The Bureaucratic Side: Air Traffic Rights & Playing Product Owner
By day, I’m deep in the world of air traffic rights negotiations—yes, the kind where countries argue over who gets to fly where and how often. It’s a mix of diplomacy, spreadsheets, and a surprising amount of coffee.
But there’s a twist: I’m also the Product Owner (PO) for our team’s internal web app, which is supposed to digitally transform (cue dramatic music) how we handle these negotiations. The irony? I barely write any code for it. Instead, I spend my time:
- Juggling stakeholder demands (everyone wants a feature, nobody wants to wait).
- Writing user stories that somehow turn into 500-word essays.
- Pretending I understand why the devs groan when I ask, “Can’t we just add a quick button here?”
It’s a weird spot—close enough to tech to care about good UX, but far enough that my coding skills are rusting from disuse.
The Freelance Side: Coding for Non-Profits & Side Projects
By night (and weekends, and sometimes during very slow meetings), I freelance. Mostly web dev for non-profits (because someone’s gotta help them escape the WordPress-using, unmaintainable-plugin hell), and occasionally mobile apps for small businesses that think “MVP” means “fully polished production app in two weeks.”
Here’s what keeps me sane:
- Actually writing code—React, Flutter, whatever gets the job done.
- No bureaucracy (well, less of it). If I want to try a new library, I just do it.
- Seeing direct impact—unlike government work, where changes take years, freelance projects ship fast (and sometimes break fast, but that’s part of the fun).
But it’s not all sunshine and git push --force. Freelancing means:
- Realizing too late that “small fixes” = “total rewrite.”
- The eternal struggle of “Should I charge more or just accept that I’m bad at business?”
The Messy Balancing Act
So how do these two worlds collide? Badly, but entertainingly.
- Government work teaches patience (and how to navigate meetings where nothing gets decided). Freelancing reminds me that tech moves fast, and if I stop learning, I’ll be stuck maintaining legacy jQuery forever.
- PO experience helps freelance clients—I now understand why scope creep is evil.
- Freelancing keeps my skills alive, so I don’t become that PO who suggests rebuilding the app in Access.
The downside? I’m constantly context-switching. One minute I’m debating API contracts with devs, the next I’m knee-deep in airline route disputes. It’s exhausting, but weirdly fulfilling.
Where’s This Going? No Idea.
Right now, I’m enjoying the mix—even if it means some days I’m a bureaucrat, others a coder, and often a tired hybrid of both. Maybe one day I’ll pick a lane. Or maybe I’ll just keep juggling until something breaks.
Either way, I’ll probably tweet about it.
Thoughts? Ever tried balancing two completely different tech worlds? How did your balancing act go?