So, as you've probably heard if you've worked with, met, passed on a street, been in the same coffee shop as, or just had a dream about @jonathanstark, "hourly billing is nuts."
I used to disagree vehemently. I no longer do.
Unless you're an attorney, people are going to cap out in terms of what they pay you somewhere around $250-$300 an hour.
That's good money, right? $600K a year assuming 40 hours a week. Let's start there.
There we go. And as an apology for the trouble, @Microsoft has disabled the social profile nonsense.
What kind of crapass "cloud" conference is this?! They've got pre-keynote streams so you feel engaged and involved, they bother to *mention* the virtual sponsor expo hall so customers know it's there...
MS has so much to learn from AWS's approach to half-assing things.
My personal guide for burned-out employees with chips on their shoulders. I recommend none of these. I am guilty of all of these. This is why I'm a terrible employee.
Put expenses on your own credit card and then submit them. If you experience pushback, stare them dead in the eye and say "okay, so don't pay it." See if they call your bluff.
(They almost never will.)
If someone asks you to work late tonight, you have plans. Maybe a date with your spouse. Maybe playing video games. Maybe you plan to cry yourself to sleep. Not their business; they're your plans.
Emergencies aren't "someone else fucked up the planning."
So you want to be an independent consultant. Let’s skip past the stage where I scream “don’t do it!” and onto the next step:
How to position yourself.
It's natural to want to be the jack/jane-of-all-trades; anything within the vague realm of technology being what you do.
It's also a mistake.
Your first deals are going to come from your network--friends, former colleagues, etc. You want word of mouth to spread, because traditional marketing in this space is nightmarish.
In honor of @colmmacc being elevated to VP, a thread on my experiences with him. Somewhere a bunch of @awscloud people just flinched and didn't know why.
First, VP / Distinguished Engineer is the top of the IC track at AWS. There's no higher job level; in all of Amazon there are less than 2 dozen the last time I counted. It is seriously No Joke.
I've encountered Colm on a few different customer issues, to the point where I started to grow suspicious. "Does AWS know that I'm involved here, and they're bringing him in because they know I respect him mightily?"
Of course not; AWS doesn't communicate internally that well.