About: David Flint is a freelance professional Test Consultant with over 20 years experience working in IT undertaking QA work covering functional, performance and security testing for clients of all sizes in multiple sectors, testing products and services from hand-held devices to large distributed systems.

Talk overview: Over the years I've developed a set of rules to help guide me during my career as a freelance IT pro. These rules have served me well and I wish I'd had them at hand when I first started out in my career. I've written them up as a short set of lessons that cover everything from:

• Finding and securing work

• Working with challenging clients

• Negotiating contracts

• Building your network and reputation

• Having confidence in yourself

• Creating your own niche

• Enjoying a great work-life balance

The aim of this talk is to present these lessons in a fun entertaining way using my own experiences in the hope that they prove as useful to you in your career as they have done for me.