Technical advisor in optics - small story

[Tossek]

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.

 

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[fvcorp]

I co-own an optics company dabbling in certain tech that you'd be interested in...and I concur. It's such a niche that you should consider billing more.

Think of the value they received. They likely would have paid $1,000/hr if it was structured as a project.

Since we're in such similar fields, perhaps we should get in contact. Mind if I send you a DM?

 

[Tossek]

yes, please do.

 

[Deleted85763]

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.

So what you are saying is that you used to be a block of steel. Then you turned yourself into sewing needles. Now how about turning your self into watch springs? This way instead of earning 180 euro per hour you can earn 18,000 euro per hour! Better yet 18,000,000 euro for a successful project!

 

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[Tossek]

Yes, that is indeed the question but my timeframe to start entrepreneurship in a serious way is around three years in the future. I build up myself to be a multitalent, a jack of all trades. Still, I know it does not fit well with the fastlane mentality here in this forum not to throw away my slowlane job for the money. You know, I like my job overall, it pays well and my wife likes the security. And timewise, I could not handle much more to be honest. But this mindset might be ignorance from my side ... I do cherish the esteem that most people have here.

 

[Deleted85763]

Yes, that is indeed the question but my timeframe to start entrepreneurship in a serious way is around three years in the future. I build up myself to be a multitalent, a jack of all trades. Still, I know it does not fit well with the fastlane mentality here in this forum not to throw away my slowlane job for the money. You know, I like my job overall, it pays well and my wife likes the security. And timewise, I could not handle much more to be honest. But this mindset might be ignorance from my side ... I do cherish the esteem that most people have here.

You said it all when it comes to entrepreneurship. It's not for everyone. Many people, especially families, need security. It's great. Others don't want security. They want to create their lives for themselves and are willing to accept the sacrifices and real risks. I did and while it was painful at times I would never do any different. I found through my own evolution the most amazing lifestyle that suits me and it is not something I could have ever dreamt possible.

If I had to give advice to a young man who wants to find his own amazing lifestyle I would say focus intensely on your business, always be honest, never give up and no smoking or drinking alcohol ever - you need to keep your self healthy because you will want to take advantage of all the opportunities that require you to be so for many more decades ahead of great living that you will have.

 

[EVMaso]

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 ...

I did offer than a rate of 180 € (208 Usd)...

The rate is around 6 times higher than my average hourly payment at my actual employee.

First of all congrats on the successful side hustle, hope there's more to come for you!

Your regularly hourly rate at your employer, is that normal for Germany? Seems pretty low for someone with your level of expertise and experience.

 

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[Tossek]

Your regularly hourly rate at your employer, is that normal for Germany? Seems pretty low for someone with your level of expertise and experience.

This is a wonderful question.

I have already earned 20% more in absolute numbers in the same company being a team leader but my hourly payment was around 30% less due to the stupid amount of time spend in unnecessary meetings and task forces that went no where. I went back being a "simple" expert for the technologie. 40 hrs contract with time stamping is such a relief when you are mismanaged. Anyways, I am a pay scale employee right now and here I get nearly maximum. That is a bit more than double of the average earning of a German employee. The average earning nationwide is around 41 k€ which relates (assuming a 40 hrs week and 4,5 weeks each month) an hourly rate of around 23 € or 26,6 US$.

Living in one of the highest living cost areas, my high payments are neglectable. My wife is working as well. We could live very well here but at what cost of future returns? I decided to try to invest in dividend titles and in a similar manner like DJ stated in Unscripted . I know, it is slowlane but it is planable and we are totally able to achieve it without the fear of loosing everything.

Afterwards, my wife wants to build a company as well as long as basic living is covered by sth else. She is a quality management representative and I have a very good understanding of industrial manufacturing, planing, automatisation and people management. We would have everything we need to be successful - as long as we find a problem to solve but hey, this is the future.