Advice for New Consultants

Was introduced to a new member of the Philly CocoaHeads who is starting out as an iOS consultant. He asked for my advice and I figured I’d share it will you all too:

Nice to meet you too. I’ll keep my eye out for new work. I usually share gigs in the #gig-swap channel when they find me. I am no longer doing iOS development (doing Elixir / Phoenix web apps instead), but I hear about things from time to time.

My biggest recommendation is to network and meet as many people as possible. Be shameless about sharing your contracting availability and short-term goals. Most of the work I get is through my little circle of work friends.

Also, build in public as much as possible, blog what you learn to teach others and when you have time, don’t be afraid to approach the people/projects you care about and ask, “how can I help?”

Good luck to ya.

What did I miss? Let me know.

---

About the Author. Mike Zornek is a developer and teacher focusing on product design and development with a heavy focus on Elixir and LiveView. In between his projects, Mike helps other teams through consulting. During off hours, he enjoyed watching Phillies baseball and playing relaxing video games.