing in the health of your brain and body a top priority to prevent cognitive decline and brain dementia. Here are the scientifically proven ways you can do this: 1) Dump the Standard American Diet completely and replace it with something along the lines of either the Mediterranean or Nordic Diet, whichever works better with your genome. 2) Do some form of regular physical activity regularly, whatever you enjoy doing. Better yet, do it outside in the sunshine. Do NOT sit for too long a period without getting up to walk around, or do some form of exercise. As Susan Powter put it back in the 1990s: Move Your Body! 3) Engage in some form of meditation, formal or informal, and do it consistently. It could be just about any kind, whatever works for you as long as you meditate consistently. 4) Socialize regularly with others. This has been proven to be a very powerful way to help offset cognitive decline and brain degeneration. 5) Keep learning new things, skills, etc. Keep challenging yourself. Keep pushing yourself beyond your previous limits. 5) Learn how to play a musical instrument, or learn a new programming language or learn a new language (Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, Arabic). Scientists have ascertained that learning a new language may be THE single most effective way to keep your brain sharp and prevent it from losing its cognitive abilities. 6) Get enough sleep. You want to get both the REM and non-REM sleep cycles for proper brain functioning. Taking an afternoon nap is also very beneficial. 7) Prevent blows to the head. Drive defensively while on the road; prevent falls; wear proper headgear when doing a high-risk sport; exercise caution when in high-crime neighborhoods. One hard blow to the head could end your career and your business instantly and permanently.
Another consideration when freelancing, I am indie game developer is you can end up working long hours. And working from home is not as easy as you think, time management is a huge consideration.
You basically hinted it but still... one benefit of working for large company is that you can work in one specific area you are interested in and get really good at it - it's focused work. As a freelancer I must do a lot of stuff I don't enjoy that much - like demployment and server management, too much UI related stuff etc...
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You make sense. Love your vids. You helping me alot!
Thank you so much sir! You are giving tons of interesting information. Especially I find it useful being a newbie and knowing almost nothing about business in programming.
Agree a lot with your analysis of big companies, esp. how funny guys can hide in the cracks between departments, competent in neither playing hopscotch over the discipline divide and humorizing their way through a day's work. Can't run or hide in a small business - everyone knows what everyone else contributed to every project.
Hey Stef, Really enjoyed this video, very thought provoking. I totally agree that working for a 'smart' small business owner can provide far more opportunity and variety. My personal experience in a BAD small company (good ones do exist!) was that I wasted a couple of years working for an extremely lazy boss (who talked the talk!), one that didn't deliver on promised training, raises, appraisals or any sort of career progression. This was all after I had agreed to take a lower wage on the basis that I would get training, which never materialized. Knowing if and when to jump ship is key! The silver lining is that it is good CV/resume fodder in the industry. I used this as motivation to study hard nearly every evening and now work at a medium sized company where I am getting some training within the first couple of months, more money, better opportunities. Working at a place where you fit in with the company culture is massively important, and asking about it in the interview goes a long way to gauging this. If they have to think long and hard about how best to describe it, there probably isn't much of a culture and it probably isn't a priority of theirs. Reading reviews on a company before even applying is advisable, though I would imagine that most people who care enough to leave a review of their workplace are probably doing so because of a bad experience rather than a good one, though there are definitely exceptions to the rule. Being able to accurately gauge a company before even applying can go a long way and save a lot of time and effort. Just my 2 cents.
For many companies, the standard small business size classification by employees is 500 employees or less. But, your industry could make a difference in your size qualifications. Typically, you must have between or below $750,000 and $35.5 million in sales and between or below 100 and 1,500 employees.Jul 14, 2017
I build my own SaaS and sell access to them. I’ve always been good on ideas so creating products has never been an issue. I love the flexibility. Being my own boss. And working from my home office. But each to their own for sure.
I really enjoyed this general advice vid on programmer job types - probably applicable to a lot of different professions and personality types. I'm thinking of doing your full stack course.
Yah I'd stay away from large corporations too (for a programming role anyways). Kinda reminds me of myself back in 2013 working for a large corporation as a data entry person. We just input data so the machine or other people can process it further and that's all we care about and we just sit there and do our job in front of the computer for the whole fucking shift. No such things like collaboration, email, conference calls, status reports, etc with other department teams and when they do communicate with us then it's 100% certain that it's about a fuck up on our side. Remembering it makes me puke every time.
