Beginner looking for info on freelancing possibilities

[adras]

That's much less expensive than the costs here, which are astronomical for somebody who is on their own.

They also assume the student has somewhere to go on breaks, and familial assistance, which isn't always the case.

Many people's families might not be on good terms with them, wanting to go to college when a family head has some reason it doesnt want them to (cost, usually but often they pretend its something else) is a recipe for estrangement.

Many families are so risk averse that for a member to be able to do something as inherently expensive as attend college is extremely unlikely unless not only its free but also their cost of living costs during that time are somehow addressed, a work-study job can help a lot with that IF its one that allows the student time to study and attend school, but economic pressures in the low wage workplace might make that less and less likely outside of college provided jobs, even for people with substantial skills...

All this adds up to college degrees becoming less possible for many American young people.

Yeah, I can imagine that. Education should be free. Because without education you cannot affort getting education

[cdev]

Was it at a high enough level, and recent enough ago, that the credit you earned before would be accepted in a university program as evidence you had completed some of its academic requirements?

I meant in the area of embedded firmware. I dont have any formal training. No degree at all. Some college but never completed.

[cdev]

Thats what I feel too but ...
A process began some time ago.. and now the futures of "public higher education" "public goods" and "public services" are embattled all around the world. I cant say any more, I cant explain what I mean without discussing politics.
......

Yeah, I can imagine that. Education should be free. Because without education you cannot affort getting education

[adras]

Yeah, I can imagine that. Education should be free. Because without education you cannot affort getting education

Thats what I feel too but ...
A process began some time ago.. and now the concept of "public education" "public good" and "public service" are embattled.

Back when udacity.com was started, I was amazed, because they offered all their courses in a very professional way. But it was only free to get people interested so they can grow their service. Now they sell useless microdegrees which I consider quite expensive.

We need a higher supply than the demand for education to lower the price until it's affordable. That's the only way in our current economics. But this is starting to get too off topic. I don't want to steal op's thread. If someone wants to keep talking about that, why don't you create a thread in "Gerneral chat"?

[cdev]

Send me a PM if you want to discuss this problem, which is a major one.
I dont want to derail OPs post. I cant start a thread on this, Dave doesnt want politics to be discussed here.

We need a higher supply than the demand for education to lower the price until it's affordable. That's the only way in our current economics. But this is starting to get too off topic. I don't want to steal op's thread. If someone wants to keep talking about that, why don't you create a thread in "Gerneral chat"?

[Awesome14]

That's much less expensive than the costs here, which are astronomical for somebody who is on their own.

They also assume the student has somewhere to go on breaks, and familial assistance, which isn't always the case.

Many people's families might not be on good terms with them, wanting to go to college when a family head has some reason it doesnt want them to (cost, usually but often they pretend its something else) is a recipe for estrangement.

Many families are so risk averse that for a member to be able to do something as inherently expensive as attend college is extremely unlikely unless not only its free but also their cost of living costs during that time are somehow addressed, a work-study job can help a lot with that IF its one that allows the student time to study and attend school, but economic pressures in the low wage workplace might make that less and less likely outside of college provided jobs, even for people with substantial skills...

All this adds up to college degrees becoming less possible for many American young people.

cdev, where are you getting this? I have never heard of a family that was averse to having their children attend college! If parents don't have the funds to subsidize a college education, there is all kinds of government financial aid available!

Anyone who wants a college education in the USA can easily afford it on his own! Are you sure you're from the USA? More and more young people are getting college degrees! In fact, so many young people are college educated that there aren't enough workers in the trades!

American Universities have the lowest admission standards. You don't even have to be intelligent!

OK, now that that's out of the way, one thing struck me about the OP: social anxiety. I call that shyness. It sounds like you fear social interaction, because you're not very good at it. Everyone fears rejection, everyone.

Freelancing is not the remedy for social anxiety. I've always done my own thing since college. The last time I had an employer was as a bartender. It's fun for a kid, but I had to grow up sometime. If you're socially inept, do something about it!

