Thread by @mykola

If you want to make mad money and have no attachment to what you’re building, be a contractor.

If you want camaraderie and ongoing interesting problems in the same domain, take a salary.

In both cases don’t work for most companies.

https://twitter.com/zerornella/status/1412010813024620545

When contracting, you want to work for a place that uses a lot of contractors and understands the budget. Don’t do one-off work for mom-and-pop shops that will contest every nickel, set a day rate or week rate with a big co and go.

When taking a salary, you want a place that takes its values seriously and really prioritizes the well-being of its staff. My last job was like that when I worked there, but new leadership started killing benefits and being dishonest about it etc.

Now I’m at @ModeAnalytics and it’s great. We ship a killer product while running a business that prioritizes the well-being of the employees. I’m surrounded by colleagues I respect and learn from.

I make good money, but contracting would still pay more.

So why stay at mode? Because contracting is two jobs, hustling to get the work and then doing the work. It’s unstable, it’s harder on you overall in my experience than a salary _at a good company_.

Contract if you’re being exploited, even to the same shitty company.

I have twice quit salaried jobs that weren’t treating me well after establishing myself as highly skilled. In both cases I was able to continue on as a contractor for significantly more money (2-3x) for the same work.

This path is open to you, if you are close to indispensable.

Btw we are hiring at mode.

There’s FE work available, which largely involves a ton of angular AND angularjs.

There’s backend work, which is Ruby on Rails.

Hit me up if you’re looking!

(If I refer you I get a nice little recruitment fee, full disclosure.)

Mode has at least a couple of neurodivergent folks, and is flexible in terms of wfh and other accommodations moving forward, even when the office does reopen.

Another note here: the worst jobs are salaried jobs that treat you like a contractor (no real stake, you're just closing tickets) or contract jobs that try to make you feel like you're salaried (they expect unpaid overtime, sacrifices from you etc).

Most companies legit suck.

It takes a while to find the kind of place that fits all of your personal needs. Once you find it, you hold on to it because it's hard to find again.