Dev Interview: Erhan
By Wietse Boersma, Recruiter.
This post first appeared on LinkedIn on the 9th of April 2020.
Erhan Karadeniz has more than 14 years’ experience in the IT industry, working on various assignments for several major businesses in the Netherlands and in Turkey. Educated as a marketing & communication specialist, he decided to take the plunge and make a career out of his greatest hobby: programming.
Erhan Karadeniz has more than 14 years’ experience in the IT industry, working on various assignments for several major businesses in the Netherlands and in Turkey. Educated as a marketing & communication specialist, he decided to take the plunge and make a career out of his greatest hobby: programming.
Advantages
“For me, the main advantage of being a freelance developer is the freedom it brings. I enjoy being able to choose my preferred tools and technologies, and I like the freedom to decide my own hours without having to attend regular meetings for in-house staff. Also, as a freelancer I’m regarded as an expert in my field. It gives me a tremendous boost to focus on what I’m good at and then make my client happy with the product I created for them. That’s where I get my job satisfaction.”
Interesting assignments
“All the clients I ever had in the Netherlands came to me via recruiters. I’m glad they exist, they are my main channel for getting involved in fun projects. It also saves me a lot of time in finding new projects. Recruiters find me on LinkedIn. I always respond to requests from recruiters, even if I’m in the middle of a project. That way we stay in touch for possible interesting projects in the future. It’s a good way to create options for yourself. Another important thing is to put lots of energy into your current clients. I make sure to connect with them and to stay accessible. That increases my chances of being contacted again later on by their colleagues or managers.”
Working from home works
“The crisis hasn’t affected me at all. I’m lucky that I can work from home like normal. I even get messages about new projects, so I don’t see any major problems for the future. I do hope, however, that this crisis will make us realise at last that working from home works! Today we’re forced to work remotely. People in the Netherlands are pretty reluctant about that, but for me it has a lot of advantages. I can concentrate much better at home because I’m not distracted by the hustle and bustle of a department. I’m also more productive.
“I hope this corona crisis will make us realise at last that working from home works!”
I’ve discovered that the most efficient work day for me is not necessarily from nine to five. I work best if I can do two hours of programming at my laptop, then walk the dog for an hour and a half, and make up for that time in the evening. Of course I agree we should all be at the office a couple of days a week for the team spirit. But as far as I’m concerned we should be more open about working remotely at least a few days a week. I’ve been in favour of that for quite a while. In my spare time I work on a project called Nomadbond to boost remote working. Nomadbond will be a platform for Digital Nomads and/or remote workers to find new projects in specific locations.”
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