Great Explanation! Thank you, I prefer freelancing though and I am working online, but I am suffering in getting highly paid clients , It is a fight to the ground when working online
I am sure there are small businesses around where you are, go to them, meet the owners, create something to help their workflow. Getting online jobs is a race to the bottom.
Only thing I'd sau about small IT firms is watch out that they don't become boutiques where you get siloed by the business plan. Especially if they partner with big companies lile IBM. They'll try to convince you to give up a career in more general tech for some specialised tech. It might be worth it but remember the owner's interest isn't necessarily aligned with your career.
Google is encouraging to get in different projects and non profits too, so yes it's better to be independent, but google is not as bad as some others corpo. Also most people go there just for a year or two just to have them in resume... Not to defend google, I also work alone most of the time.
Freelancing is hell in the start, you can't choose your own timings, the client chooses it, also it means you haven to work dayy and night without any limits of time, with strict deadlines set by freelancing platforms.
@@tbraghavendran People that mop floors are invaluable and society needs them. As well as any other necessary service. Haven't you learn anything during the pandemic time we are currently in?
Dear Stefan, Large corporations too have responsibility to identify best performers, nurture them, push them to the best suitable higher positions. Every employee naturally does his/her best to move up the career ladder, grow in terms of responsibility, salary. Corp.'s too have to take serious steps in this regards.
The way I see it, it depends on what the individual really wants to do or is about. If all interest is in immediate renumeration, then one is better off working for someone else, if you really love coding like some of us, you will most likely want all control to yourself, hence doing contracts or freelancing. In summary, the immediate easy way with a ceiling down the road, work for someone else, the hard way wihout ceiling down the road, work for yourself.
It would never hurt to have a position at Google on your resume no matter what you ultimately want for your career path. Getting a job at Google would give you brain certification that could open doors down the road.
.... And then, start your own thing, solve painpoints that they are unable to solve themself , and use your connections to sell it back to them as a service. Anything wrong with that plan?
The fact that you have to go through 4 rounds of interviews makes me want to puke. They act like they are some exclusive club and only a few chosen, cool, hipsters can get in.
I like how at a startup you might be doing a lot. Technical and non technical. What I want to know is does that beat the pay and prestige from working for a well known big company?
Great content again, I find it valuable when you share your experience regarding your personal ventures like in the movie about the BitCoin and when you discuss diffrent perspectives on employment, what it entails etc., in general all your personal insights, thanks Stefan! Could you make a video about the "must to learn" algorithms and data structures beyond the basic skills and discuss what they might be useful for by providing some examples?
Let me say it's not true that there is only 4 paths. There is 5 and 5th is where you find a way your software works for you w/o customer service and any customer-service relation.
I'm a central conservative, why would I subject myself to the pc culture in Google's work environment? Saying something as factual as "there's a biological difference between men and women" would get me fired.
This is something I'm going to have to learn to do. I have been freelance in the Rock n Roll industry for decades. It's as far from PC as one can get. It's great! But now I'm going for a career change I feel like I'll be biting my tongue quite a lot in whatever work space I get into.
I always found FAANG companies and big tech to be very interesting, but there's just something about those companies that I don't like. Maybe it's being an expendable cog in a wheel to make the company millions that drives me crazy. I've settled for non-profit and not-for-profit hospitals as my career path in IT. There's just something about knowing your company cares more about it's mission and its clients, than it does about money.
I've worked in small company before and I'm currently in a big one and in the past I've done freelancing before. But nowaday I missed the day of me being flexible and able to do other stuff like wearing other hats But Yeah, in big company you get paid on time on the other hand you don't learn much and you got a corporate culture force onto you.
after going freelance/self-employed there's no way in hell I can go back to a 9-5 no matter how much it pays. Can't believe I wasted so much time trying to get a Google job when now Im free to work when I want, where I want.
A little deceiving on the tax advantages. You can deduct your expenses, of course. However there is a 15% self-employment tax on top of your income tax, as well as business licenses, and paying half of your employee's income taxes, too. Running a business is definitely not favorable to taxes. You should budget 30% of your income to taxes in the U.S. Deductions exist because you spent that money to be in business. Many naive people believe they are "tax breaks" but they are not breaks at all. They are just valid expenses that get deducted from your income.
I would really like to go freelancing but unfortunately Italy and Romania are not great places to find clients... everyone wants to charge you the same cheap money without taking into account the technology use (like they want to charge you for a .NET app the same as Wordpress) because there's always the cousin or the nephew that can do it for free. The other problem is that these countries do not have strict rules when it comes to unpaid bills. Which means that it will take you lots of money to bring the clients to a court and then also lots of time. Do you have suggestions in this regard? I see that most outsourcing companies here work only with foreign clients...
