I have been an independent for 30 years. Here are some things you must do to survive: - get an accountant - incorporate - live through your company (ie use all possible expense strategies) - have plenty of energy to work for more than 1 client at a time - constantly study the new technologies - use linked in for contacts and advertisements but don't give it all away to the public cause you'll need to evolve your background without people knowing where you came from - having a family will weigh down your overhead. Keep you billing rate as high as permissible - pay yourself little and let the company use the rest for your life support - buy contractors insurance - your resume(s) is your marketing tool so keep multiple looks...more hooks more fish - go to professional meetings and make contacts - fund your retirement through self employed pension plans - if your wife works, use her health insurance - don't crumble when the going gets tough. 2 months between jobs is average. Use those months for retraining - master the interview process and be able to snow the interviewers so you can be hired for newer tech Remember, your REAL job is to look-for and get a job. The longer you stay at one lace the less you are an independent. Good luck... I am almost retired

Charlie Sugden

My accountant has advised me to always have a rainy day fund for just such an occurence.I've been a consultant for 40 years now and hearing this is nothing new to my ears. Having a monetary cushion albeit a small one does give one comfort and confidence in that situation. You must adjust your own budget not to spend every last dime each paycheck. Only then will you begin to manage your life better... Good luck I know you will will find something better. It always works out that way...or er almost always anyhow!

It really was just plain old GW-Basic, QBasic, Basic-Plus and other miscreants. Backward compatibility can backfire on occasion

Getting rid of VB(the gun) does not stop the programmer(the shooter) from choosing another weapon much worse. I've seen C code that could only be called an abomination! Bad VB programmers would then infect the C# world. Then heaven help us! I'll take poor VB code over poor C# code anytime. The language iteself doesnt enforce good coding practices although MS has tried to do just that.

Other than a specification document, that's the one place where you can advertise freely! Most OOP routines never change very much anyway so comments can have a longer shelf life if written generally. Also managers who do code reviews have a higher regard for the maintainability aspect of the code. Usually it distinguishes my skills(in a way) above the employees who never comment at all. It is difficult to express the comments in a way that other coders would understand but hey there's gotta be something difficult/challenging about what we do! PS. After a while you get tunnel-vision and develop CRS syndrome (Cant remember shit) so the comments come in handy.

After 40 years of coding, I have learned my lesson about 20 years ago and I STILL COMMENT MY CODE!!!! Anyone who doesnt misses a great opportunity of advertising themselves and how well they code AND DOCUMENT! It is a small world and I have run into techs that have seen my code and was hired albeit only once or twice. As a consultant you have to put our name on as many 'finished' works as possible.