mikeofaustin
Bronze Member
I can tell you that there's nothing better than feeling like an asset to a company.
A person I knew from about 15 years ago (I've been doing some small contract jobs for him from time to time), shows up at my house unannounced one evening (while I'm on my 8th cocktail by the way), and tells me that he wanted to talk to me about coming on board full time. So as of today (friday), I just finished my second day of work. I'm joining a crew of about half a dozen (in a 'daughter' company from a much larger company). I bring to the table lots of hardware skills (hardware electronics) and also software. I've already been a huge asset addition to them as all of them are strictly software (when you're designing a computer, you need more than just software people). I've already found multiple issues with the hardware that are currently being input into the system for change, and they seem to appreciate it very much.
And you know what the craziest thing about this is? I don't even know what my salary is! But, I'm assuming that I'll be at my usual $50 an hour contract price... so that's good. (still up in the air though - fingers crossed - you don't look a gift horse.....).
I've been thinking of moth-balling my own company for a while now, as I've gotten really tired of dealing with the multitudes of people that I have to coddle in their quest to design their own electronic ideas. It seems like most times I get a request, I have to help them to help me, as I have to teach them how to properly do something. There is simply too many things that a person needs to know when they want to bring a product to market. And I have to constantly approach them on this, and tell them what they need to expect (even before I start, because I need to design to Gov. regulation/ product specs). I spend the majority of my time helping people, but only a small portion of the time actually doing the work I do. For example, just a quote for a medium to large design would take about 2 hours to quote. And even then, I wouldn't be able to accurately quote them because they left out too much information.
A current real scenario is a client that made his own chip (a college project with corporate backing). As you would expect, college students do not have any experience at all, and they just throw things together and think the chip will work just like the textbooks say. In the real world, even experienced people go through revisions of silicon. And, as with THIS silicon, I see some glaring problems that I've addressed with them already, but they just ignored it, and built it anyway. But the crazy thing is that when I saw the problems that they had, I did the 'overbid' thing, thinking they would find someone else to bug. But, low and behold, they want to use me because I've already talked them through so much of the problems that they will face in previous emails. And, the quote that I gave, which was extremely over quoted, is now acceptable to them and now they want to move forward. So, given this, who wouldn't want to work with them for $18K for 2 weeks worth of work? I guess I'm a victim of my own success.
My thoughts are that I'll still take on the occasional design work, but only the 'easy ones' that pay 1K for a days worth of work (those are truly the 'good ones'). Now, all I have to do is finish out the current clients, and all is well and I can start a regular daily work cycle.
It really does feel good to go elsewhere for a full 8 hour day for once, instead of being holed up in my house. But, one thing i was reminded about on the first day, people in Austin drive like complete jerks.
A person I knew from about 15 years ago (I've been doing some small contract jobs for him from time to time), shows up at my house unannounced one evening (while I'm on my 8th cocktail by the way), and tells me that he wanted to talk to me about coming on board full time. So as of today (friday), I just finished my second day of work. I'm joining a crew of about half a dozen (in a 'daughter' company from a much larger company). I bring to the table lots of hardware skills (hardware electronics) and also software. I've already been a huge asset addition to them as all of them are strictly software (when you're designing a computer, you need more than just software people). I've already found multiple issues with the hardware that are currently being input into the system for change, and they seem to appreciate it very much.
And you know what the craziest thing about this is? I don't even know what my salary is! But, I'm assuming that I'll be at my usual $50 an hour contract price... so that's good. (still up in the air though - fingers crossed - you don't look a gift horse.....).
I've been thinking of moth-balling my own company for a while now, as I've gotten really tired of dealing with the multitudes of people that I have to coddle in their quest to design their own electronic ideas. It seems like most times I get a request, I have to help them to help me, as I have to teach them how to properly do something. There is simply too many things that a person needs to know when they want to bring a product to market. And I have to constantly approach them on this, and tell them what they need to expect (even before I start, because I need to design to Gov. regulation/ product specs). I spend the majority of my time helping people, but only a small portion of the time actually doing the work I do. For example, just a quote for a medium to large design would take about 2 hours to quote. And even then, I wouldn't be able to accurately quote them because they left out too much information.
A current real scenario is a client that made his own chip (a college project with corporate backing). As you would expect, college students do not have any experience at all, and they just throw things together and think the chip will work just like the textbooks say. In the real world, even experienced people go through revisions of silicon. And, as with THIS silicon, I see some glaring problems that I've addressed with them already, but they just ignored it, and built it anyway. But the crazy thing is that when I saw the problems that they had, I did the 'overbid' thing, thinking they would find someone else to bug. But, low and behold, they want to use me because I've already talked them through so much of the problems that they will face in previous emails. And, the quote that I gave, which was extremely over quoted, is now acceptable to them and now they want to move forward. So, given this, who wouldn't want to work with them for $18K for 2 weeks worth of work? I guess I'm a victim of my own success.
My thoughts are that I'll still take on the occasional design work, but only the 'easy ones' that pay 1K for a days worth of work (those are truly the 'good ones'). Now, all I have to do is finish out the current clients, and all is well and I can start a regular daily work cycle.
It really does feel good to go elsewhere for a full 8 hour day for once, instead of being holed up in my house. But, one thing i was reminded about on the first day, people in Austin drive like complete jerks.
Not many pay full contract wage in a salaried position, depending on benefits. With your tech-savvy mojo, however, it appears the sky's the limit 
