No, the point here is not about being a rockstar freelancer (although it could be easier to imagine sometimes) but about the opportunity to become a developer freelancer.

There are first those fantastic videos from Jesse Warden “Being Independent and Making Money Using Flex”. Then came Flash On the Beach and those “inspired session” where the main message was, in short terms: “Quit your job, go independent, do what you really want to do, make money and have fun!”. And finally there are my friends in the Flash/Flex community who are independent and happily living from it.

Since several days|weeks|months, I’m a bit torn between answering to those sirens and not moving at all. And I have always this question in my mind:

“Is there a right moment in a life and/or a right place to become a freelancer?”

Let me explain a bit: I mostly agree on all those encouragements for being a freelancer, but I think that it’s missing an important factor which is your familial situation (and maybe age).

Don’t you think that you’re seeing things differently when you are single rather than married, when you have kids or not, when you are 20 or 40 ? Don’t you think that it’s easier to be a freelancer when you reached a certain level of expertise than when you’re a noob? It’s not a question of being afraid, it’s more a question of responsibility.

Maybe an example will help you to understand my point of view: Imagine a 35 guy who is an IT consultant for 10 years, married with kids and a home loan ongoing (any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental). Do you really think that switching to freelancing at that particular moment of his life is right? Of course it will probably bring more money in the household [“Money, get away. Get a good job with good pay and youre okay. Money, its a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash. New car, caviar, four star daydream, Think Ill buy me a football team.” – Pink Floyd] but is it worth the sacrifice of your week-ends and family life? It doesn’t mean that this guy is not passionate about his job (Oh no!). I think being 20 (and gifted) or being 40 with no more kids at home is a better moment in a life for being a freelancer.

I first wanted to do a deeper analysis, but finally I decided to make the discussion more opened. So what’s your opinion? Please feel free to share your thoughts here.

Peter Elst launched 2 weeks ago RIAJobs.org, a new job board targeted at Rich Internet Application developers. It’s a community initiative that aims to bring together interesting employment opportunities in the web 2.0 space (Open Source, Ajax, Adobe AIR, Flex, MS Silverlight…).

Posting a new job in any of the categories is free of charge. It also offers paid services like having your job post featured on the homepage ($20/month) or advertising in one or more of the categories ($50-$250/month). Please note that a minimum of 20% of all revenue will go to charity !

It’s already a success : after only 2 weeks, 39 job offers have been posted by companies like Cynergy or EffectiveUI.

So if you’re an HR Officer looking for a cutting-edge developer or a developer looking for a  change,  give a try to RIAJobs.org ! Read Peter Elst’s blog entry for his future plan on this project.