Hang on a second. Are you honestly saying that you think 350GBP/day is an unreasonably high goal for a contractor?
If my math is right, that works out to about $70/hr (USD), which is well on the low side for a 1 year contract, even assuming you're out in the sticks. That's closer to what you'd expect for a day rate as a salaried employee if you have any experience.
So no, you need to take on board that this is the sort of money you should be making. If you're not (and by assuming that only magical freelancers make that much, but only for a few weeks at a time, it sounds that way), you'd be well served to spend some effort getting your rate up where it belongs.
We'd actually all be better off were you to do so. As long as there are people willing to work for GBP65k/year, there will be companies taking advantage of them. But those same companies will happily pay market (as plenty of us can attest) if they have to.
Quite a sad reality you live in. Apparently a world where the main criterion for a job is to maximize money output while minimizing time commitment.
Money doesn't motivate me. I thought it would. Made a bunch of money (much more than me or anyone I knew made) doing IM stuff. Turns out what I really wanted was interesting peers, people who I could become long-term friends with, learn from and share experiences with. Freelancing doesn't offer this, finding the right people and working with them at a company however can.
>But those same companies will happily pay market (as plenty of us can attest) if they have to.
>market
You use the word market as if you knew what it meant, but apparently you don't. Developers being happy to accept lower rates than what they could make freelancing means there's some mysterious, secret value-offering that becoming part of a team offers humans. For a lot of people that's stability. Or because becoming an employee is the "normal thing to do". For me it's much more. And I imagine for many of the most brilliant programmers who are alive today (of whom almost none earn their living as freelancers) as well.
You say you're 20. The reality that some of us live in is that we have families to support. Let's see how your idealism stacks up after another 20 years.
I don't think what I've laid out is unrealistic. I'm young that's true. Though I still hope that in 20 years I have a job that I love and want to spend a lot of time at. I might also have other things I want to spend time on, but I don't want to sacrifice in my work situation in order to do that (which I interpret freelancing to be). Hopefully I'll be careful enough not to have kids without significant savings (though I currently don't think kids are a great deal bang for your buck (time, commitment, opportunity cost) :) )
If my math is right, that works out to about $70/hr (USD), which is well on the low side for a 1 year contract, even assuming you're out in the sticks. That's closer to what you'd expect for a day rate as a salaried employee if you have any experience.
So no, you need to take on board that this is the sort of money you should be making. If you're not (and by assuming that only magical freelancers make that much, but only for a few weeks at a time, it sounds that way), you'd be well served to spend some effort getting your rate up where it belongs.
We'd actually all be better off were you to do so. As long as there are people willing to work for GBP65k/year, there will be companies taking advantage of them. But those same companies will happily pay market (as plenty of us can attest) if they have to.