Freelancer Profile : Helder Norte

Our freelancer this month? 24 year-old Helder Norte. With a skill-set that encompases Typescript, NodeJS,  Angular and StencilJS, he’s currently deep in mission at international industrial group Vallourec with Comet. Helder keeps his French tech touch on point and competitive within the freelance landscape, by technical monitoring and training outside of his comfort zone. He appreciates Comet for what he dubs “Transparency and the desire to always make their Freelancers grow”.

Why did you decide to go freelance ?

I seized an opportunity to get into freelancing and to leave a position in which I didn’t feel fulfilled. This while keeping a protected status within a “portage”  framework. 

What do you like about the freelance lifestyle ?

Honestly? The freedom, the freedom to be able to choose my missions, the freedom not to feel myself trapped in a company or a management and above all to be able to manage my own time to develop myself and learn new things..

Would you say you work effectively as a freelancer? And if so why?

Being in charge of my taks gives me the motivation and dynamism that I wouldn’t have had as an employee where everything would be imposed on me. Being able to manage my time myself also helps me organize myself better to be even more efficient on a daily basis.

What are you doing to stay competitive among freelancers? ?

Technical monitoring and training outside of my comfort zone, often on languages that I do not quite master yet or on bases that are easily forgotten if not used on a daily basis. And above all a good dose of humility and hard work. We can quickly enter our bubble and claim to know everything, from spending a lot of time on our projects, while next to it there are ten billion things that other developers use / build that could help us grow and can be a competitive advantage. Finally, I also sometimes create mini-projects about tech that I need to learn more about. The latest being Twitter-like, where you can create messages, like them, delete them with an authentication system, using React, MongoDB and GraphQL. For this project, I wanted to deepen my knowledge in React and GraphQL..

Do you have side projects or other activities in parallel??

Yes, during my years of study being a big fan of MMORPG and especially of World of Warcraft, I immersed myself in the world of Addons for this kind of game, thus uniting useful and fun and it is something that has remained since then. I help out with various Open-Source Projects to optimize / help players on a daily basis, mainly using languages like LUA and very, very rarely C #...

What do you like about Comet?

The Comet team is always there for us, but above all beyond their employer brand and their reputation, the freelance community is always ready to help. You never feel obligated to take on a mission with Comet, on the contrary, they want what’s best for you.

What are your advantages with Comet?

Transparency and the desire to always make Comet Freelancers grow, unlike other structures which only seek profit and their personal interests. The platform dedicated to freelancers allows us to be autonomous and to position ourselves on current offers. In addition, it is very easy to speak to and discuss with our contacts at Comet.

How does Comet help you thrive in your work and in your life?

Whether you are a self-employed person or a portage worker, Comet always takes care of everything, with transparency and honesty, surprising and pleasant in this world of sharks. An authenticity between their values and their reality which allows me to evolve with trust and therefore to concentrate on my career and increase my skills.