pezar wrote:
Is anybody a freelance computer programmer, where you work on a program for six months, get paid, and then look for another program to write? I can't fix anything because of my dyspraxia so I can't do a trade, so I was thinking of learning how to program.
I am a programmer, but not on a freelance basis. I'm not sure if freelance programming would be very suitable for someone on the spectrum unless they didn't mind the large social part that would come with it.
You'll have to communicate with potential customers and sell your services to them. There will be lots of meetings where you sit down with your customers and try to get them to tell you what it is exactly that the program/website they need is supposed to offer in terms of functionality and such. If it is a decent size project chances are you will not be the only one working on it so you'll have to work together with other programmers and designers and such. You'll have to plan out most of the development tasks on your own and make estimates about how much time it's going to cost you and how much money you'll be charging your customer. Then there's regular meetings with your customers to discuss the progress and see if things are heading in the right direction and once it's all done you will probably have to be available for support if things break down or if they have questions. There's just so much more to it than just writing the program.
But ofcourse if you don't mind all that then by all means go for it, just remember that programming is only one part of it.
25 Sep 2012, 8:52 pm