Just came across your videos, I've been programming for smaller companies for 15 years but always wanted to freelance. But the freelance sites I've seen showed me you can't really make any money. You've indicated you can make 4-5 times more as a freelancer. How much are we talking? I'm in 6 figures now and would like the same or more to do my own thing. What salary range is possible?
I hate large corporations, and much prefer small organizations or freelance. My problem, however, is that I'm not a developer but a data engineer (working mainly with sql, bi and some data science). I would assume such skills are required mainly by large organizations, for smaller ones haven't yet generated enough data. Am I wrong? And if I am, which data tools small organizations use? Same question goes for freelancing - can one even freelance in database world? I know that organizations are very protective about their data and prefer to have people "from the inside".
hi, Stefan. Thank you for the video. I have the question, where is better to work: in software oriented company or in a company where software is secondary ? Thank you.
In the 2nd case, you might be top-dog-nerd, since you might be one of the few ... or the only one. In the former, you will have more learning opportunity perhaps.
When it comes to degrees, I was looking at a school and they have a degree for computer science but also internet/web development. Which would be the right one when it comes to coding in your opinion? Would the internet development basically make us a "master" in the things you do yourself?
Steven Grossman If I'm reading things on the site correctly, ASU says it offers internet and web development (applied science BAS). I know stefan is self taught.
Go for computer science, you will be able to understand web development and pursue it at the same time understand what makes it work the way it does and it is a more valuable degree opens up many opportunities whereas web development as a degree would not have the same value
I never ask, but the TH-cam lords suggest asking for a 'thumbs' ... if you like the video. And leave a comment too! This helps me to gauge what type of content you guys like. Thanks! Stef
Stefan Mischook surely, stef. Are you on Facebook or LinkedIn, by chance?
More content about freelancing. If you run out of stuff to talk about, maybe you could interview other people who has successfully gone down the freelance route and let them tell their story :)
Some case stories would be great. For example, as mentioned above, interviewing people with experience would be very interesting. But I would suggest interviewing people across all four domains; someone who has built a caterer at a large company, someone who built a career at a small one, someone who freelances and someone who built their own company. I appreciate you have built your own but other people's stories can be insightful and inspiring.
Keep it up Stefan. Your content is consistently great
I rejected a Google job offer a few months ago. Nothing against them but I love doing my own thing. I do not want my energy and time to build someone else's dream but my own. I also do not play well with hipsters :)
Hey man
If Traversy Media would go work at google and stop his channel and udemy courses that would be really depressing! Thanks for not going!
Traversy Media, good move! A friend of mine a few years back told me working there (she was some sort of developer) was hell, more suited for ambitious twelve year old boys than for the thirty-two year old woman and biologist she was. When you are there, you are a slave behind gold plated bars. I imagine it's worse now that rent is impossible in Frisco, which diminishes the ability to save escape money. She said that even back then she lived in fear of being fired (they enjoyed firing, apparently), and ending up sleeping on the streets, setting up house with her cat inside a discarded Chinese takeout box that still smelled of lo mein, or something.
Dream chaser
Traversy Media Hipsters 😂
Work for big company, learn from them, leave them after a year. Work for small company, have fun and start a side job. When i side job gets big, quit your small company job and enjoy life.
What if programming is indeed your side job? 🤔🤔
I did this, its the only strategy that makes sense if you are not brain dead.
Stef, the and only legit mentor I found on TH-cam!
You should checkout CodingPhase
What about others ?
I agree.
Theres quite a few good ones but not many with his level of experience
@@koma7778 Let's not forget: he IS 200 years old.
I don't want to advance.
I don't want to be a manager.
I don't want to be a project manager.
I want to be a developer forever.
Stef, I was at Barnes and Noble tonight and couldn't believe it, but I saw one of your books on the shelf! I was like, "Hey, I sort of know that guy..." LOL! Nice job!
I've been working in IT for decades. When I started I never questioned what type of career I wanted. I was just told to try to get a job at a big company. It has been a great career. But lately I've realised I would have preferred smaller companies, freelancing or building my own company. It's not too late to change. But it's important for people to realise you need to manage your own career. It doesn't just happen on its own.
