Five stations on a shared trunk, then three terminals: a full-time role, freelance work, or consulting. Pick a destination to highlight its route, then tap any station for the skills, tools, a practice task in your workspace, and the proof that you're ready to move on.
| Full-time | Freelance | Consulting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You sell | Your time and growth to one team | Defined deliverables (a dashboard, a pipeline, a model) | Outcomes and judgment (strategy, roadmaps, decisions) |
| Income shape | Salary, benefits, stable | Per project or hourly, lumpy | Day rate, value-based fees, retainers |
| Getting work | Applications, referrals, interviews | Marketplaces, referrals, packaged offers | Network, reputation, published thinking |
| Key skill beyond tech | Collaboration, shipping in a team | Scoping, client communication, invoicing | Discovery, framing problems, selling |
| Typical entry point | After station 2 or 3 | After station 3 or 4, with a niche | After 2–4 years of domain depth |
| Biggest risk | Plateauing in one stack | Feast-or-famine pipeline | Selling advice you can't back with delivery |
Work backwards from the income you need. Solo practitioners rarely bill more than half their working days; the rest goes to sales, admin and learning.