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Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

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Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#121

Post by thrawaylost112 »

Kluny wrote: post #39
sph wrote: post #32

I've quit my day job in 2012, found a contract with a great client on Upwork (forget how it was called at the time). Initially a 6 months project, I've worked with them for 2 years. Got a few other contracts off that site, until one day I've asked one of my main clients to move out of that platform and work with me directly. Worked with them 2 years, until I got an offer in January to become a full time technical dir…

> 1. Increase your rates. Make them non-negotiable. There's people that are ready to pay for quality. If a client asks you to lower your rate, they probably aren't a good client in the first place. What if you're mediocre, though?

You are making a huge mistake assuming that everyone has ability to tell a mediocre from a 10x engineer, which is patently false assumption to begin with.

Market has information asymmetry baked in. Not everyone is informed, that's where you earn your bucks.

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#122

Post by thrawaylost112 »

mikeleeorg wrote: post #58
Kluny wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Increase your rates. Make them non-negotiable. There's people that are ready to pay for quality. If a client asks you to lower your rate, they probably aren't a good client in the first place. What if you're mediocre, though?

It depends on which vector you deem yourself mediocre. If you think your technical skills are mediocre and want to be a technical contractor, then focus on being a great solutions provider. And by "solutions provider," I mean take the time to deeply understand the root causes of your clients' problems, then help them find the actual solutions. Sometimes these solutions are not even technical, which is totally okay. C…

Why a contractor has to be great but the one who is enjoying his service, should not be the "most generous" person?

You see the irony? Appear weak and someone will own you. Appear strong, you'll own them. Simple.

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#123

Post by desertedisland »

johnvanommen wrote: post #48
esaym wrote: post #17

> so I can travel the world while working remotely. I thought the same thing. Perhaps it is because I work for someone else instead of for myself, but since I've been full time remote for the last 2 years, I've had 0 free time for anything. I rarely leave the house. Pretty much everything I need comes from online purchases or grocery delivery as I don't even have time to do that.

This x 1000 Before I worked remotely, I thought that working remotely would allow me time to exercise and eat better. I had dreams of going on a daily bicycle ride, instead of being stuck in my car. The reality is that working remotely just allows me to put in insane amounts of hours. About once or twice a week I'll start my workday at three in the morning due to insomnia, and just work 12-16 hours straight. I think…

Wow mine was completely the opposite.

I told my clients that the largest number of productive hours you'll get out of a developer in a day is six (which I believe to be largely true) and that's how many I worked. Start at 9am, you're finished by 4; most of the places I worked the commute was a 15 minute scooter ride and I'd have the rest of the day for swimming, learning guitar, doing my own projects, etc.

I actually moved back to London for a short time because I worried I was getting too relaxed.

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#124

Post by desertedisland »

acconrad wrote: post #11

Here's my master list of remote job sites - you should be able to find something through here (my first remote gig was from HN who is hiring thread): HN - http://hnhiring.me/ Remote OK - https://remoteok.io/ Stack Overflow - https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?allowsremote=True LiquidTalent - http://www.liquidtalent.com/ Working Not Working - http://workingnotworking.com Hired - https://hired.com/contract-jobs Gig…

Thanks! Bookmarked!

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#125

Post by pknerd »

Copying the part of my old comment on a similar past post:

> I (re)started my tech blog after several years and made it more active and discussed things which were kind of like a "niche" that is web scraping and automation. I wrote posts how things are done and put the code on Github. At one side I was building my Github and in other hands, my SEO optimized posts attracted Google and eventually developers and..site/business owners too that helped me to get contractual work.

The biggest issue with us, techies, is that we don't know how to sell ourselves. Blogging could be pretty effective to get consulting work.

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#126

Post by xfitm3 »

Kluny wrote: post #39
sph wrote: post #32

I've quit my day job in 2012, found a contract with a great client on Upwork (forget how it was called at the time). Initially a 6 months project, I've worked with them for 2 years. Got a few other contracts off that site, until one day I've asked one of my main clients to move out of that platform and work with me directly. Worked with them 2 years, until I got an offer in January to become a full time technical dir…

> 1. Increase your rates. Make them non-negotiable. There's people that are ready to pay for quality. If a client asks you to lower your rate, they probably aren't a good client in the first place. What if you're mediocre, though?

Persistence and QA. Find your own mistakes before someone else does.

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#127

Post by elephant0xffff »

philip1209 wrote: post #14

I'm a digital nomad who as in the same position. I couldn't find contract work for high-skill engineers. So, I started building a marketplace for it. Today that's Moonlight - we are still small, bootstrapped, and growing, but we have companies ranging from startups to a publicly-traded company hiring through the site. Hourly rates average a little over $100US. https://www.moonlightwork.com

What differentiates you from freelancer.com and upwork.com?

The Problem at freelancer.com (currently testing that) is that it is hard to differentiate yourself as a good contractor it seems more like quantity then quality. However isn't that just the result from getting big?

Maybe there is an inherent stochastic process in freelancing platforms that lowers the average rate as more people get on it. So your main challenge should be to avoid that but that seems like a hard problem.

Toptal does screening, which does not scale, Upwork and Freelancer do nothing (or do upselling via courses, bid-boosts, etc.).

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#128

Post by elephant0xffff »

osrec wrote: post #41
BrentOzar wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Build up a portfolio of content (since we develop content) that shows we know what we’re doing. Go on speaking circuit for your niche and give lectures on your expertise. Cannot emphasize this enough. I started a database blog years ago, and built it up into a 5-person remote consulting firm. Inbound marketing is king: build up your brand and people will bring you exactly the projects you want, for life (rather tha…

Mind sharing a link to your blog (if it's still active)? Thanks :)

> Mind sharing a link to your blog (if it's still active)? Thanks :)

It seems to be there: https://www.brentozar.com/blog/

Bam. Inbound marketing seems to go well, a HNer just linked to the blog by inspecting the HN profile the consultant put on HN ... ;)

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#129

Post by konschubert »

jsi wrote: post #54
dangero wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t it against your contract with upwork to move off the platform with a client?

Upwork makes you jump through code challenge hoops and competes you against people in countries where $1/hr is kingly. Doesn't exactly engender loyalty.

From another perspective, upwork gives people in low-incinr countries a chance to work for companies in high-income countries without winning a lottery and leaving their families behind.

Therefore upwork directly improves equality of opportunity in the world.

Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?

#130

Post by elephant0xffff »

sph wrote: post #32

I've quit my day job in 2012, found a contract with a great client on Upwork (forget how it was called at the time). Initially a 6 months project, I've worked with them for 2 years. Got a few other contracts off that site, until one day I've asked one of my main clients to move out of that platform and work with me directly. Worked with them 2 years, until I got an offer in January to become a full time technical dir…

> 5. Don't be afraid to learn. Try not to specialise too much. Generalists/full stack devs are very sought after. You'll start a contract as a web developer and soon you'll be doing DB optimisation and securing their infrastructure.

Nice tips but I don't agree with this point.

Being specialized makes you stand out from the crowd and being "the person who does in the industry using his extensive knowledge in ". Otherwise you are just "the person who does for all industries".

I agree that it's simpler to not be picky at the beginning but later on you should specialize - not just in technology but also in an industry.

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