The Joe Reis Show The Tech Job Market is Brutal. Is Freelancing Your Plan B? w/ Jody Hesch
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Mar 12, 2026 Jody Hesch, an independent data consultant and former SAP specialist, shares his path to freelancing and building a consulting practice. He discusses why freelancing can be a practical Plan B in a brutal tech job market. Topics include sourcing projects, giving away expertise to build reputation, data engineering fundamentals, architecture vs. development roles in an AI era, and balancing work with family.
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Plan Freelance Runway Before You Quit
- Plan your freelance runway and know your fallback before you quit to avoid reckless short-term moves.
- Jody warns that lack of runway or a mentor leads to risky decisions; he recommends risk-management planning before going independent.
Give Technical Knowledge Away To Build Demand
- Sharing deep technical knowledge publicly can build a reputation that directly leads to paid work.
- Jody posted SAP HANA tutorials on forums and landed consulting invites and a two-year retainer from people who already knew his work.
Publish Where Practitioners Actually Look
- Target the community channels your customers actually use rather than broad platforms like LinkedIn.
- Jody recommends posting on product-specific forums and Slack channels (e.g., DBT Slack, Snowflake Discourse) where practitioners search.