So are you an entrepreneur now or are you still working at that big company? Just curious. You can avoid to answer if its a personal question. thanks
It’s been two months since I decided to transition my carrier into software development, and I think I’ve learn more in these 19 minutes than in the rest of my time spent in looking for information about this interesting world. You have so much wisdom Stef I really appreciate your content. So valuable and reliable!
Love Stefan's honest and straight answers, a true mentor!
Stefan is the man to listen to! I wish there were channels like this when I was starting out 10+ years ago. It would have saved me from many headaches. His advice keeps me focused on what's important vs all the hype and distractions. I'm currently investigating worker-based co-ops, as in wanting to start one. I think the concept would work exceptionally well in the software industry, since many developers are already inclined to freelance. If developers work together (and share the profits equally), we could take on more/larger projects. Of course, the co-op business model won't be the right choice for everyone. Many will still prefer traditional employer/employee arrangements, freelancing on their own, or having full control of their own business. As for technologies, like Stefan has mentioned, Laravel/Vue and WordPress plugin development would cover a lot of ground when taking on freelance or contract work.
Very well said. Sometimes working in smaller company also have some problem like one of my friend is over working in his office. As i never worked big company like Google I do not know how it feels. But doing freelancing or having small startup gave more freedom. Being an indie mobile apps developer and working from home I can give more time to my family and kids which is really precious moment.
I started my career in a large company. Everything Stef says has been true in my experience and of my colleagues. After 20 years the ones who have stayed are the ones who have either specialised or advanced into leadership roles. Many leave within a few years and have more of a variety of jobs. Some have started their own ventures.
In the UK there is an apprenticeship levy and big companies will often move individuals around whilst they study so they can find something they are suited to which can be a good option if you are not sure which path is right for you.
Such good advice, pure gold Stefan!
I really appreciate this content Stefan, talking about things as they are and not sugarcoating them, it gives me (and probably others) a small insight into how thinks work. I have been planning myself in opening a business (hopefully next year) within web development for almost 2 years, but in the time between I have been thinking about starting as a freelance and then moving up the ladder to open my own business. As you have stated, working as a freelance gives you the sense on how to work and manage clients, projects and time itself!
I worked with a jerk for a year. Im very laid back and keep things to myself, but i put up with him for too long. he was belittling me and making me feel stupid all year, this one day he really crossed a boundary and I snapped. I attempted to put him in a lions kill and I lost my job. it was a toxic working environment and its probably for the best I am no longer there.
Which company ?
I know it was the best solution, because i di it the other way. Tried to keep a bad job als long as possible, because there was no way to get another job.Which was the most stupid decision in my life. When the horse is dead, get off. Endig up on the wrong ship can be much worse than ending up on the sea bottom.
Nice video Stefan! This is really helpful as a young developer (5.5) years in so far!
Just Graduated from uni in 3r world country, I started my job as a React Native developer in a local company and I'm planning to start my own business with freelancing , I was gaining as much knowledge as possible so that I can make good decisions in the future , And Uncel Stefan just nailed everything in 18 minutes, Watching u from a long time , u are honestly a great person and mentor. Thankew SooO much for this piece of Information.
Thanks for letting me know and glad I could help!
I cant believe this, at the exact same moment I was wondering why Stefan hasn't put a new video, this video's notification just pop up
The title of the video was kind of interesting, but the content giving much more than the title promises, very good I enjoyed it so much, you are like a bible of software development business.
Thank you for bringing clarity to this subject, Sir!
If I was in Montreal I would love to work for Stefan as an intern. I think he will make a nice job mentor. 😊.
I worked to two large corporations in my career. Both were Fortune Top 100 (possibly top 10, even). In fact, these were the first two companies that I worked for after university. After these two experiences, I honestly considered giving up coding as a career altogether. My belief, in retrospect, is that large corporations attract a lot of people with mediocre skills and intelligence. Such people see large corporations as a great place to stay for life. I would not say that such places do not value people with serious ability, but there were certainly a lot of people that felt threatened by it. The political machinations were out of control in both companies. One of the companies ever had a prominent "no office politics" policy, yet there politics were worse that most companies. Luckily, I was raised in a family that taught me to put a serious effort into everything you try, but if it's not right try something else. I gave both companies a fair shot, but ultimately decided to do contract work. Back in the 1980's this was a extraordinarily lucrative field in you were any good at all. These days, I think 'tribalism' is the proper term for what was going on in these corporations. Tribalism is just a primitive form of monarchy. Who has time for such games? I know, I know. You can't just blithely ignore office politics. Every company has some. Another thing to consider is that most corporations these days are not at all loyal to you: these was a time when large companies were loyal to employees, e.g., AT&T back in the 1970's. Today, corporations still put out the propaganda line to their employees about loyalty, but the reality is that they will drop employees in a heartbeat in they decide that they no longer need you.
