Comment by ethbr0
4 years ago
Reading between the lines here too, but worth emphasizing "anything which particularly piques my interest" & "would also be spending some of my time making sure I had a full pipeline of gigs lined up."
Correct me if I'm wrong Colin, but I'm assuming some of the discount between max_rate and your rate is the value you see in not having to spend time on boring projects and hustling a constant stream of gigs. Aka discount for quality of life and work.
Colin and I have both spent a very long time doing this kind of work. I promise, I'm factoring in the hustle premium when I say that he's significantly under-bidding the market.
Curious question re: your personal experience, is there a relationship (direct or inverse) between max_rate and interesting work? Or are they independent?
At your level, and with your specific focus, I've no idea what the market looks like. I.e. Big Boring Corp pays best? Cutting edge startup? Or effectively random?
Yes: the higher your rate, the more interesting the work you're likely to get, because higher rates filter the most tedious clients. Routine security work from big companies gets bid through procurement departments that won't pay high rates, so if a big company is paying the market rate for cryptography work, there's a really good chance the group paying for it really knows what they're doing and why they're engaging you.