I didn’t set out with freelancing as my goal, it was more that I decided to travel. I left my employer to travel for six months. On my travels I visited Japan and decided I’d love to go back there. When I came back to the UK I started studying Japanese and applying for a Japanese working holiday visa. I also needed to get some savings together. I could of went back to my employer but it seemed like a lot of effort as I was at my parents place in Northern Ireland and my employer was in England. Moving over is a hassle and I knew I would be leaving after a few months so I decided to try freelancing.

I am a Python web developer and couldn’t find any work in Northern Ireland. My clients ended up all being in London and I would work remotely. When I actually moved to Japan my client at the time was happy to continue working with me. Which was pretty cool. I have fond memories of that time. Working in a ryokan, sitting on a tatami mat coding Python. So cool.

I ended up working for a company in Japan which was cool. Before my visa ran out my old colleague contacted me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to freelance with him at the same company he was working for. I had my interview over Skype while in Japan so when I came back to the UK I was straight into work. It ended up being more convenient to freelance than to look for a job and I’ve just continued to freelance ever since.