ExperiencedDevs, best practices for consulting work?

Posted by engineered_academic@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 1 comments

I just picked up two new jobs doing some consulting work for startups. Things I have noticed: Don't start two contracts at the same time. Make sure there is some overlap between start dates. Try to pick contracts that aren't located in the same TZ. It makes calendar management easier. Job1 is afternoon, Job2 is morning. I like to break things up in the middle of the day. It helps to refocus my mind for the task at hand and limit context switching. I put exercise as a priority in the morning, otherwise it won't get done. I currently use Clickup for time tracking, I like its features but wish reporting was better and connected to invoicing. I am sure there is another product out there but I really like the task management interface. Might just write my own billing program. What are some of your best practices for consulting work?

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intellectualDonkey@reddit

I took on a single contract alongside my full-time role as an engineering manager — mainly guiding a startup’s dev team on best practices, setting up a code pipeline, transitioning to trunk-based development, and building guidelines and testing frameworks. Most of my work was prepping materials, a POC, and guiding their team rather than hands-on coding. It was a six-month contract, but I finished early and agreed to a lower rate because of the overlap with my main job. I value my relationship with my employer, so I didn’t want to take on too much. One trick that somewhat worked was “dark mode” windows: time blocks where I’d focus on contract work and catch up on my main role at night. It wasn’t fun, especially with kids, and ended up being a lot of extra work. So, while I’d love the financial freedom of contracting, I need more consistent gigs to justify the leap.

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