Hanoi: A father works from home, earns thousands of dollars, and is still free to take care of his children.

Ensuring income while still being a "dairy dad"

In the morning, when many people rush out of their homes, struggling to get through the traffic jams, pollution, and dust in Hanoi to get to work, Nguyen Viet Dung leisurely makes a cup of coffee and sits down to enjoy it. He takes the opportunity to review the product introduction video that his collaborators sent him last night before sending it to his customers in China.

Around 8am, when his daughter woke up and his wife went to work, Viet Dung quickly took on the role of a diaper dad. After finishing his daughter's personal hygiene, the young father fed her breakfast, then the two of them went down to the apartment lobby so that the little girl could play and sunbathe comfortably.

At noon, when his daughter is sleeping, he spends time on work, handling customer requests from domestic and foreign companies.

For the past 5 years, Nguyen Viet Dung, 32 years old, in Hanoi has maintained an income of 20-50 million VND/month while still having plenty of time for his family.

In particular, when the couple had a small child, Dung took on the responsibility of staying home to take care of the child so that his wife could have the opportunity to advance. Dung's income remained stable every month thanks to his choice to work as a freelancer.

Being freelance, Viet Dung has a lot of time for his family.

Dung originally studied banking at Thang Long University, Hanoi. However, from his third year, he realized that he liked marketing (promotional activities, communication to bring goods or services to consumers) more, so he learned about this field and started working part-time.

Thanks to his early experience, Dung took on the position of marketing manager of a medium-sized study abroad company. His income at that time (2016) was quite good, about 15 million VND/month.

Having a favorite job, thoughtful leadership, friendly working environment, however, many mornings when waking up, Viet Dung feels "afraid to go to the office".

He said: "I live in Ha Dong but work in Hoang Cau, nearly 10km from home. Every morning, I usually spend an hour traveling on the road. When I get to work, it usually takes me half an hour to wake up, hang around for a while, then have lunch with colleagues, rest for a few hours and then it's afternoon. The road home is always congested, which haunts me. Many days, I don't get home until 7-8pm."

In addition to the difficulty of commuting, Viet Dung realized that administrative management for some positions in the office was not really effective.

"At that time, I wanted to be able to go to work at 10-11am, but come home late, and work with concentration," Dung said.

After nearly 2 years working at a study abroad company, Dung decided to quit his job to open a website and do online business.

Thanks to his strengths in website building and marketing, Viet Dung had a pretty good start. But in the long run, balancing finances and importing goods… made it difficult for him.

Profits did not break through, so Dung decided to close the website. The 6-month operation period helped him realize the advantages of being his own boss and mastering his time.

Viet Dung's home office space.

Before deciding to become a freelancer, Viet Dung lived and worked in China for a year and a half. He said: "In 2018, my wife went to China to work for a game company. I also applied to work for a software application company. Thanks to that, when we returned to Vietnam, we had more relationships to support our current work."

In 2020, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic and his wife's pregnancy, Viet Dung decided to choose to become a freelancer.

After his wife gave birth, he realized that her chances of promotion were better, so Mr. Dung encouraged his wife to go back to work on time. He could both work to ensure income and stay home to take care of the children.

Young father accompanies his child in the first years of life.

Every day, Viet Dung fulfills the duties of a father from feeding his child, putting him to sleep, playing with him, taking care of his personal hygiene... During the first 3 years when his child was not yet in school, he prioritized handling work when his child was sleeping, at noon or in the evening.

When my child is sick and has to be hospitalized, I take my computer to the hospital to take care of my child and work without having to ask for time off or pay attention to my boss's attitude.

Escape the dust but see more than just pink

Viet Dung's job is to produce content (content, messages conveyed through forms such as articles, videos, images), run ads, create websites, provide marketing training... The jobs come from domestic and Chinese companies.

After five years of "sitting at home working for a foreign company", the young father realized the many benefits of being a freelancer.

He shared that Hanoi is increasingly polluted. Especially in recent days, Hanoi has always been in the top of the most polluted cities in the world. Therefore, not having to travel on the road every morning helps him save 1-2 hours, his mind is not stressed when driving, and his health is protected because it limits vehicle exhaust, fine dust, etc.

He has time to accompany his children, raise them the way he wants, and have time to be close to his family. Mr. Dung's wife is a product manager for a foreign company with a branch in Vietnam, so sometimes when his wife has urgent work to handle, Mr. Dung can support from afar.

"The biggest advantage is probably that I don't work too much, only about 4-5 hours a day, but I still have the same income as many people who work directly at companies," said Viet Dung.

Thanks to these advantages, more and more young people choose to freelance. However, according to Viet Dung, everything has two sides. Being a freelancer is not all rosy.

Specifically, the income of a freelancer will not be stable. The time may sound flexible, but in many cases, freelancers do not have days off due to urgent requests from customers or when they need to return products in a short time.

Because they contribute their efforts silently and almost "hidden", freelancers will find it difficult to create a good profile or a series of promotions in their career.

"Freelancers like me will make my parents feel insecure because they always see that their children have no career, lack stability, and no pension in the future...", Viet Dung said.

In particular, he believes that if a freelancer lacks discipline, easily compromises with himself when he wants to rest, wants to choose easy jobs... it will be difficult to maintain long-term, and the income will be inconsistent and not even enough to live on.

Inexperienced people may also face being "ripped off" when delivering products but not being paid by customers.

"I often use software to manage deadlines (work and product delivery deadlines), work with other freelancers to cross-check progress, work based on relationships or through intermediaries (if choosing to work through online marketplaces)...", the young father said.

Viet Dung also often seeks to maintain working relationships such as increasing interaction with customers on platforms and providing free consultation to old customers.

He also buys insurance, uses part of his income to buy investment fund certificates... to have money for the future.

From his own experience, the young father gives advice to those who are wondering between working for a company and working freelance at home: "Each choice has its pros and cons. Before deciding, each person should calculate clearly, consider the field they work in, their personality...

There are people who are suitable to work at home but there are people who have to go to the office environment, if they work alone, they will get depressed or not be able to maximize their capacity...".

Photo: Character provided

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/doi-song/ha-noi-ong-bo-lam-viec-o-nha-luong-nghin-usd-van-ranh-cham-con-20241115152446463.htm