image: screenshot

My job situation has changed.

I am a skilled professional, a programmer. Professional programmers can work as an employee or a freelancer. The fundemental difference is that, as an employee, the employer pays employment taxes, whereas as a freelancer, you do. I’m not a great fan of bureaucracy, so I’ve generally been an employee, except in countries where I know the system well.

Despite that, circumstances have meant I’ve gone back to contracting, to being a freelance programmer. I did so specifically because I had the opportunity to work from home (no commuting, yay), for a company with an interesting challenge. They could not employ me because they do not have a base here in Luxembourg. So I’m now a remote–working freelancer.

But going freelance means lots of state bureaucracy. There are more taxes to consider. It’s much easier to manage it all by creating a clear and obvious separation between personal and professional activities. This include online activities. So I’ve set myself up with a new professional domain (mostly for email and such stuff, to be honest). For me, a domain requires a website. That’s why I’ve created a (very simple) professional site, at harris.eu.com.

The fact that I have work, which I intend to keep, means my freelance site is not actually selling anything, such as my skills. This is why it’s very retro. Indeed, it’s intentionally echoing one of my very early websites, that from 1996.