Freelance INTPs?

[Redfire]

As every INTP teenager I researched every possible career and found out I'm interested in lots of things but never enough, so I have to settle for something. First I considered a research career in biomedical sciences, but I'll probably find working in the same subject for that long very dull.

I was thinking that freelance programming could be the perfect match. Working from home in different projects wholly based on logic and learning every time you do them. But how hard would it be to pull that off? Is there anyone here who does that?

I'm also interested in any INTPs who managed to work from home via the internet (artists can probably do that, but that's not an option for me since I'm not really talented in any area in particular and I'd like some stability).

I hope all of this makes sense, since I believe that all INTPs seek to be out of the rat race (not interested in neither following nor giving orders). We just want to be free and independent, and hell, is it that much to ask?

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

I'm a software developer and an INTP... and I actually prefer to work in the office. I'm at a small company-- we're 12 people.

Communication is one of the important qualities in a programmer, and being in the office really helps clarify what people are doing, what the requirements & design are. It also really helps my motivation to be around other people working, and it's really useful when I get stuck and need help-- either help from people knowing the codebase better than I do, or help my debug and google for stackoverflow articles.

But we also have an option to work remotely from home, which many of my coworkers take advantage of.

Either way, programming is definitely an awesome career, but you might be surprised how lonely you get if you went truly freelance.

 

[Dapper Dan]

I agree with the above, although I'm still looking for my first programming job. My ideal employer is definitely a small firm (or a large company that acts small). I feel like working within a small group would be vastly superior to working with a constantly changing set of clients.

And that's not even mentioning all the extra organizational work that surely comes with freelancing. If my college career is any indication, working from home would surely result in a lot of procrastination.

 

[snafupants]

For thirty two years my father (an INTJ) was a computer programmer. He's almost as asocial and independent as me yet he managed to drag his ass to the office everyday. The majority of the company was composed of pretty brilliant people who happened to be unveeringly schizoid. There's something that says asperger about the job - perfectly respectable profession though.

For the last few months I have been freelance writing and editing via the internet from home. It was surprising at first to discover I could research most of the day, write, and get paid for my work. You can opt for sites where you pretty much pick your own topic from an assemblage of genres, or go for one where you pitch an idea to a client.

I tell people that I'm a freelance writer on a good day and a copywriter on a bad one because, let's get right to it, copywriting is for whores...the prostitution of writing. Whatever, Faulkner did his shit writing in Hollywood (not that I'm even in the same ballpark as someone like that) and it didn't exactly cripple him.

So, having to write-to-order can be a problem along with anal retentive clients and touching up near-finished articles with sources and other fastidious details that make editors around the world purr with satisfaction.

If you're just starting out, I would first hit up a freelance writer's forum and then make sure the site, or constellation of sites, you go with has BBB validation, valid tax protocols, paypal money transfers, and all the bells and whistles of a bona fide organization.

That said, make sure not to let skepticism hem you in or keep you from pursuing something that could help you out, financially, professionally, long-term.

If anyone's seriously interested in this career route, send me a PM and I'll get back soon with my best shot at an answer, advice, or whatev.

 

[PlayMeWhile]

When I was a teenager I did exactly like the OP - spent time on reasearching all the career paths and study options. Long story short - I ended up in bioinformatics and in 6 years finished my Masters degree.

At this time I am working from home, consulting a foreign genetics/epigenetics labaratory and am generaly involved with programming, data mining, knowledge discovery and article publishing. I get all the data sent to me and am expected to analyse it and produce some kind of results (depending on what can be found in the data).

So as one might rightly guess - for me it was an INTP dream come true. I don't imagine myself doing anything else at the moment. It allows one to work from home and be involved with science, programming and mathematics at the same time.