Yep. Modern developers have to be nimble and prepared to move given the right circumstances.
Stefan, can you talk about the actual businesses you built ? And how you made your money ? please give us some ideas and real life experience not just concepts. thanks.
I think he has a platform where people can learn things through an interactive methodology, in his case he uses it to help people learn how to code and so on. But I believe he also sells the platform for all kinds of use cases like learning math. It is similar to those of codecademy and brilliant.org. But I am not sure, this is just speculation from what I have heard Stef speak on.
Well a case study is just a story of how something worked out for someone in specific set of circumstances. It does has anecdotal value and gives you some concepts to fallback on when you find yourself in similar place. What I learned from Naval Ravikant is that I want to look for algorithms. They can be applied to different situations and produce results for you. In that sense, they are much more universal and powerful.
To give you real life experiences, there needs to be some. He only gives concepts because that is what he memorised from the books he read. There are no engineering or software design videos here. These are hustling videos.
I never dreamt of working in a large corporation, always wanted to know all my colleagues and work in a small, family-like environment. I never thought this wish of mine could come true, but luckily one small company in my city agreed to taking me in. It is how I wanted it to be.
I think the majority of the people want to work at Google for the most obvious reasons:
Money, status (can help get other jobs later), benefits (vacations, car, restaurants, discounts etc), stability (sure, you can get fired, but as long as you work there you have a steady income, unlike being a freelancer).
Those are all very important points to consider when thinking about becoming a freelancer.
you basically pointed it out :) i work in a large company but i must say that it's often rare to get a place you like and be comfortable with
I love all your videos, every one I've watched so far. I'm always learning something new. As soon as I feel that it's the right time to jump into a new course I'm picking up one of yours. I especially love the detail you put into your videos, your answers are very in depth.
This is so true Stefan, now people know what google really is , a hotub for 4 to 5 years to get the experience and then just move on , start own company or got another path. Me myself looking to my experience i say working for myself was right decision, learning new stuff each day.
Stef is the most proliferate vlogger on my TH-cam favorite vid list!
Coming from a background in statistics/epidemiology, im looking to build my on SaaS in statistics/epidemiology in a few years, im currently learning coding. Wish me all the best 😆
Best of luck!
Had a feeling this would be about large corporations. I'm working at one right now for 1,5 months. So far I am quite enjoying the experience and the red tape kinda weighs against the securities, conveniences and handholding especially so early in my career (and being absolutely broke, to the last penny haha).
I do think eventually I want to get into freelancing, as it seems to be quite compatible with family life as well as my desires to do full stack development eventually. I'm a big graphics design nerd, used to be at least, and while I am a full-time frontend engineer currently, I am learning a bunch of backend stuff in my spare time and I'm having an absolute blast doing so :) (LAMP stack for who's wondering, starting easy hehe)! My dream is eventually to be able to work with all 3, earn a comfortable income, and be a good dad ;D.
Anyway, thanks Stefan for making this kind of content, it's helping me weigh things against each other and decide and plan on what fits me and how I see my future more concretely. It also has helped me be more confident about where I want to go, that it's not entirely unfeasible or anything :P. It's worth a lot to me!
Welcome!
I think the ideal situation is to start at a larger company so you get a lot of experience from people who know good processes and good practices. Use that experience to then go freelancing around large and small companies. While freelancing look out for products and services which they would find useful. At the end of this you will have strong business domain, process and communication skills. Then start your own SaaS company.
When you own your own business, everyone becomes your boss.
Instead of having 1 or 2 bosses as you would working for a company, you may have 30, 50, or 100, any of whom can fire you for any reason. This is a reality all business owners need to be prepared for.
When you're a business owner, you're the ultimate servant. Your mission is to serve your clients' needs and wants, cater to them. They are who you have to answer to when your product or service doesn't meet their expectations. Your job is to learn how to listen to your customers and take the appropriate action.
As a business owner, you're going to need to have excellent people-relating skills, high-quality negotiation skills, and top-notch communication skills, both verbal and written. You want your clients, supplier, and contacts to like doing business with you.
And very important: your brain and mind need to be healthy, sharp, adaptable and able to absorb and process large amounts of information in a very short amount of time.
