Thank you everyone for sharing my post (a special thanks to Peter Cooper of Ruby Weekly and Lucian Ghinda of Short Ruby for sharing it on their popular newsletters, and providing it a far wider reach than I expected).
That said, I'd still love to hear from you if you think you might have any suitable projects for me in future. So keep in touch!
So this might come as a news to some of you, but I left my full-time job near the end of 2023.
Part of the reason was to focus on a few personal projects, but another reason was to dabble in freelancing. As a result, since the start of this year, I've been working as an independent software developer, working with Ruby and Rails.
In the last four months, I've worked on three freelance development projects with one American and two Canadian clients, have successfully wrapped up two, and close to finishing the last one. I have probably written more Ruby in last few months than I did in the last year.
I had never worked as a freelancer before this experiment, but I am enjoying it so far, and the more freelance/contract work I take, the more I want to do it.
All this to say: with my current projects wrapping up, I have the capacity to take on at least one or two new projects, and I can devote my full focus and attention for 20-30 hours each week per project. If you (or your team) are looking for a freelance Ruby and Rails programmer, please reach out via email.
In addition to software development, I also enjoy technical writing. If you want to have a contract-based technical writer on your team to write in-depth technical articles / tutorials / deep-dives, as well as to maintain and promote your blog / product, let's talk.
Here's my favorite stack and what I believe I am good at:
- Web Framework: Ruby on Rails
- Programming Language: Ruby, JavaScript
- Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite
- Front-End: Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus)
- Web Design: Tailwind CSS
- Other: Writing (especially technical writing), Ethical SEO
If the above skill set sounds like a good fit for your project, please get in touch by emailing me at akshay.khot@hey.com. I am based in Canada and looking to work with companies based primarily in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
I'd be more than happy to provide references on my recent work from my current / past freelance clients. That said, over the course of my professional career, I've had the privilege of working closely with some of the best in the industry. The list includes startup founders and CEOs, veteran software architects, CTOs, programmers, and managers. Here's what they've had to say about my work.
We relied on him as the lead developer for several new, innovative, complex features – with great success. He has excellent communication skills whether it is with a technical team or clients and end users. He brings great value to any development team. I would definitely enjoy working with Akshay again.
- Steve Graham, Chief Technical Architect, CityView
He was motivated to help all team members at all times, and did great work helping our SaaS product grow.
- Risto Juola, CTO at Creyos (formerly Cambridge Brain Sciences)
He makes a great effort to understand the problem he is tasked to solve and any existing code base he needs to work with. I enjoyed working with him very much.
- Tom Hart, R&D Manager and Team Lead, CityView
- Sean Higgins, Executive Vice President, CityView
During his tenure with my company, CityView, his creativity and hard work resulted in some added game changing functionality in our software. He was also thorough, polite and amicable in conversations with clients and end users.
I highly recommend Akshay and would go as far to say that it would be a mistake not to hire him.
- Mark Atkinson, Director of R&D, CityView
He was quickly able to get up to speed and contribute to the overall project by leading development on a Drupal module for our service. He has a good attention to detail and was able to move ahead at a good pace.
While working on the module he was also able to pitch in and help other team members by testing and identifying bugs for a new platform release.
He communicated and contributed well across our internal ticketing system, on Slack and during our team breakfasts.
I'm happy to recommend Akshay as a great addition to any development team.
- Jeff Mitchell, Co-founder and CTO, Appreciation Engine
I found Akshay to be a great communicator - we had to communicate remotely on a daily basis to discuss work and programming questions. He was a very fast with excellent programming skills, He was able to pick up PHP quickly and was also quick to pick up the Drupal framework.
He was always keen to learn and asked great questions about the code, always making good suggestions and showing an excellent understanding of the coding principles. He was a great fit for our team.
It is a shame to see him go but I am certain he will be an excellent asset to all future endeavours.
- Mike Penhall, Senior Developer, Appreciation Engine
Looking forward to hearing back from you!
