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Sadly enough Andrew speaks a lot of truth on this issue:
Here in the Bay Area, if you are a full time employee, say for a
software company (startup or established) that is quite busy, are you
going to be able to tell them "I can't work overtime on weekends or on
eve because of my other job?" While many don't have legal restrictions
for working on the side as along as you are not working for a competitor
(this was the case with one company I worked for as a full time
employee), it is practically impossible to have a second job that
requires you to do it on a regular basis because of the demands of your
first job as a writer for a busy software company here in the valley.
It is hard enough in some cases to contract with multiple clients if one
requires you to be on site for 40+ hours, as a current client of mine (
a 10 99 client) requires. But I did make it clear to him that if I
picked up another client, I would be gone on occasion but I will still
give him 40 hours per week for the length of this contract.
I am finding many clients here in the Bay Area are requiring tech
writers to work on site (the onsite/offsite is a discussion in of itself
:) lol....
This is reason why I want to reduce the number of tech writing contracts
I do and increase the other types of writing I have been doing (like
grant writing. I have just finished my first grant and have some plans
to do some more), where I can:
1. Work offsite more
2. Have multiple clients.
3. Network during traditional working hours and not be accused of
slacking on someone else's time
I think I am doing all of the above because I am at a stage of my life
where I want to be more viewed as a consultant, rather than as a
contractor. I have taken a lot of steps the past few months in setting
up my own business. This will become a part time venture in the fall
when I start grad school as a MFA in Creative Non Fiction student.
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