Full-timing on contract CAD work
Hello, New here, first post. I have to guess you know my type around here. I am a young professional (engineer) with a small family and have no intention of spending the next few decades scrambling...
Forum Discussion
I think the logistics of working remotely doing CAD work is pretty similar to programming or really anything.
There are two types of clients. Those that are comfortable with remote work because they prefer working remotely themselves and those that are not. You will always have endless struggle with the nonremote people.
For instance one of my clients will give me no work and interact very little remotely despite prodding from me. Once I fly in though, he has a laundry list of stuff for me to do and constant lunches, dinners and onsite consulting. He just can't get the remote thing down.
Another works for a company that has an entirely remote workforce. He himself is never in the same place for very long. The remote thing is no problem at all and he's very good at communicating and working around the various issues.
The other problem I had is that you really have to handhold people through webinar software. I tried to use google hangouts to do a presentation and it bombed. I ended up having to use gotomeeting under windows and thus wasn't able to complete the entire presentation. They had "social media" blocked with websense and it ruined my plans ;)
I suggest you tell your proposed client base that you are or will be out of the area for X period of time. You can really be there but lie. See how it works. See how they handle the various intracacies of working remotely. It really involves effort from both sides.
There are two types of clients. Those that are comfortable with remote work because they prefer working remotely themselves and those that are not. You will always have endless struggle with the nonremote people.
For instance one of my clients will give me no work and interact very little remotely despite prodding from me. Once I fly in though, he has a laundry list of stuff for me to do and constant lunches, dinners and onsite consulting. He just can't get the remote thing down.
Another works for a company that has an entirely remote workforce. He himself is never in the same place for very long. The remote thing is no problem at all and he's very good at communicating and working around the various issues.
The other problem I had is that you really have to handhold people through webinar software. I tried to use google hangouts to do a presentation and it bombed. I ended up having to use gotomeeting under windows and thus wasn't able to complete the entire presentation. They had "social media" blocked with websense and it ruined my plans ;)
I suggest you tell your proposed client base that you are or will be out of the area for X period of time. You can really be there but lie. See how it works. See how they handle the various intracacies of working remotely. It really involves effort from both sides.