To this end, it's critical to make investing in the health of your brain and body a top priority to prevent cognitive decline and brain dementia.
Here are the scientifically proven ways you can do this:
1) Dump the Standard American Diet completely and replace it with something along the lines of either the Mediterranean or Nordic Diet, whichever works better with your genome.
2) Do some form of regular physical activity regularly, whatever you enjoy doing. Better yet, do it outside in the sunshine. Do NOT sit for too long a period without getting up to walk around, or do some form of exercise. As Susan Powter put it back in the 1990s: Move Your Body!
3) Engage in some form of meditation, formal or informal, and do it consistently. It could be just about any kind, whatever works for you as long as you meditate consistently.
4) Socialize regularly with others. This has been proven to be a very powerful way to help offset cognitive decline and brain degeneration.
5) Keep learning new things, skills, etc. Keep challenging yourself. Keep pushing yourself beyond your previous limits.
5) Learn how to play a musical instrument, or learn a new programming language or learn a new language (Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, Arabic). Scientists have ascertained that learning a new language may be THE single most effective way to keep your brain sharp and prevent it from losing its cognitive abilities.
6) Get enough sleep. You want to get both the REM and non-REM sleep cycles for proper brain functioning. Taking an afternoon nap is also very beneficial.
7) Prevent blows to the head. Drive defensively while on the road; prevent falls; wear proper headgear when doing a high-risk sport; exercise caution when in high-crime neighborhoods.
One hard blow to the head could end your career and your business instantly and permanently.
Yeah, meditate and eat vegetarian.
Another consideration when freelancing, I am indie game developer is you can end up working long hours. And working from home is not as easy as you think, time management is a huge consideration.
You basically hinted it but still... one benefit of working for large company is that you can work in one specific area you are interested in and get really good at it - it's focused work. As a freelancer I must do a lot of stuff I don't enjoy that much - like demployment and server management, too much UI related stuff etc...
You make sense. Love your vids. You helping me alot!
Thank you so much sir!
You are giving tons of interesting information. Especially I find it useful being a newbie and knowing almost nothing about business in programming.
Thanks Stefan. Your videos are so informative for newbies, its a good thing. =)
Extremely helpful video Stefan. Thank you!
Great video Stefan, lots of wisdom.
Agree a lot with your analysis of big companies, esp. how funny guys can hide in the cracks between departments, competent in neither playing hopscotch over the discipline divide and humorizing their way through a day's work. Can't run or hide in a small business - everyone knows what everyone else contributed to every project.
Very wise words, interesting to listen to. Especially when the person tried this and that, and knows what's he talking about.
Building a saas is lifetime without parole
Hey Stef,
Really enjoyed this video, very thought provoking.
I totally agree that working for a 'smart' small business owner can provide far more opportunity and variety.
My personal experience in a BAD small company (good ones do exist!) was that I wasted a couple of years working for an extremely lazy boss (who talked the talk!), one that didn't deliver on promised training, raises, appraisals or any sort of career progression. This was all after I had agreed to take a lower wage on the basis that I would get training, which never materialized. Knowing if and when to jump ship is key! The silver lining is that it is good CV/resume fodder in the industry.
I used this as motivation to study hard nearly every evening and now work at a medium sized company where I am getting some training within the first couple of months, more money, better opportunities.
Working at a place where you fit in with the company culture is massively important, and asking about it in the interview goes a long way to gauging this. If they have to think long and hard about how best to describe it, there probably isn't much of a culture and it probably isn't a priority of theirs.
Reading reviews on a company before even applying is advisable, though I would imagine that most people who care enough to leave a review of their workplace are probably doing so because of a bad experience rather than a good one, though there are definitely exceptions to the rule.
Being able to accurately gauge a company before even applying can go a long way and save a lot of time and effort.
Just my 2 cents.
For many companies, the standard small business size classification by employees is 500 employees or less. But, your industry could make a difference in your size qualifications. Typically, you must have between or below $750,000 and $35.5 million in sales and between or below 100 and 1,500 employees.Jul 14, 2017
I build my own SaaS and sell access to them. I’ve always been good on ideas so creating products has never been an issue. I love the flexibility. Being my own boss. And working from my home office. But each to their own for sure.
Really good video people should listen to this !
Super interesting. Thanks for those words!!
I really enjoyed this general advice vid on programmer job types - probably applicable to a lot of different professions and personality types. I'm thinking of doing your full stack course.
