From System Engineer to Freelance Web Designer: My Journey to Independence

After working as a system engineer for nearly 10 years, I quit my job and became a freelancer. I started working from home as what is known as a web designer.

Writing it this way might make it sound like a story of “becoming independent to fulfill a dream” or “acquiring skills to transition to remote work,” but in reality, the process was a bit more gradual and filled with coincidences.

A Harsh Workplace and a Cancer Diagnosis

To be honest, the work of a system engineer was quite tough. Late-night overtime and working on holidays were the norm. Some people even slept at the office, and many suffered from health issues due to overwork.

However, since I had been in that world from the beginning, I thought it was normal. In fact, I think I had become accustomed to that environment myself.

However, at the age of 33, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

While I thought, “It couldn't be me,” I also felt, “I knew it.” This was because every day was stressful, and both my body and mind were at their breaking point.

And honestly, when I found out I was ill, a part of me felt relieved, thinking, “Now I can take a break from work.”

I felt that getting cancer was a message from heaven telling me to rethink my way of life.

My First Experience with Remote Work and Encountering Websites

Fortunately, it was caught early, so I didn't need major treatment. I was able to return to the workplace, but I didn't want to work the way I used to anymore. So, I requested to work from home.

At the time, the style of working from home wasn't common yet, but considering my health, the company accepted my request.

Around that time, the internet was just starting to become widespread, and provider accounts were distributed to employees.

I made my own website just for fun. I was self-taught in website creation and had never formally studied design, but since I had always liked writing and drawing, I was like a fish in water.

Back then, there were no precedents or rules, and it wasn't the cramped, commercialized, and regulated internet world we have today, so I enjoyed turning the ideas I came up with into reality more than anything.

An Unexpected First Job

At first, it was purely a hobby, and I never thought it would lead to work. In the first place, it was an era where the term “web designer” didn't even exist.

However, after seeing the GIF animations I had posted on that website, the president of a company asked me, “I want you to make something like this.”

It was a simple animation that you could find for free anywhere today, but at the time, there weren't many people who could create such things, and I received an unexpectedly high reward.

Returning to the office, and the decision

Around that time, my main job had shifted from working from home back to commuting to the office. Since the internet was not yet being utilized for work, and communication was centered around phone calls, faxes, and face-to-face meetings, working from home caused too many obstacles.

For a while after I returned, the company was considerate, but gradually the workload and burden increased. I felt a sense of crisis that if things continued this way, I would ruin my health again.

It was then that, through a job requested via my own website, I realized that there really was work I could do while staying at home.

At that moment, I thought, "I'm going to quit the company." I had no hesitation.

I believed that stress was the reason I got cancer. After experiencing an illness that could have been life-threatening, I had a strong feeling that I didn't want to push myself too hard anymore.

I swore to myself, "From now on, I won't do things I don't want to do. I will only do what I want to do."

The beginning of freelancing

After I quit the company, I began receiving continuous web-related work from the president of the company that had given me my first request.

That company was an advanced internet business for its time, and they were taking on various challenges such as operating portal sites and online shops.

There was no shortage of work, and in the end, even though I was a freelancer, I was in a position like an exclusive subcontractor for that company, helping with various tasks in addition to creating websites.

However, everything was free, I could do it from home, and I could work at my own pace. It was fun and rewarding.

Going with the flow in my own way

Because of that, it's not like I worked recklessly aiming for independence, nor did I painstakingly craft a business plan.

I simply followed where my heart led me, and by flowing naturally without forcing anything, before I knew it, the "life of working from home" that I had longed for in the past had become a reality.