After reading Timothy Ferriss book “The 4-hour workweek” and learning how to escape the rat race and how to live more and work less, Leonardo Soares decided to become a freelancer. So far it worked out well and even though the JAVA/JEE Developer isn’t earning ,000 per month yet, he enjoys the newly gained variety of his work. And let’s be honest, being able to do what you love is already amazing and as we all know: money does not buy you happiness…
1) First off, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Leo, I am 34 years old and live in the sunny Rio de Janeiro. Currently I am involved in some personal projects (one of them is a platform for waste recycling) and always looking for a challenging new projects to work on. I’ve been freelancing for about one year.
2) If you would search for your profile on Google, which are the three keywords you would type in the search bar?
Positive, self-starter and persistent. Besides working home-office based most of the time, I like to solve problems, and having a team to share my successes and doubts is very grateful.
3) What was your inspiration and when did you actually decide to become a freelancer?
Some time ago I read a book by Tim Ferriss (“The 4-hour workweek”) and it helped me realize that you can get more out of life than spending all of your time working in the same business or company. Nowadays, I can’t work only 4h per week, but I do try to choose what to work on, which is a big plus!
4) What kind of services have your clients asked you to provide? Demands vary a lot but project technical design and JEE development are common demands. I´ve been involved in some very specific technical projects for telecom and the banking industries also.
5) Do you use other freelancers or companies to provide skills that you don’t possess?
I’ve been managing some projects and was responsible for IOS deliverables, which is not my strongest skill, for example. So, I can manage and deliver third party solutions as well. However, I do prefer to work on my own deliverables.
6) Now tell us, how do you find new clients that are interested in your services?
This is a tough one. Here in Brazil we do have a very traditional 9-7 work culture and it is not easy to find specific and interesting projects to work on as a freelancer. So basically what I do is, contact potential clients through my own professional network or at tech conferences that I attend.
7) What about freelancermap.com? Can you tell us a little bit about your experience with our IT-network?
I’m very impressed with the projects available on the platform. They seem to be very challenging and, technology wise , very interesting. I’m new to the platform but I do believe that I will be involved in a nice project soon.
8) How do you set yourself apart from your competitors? What makes you special?
Besides my technical expertise based on JAVA/JEE projects I have developed non-technical skills during my career. I’ve managed projects and teams thus I developed leadership, negotiation, problem solving and estimation skills as well. These skills are necessary when you have a scrum master role in a project, for example. I also have some experience on digital marketing and business development.
9) What are the top three books, blogs or magazines you read to stay up to date in the IT-market?
I am digging Scala programming language right now so I am reading Martin Odersky’s book. For tech news I read wired.com, tnw.com, washable.com and lifehacker.com. For more IT business information I read CIO.com and infoworld.com and more development oriented: infoq.com and stackoverflow.com forums.
10) Freestyle! Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?
If you have a technical problem on a project or a challenging new project that needs to be done right away, don’t hesitate to contact me. This is exactly what I am looking for and I am sure I can help you out.
—
Where to find Leonardo Soares?
- freelancer profile: Leonardo Soares at freelancermap.com
- Skype: leonardosoaressilva
The interview was conducted by Doreen Schollmeier – freelancermap.com team.
Pic: © Leonardo Soares
You would also like to be introduced as a freelancer in our “freelancer insides”?
Send us an email to info@freelancermap.com with the subject “freelancer insides” and shortly describe your services, experiences, and status!