Many socially challenged individuals lack basic self-respect, because of past experiences, so they interpret all feedback from others through that lens. A southern accent can affect how people perceive your intelligence, but you can learn to ignore that. The best way to overcome prejudice is by being a good example.

You might want to talk to a counselor for more personal advice. If you become a professional firmware writer, it will become like any other job--work! Some people say they enjoy their jobs, but none of them would do it for free!

However, if you want to develop firmware, I would start with the Internet of Things. Just google it, or IoT. Personally, I would think about a college degree. There are electronics and computing professionals with a high-school education, but very few. College teaches a man not what to think, but how to think!

And, if you can write quality firmware code you'll be in a small group of people. My impression of most firmware is that it's like a house of cards. As long as nothing bad happens, it will remain. But one small puff and it collapses.

It seems counterintuitive, but a great way to get computing gigs is to get really good at MS power point. Make presentations with lots of colors and patterns and clipart, even animated clipart for nontechies (get your foot past the human resources department)!

If you say your qualified, and you have a competent presentation, most people will accept that. Every project I have ever done I didn't know how to do beforehand. But I knew I could! I just knew it!

IoT is going to go gangbusters, and it's ripe for development NOW! It is so wide open it's unbelievable. Anything that uses a sensor of any kind and communicates over the Internet, any remote-control system that permits access over the Net, any physical security system that interacts online, and anything that communicates without human interaction over the Net, with the Internet itself, or with people or other IoT devices, is part of the IoT.

And it all needs firmware and apps. I'd develop my own IoT device, but I'm an old, grumpy analog guy! Not really. But that's mostly what I do these days. I'm also a pretty competent programmer, but I'd rather use programs other people write.

One last thing, every type of IC processor has a unique architecture (which is what makes it a different type) which requires its own tool chain (compiler, assembler, linker, binary utilities), with many idiosyncrasies that have to be learned for each processor type. Learning the tool chain is often half the battle to writing firmware.

[cdev]

Awesome14, I agree with your enthusiastic opinion of the intrinsic value of technology skills.
But, things have changed a lot since you and I were young.

Its harder now than you think, and the rosy picture you paint was never that rosy for many people.

Enbeddedguy

Electronics is a lot of fun, knowledge and skills are their own rewards, and also are very valuable as a means to preserve one's mental health. Plus sometimes those skills may lead to fulfilling work.

Either way, whether they do or don't, it is interesting, and gives people accomplishments that nothing can take away.

So its a great thing to learn.

Twenty or thirty years from now, a degree quite possibly wont be what people expect today - as far as it getting them work. if you just look at percentages.  Lets take a hypothetical figure, supposing this even if 95% of the people who get electronics jobs have a degree, it may also be the case that 75% of those with a six year or more degree in their field, never get a job in their field. 

In other words, the number of jobs may shrink to way below the number of skilled people created.
It may be like that in almost all professions. Because of automation, and other things like the law of averages favoring people with the economic means to do years of low paid or what is essentially volunteer work after graduation. To get experience.

Be happy you're smart and have an inquisitive mind. And learn. And don't spend precious money and especially, don't get into debt.

That said, learning is a very good investment in almost every way, especially when you can do it without spending huge amounts of money.

Just don't throw good money at knowledge you can achieve on your own unless its at a good school and you know it leads to an accredited degree that real employers don't laugh at.

For profit schools, are rarely what they are cracked up to be.

Basic knowledge which can be applied to multiple skills and which transfers between disciplines (math is like that) is not acquired overnight but its worth understanding.

Its easy to wate a lot of time doing the wrong thing.

Proprietary certifications are often worthless before their ink is dry.
 If I were you I would avoid them.

Many job search sites are scams as well.

Friends and sharing projects -- i.e. cooperative work - is likely the best teacher and the fastest way to learn new things.

[embeddedguy85]

Are there any freelancers out there who want to reveal their yearly average earnings?