Making Money with Matlab and Python scripting

[Losspost]

Hi,

I am was thinking of using my programming abilities to do some scripting task. Sadly, when I was looking at freelancer websites there are already very crowded and competitive. So how would you start? How can you get your first client? What do I have to note in regards to taxes and all this stuff?
Greetings Losspost

 

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[JIRS]

Welcome to the forum, I am also a newbie here as this is my second post. I've been following a few threads over some months thought. I am also a long time Matlab programmer, but when I left the academic setting (PhD/Postdoc) found myself at odds with Matlab as I didn't want to cough-up the $2,000+ ? for a basic license (I think with the libraries I was used to, it might have been upwards of $8K). The angle I was looking at was in the data-analysis /data-science use of the software. I ended up learning R, but my options with these skills have always been around either:

1. Finding a niche around publicly available data (repackaging the data and selling the products) or,
2. Finding a plain job so I could improve my skills and have a better shot at #1 above.

My thought on freelancing was that if I where to freelance these skills, I would be competing with established programmers from Countries were living is not as expensive (I am in the US).

Around the time I was getting proficient with R (2014 - 6 years ago), I found a job in a pharma CMO, which pays relatively well but consumes your soul. I am still in the industry, but have finally found a bit of stability recently and have sparse time to dedicate to projects, which are more in the physical (as opposed to programming) side for the moment.

I am interested in knowing in what context you learned Matlab and Python ?, where are you geographically ?

Hi,

I am was thinking of using my programming abilities to do some scripting task. Sadly, when I was looking at freelancer websites there are already very crowded and competitive. So how would you start? How can you get your first client? What do I have to note in regards to taxes and all this stuff?
Greetings Losspost

 

[Jon L]

If you have the patience to deal with the $10/hr jobs on upwork, etc, you can build up to charging a lot more than that. On Upwork, and probably other sites, once you complete enough jobs and get a high enough score, you're exposed to better clients that pay more.

I don't have the patience for that. Between the $10/hr programmers and the idiot clients that want 'something like AirBNB for $5000,' I just couldn't deal. There was one company - something like $50m/year revenue - that wanted to pay $50k for a software project that would run their entire company. Really. Why in the WORLD would you put that much faith in a development team that only charged $50k for the amount of work involved. Even in India, that is not a lot of money for what they wanted. (I'm familiar with the salaries paid to developers in India.) They were literally risking their company's future on this project. I know of a company in Santa Barbara that did this on a new ERP system (a COTS product that normally worked well). They couldn't process orders for 6 months in any volume, and 500 people lost their jobs. They no longer exist.

What I did instead was learn how to sell. I now have clients that pay me and my overseas programming team to develop solutions to their business problems. (They don't pay me to write code...there's a big difference.)

If you're a phenomenally good developer, you can find companies that will broker your services. TopTal is one, but there are other lesser known ones. Once you do a few jobs, your name will get out there and you'll not have a lack of work.

 

[Losspost]

Welcome to the forum, I am also a newbie here as this is my second post. I've been following a few threads over some months thought. I am also a long time Matlab programmer, but when I left the academic setting (PhD/Postdoc) found myself at odds with Matlab as I didn't want to cough-up the $2,000+ ? for a basic license (I think with the libraries I was used to, it might have been upwards of $8K). The angle I was looking at was in the data-analysis /data-science use of the software. I ended up learning R, but my options with these skills have always been around either:

1. Finding a niche around publicly available data (repackaging the data and selling the products) or,
2. Finding a plain job so I could improve my skills and have a better shot at #1 above.

My thought on freelancing was that if I where to freelance these skills, I would be competing with established programmers from Countries were living is not as expensive (I am in the US).

Around the time I was getting proficient with R (2014 - 6 years ago), I found a job in a pharma CMO, which pays relatively well but consumes your soul. I am still in the industry, but have finally found a bit of stability recently and have sparse time to dedicate to projects, which are more in the physical (as opposed to programming) side for the moment.

I am interested in knowing in what context you learned Matlab and Python ?, where are you geographically ?

Hi. Geographically I am from Germany. So obviously my living cost is pretty high in comparison to the other freelancers too. I started Matlab in university and python already in high school. I do a lot (actually mostly) programming in my current internship. I have to add, that I don't want to work as a developer fulltime. I am studying electrical engineering and this is still my main focus. I just thought if i could somehow use this skill

 

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