Few freelance writers spend all their time writing. They often rack up hours of non-billable time looking for new gigs and handling administrative tasks. Imagine if those writers could devote all of that time to creative work instead.
That is what IOD had in mind when developing a deep-skill marketplace. Over the years, IOD built a global community of techies and talented freelancers—vetted subject-matter experts capable of building rich content, technical blogs, white papers, tutorials, thought leadership pieces, and more.
Bruno joined the IOD community with deep technical expertise and a strong managerial background. He was looking for more independence, flexibility, and community—and a little less client bureaucracy. This is Bruno’s story about why IOD was a perfect fit.
Background
Bruno is based in Finland, where he advises organizations across Europe in areas such as cloud, data, and security. His career is wide ranging, from senior management to deep technical roles in software development and digital transformation.
Bruno has worked with startups, enterprises, and everything between, and in diverse industries including energy, cybersecurity, manufacturing, and automotive. His technology expertise has been integral to his career. He is the author of the AWS Certified Security – Speciality video course and a regular speaker at technology events, such as the AWS Community Summit, DevOpsDays, NDC, and MS Tech Days.
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Let’s hear more about Bruno’s experience working with IOD.
How many years have you been working as a freelancer? Have you faced any challenges?
I have been working as a freelancer and independent consultant for roughly ten years.
For a technical expert, this type of engagement has inherent challenges and tradeoffs.
Those challenges include managing client relationships; financial, legal and contractual duties; and simply the constant non-billable effort required to acquire new clients and opportunities.
How did you get started at IOD?
I have been working with IOD since about 2019. My work caught the attention of IOD’s talent acquisition team, and they reached out to me.
We immediately identified opportunities, synergies, and ways to cooperate. Over the years, our collaboration grew stronger. It has been a pleasure to work with the entire IOD team and their great clients.
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How has working with IOD helped you overcome the aforementioned challenges?
My work with IOD clients has covered a wide range of activities, including technical content creation, developer advocacy, content strategy, and technology advisory. As a freelancer and independent consultant, it is easy to point out why this collaboration has been fruitful and how IOD helped me tackle a few challenges.
Help handling client relationships and bureaucracies
The most tangible benefit is that IOD handles all the client relationships on my behalf, along with contracts, billing, and other tasks. This allows me to focus on putting my technical expertise to work and providing customer value. This is no small feat, since there are large organizations in IOD’s client portfolio that could take a significant amount of non-billable work for a freelancer to engage with.
Relationships with other experts
I also appreciate the ability to connect and work with IOD experts in other domains, such as marketing, copywriting, and editorial. Our co-creation process ultimately translates into higher quality deliverables and customer impact, which enables me to improve as a professional.
Why do you love working with IOD and how has it helped you grow professionally?
Flexibility and open communication
On a few occasions, a personal or professional situation has forced me to rearrange my schedule on short notice. We all know life happens, but in these unexpected situations, it is possible to truly gauge an organization. IOD always gives me a tremendous amount of flexibility based on my monthly availability and areas of interest.
With IOD and its clients, empathy, transparency, and open communication make it possible to adjust workloads and expectations with flexibility that works for everyone.
Expanding my network
Working with IOD makes it possible to interact with multiple client organizations and expand my network. These organizations are innovative and true disruptors in their technology areas. Therefore, it provides a great learning experience and the opportunity to collaborate in a way that positively impacts their strategies and products.
Building my content portfolio
Clients often value receiving non-biased technical insights and the ability to convey their messaging in a different way. As an independent expert, I am adept at sharing fresh perspectives, technical opinions, or insights about clients’ platforms. As I build my own content portfolio, this results in a win-win scenario for myself and the clients.
Summary
Today, Bruno lives the life many freelancers crave. Without the routine tasks of client management, he spends his time using his most important skill set: providing knowledge and expertise as a writer. Bruno enjoys a flexible schedule and competitive compensation, while working with the most influential brands in the tech industry. Best of all, he collaborates with other talented professionals in the IOD community along the way.
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