Definitely not too boring :-)
Thanks, you covered a lot of ground, very helpful for me as I assess my next move.
Straight Facts! Shared!
Yah I'd stay away from large corporations too (for a programming role anyways).
Kinda reminds me of myself back in 2013 working for a large corporation as a data entry person.
We just input data so the machine or other people can process it further and that's all we care about and we just sit there and do our job in front of the computer for the whole fucking shift. No such things like collaboration, email, conference calls, status reports, etc with other department teams and when they do communicate with us then it's 100% certain that it's about a fuck up on our side. Remembering it makes me puke every time.
Great Explanation! Thank you, I prefer freelancing though and I am working online, but I am suffering in getting highly paid clients , It is a fight to the ground when working online
I am sure there are small businesses around where you are, go to them, meet the owners, create something to help their workflow. Getting online jobs is a race to the bottom.
Only thing I'd sau about small IT firms is watch out that they don't become boutiques where you get siloed by the business plan. Especially if they partner with big companies lile IBM. They'll try to convince you to give up a career in more general tech for some specialised tech. It might be worth it but remember the owner's interest isn't necessarily aligned with your career.
Thanks stef,, I've learned alot from your vids :D :D
Google is encouraging to get in different projects and non profits too, so yes it's better to be independent, but google is not as bad as some others corpo. Also most people go there just for a year or two just to have them in resume... Not to defend google, I also work alone most of the time.
Freelancing is hell in the start, you can't choose your own timings, the client chooses it, also it means you haven to work dayy and night without any limits of time, with strict deadlines set by freelancing platforms.
If they offered me 500k a year I’ll mop floors.
So, you are ready to do anything for $ ?
@@tbraghavendran People that mop floors are invaluable and society needs them. As well as any other necessary service. Haven't you learn anything during the pandemic time we are currently in?
Dear Stefan, Large corporations too have responsibility to identify best performers, nurture them, push them to the best suitable higher positions. Every employee naturally does his/her best to move up the career ladder, grow in terms of responsibility, salary. Corp.'s too have to take serious steps in this regards.
Stef you are the real Master.
The way I see it, it depends on what the individual really wants to do or is about. If all interest is in immediate renumeration, then one is better off working for someone else, if you really love coding like some of us, you will most likely want all control to yourself, hence doing contracts or freelancing. In summary, the immediate easy way with a ceiling down the road, work for someone else, the hard way wihout ceiling down the road, work for yourself.
I worked for a bank that had like 5 testing teams....
thank you for the great content
It would never hurt to have a position at Google on your resume no matter what you ultimately want for your career path. Getting a job at Google would give you brain certification that could open doors down the road.
Shawn McDermott absolutely. The same goes for Microsoft & Apple. I would’ve included Amazon, but they are not that prestigious in my opinion.
Every career path seems to have advantages and disadvantages. thanks for advice too
Really great insights!
in large corporations you don't matter, but a great opportunity to socialize
Shiva true but its not the same as socializing at an event
Then later on it will become toxic... Been there (three times)
Great detail video. Thanks
stay there 1-2 years to learn that it really sucks, then leave :)
Martin Lévesque Best idea! Besides, it's great to have on your resume.
.... And then, start your own thing, solve painpoints that they are unable to solve themself , and use your connections to sell it back to them as a service.
Anything wrong with that plan?
Why
The fact that you have to go through 4 rounds of interviews makes me want to puke. They act like they are some exclusive club and only a few chosen, cool, hipsters can get in.
Share your experience buddy.
Hi, forgive me if this is off topic but your camera, lighting and sound is absolutely perfect in this one. May I ask what camera you're using here?
Canon C200. Thanks!
I like how at a startup you might be doing a lot. Technical and non technical. What I want to know is does that beat the pay and prestige from working for a well known big company?
Great thoughts Stef.
Great content again, I find it valuable when you share your experience regarding your personal ventures like in the movie about the BitCoin and when you discuss diffrent perspectives on employment, what it entails etc., in general all your personal insights, thanks Stefan! Could you make a video about the "must to learn" algorithms and data structures beyond the basic skills and discuss what they might be useful for by providing some examples?
Stefan, bouncer ? Never imagined that. lol
That was like 140 years ago
is he saying AUCTIONEER?
Let me say it's not true that there is only 4 paths. There is 5 and 5th is where you find a way your software works for you w/o customer service and any customer-service relation.
I'm a central conservative, why would I subject myself to the pc culture in Google's work environment? Saying something as factual as "there's a biological difference between men and women" would get me fired.
