What do you self employed types do then?

Kittyfrisk

JerkMoans said:

I spread Peace and Harmony.  In the dispute resolution business  

Sometimes I even sport a really rather far out white hat to do it  

Hmmmmm...

Snags

thecolourbox said:

I didn't say anything about skills! The fact that I'm rubbish at my job suggests exactly the opposite even. The job spec for my job does not reflect what I have to do, hence the problem of not knowing what people actually do for their job as I don't know that the job spec is actually reflective of it

Job specs rarely reflect reality.

The most important skills in my job aren't specifically techincal, or even IT-related. I would say that my core skills are in the area of being able to be genuinely objective (in so far as there is such a thing), to have a reasonable analytical capability, and to be able to translate what people tell me is happening into what actually is happening, and from there make connections to what the actual causes and/or fixes might be.

So analysis, broad understanding of systems, and lay person to technician translation, which leads to being able to Google the right phrases to get the right answer quickly enough. Most of the time.

A skill I'm losing is the ability to do this without calling people fuckwits

From what you've said in the past you're conscientious, you care about doing a good job, and you know what needs doing. Those are all transferrable qualities. The bit that seems to give you grief is that you give a shit, and you therefore suffer by having to be piggy in the middle trying to herd a bunch of cats who don't give a shit (that may be an over-simplification, and a mis-representation, I'm going from pastiche memory). Take what you know, find more amenable cats ...

JerkMoans

Kittyfrisk said:

JerkMoans said:

I spread Peace and Harmony.  In the dispute resolution business  

Sometimes I even sport a really rather far out white hat to do it  

Hmmmmm...

To a ‘T’  

Kittyfrisk

^ Thought I'd seen some 'keeper' pearl handled revolvers in the classifieds.

JerkMoans

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Thought I'd seen some 'keeper' pearl handled revolvers in the classifieds.

“Would trade for Novo/Fano/whatever latest fetish may be. Tomahawk?”

skullfunkerry

I’m not self-employed any more but after a decade in the NHS as an IT systems trainer I took a voluntary redundancy, then started contracting as an IT trainer/manager. I worked for the NHS for a few years, doing basically the job I’d been doing before but for a lot more money, then started working for a small company that supplies a specialist IT system to the NHS. They took me on full time about 4 years ago; now I’m still doing the same job, but for less money - although now I have the stability of a regular wage again, which suits me at the moment tbh.

I agree with everyone saying that you don’t necessarily need to be any good at anything to make a living from it: some of the contractors I worked with were shockingly inept: from IT trainers who were unable to control a room full of trainees or who were lacking basic IT skills, right up to the £1250-a-day Finance Manager who asked straight-faced in a board meeting whether a quarter of a million pounds meant £400,000  

EDIT: btw, I’d also like to see some of your work, @Budgie - can you send me a link too, please?

Vibetronic

I worked in the civil service for 15 years before having enough and taking a payout to leave and set up as a guitar tutor...wanted to do something I was actually good at and cared about. I basically took a year out to chill out a bit and make a slow start, then began building it up and it's going really well (although what @Jason says about initial earnings is entirely accurate and mirrors my experience!). I've found that word-of-mouth is really useful - teaching kids will inevitably lead to parents recommending you to other parents etc - and making sure you reply to enquiries as soon as possible will get you a good reputation. Having a stable core of customers and getting to know them really helps too - I teach loads of kids but getting a few steady adult learners in (ie hour-long lessons) is what gets you a steady and healthy income. 

It all dropped off with covid but I can't really complain - still had quite a few online lessons carrying on over the summer - and now things are a bit more normal my numbers are right back up and now well over what they were before....the usual summer influx of new students didn't happen this year until the kids went back to school, but I've been rushed off my feet since then. There'll probably be an inevitable drop-off again if this area goes into tier 2/3 or whatever, but it won't be forever. I think the main thing is being passionate/really caring about what you do....if you've got that then you should be able to make it work