Contracting - What age is too young?

[David]

Hi all,

I am looking for opinions/experiences of contracting at a young age (24+)...
Are there any "young" contractors out there?
Do companies take you seriously at this sort of age (of course they would never know your exact age).
How much industry experience would you deem to be the minimum for contracting?

I ask as I have been advised by a more "Senior" Engineering friend (from a previous job) to get into contracting at a young age and build up some capital while I have no big commitments in life...

The idea does quite appeal to me and I am used to working on my own. In my current position I am the only Electronics Engineer and so do everything from start to finish.

Sensible or crazy?!

Dave

[grumpydoc]

Ultimately your credibility depends mostly on your last job or contract - like anything else you "just" need your foot in the door.

Contracting is more about flexibility than being an uber programmer or designer. From experience I'd say the average contractor in software has about the same ability as the average permie but the spread is wider - I've met some very good contractors, but I've also met some total dipsticks who barely seemed to know what a computer was, much less how to write software for one.

For the employer contractors allow a workforce to be quickly built up when needed and just as quickly disbanded when not. For the contractor the advantage is much the same - being able to get wide experience of employers and projects without looking like you like to jump ship every three months. Having more control over your income and tax affairs is also an advantage.

I can't see anyone not taking you seriously because you're "only" 24.

[EEVblog]

24 is young?
Geeze, I was 18, younger if you count less formal stuff.
But then again, I wasn't going out approaching people for work, they all came to me.

Dave.

[marshallh]

22 here, doing contracting at the moment... Go and meet people at conventions, build stuff on your own too to show you can work without babysitting

[jerry507]

I don't do it on my own, but all my jobs have been contracting. I'm done with it, much too stressful for not enough reward (money excluded).

[nanofrog]

If you have enough experience to set out on your own, the work ethic (managing the biz side will add more time than just completing the job), and manage the lean periods when work's not available, I say go for it.   

[David]

Interesting feedback, thank you! I guess one of the factors holding me back is that fear of not knowing enough...However I guess as a contractor you have the ability to select the type of work that you feel you can manage?

[funkimunky]

When self employed I always made the mistake of under estimating the amount of time for a job. Its hard work finishing a job when you work out that you hourly rate is actually very low, but finish you must as your reputation is your main asset.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[AndyC_772]

your reputation is your main asset.

+1 for this, definitely. Most of my customers are companies where someone has seen my work before and recommended me.

To the OP: you won't be able to be too selective, unless you have such a great reputation and such a wide network of industry contacts that there's way more work available to you than there are hours in the day (in which case, please give me a call!!)

Every customer will expect that you already know their product area well. You'll need to be able to quickly identify what their area actually is (because they'll never tell you, it's just assumed that you're already completely familiar with it and that you rarely do anything else), and you'll need to be able to appear confident while at the same time making a mental list of things to read up on.

This is where experience really counts. If you've actually worked on, say, industrial automation products before, then you'll be in a good position when someone asks you to design parts for a robot. But if all you've ever done before is radio networks, you'll be stuck.

Tip: it's better for all concerned if you turn down a job you know you can't do well. Don't bullsh*t.

That said, every project will include something which you've not done before, so be prepared to learn. This is true whether you're contracting or just doing a new project for a regular employer, and nobody will expect you to have built something that exactly matches their product before.

At 24 I'd only just graduated, and although I was keen enough, I had an awful lot of commercial and industrial experience still to gain. I really don't think I'd have been able to pick up a project and immediately debug, progress or redesign it unassisted.

Building stuff on your own is a great idea - pick a project area that's interesting to you, and make sure it's something you can't already do. For example, I've done two in the last few years. One was a hi-fi DAC, which taught me a lot about low noise power supplies, and the other was a motorcycle accessory for which I had to learn all about how to use a PIC and program it in C. Neither product is commercially available in its own right, but I've drawn on both for inspiration when customer jobs have had similar requirements.

It's also handy to have something you can show a prospective customer without breaking NDAs or confidentiality agreements. Design your own PCBs and get them made properly if you think you might ever show them to prospective customers. Nothing says 'amateur' like an Arduino.