Hello altogether,
I was not on the forum for long but I would like to share a small story about my side hustle which was nothing more ... a side hustle but it gave me some insights.
First of all, I do not want to brag about education or so but I would like to stick to the numbers as truthfully as possible.
Background:
I am an physicist with an PhD in electrical engineering specialised in optical sensor design. I have worked now for 5 years in the automotive environment and am at the forefront of Lidar development (that stuff that Mr. Musk hates).
Well, anyway, I have always tried to stick to facts and figures and that earned me a lot of trust. A colleague that left the company I have worked in so far contacted me and said that his new company wants to build a sensor for medical purpose but do not know how to start. I thought that was interesting because I have not done many medical applications so far. Being a good German employee, I asked my employer for the permission and then went on to work with the other medical company as a freelancer. Since I am an engineer by education, I got the official benefit of being a freelancer in the sence of the law (German: Freiberufler) which made everything quite easy on application.
The company asked me for a price per hour since they wanted to pay me on hour basis. Well, I looked into several websites that offered suggestions and my wife found one where the level of experience was rated against the price. For the highest rate, they stated 150 € (~ 176 USD) an hour.
She asked me how good I would consider myself.
I answered "The best 1% of the senior engineers if you relate that"
"So more?" "I guess so ..." "Then price that in."
I did offer than a rate of 180 € (208 Usd). And they did not care and ordered 10 hrs. I was like ... holy moly ... is that real?
I have finished the 10 hours. It took me over a year because in the end I rated the work of a third party company whenever they hit a milestone and I showed them how to derisk the development.
For me, it was super simple, easy earned money. I will not get a follow up since the development engineers can now work on their own.
The money is always important, sure. The rate is around 6 times higher than my average hourly payment at my actual employee.
Still, I would like to point out the other aspects: I am - or at least feel - well received at other companies.
I had some fun working on something else than my usual stuff.
And, I got some experience as an self-employed person, which makes me proud though it was not continuous and much.
I hope this inspires other engineers to look to the sides of their actual employee work and try it as well.
I was not on the forum for long but I would like to share a small story about my side hustle which was nothing more ... a side hustle but it gave me some insights.
First of all, I do not want to brag about education or so but I would like to stick to the numbers as truthfully as possible.
Background:
I am an physicist with an PhD in electrical engineering specialised in optical sensor design. I have worked now for 5 years in the automotive environment and am at the forefront of Lidar development (that stuff that Mr. Musk hates).
Well, anyway, I have always tried to stick to facts and figures and that earned me a lot of trust. A colleague that left the company I have worked in so far contacted me and said that his new company wants to build a sensor for medical purpose but do not know how to start. I thought that was interesting because I have not done many medical applications so far. Being a good German employee, I asked my employer for the permission and then went on to work with the other medical company as a freelancer. Since I am an engineer by education, I got the official benefit of being a freelancer in the sence of the law (German: Freiberufler) which made everything quite easy on application.
The company asked me for a price per hour since they wanted to pay me on hour basis. Well, I looked into several websites that offered suggestions and my wife found one where the level of experience was rated against the price. For the highest rate, they stated 150 € (~ 176 USD) an hour.
She asked me how good I would consider myself.
I answered "The best 1% of the senior engineers if you relate that"
"So more?" "I guess so ..." "Then price that in."
I did offer than a rate of 180 € (208 Usd). And they did not care and ordered 10 hrs. I was like ... holy moly ... is that real?
I have finished the 10 hours. It took me over a year because in the end I rated the work of a third party company whenever they hit a milestone and I showed them how to derisk the development.
For me, it was super simple, easy earned money. I will not get a follow up since the development engineers can now work on their own.
The money is always important, sure. The rate is around 6 times higher than my average hourly payment at my actual employee.
Still, I would like to point out the other aspects: I am - or at least feel - well received at other companies.
I had some fun working on something else than my usual stuff.
And, I got some experience as an self-employed person, which makes me proud though it was not continuous and much.
I hope this inspires other engineers to look to the sides of their actual employee work and try it as well.
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