2013 was an interesting year in tech. This was the year that:

• Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA, releasing thousands of classified documents detailing the extent of espionage on US citizens.
• Twitter IPO’d at a valuation of $1.8B.
• Sony and Microsoft locked horns with their latest consoles, the PlayStation 4 and XBox One respectively.
• The iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy 4 smartphones were released.

It was also the year that I got my first freelancing gig. I met my first client (hello, John!) on elance.com (since bought by UpWork). I redeveloped the front-end of a code sharing app known as Torpio whilst working a full-time job at an agency.

I learned a lot in those few months, enough to know that I wanted to do this full-time. So, when the opportunity presented itself in the following year, I grasped it with both hands.

Since that move a decade ago, I’ve worked for dozens of clients on a myriad of different projects. Whilst they were all different in nature, there was one common theme - JavaScript, and more latterly TypeScript. I nursed my code through the pre-ES6 days, rejoicing when the language finally started progressing forward. It’s fair to say that I bet the house on JS, and it repaid me many times over.

I rarely struggled to find clients, due to a combination of hard work, exceeding expectations, and networking.

Things were going well, but suddenly the world changed. A global pandemic took control and the world stood still. Work hadn’t dried up yet, but the pandemic started a series of events, culminating in two big changes:

1. The end of the 0% interest rate, which halted the flow of investment into small businesses. Put simply, it was now more attractive to stick your money in a savings account than invest in a risky startup.
2. The great tech layoffs. Over-hiring before and during the pandemic led to a culture of waste, which many large tech companies eventually realised. Mass redundancies followed, returning tens of thousands of folk to the job market, many of whom are highly skilled software engineers.

The combination of these two factors caused a ripple effect in the contract and full-time job market. Suddenly, there was less money, and more folk to choose from. It became a hirer’s market, meaning:

• there were fewer contracts (no money)
• there was more competition (more job-seekers)
• rates were lowered (fewer contracts, more competition)

Combine this with the UK’s general disdain for anyone not in full time employment (ever tried to get a mortgage as a contractor? Best of luck with that!) and it became apparent that the freelance market was no longer as attractive as it once was.

Enter Shopify. The company has long been on my radar - after spending the summer of 2006 interning in Ottawa, a colleague (hi Matt!) told me all about this new startup, and how it was going places, and maybe I should check it out? (I didn’t, of course, otherwise I think I might be retired by now…)

As it happens, a good friend and fellow intern on the program did eventually join, and spent 8 years there trying to convince me to apply too (hi, Owain!).

Well, he finally got his wish! When a role became available I jumped at the chance to apply. The hiring process is well documented on Shopify’s own site, and after a very positive experience I was thrilled to be offered a role as a Staff Engineer.

It was a no-brainer for me, as everyone I met throughout the process were so smart yet incredibly nice. The opportunities for learning and growth appear to be unlimited, and I finally get to scratch the itch for working at a Big Tech company.

That being said, I’m going to miss the autonomy and flexibility of contracting. I’ve been blessed with the ability to take time off during big life events, and wouldn’t trade that time for anything. But, it feels like the right time to move on to a new and exciting chapter.

As for my company, Studio Zeffa, it is currently going through the incredibly archaic process of being struck off. It’s poignant that it was named after our cat, Zeffa, who passed this year too. I often called her the boss, especially when she was sat on the keyboard. I’ll treasure those memories, and the decade of contracting that went with it, but time marches on and so must I.

So hello, Shopify. It’s great to meet you, and I can’t wait to see what I can do alongside my new world-class colleagues. Let’s make it happen!