Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

When I consult through MetaOptimize, part of my goal is to work with smart people that I couldn't get otherwise, who work with me because they can set their own hours and work from where they want. This means that I have access, for example, to smart engineers + scientists in academia who want to keep doing research for pleasure but make spare cash on the side. (p.s. we're hiring people for part-time, remote work arrangements: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1748833)

It's sad to see in the Who's Hiring post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1748045) that so few employers offer flexible work arrangements. I think a lot of top talent is lost this way.

1. scrounge for several short-term contracts.

The problem with this approach is that the life of the independent contractor is very feast or famine. My biggest problem was that I'd put effort into selling and then I'd end up with more hours of work than I wanted; then I'd pull back and I'd end up with not enough.

The advantage is that you can often charge higher hourly rates, and it doesn't require establishing yourself as difficult to replace at your current job.

You can pull it off, but there is a lot of sales and financial planning you need to do. I've personally supported myself this way for almost a year, but it was pretty difficult.

2. talk your current employer into letting you do the same work, only two or three days a week.

(this usually involves losing your health insurance and most other benefits)

If you want to work 20 hours a week for the same employer steady-like (as opposed to scrounging for work all the time) you will have to take the job full time and make yourself hard to replace, first; then you explain the situation to the boss. I've had pretty good luck doing this... better luck, in fact, than the aforementioned 'scrounging for several small contracts' strategy. I've probably done this for a total of two years of my career (while working on prgmr.com) and they were relatively easy years (vs. my year doing #1, which was really difficult, and involved eating a lot of tuna.) This strategy results in a steadier (and for me, larger) income, and because I'm really not that good at selling 'premium products' it usually results in me earning more per hour, if you count sales effort. Someone who is better at sales might have the opposite result, just 'cause part time catch as catch can gigs often can give you better hourly rates.