I tried applying for permanent employment roles...

But it is not for me.

I have been self-employed for almost 20 years now.

I started as a self-taught programmer, building job boards and small SMB websites for literally pennies an hour (my early estimates were terrible for profitability).

As clients grew larger, I started a near-shoring company in Macedonia, but learned that loving to code does not automatically mean running a company with 10+ employees. Hats off to the people who successfully make that step. It is not easy!

I don't say never again, but I will never again wear all the "sales project management, customer support, HR, finance" hats at once. That’s what made me “fail” this adventure. Still, it was a great experience, I definitely learned a lot, and who knows, those skills may come in handy again.

The last 4 years I worked - as a freelancer - for ASICS. It was one of the best professional periods of my career:

• Working with highly skilled people
• Tackling technically challenging projects
• Making impact on a global scale
• Working in distributed, multicultural teams

And last but not least: receiving recognition for my work. As a proud software addict, that is extremely important to me.

I really enjoy building great stuff. I take pride in the quality of my work. If I see people using my solutions AND I get recognition for it, that is deeply satisfying.

Being given the opportunity to do the work I love in Japan three times was one of the best experiences of my life, and I am very grateful to ASICS for it.

Through all these years, I have worked when and where I wanted. I’ve always had a high level of autonomy. I got hired for my skills: delivering high-quality software products that stand the test of time.

And while there were ups and downs, sometimes a tough market, sometimes more work than I could handle, year after year I always had enough work as a self-employed software engineer.

Most of the time, for me, it was enough to keep an eye on platforms like freelance.nl, where there were always real freelance roles or clearly defined fixed-term projects.

Freelancing in 2025

The amount of freelance projects in The Netherlands is at an all-time low.

The new Dutch DBA law, which says freelancers without employees cannot “take orders” from customers or work too long for the same client (because that would make them technically employees), has killed the freelance market.

Freelance.nl, once a real freelance platform, has become a Hunger Games arena where recruiters copy-paste-post payroll jobs.

One in three posts say: “Not for freelancers.”

On a platform called freelance.nl, go figure.

When I talk to recruiters, the outlook for freelancing as a software consultant in The Netherlands doesn’t look promising.

So, just like many other freelancers, I applied for a few permanent jobs.

I had great conversations at really good companies, and I honestly wanted it to work.

But after being self-employed for 20 years, doing projects that lasted months or sometimes years, I do not see myself fitting into the “great coffee, free lunch, Friday drinks, personal development budget, laptop from work and 25 holidays” type of employment.

Why not permanent employment?

What I learned at ASICS is that I enjoy working long-term with motivated, skilled people. But that doesn’t transfer to wanting to become an employee.

As a self-employed software engineer, I am not the guy who does his thing from 9–5 and calls it a day.

What I learned through the years is that I want to perform at a high level: solving complex problems and making them simple.

I live and breathe software. Some small bugs remain, but if the workaround works, fixing them isn’t worth the budget.

I take ownership. As a consultant, I am a self-starter you can trust to get the job done. You don’t need to hold my hand. I save you time while delivering the solutions you hired me for.

I don’t just write features. I help set up CI/CD pipelines, test automation, and cloud deployments. I document and present my solutions, so when the job is done, you have everything you need to take over or hand off the project.

I communicate like a real human, not like a developer. I understand what you mean, and sometimes I even talk back.

I represent your company as if it were my own. I’ve seen many companies from the inside and helped them support their customers as well.

This is what I really like: not just coding, but providing solutions and connecting the dots between technology and people.

The freedom factor

Why don’t I see myself as an employee? Hard to explain, even for myself.

Probably it’s the freedom of doing things when and where I like. Sure, freelancers also have onsite commitments, but I’ve never seen a job advert that allows me to work two weeks from France while the kids are on holiday. (Ok, to be fair: I never asked.)

Maybe it’s knowing exactly where I’ll work two years from now. Maybe it’s the prospect of commuting the same route every day. Maybe it’s contracts saying I can’t have side projects or my own customers.

I don’t know.

But what I do know is this: I don’t want to give up 20 years of self-employment because of a vague and unclear government regulation.

Maybe this is also a good kick in the ass, forcing me to be more creative in finding projects, using my writing skills more, maybe even launching my own products.

Luckily, I have some time to figure that out.

In the meantime, if you have challenging work that needs to be taken care of, send me a message.

Let’s see what we can do for each other!