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I am working in one good company as a senior iOS developer and have some good experience in it. I have some free time in personal and I want to earn more money by doing freelance work online And I need to work for personal reasons. I want to join freelancing site. But my confusion is that "Should I join this site with my original Identity?"

As per my thinking I may easily caught by marketing team of my current company or my future working environment. I don't want to spoil my current position as I am fixed salaried employee and I want to continue it for some years. I heard that most of the companies don't allow freelance work to their employees.

So Please give me suggestion about

  • Identity on freelancing site will affect to my current working life?
  • Is there any other option for me to work safe and good?
  • Should I use fake identity? And is it Valid? (I think it is bad one.)

I am ready to manage my time for it, and want to improve my life standard and working knowledge.

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    Do you know that freelancing is not permitted by your company or are you just guessing? Seems to me, the first step is to be definitive on that issue. No company I've ever worked at had an issue with my "moonlighting" as long as it wasn't a conflict of interest.
    – Scott
    Jun 14, 2016 at 21:00
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    @Scott Yes I know it is not permitted by my company. And in my country more than 50 percent company does't allow. So I worry for future jobs also.
    – Max
    Jun 15, 2016 at 4:41
  • This is really iffy. I understand you need the money, but working on the side is a breach of contract, especially if it's in the same field as the work for your employer. If you get caught, you're in trouble. If you're in need of money, I would perhaps look at (1) asking your company if it's ok or (2) looking at offering a service to people in real life that is unrelated to your field (like fixing pcs, or some other hobby you have).
    – user152
    Jun 15, 2016 at 14:24

2 Answers 2

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You have multiple options.

  1. Go incognito with fake name. Create your iOS identity as "John" and be known as John without telling anyone your real name. Some clients may not like this and the morality of this step is questionable. also it may be almost impossible to be accepted to freelancer websites as all the good ones will request you submit your ID when creating a new profile.

  2. Freelancer sites like Upwork usually offer private profile. It means that you will be hidden from searches and anyone directly accessing your profile, EXCEPT those clients you previously worked for and those clients whose jobs you have applied to.

Now, how good or bad this is, it's really questionable. Many freelancers do this. The reasons are either honest or dishonest. I guess if you are good in what you do, I don't have to know you're Max since John has done pretty good job. I may be angry or suspicious if I want to hire you full-time and I see that you sent ID as Max. In my case, if your incognito reasons are sound, I would not mind you being incognito. After all, I never hire Max or John, but the "guy whose iOS skills are superb".

In the end, it's all up to you. For every 10 people that question incognito step, you will find 10 honest people who have their own justified reasons to be incognito.

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  • Hi Peter MV, Same as you I also don't like to be suspicious as It will be on reputation. And dishonest with client will definitely affect. So I need to know about option. As some friends recommend me to go with family member's identity and be real. As this field always welcomes to real and good quality work.
    – Max
    Jun 15, 2016 at 4:46
  • If I were you and wanted to hide my identity, I would become Johny Joe (or some more professional name - maybe your baptist name) with some image of mine that no one can recognize (don't user other's person image!!!) and offer my services, but DELIVER them with quality and professionalism. 99% of clients would not mind working with John instead of Max. But you must be prepared for situations if they want to meet you in live and other potentially awkward situations. Goodluck!
    – Peter MV
    Jun 15, 2016 at 13:36
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Identity on freelancing site will affect to my current working life?

I had a full-time marketing job working in my companies corporate division and the entire time I worked for them I also freelanced. DISCLAIMER: Just becuase I had a positive experience does not mean you will too.

My freelance work helped me in the corporate setting as I didn't have as much freedom to try new things for a multi-million dollar company compared to smaller companies that I worked with. I was able to use that knowledge and experience to improve my performance in the office and they were happy about it.

At a different position I had (different company as well) when they found out I was freelancing they offered me a raise (this isn't always going to happen). They believed I was freelancing becuase I couldn't afford to live off of what they were paying me.

I don't know where you are located but I work in the US and the marketing team and dev team I work with mostly have contracts with other companies as well as being full-time for this company. This has helped the company grow substantially in the past few years.

Really, it all depends on how your company views this. I personally can't imagine any company thinking poorly of an employee that also freelanced on the side unless you're working for competitors or using company assets (such as code) to fulfill those contracts.

Should I use fake identity? And is it Valid? (I think it is bad one.)

You can work under a fake name as @PeterMV mentioned but you'll need to create a life around that person. Even using sites like Upwork & freelancer my LinkedIn profile gets checked before I get hired for most of my high-paying contracts. Companies want to hire someone who is real and is going to deliver quality work. Having a name with no background to it is kinda sketchy.

Some sites will have you verify your identity but as to the process that all sites have to do such a thing, I'm not 100% sure. Some sites do let you register as a company instead as an individual.

Is there any other option for me to work safe and good?

You may want to just work under your real name and if your company does have an issue with it (if they find out) then you should explain why you're freelancing. As a developer there's so much out there for you to learn and that alone is a great reason. Maybe your company only uses Swift but you want to explore possible advantages of using Objective-C, or building iOS apps without Xcode, etc.

At the end of the day, it's up to you whether you want to use a real or fake name and each has it's disadvantages. There are good reasons as to why you'd want to use a fake name I'm also not sure you own anything you write if the developer is a fake name and there's no solid proof that you're that person (I would look into your local and federal laws).

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  • I want to be honest with client So it is question to real identity. So it is complex problem for me to work with company and also personal.
    – Max
    Jun 15, 2016 at 4:56

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