Perspectives on Freelance, Mindset, and Design

Hey there, thanks for checking my blog out. This domain used to be a WordPress blog and I’ve since switched to Ghost. I will eventually republish old content I posted to the WordPress blog just so the areas I cross-posted have proper canonical links. That said, I’ve put the cart before the horse…

Who the hell am I?

Okay, so, I’m Eric Bible. I’m a developer learning full-stack tech starting with the MERN stack who is in his 30s and transitioning into tech primarily from the BPO (business-process outsourcing) field. I’ve done a varied list of odd jobs and dead-end work in my post-BPO life (since 2018) while I’ve worked to figure out my process and progress through it to hit my goals. There have been many false starts, long pauses, and speed bumps in between all that.

This blog is meant to be a safe space. I pretend no true expert-level authority on the tech topics I write about. Most of the content I create in that regard will be focused on junior-level individuals and career switchers that may be following a similar path I have followed. I maintain that I will always have a beginner mindset, no matter how much knowledge I will/have accumulate/d along the journey. That’s a mindset philosophy I will get to.

Ultimately, I’m only an expert in my perspective and my goal is to articulate that perspective around three verticals:

• freelancing (in tech)
• mindset
• design (and development)

So, let’s generate the format… most posts will cover each of these pillars with a precise focus on something I’ve learned, found interesting, or executed in each.

Freelancing

Freelancing is something that can create a shudder in some folks' minds. The appeal of being your own boss can be quickly lost in the muck of impostor syndrome and self-defeating beliefs when you try to pursue this way of earning.

Today, I’ll share some of my freelancing background and how I got started in tech.

Essentially, as a millennial, you probably learned to code through either Myspace or Neo Pets, or both. I fall into the first category.

But the Myspace hacks were quickly followed by an opportunity to flex those skills on an in-school internship/vocational study co-op when I was allowed to partner with a peer and study under 2 upperclassmen in my high-school years. I freelanced as the school’s website co-builder and maintainer and also got to assist any teacher unlucky enough to have technology issues in their classroom.

There was a lot of dilly-dallying, to be honest, as most teens given 2 periods of freedom per each 9-period school day might do. But there was also a lot of room for learning and experimenting with tech etc.

When high school ended, the computer science degree was an enticing pursuit but it was interrupted by the opportunity to become a supervisor in the BPO industry when a large-scale call center opened up shop in town.

I would delay my pursuit of a tech career for many years based on this decision, but I earned the chance to foster and perfect a lot of necessary soft skills for the industry all while working tech-adjacent and as a frequent friend and tester for the IT department.

Mindset

Throughout my BPO career, I struggled with being a young leader that had very few true peers. Most of the hiring demographic for the call center were middle-aged and resented my confidence in the role. Looking back, I don’t blame them.

I probably failed a million times in some of the early leadership positions I held with the company. But I was able to remain resilient and was afforded a chance by some great mentors (to who I reported into) to constantly iterate on my approach.

Through that “baptism by fire” promotion style that most outsourcing companies adopt, I was able to take away some big wins and lessons.

The biggest thing I learned is that you can make a large number of mistakes in terms of business decisions and so long as you don’t shy away from accountability in terms of having made the decision and also being willing to adapt to fix the consequences, you’ll be fine. Large businesses tend to be able to absorb your decision-making learning curve.

It’s the individual people that can’t always do so.

Meaning, take risks with the business when you can; but never with the livelihood of the people relying upon you.

I could write a litany of lessons that boil down to simple cliches you’ve probably heard or other common sense points of view. But the thing is, these cliches have become widely known because they possess an essence of truth about them. People rarely know of famous mistakes, but famous lessons and principles? Sure.

Nowadays, I tend to have a fondness for stoicism and other zen-like principles and so most of my posts about mindset will be based upon that general point of view and reflect on some of the brazen blunders I’ve made when I lacked these perspectives I now hold dear.

I’ll try to make the stories engaging and the lessons clear so that hopefully you distill some value from my ramblings.

Design {and development}

In this regard, you will be hearing from me almost “live” and to the minute. This is where the most current experimentation and also excitement will probably be.

Tech is constantly evolving, and having to learn things when the goals are also constantly shifting (for the job market) can be stressful.

I am a developer first, many other things thereafter, and a designer last. The content I post in this vertical will be text-based at first, but I plan to layer in video content (both short-form and long-form) as I experiment with my content creation and curation skills.

What’s next?

Generally speaking, you’ll get some curated content or written ramblings from me at a minimum of weekly.

I am aiming for a daily writing habit with a weekly publishing habit. If you want a glimpse into my efforts closer to real time, follow me on Twitter (X?) and you’ll know more about my day-to-day and also be alerted to when video streams and other such content are happening and available.

For now, thank you. Signing off and screaming into the void, Eric.