Going from 12 years of self-employment to tech job?

I did the same.

I found that big companies (the Tier 2 telcos, etc) either couldn't afford me, worried about scalability/teamwork skill, or just didn't like what was on my resume. They want people who fit in well as a cog into their corporate machine. There was one pleasant exception to this, a small team carrying a billion dollar company, but I felt the company had too many processes and moved too slowly.

The startup tier jumped at the opportunity though. I got my current job offer in less than 24 hours after the interview, even though I requested a salary on the high end.

There's a lot of pros to jobs. I was used to working about 4x the average speed to justify a 4x hourly rate, and now I can work half as hard for double the median salary. It also means that time isn't money anymore, so I can take off more time to read books or just go shopping with my wife.

As odd as it sounds, I have more free time than back when I was working 10 hrs/week from home. It's nice to not have to worry about marketing and collecting payments.

> I'm going to be applying to the Big N companies...

Don't apply to companies. HR Flunkies & Recruiter Bozos won't apprecaiate your background.

Instead, reach out directly to the guy you most help. Think CIO/CTO, Heads of Engineering. Linkedin is good for identifying these people.

You have a shot, but why? Dealing with the politics of corporate is bad. Don't care which of the FANMAG you work for. Let alone for smaller companies. You'll be wanting out very fast.

I don't know that your resume will even get you a call back. There's nothing that jumps out. Things like C/C++, Python, Go, Distributed Systems, etc. The first thing you need is to get seen, then pass the phone screen, then get onsite. For an IC, if you can whiteboard it then you might have a chance.

Best of luck tho.

Your timeline and mine align somewhat. I got out of military by 2007 and started up working for the fruit company in 2008/2009 then went outside to but stayed within the iOS ecosystem from 2011 to 2013 and did indie work from 2014 onwards. I'm opting for product roles instead of engineering roles as it's a better story fit for explaining how to use my product leadership skills and leaving the dev part to the younger and cheaper leetcoders they want to groom.

You've been making 300K+ for years as a consultant, for more than a decade? Yes, you have a very good shot, because you have a demonstrated track record of being able to do the work.

I don't know if you have a shot at a job that pays 300K+, though. I don't know the NYC market.

Apologies for being off topic, but I'm looking to attempt the opposite transition. Go from Big Co to self-employed consultant and would love to pique your brain about your journey if you'd be willing to field a few questions of mine at some point?

Hi, I work as a recruiter and your CV is strong enough for me to be able to submit you to one of my clients, a publicly-traded online gaming company with tech HQ in Jersey City (few minutes from Wall St via the PATH train). They're really into functional programming but I have you in mind for the Senior iOS role.

These hints should be enough for you to reverse-engineer the company name, but just email me and I can share full details as well as submit you into the interview process if you're interested.

The last few months I have gone back to studying, and have undertaken COMPTIA A+, COMPTIA NETWORK+, COMPTIA CLOUD+ and COMPTIA CYBER SECURITY ANALYSTS. All due to the lack of suitably qualified cyber security analysts in Australia. If you guys have any advice I am all ears....I have a couple more months to go before I pass the exams...

I have no idea if you have a shot, but a good way to test the grounds could be doing the Triplebyte process. It's all online, you have those standardized technical test that big companies use and you get good feedback from those.

off topic but can you share your rise to 300-400k/year? Do you just bill more than your previous contract? i.e. 125/hr last 6 months, so at renewal time you jump to 150-175/hr? Did you work 2 or more jobs at the same time? It seems like 300-400K/yr remote work in a low COL would be the dream setup for most of HN, but to each his own. What's the take home on your salary after expenses/taxes?

I would go to https://www.nycjobsboard.com and apply related position.

How are you going to deal with the psychological impact of the transition from your own boss to working for someone, on-site, following full office hours?

Hmm your background as described sounds good but your resume is not well written. Learn about resume writing and start from scratch. I’m sure you must have a better pitch for your clients if you’re pulling those rates. And I also question why you’d join a bigco if you’re making those rates while running a successful side business.