I wanted to be a SWE ever since I was a young kid, and now after a undergrad + masters degree I was one of the first people in my batch to get a job. I just moved to a new country for my first job and I love it here already, it just feels sad imagining if I do get laid off and I'd have to go back to where I was doing my Masters (and even that would be limited time visa before I have to go back to my very under-developed home country). I do want to just mentally let go of the anxiety and just focus on performing good at my job but with all the recent layoffs it feels hard, my own company laid off a lot of people last year and because of that their glassdoor rating is kindof bad. I've been spiralling a bit just reading the glassdoor reviews of people blaming the management of uprooting their lives. Other people who changed cities or countries and were left jobless and were trying to navigate in a extremely bureucratic environment.

I have a 6 month probation in which I can be laid off pretty quickly, I just need to learn to not worry about the stuff I can't control.

Beginning of next year I am setting out as an independent software engineering consultant. As such I am interested in hearing from others who have already done something similar! I have been working as a developer and team lead for more than 10 years of which the last 5 have been focused mostly on the .Net stack. Now I want to expand my horizons a bit more, preferably with a new domain or another tech stack.

What are some suggestions/advice you'd give someone just starting down this path? Anything I should avoid doing? Anything I should definitely do? I suppose the specifics will vary a bit by country, but are there some general things I should be thinking about?

Oh, if you happen to have a need for a senior developer/tech lead, give me a ping!