elstar IT

This weekend it was 6 month ago I really started as a freelancer, after I worked for 14 years at e-office.
And I can say, it was a very good period.

The past
I started very relaxed in September, try to find projects. Get found by lots of recruiters from the Java world. Had some great talks with customers. And there was time to do work around the house and of course a lot of running, especially the long distances.

In Oktober I started my first small project, helping the customer with the ‘failing’ customisations of a Quickr environment after an upgrade. Was fun to dig around in all the files on file systems and in databases.

And in Oktober I found a proper project to fill 4 days of the week. It was at a large Dutch insurance company. My task was to build the JSF frontend of an J2EE application. Which was cool for me, so I was able to work with the latest JSF versions.
Now I can say that what IBM has done with the JSF layer which is used with XPages is amazing. Well done. Even in JSF2.2 there was no partial refresh out of the box. By using PrimeFaces as framework, lots of new features where introduced.

The 5th day I filled with development, to keep up with the latest and greatest in the Java world and to find more work.
In November till now I fill the 5th day with XPages and Java Development for a IBM Business Partner.
So I am partly back in the ICS/IBM Community.

The future
End of March my J2EE project. I have learned a lot at this project, like JPA, Persistency, Websphere 8.5.4, PrimeFaces and more. But I am looking forward to the new projects who are ahead, where XPages and Java are involved.

My Opinion
Till now I liked the life of a freelancer a lot. No boss who is telling me what to do. Everything under my control. Life/work balance is more equal. Learning a lot, also outside the development area, like administration and more…
It feels very good.
And the future looks very bright. Lots of opportunities ahead, almost too much to handle 😉