Panel

Eric Davis (twitter github blog)
Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Ramp Up)

Discussion
01:41 - Employment History

06:58 - Perks of Being a Freelancer

Variety of Job Areas
Choose Your Work
Flexibility & Freedom

15:22 - Paycheck Security

Unemployment
Contractors Vs Employees

20:54 - Coast-Along Employees

21:50 - Health Benefits

23:34 - Marketing & Selling

Providing Value to a Company

27:27 - Business Skills

29:37 - Self-Direction & Motivation

32:48 - Loans

34:51 - Going Back to Work (after freelancing)
Picks

Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself by Daniel H. Pink (Eric)
Powermat Home & Office Mat (Chuck)
Une Bobine (Chuck)

Transcript
ERIC: Hold on, I got to shut my door. My dog opened it and I don't want the cats to come fly in here.

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CHUCK: Hey everybody and welcome to Episode 45 of the Ruby Freelancer Show! This week on our panel, we have Eric Davis.

ERIC: I had tea to drink!

CHUCK: And I'm Charles Max Wood from devchat.tv. This week we're going to be talking about the Risks of Freelancing versus Fulltime Development. The general idea is that -- I get a lot of people that we talk to and basically the idea is this that they're like "well, I would go freelance because it looks like you'll get a lot of perks, but I just can't stand the risk". To me it just doesn't feel as risky. So we're going to talk about that; talk about some of the what's and why's and maybe why freelancing is or isn't as risky as being a fulltime employee and some of the other things that related to that. I'm a little curious Eric, what is your kind of your employment history?

ERIC: I worked when I was in high school, just normal high school type jobs. Went to college, did some college jobs like delivered pizza, that sort of thing. And then right after college, went to work for a software company and actually got started there in technical support, then went to testing, and then went to software development. So I was like going through and by the end of it, I was doing desktop software development, wasn't in a mobile at the time. I did all the web development, manage all their servers, manage their network, and so I like had my hand in a lot of pies by there. Then after that, we moved and I started my own company.

CHUCK: Wow! After college you worked for one company and then went freelance?

ERIC: Yeah, pretty much. In college, I'd say freshman year or maybe sophomore year-ish, I got heavy into like reading about entrepreneurship and all that. I've actually started 2 or 3 businesses. I didn't know what I was doing and basically, looking back at it now, it was stupid for me to do those. But I learned enough at that time and figured out that I like running my own business. And so basically most of the jobs that I had were just stop gaps to pay the bills and to learn more and tell I was actually felt confident enough that I could actually run my own company.

CHUCK: Yeah that makes sense. So my work history is somewhat similar. I worked in high school, too, I worked at grocery stores as baggers and checkers, and whatever.