The title of my post might not be right, I'll explain though. I am a principal engineer getting high rewards each year and love what I do and have a great team. But I'm 32 right now and do want to retire from my full time job and pursue other careers after 40-45. One line of thought here is that if I can build my portfolio as an independent contractor or freelancer, I can get projects on the side and quit the full time job. Does anyone have experience with this or can point to resources? How does one even get started? I'm not a very social person so probably not going to find work through my "network". I've tried a couple of freelancing sites in the past and actually earned good money, like 4k a month as side income. But the work wasn't interesting as it was a lot of small miscellaneous projects.
Try signing up as consultant in a service like toptal or upwork. They will make you go through an interview and once you are on their platform you can set your price for consulting gigs.
OP how many hours a week do you work at MSFT?
Depends. When it's a bit busy it can go up to 60, but usually I would say around 30.
I freelanced for several years right out of college, then co-founded a small studio and did that for a few more years before going back to a W2 job. I found a W2 job to be easier and more lucrative. You have to context switch a lot more when you're running your own contracting business and working on several different projects simultaneously. The most draining aspect of contracting for me was dealing with many different clients and having to maintain those relationships while also developing relationships with new prospects. If you do go into it full-time, you want to build relationships with developers or designers in the space so that they bring you on to their projects where they need someone reliable. If you are already thinking about retiring, have you thought about co-founding a product instead of doing contract work?
I'm in a similar position as OP. Obviously creating a product would generate passive income / event income rather than a consulting gig which is just another job (time for money). But the issue is how do you find a problem to solve? I've talked to multiple founders and a most of them started their company by selling a product they made during a consulting gig. I don't see it as a bad thing.
Typically it's a problem you want to solve for yourself or discovered through a consulting gig like you said. I'm currently full-time on my startup, but I worked on proving the concept and marketing my MVP alongside a stable W2 job before doubling down on it.
Small odd jobs is pretty much what you can expect. Tough to find clients that will keep you on a retainer. Need to go network with a lot of companies or find virtual CTOs that can possibly send things your way.