The democratic society of today, with the creative services like journalism and IT technologies playing an important role in the public life in developed countries, has given birth to a new type of occupation - the freelance (free-lance) job.
Why a freelancer?
The democratization of the labor market and the fast development of creative professions like journalism, computing and web design have created all the conditions for people to find a very flexible way of making their living. The IT sphere, for instance, is known for offering a great flexibility in terms of working place and working hours.
In practice, the IT specialists are confined neither to one working place, nor to a certain work time frame. What matters here is the program or application they create on their computer. And this could happen anywhere, at any time. That free nature of the IT jobs has incited many specialists to start working on their own, breaking off the less inspiring corporate atmosphere in the office. This is how the freelancers have emerged.
What is an IT freelancer?
For the reasons mentioned above, the IT industry is one of the most freelancers-rich professional spheres. The IT freelancer is a computer specialist working on the principle of self-employment. Every specialist who practices a freelancing job has full control over the working place, the company he/she works for and the project types, as well as over the payments received for doing their job.
The benefits of an IT freelancer
One of the main benefits of working as a freelancer in this sphere is of a psychological nature. You can have all the conditions you need to focus on your ongoing projects at leisure, without having to bear with the moods of your colleagues and the whims of your boss. You can practice freelancing anywhere you wish, escaping the stressful atmosphere in the office. The lack of the well-known corporate stress may save you loads of energy to put in your creative work.
As a freelancer you can work for different companies and change your bosses as often as you do with your handkerchiefs. Actually, freelancers do not have a boss, since they work independently and the bosses of the companies they make projects for are actually their partners. So this gives you a great independence in choosing who to work for on a project and the freedom to dictate the rules in signing contracts or making verbal agreements with the other side.
Defining the rules in working for companies the IT freelancers have control over their wages as well. They are free to set their custom fee scheme depending on the complexity and duration of the assigned project. The method of charging the other party may be based on time (by the day, hourly) or per project. There are also freelancers that support the value-based pricing scheme, where the other side is given the freedom to pay the freelancer what they see as a deserved cost for the completed project they have been able to test.