What if I go back to fulltime
jasonleow • 12 Sept 2023 •
With job search underway, the hard question I’m facing now is:
What if the freelance positions doesn’t pan out, and the only choice left is fulltime positions? What if I go back to fulltime employment? How would I be able to continue indie hacking?
I could still wake up early to indie hack, as I did whenever I got consulting projects. Wake up at 4am, spend 1-2h on indie hacking, then commute to work. I could spend early weekend mornings as I do now, as part of side project weekends, to work on my indie products. There’s always pockets of time.
TBH, I think part-time indie hacking is underrated. Yes it’s harder to find time and energy after you’ve comitted 40h a week to your main job. But there’s the assurance that I’m not taking big risks with my family welfare. Mouths need to be fed. It’s a non-negotiable. It’s my duty as a husband, father, son. Not putting my family at risk is the main draw, for me and my life situation now at least.
Of course, that’s assuming any new employer will allow me to continue running the business and products. Many won’t. It’s 10x harder to find that in government jobs too. So this is a HUGE if.
What if it came down to it, and I had to choose between a fulltime job to feed the fam, and shutting down all my business and products?
That’s the scary scenario I’m avoiding. I’m not keen on shutting down anything. But the reality of the situation calls for some consideration.
No ready answers yet.
And I won’t wait till I have answers. Charging ahead first anyway, and will see how things unfold.
P.S. – Just sent out my first job application in a long while.
Comments
Thanks Robb!! I hope so too.
Hmm yeah true rather than shut down, I should sell off, at least the product gets to keep going. But I’m still trying real hard to not get there! 💪
Hey Jason!
Thank you for sharing vulnerably. I can imagine all the difficult emotions you’re feeling and just want to say that as a friend who’s seen you share, write, and grow throughout these years, I trust that you know best what you need and whatever path you choose, you have the resilience and skillsets to figure it out 🙂
I know that I’m not in your shoes, especially the part where you have family to feed, but this reminds me of how I felt in 2017. My savings was running out, and at that time I was really stubborn about wanting to get a PM job. But I had two scary looming things 1) my mom gave me an ultimatum that if I can’t find something by end of that year, I would move back to Taiwan 2) PM market was competitive as hell, and I was competing against a lot of recent MBA grads. The mindset that pushed me over the edge was focus obsessively on the inputs (which I can control) that can get me there. It resulted in me going through 1176 applications and 150 rounds of interviews. I did end up finding not just a job, but one that was perfect for where I was in my stage of my life, even though it still took 84 days.
Whatever you choose, I feel like there will always be trade-offs, but only you will know what levers to pull, which areas of discomfort you need to push more to allow you to regain the feeling of safety and abundance. You got this man! And If there’s anything I can help with, please don’t ever be shy to ask.
@andrewtsao Wow 1176 applications! That’s a herculean effort. Thanks for sharing your story with me, Andrew, and offering words of comfort. I read every line and did feel better! It’s a lonely journey, and sometimes little acts of kindness like that when someone’s down really helps. Bonus comfort from the fact we’ve witnessed each other’s journey as friends for some time! Yeah I got a lot of levers I’m trying right now - writing, web design, web dev, applying for jobs. And learning from the process what I want and don’t want.
Thanks for offering to help! 🙌 Since you asked… I was wondering, if there’s ever any client or friend you know who needs to hire someone to design a website/web app for them which you don’t have bandwidth for, could you send them my way? Would be super grateful for that! TIA 🙏
Good luck! I hope you get to keep working on your own projects. If it comes to it, do you think any of your business and products will be something you can sell off rather than shut down?