Develop complete products of healthy complexity. Very wide range - enterprise backends, complex multimedia front ends, device control, firmware etc. etc. Located in Toronto, Canada. $100/hr or better say around $200K/year give or take as each contract is rather long term engagement. Typical would be 6-12 month first version with restricting functionality. Year for maturing. Another year support, transition to maintenance team. All in all the average duration is about 3 years.
Every once in a while do hit and run jobs. In this case the highest effective rate was $20K in 3 pure days of work. Some went to a person who got me the gig.
I was employed for 6 years at company in Toronto until 2000. The company was a consulting business oriented towards delivering complete solutions (products for clients). I saw their ad and just walked into their office. Chatted for a bit with the receptionist who'd also doubled as assistant to CEO got her interested to the point that she brought me to a CEO (company was very small by then). When they hired me, I very quickly have progressed from a developer to a lead architect. While working there I proved myself as creative solution provider and the stuff I've done impressed our clients (those included guys like Bell). All of this came at a price. I got sort of burnout and have decided to do it on my own. Since I already had a reputation and have met many people it was not long before I nailed my first deal. Somebody recommended me to a self-funded startup who knew the business had an idea for a product but had zero experience in developing. We've met. We liked each other. I hired another programmer as single me was not enough and have delivered first prototype in 3 months. The rest is history. I just kept going like this. I've had ups and downs. I gained money, I lost money but overall, I am doing ok. I also have my own products that bring me some money. If you are looking to get a job / contract I am 100% ok for a current contract so no help on that side unfortunately.
Is there anything in particular you are looking for?
Very interesting path and hit the nail on the head: It really comes down to networking and lead development to consistently find jobs (especially the ones that you want to take!).
I have recently relocated to the GTA and pretty new to working on my own as I still only have one customer which I work for remotely. Now, the space I'm in is adjacent and overlapping to the typical coder-for-hire as I am more in the hardware/embedded/product end of things for the medical device industry (At least so far). However, all of these systems need code and infra to support them so I've gotten pretty apt with that. I'm looking to maybe go after IOT, Edge computing, product development. All of this aside, I've found that networking with other freelancers who are in complimentary spheres can be great since I've passed on a few jobs to colleges and vice versa. I don't really have a basis on the TO tech scene to know where to start.
With everything opening up post lock-down maybe we should grab coffee (or hot beverage of choice)!
Every once in a while do hit and run jobs. In this case the highest effective rate was $20K in 3 pure days of work. Some went to a person who got me the gig.