Growing into a worldclass online profession

This is a talk given at Kuhustle meetup at the Nailab. The presentation gives tips on how to work your way up the ladder as a freelancer.

Transcript

1. Growing into a world class online professional by Kenneth Kinyanjui
2. Heads up? • Who am I? • 7 things about every online professional • Why do want to give you that job • Tips to working your way up
3. Kenneth Kinyanjui • Freelance Software Engineer • Cofounder & CTO, Infinity Space. • Cofounder , Olivinent Consulting LLP • @kenju254 • kennethkinyanjui.info
4. It starts with you
5. Why do want to that online job?
6. • Are you part timing? • Are you looking to build your career? • Do you have free time and want to use that time doing something worthwhile • Are you looking to supplement your income?
7. 7 things about an online professional
8. 1. Discipline • Stick to timelines and get the jobs done no matter what.
9. 2. Availability • Responsive to email • Available on Skype • Available on Google Hangouts
10. 3. Communicate • Give status report • Getting feedback from a client • When stuck raise the alarm • Proper English
11. 4. Competent • Get the job done. • Have the required skills. • Honest. • If you don’t have the capacity let it go.
12. 5. Work- Life Balance • Don’t overwork yourself • Relax • Work when productive. Its not about the number of hours you are working but the quality of work you output.
13. 6. Network • Meet similar professionals in your field and share. • Join a meetup. • Expand your network to other people and let people know about you and what you do.
14. 7. Permanent Beta • Always learning new stuff. • Trying to be relevant to the current trends • Improving yourself wholistically.
15. Why do clients want to give you that job?
16. Make them more money
17. Decrease costs
18. Getting the Job
19. What does it take ?
20. Building a level of Trust
21. Trust, How? • Previous work • Pet Projects • Testimonials • Referrals
22. Every project is a…
23. Be the best solution
24. The offer
25. What’s in the offer • Define the problem • Explain you solutions • Explain why this solution will boost the company revenue stream and reduce expenses • Use key value metrics • Finally give your quote
26. Rule of Thumb
27. –Jason Fried. Co founder 37 Signals and Inventor of Ruby on Rails “Cover letters say it all. They immediately tell you if someone wants this job or just any job. And cover letters make something else very clear: They tell you who can and who can't write. Spell checkers can spell, but they can't write. Wordsmiths rise to the top quickly. Another rule of thumb: When in doubt, always hire the better writer.” source: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100601/never-read-another-resume.html
28. Deliver on Time !!!!
29. Why???
30. Good Work + Happy Clients == Referrals
31. Unhappy Clients + Bad Delivery = No job
32. Tips • Have a good kuhustle.com profile • Username (if you can avoid numbers, etc) • Profile photo - Who do you trust • About me - descriptive without using too many words • What you know • Share your profile on social media - Your friends are you first point of reference for new jobs. • Upload your work , put it out there. • Strive to have the best rating after a job.
33. Kenneth Kinyanjui To be a leading software developer. I have been doing 3 years experience in Python Programming and Django. and believe that I can deliver the best out of what i do and that is coding... I also blog and document experiences i have encountered during this journey on http:// kennethkinyanjui.info Overview Languages: Python, Java, VB.NET, C/C++ Front-End: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery Design Resources: Twitter Bootstrap, Zurb Foundation Relational Databases: MySQL. PostgreSQL PaaS: Heroku, Google App Engine IaaS: Compute Engine, Digital Ocean, AWS(EC2), Linode, Kili.io Frameworks: Django, Pelican, Flask, Webapp2 VCS: Git, Mercurial PS Send your job request with a personal touch.