I just wouldn't say anything and take the benefits and money.
This is something I'm going to have to learn to do. I have been freelance in the Rock n Roll industry for decades. It's as far from PC as one can get. It's great! But now I'm going for a career change I feel like I'll be biting my tongue quite a lot in whatever work space I get into.
@@MrApplewine Are you so dumb ?
You pretend.
This statement is even more relevant today
My new youtube Mentor...
Great video!
I would want to work at Google just to get access to their awesome free cafeteria. Worth it alone.
LOL!
i only take the path that makes me more independent
I always found FAANG companies and big tech to be very interesting, but there's just something about those companies that I don't like. Maybe it's being an expendable cog in a wheel to make the company millions that drives me crazy. I've settled for non-profit and not-for-profit hospitals as my career path in IT. There's just something about knowing your company cares more about it's mission and its clients, than it does about money.
I've worked in small company before and I'm currently in a big one
and in the past I've done freelancing before.
But nowaday I missed the day of me being flexible and able to do other stuff like wearing other hats
But Yeah, in big company you get paid on time on the other hand you don't learn much and you got a corporate culture force onto you.
Wise words
If you can, always freelance
after going freelance/self-employed there's no way in hell I can go back to a 9-5 no matter how much it pays. Can't believe I wasted so much time trying to get a Google job when now Im free to work when I want, where I want.
Working on a own saas is very appealing...
Imagine if one of these days we opened up the video and his voice is full of helium. I’d cry 😂
My son works there
A little deceiving on the tax advantages. You can deduct your expenses, of course. However there is a 15% self-employment tax on top of your income tax, as well as business licenses, and paying half of your employee's income taxes, too. Running a business is definitely not favorable to taxes. You should budget 30% of your income to taxes in the U.S. Deductions exist because you spent that money to be in business. Many naive people believe they are "tax breaks" but they are not breaks at all. They are just valid expenses that get deducted from your income.
I already thought you had to be a pretty huge guy, but the bouncer thing just confirmed it.
I would really like to go freelancing but unfortunately Italy and Romania are not great places to find clients... everyone wants to charge you the same cheap money without taking into account the technology use (like they want to charge you for a .NET app the same as Wordpress) because there's always the cousin or the nephew that can do it for free. The other problem is that these countries do not have strict rules when it comes to unpaid bills. Which means that it will take you lots of money to bring the clients to a court and then also lots of time. Do you have suggestions in this regard? I see that most outsourcing companies here work only with foreign clients...
let's become an entrepreNERD
I think you miss work at a non tech company as a developer.
Just came across your videos, I've been programming for smaller companies for 15 years but always wanted to freelance. But the freelance sites I've seen showed me you can't really make any money. You've indicated you can make 4-5 times more as a freelancer. How much are we talking? I'm in 6 figures now and would like the same or more to do my own thing. What salary range is possible?
I hate large corporations, and much prefer small organizations or freelance. My problem, however, is that I'm not a developer but a data engineer (working mainly with sql, bi and some data science). I would assume such skills are required mainly by large organizations, for smaller ones haven't yet generated enough data. Am I wrong? And if I am, which data tools small organizations use? Same question goes for freelancing - can one even freelance in database world? I know that organizations are very protective about their data and prefer to have people "from the inside".
I dont want to work for google, I want google to work for me. Its that simple.
well they do work for me, via SEO :)
(but it sucks that 90% of my company relies on Google search, Im trying though.. )
Hi stef,just starting in Python any sugestions?
What s any API?
From Portugal 💪💯💯!!!!
👇
How can you? If you don't know data structures and algorithms
thanks a lot very infomative :)
hi, Stefan. Thank you for the video. I have the question, where is better to work: in software oriented company or in a company where software is secondary ? Thank you.
In the 2nd case, you might be top-dog-nerd, since you might be one of the few ... or the only one. In the former, you will have more learning opportunity perhaps.
Thank you
He's dead on about small versus large business
When it comes to degrees, I was looking at a school and they have a degree for computer science but also internet/web development. Which would be the right one when it comes to coding in your opinion? Would the internet development basically make us a "master" in the things you do yourself?
Steven Grossman If I'm reading things on the site correctly, ASU says it offers internet and web development (applied science BAS). I know stefan is self taught.
Go for computer science, you will be able to understand web development and pursue it at the same time understand what makes it work the way it does and it is a more valuable degree opens up many opportunities whereas web development as a degree would not have the same value