In this lesson, we will discuss the path towards becoming a freelance developer.
A quick note If you are already a developer and you have your skills established, you can feel free
to skip ahead to the lessons about building a profile and finding jobs.
The reason I want to go over freelancing as a developer is because the demand for coding skills is projected
to continue to increase and it's not slowing down any time soon.
That means that the freelance developer career outlook is very bright, and that's mainly because it
hits on all of these must haves for a lucrative career path.
The first is it being relevant?
The skill that you choose to focus on as a freelancer must be relevant for the next ten plus years.
This skill should be valued for many years in the future because that is what guarantees your job security.
Next is demand.
Demand for people with the skill should be higher than the supply of people providing that skill.
Now, of course, the smaller the available pool of skilled workers in the industry, the more control
you can have over your job, your income, and the companies that you choose to work for.
After that is salary.
The ability to have a high salary regardless of your number of years in the industry is vital because
you don't want to spend many years climbing the corporate ladder at some company before you're able
to actually make a decent living.
You want to be able to get experience and start making a livable salary as quick as possible.
And lastly is competition.
You want to pick a skill where you can catch up to the top performers in the industry in the shortest
amount of time possible.
And with coding, you don't need to have an expensive degree.
All you have to do is choose what specific coding skill set or engineering skill set you want to focus
on and then put your time and energy into learning that using online resources, just like the Steam
Academy.