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Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

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Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#121

Post by sph »

f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #78
sph wrote: post #51

I'm in the same position, and I am once again asking for "talent management" to become a thing. I am a software engineer, I am willing to pay a recruiter/manager some percent of my revenue to keep sending work my way and find new quality clients. Yes, I would pay a recruiter to keep around so that I do not have to spend time sending resumes and searching job boards whenever a contract dries up. Right now I am looking…

I haven't tried it yet but I've seen 10x Management[0] mentioned on Hacker News. It's essentially the model you're describing. [0] https://10xmanagement.com/

I've seen this one yet the fact that it's the only one recommended over the years (AFAIK from the same user that works with them) means it's a very rare and scarce service.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#122

Post by switchbak »

ttymck wrote: post #86
andsoitis wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> balancing binary trees, time/space complexity of sorting algos .... I needed knowledge like it, but you can look that up as well) In my experience, it is now about knowing how to do these things but when to reach for them when solving a problem.

Agreed! And I never reach for them, because I work on web apps. If I was a database developer, the story might be different. But I don't feel the need to be interviewed on those topics over and over again. Subsequently, I don't know how to do those things.

Having worked in this space for decades, I think most people I've met agree it's ludicrous, but there's strong pulls to keep it in place.

The most compelling argument I've heard is "we get so many applicants at $bigcompany that we need a fast and objective way to filter people out". And sure, that works, but think of the masses of great people you're turning off with that approach? Most great devs I know won't put up with that crap, including myself. Not a problem if you've optimized your company to build masses of code with early-career employees I suppose.

Knowing the tradeoffs we're making in data structures and having a broad understanding of different algorithms to throw at a problem is very handy. It's also almost completely unnecessary at the typical web shop (like you say). I use these things a bit in my work (not the typical web shop), but mostly indirectly via DBs and similar tools where I need to understand the tradeoffs. I'm certainly not implementing anything with red/black trees, making my custom bloom filters, etc. We have an ecosystem of tools for a reason, that would be silly to reinvent the wheel everywhere without a damn good reason.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#123

Post by bityard »

lowercased wrote: post #50
jmconfuzeus wrote: post #40

You can try Toptal. I heard good things about them but haven't got in myself because they require leetcode puzzles which I suck at atm.

I just had a short interview the other day with 2 folks. Screensharing, we went through the first 'problem'. They gave me some SQL tables with dummy data, and asked for some data/queries. "How would you get X?" "How would you get all X who are not retired?" etc After 3 questions, the guy stopped and said "no one has ever gotten this far this quickly before - I don't have any other prepared questions right now. Let's…

Not sure if this is how the toptal screening works, but a lot of hiring interviews will contain somewhat vague questions on purpose because they want to see how (or if!) candidates will ask questions to hone in on the real problem.

I learned this the hard way... a couple times...

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#125

Post by lowercased »

bityard wrote: post #123
lowercased wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just had a short interview the other day with 2 folks. Screensharing, we went through the first 'problem'. They gave me some SQL tables with dummy data, and asked for some data/queries. "How would you get X?" "How would you get all X who are not retired?" etc After 3 questions, the guy stopped and said "no one has ever gotten this far this quickly before - I don't have any other prepared questions right now. Let's…

Not sure if this is how the toptal screening works, but a lot of hiring interviews will contain somewhat vague questions on purpose because they want to see how (or if!) candidates will ask questions to hone in on the real problem. I learned this the hard way... a couple times...

Last I interacted with toptal, the 'leetcode-style' UI was 'work on your own' as a filtering mechanism. I hit similar problems before, where the problem itself was - to my reading - ambiguous and confusing. And you just had a 30 minute timer ticking away - no way to ask a question of anyone at all.

In the example above, I was, indeed, talking out loud to someone and we had some clarification and discussion, but it was still more contrived (imo). Working with the first person with real SQL and a set of real life tasks (write a query for a report to give number of active employees in each area, etc) was far more straightforward vs "find non-repeating chars in a string". I can do the second one, but I wouldn't work by starting off fresh pairing with someone. I would start off a problem on my own, document/test/trial things, then if/when I needed to pair, I'd be able to walk through things in a more measured process. Give me 10-15 min on my own to digest the problem first before I talk to someone.

Even writing this, I can hear people say "but that's how the real world works! You have to jump in to unknown problems immediately pairing with someone, and just ... ask away for clarification..." But even then... it's not how I work well in contrived online tests. In a business setting, the team is likely all 'new' to at least some of the problem. In the 'exam' setting, I'm still 'pairing' with someone who knows it all, and the 'hrm...' and 'do you need help?' interjections every few keystrokes is just not conducive to real work (for me), nor is it how I would ever work in real life.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#126

Post by bgibbons »

p_l wrote: post #98
bgibbons wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm one of the founders here. Yes, we work with hundreds of startups and large FN 500 companies. Happy to answer any questions. That's why we created Facet - trying to eliminate recruiter spam and create a better experience for engineering, product, or design contractors. Dev founded - dev run.

Quite interesting system you have made there. Do you perhaps publish (or could publish) some statistics on earnings and the like? Also, how often the jobs are available for non-USA candidates?

Thx. Happy to - generally for senior engineers and above our market rates tend to be $120 - 160+/hr. For mid-levels, I would say about $100 - 130/hr. Our rates are market driven in that Facet members can set their salary and contract rates where ever they would like. We do an 80/20 rev share on the hourly billable to the client (the rates above would be general market averages for North American based engineers - this is the average hourly take home). People in other geographies tend to set their rates at a lower limit/range. We are growing internationally both in that we have clients looking for non-USA engineers and working with non-USA based companies. Most of our client side demand is for US-based engineers, but more roles and companies are coming onto the platform all the time. Hope that helps!

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#127

Post by bgibbons »

p_l wrote: post #98
bgibbons wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm one of the founders here. Yes, we work with hundreds of startups and large FN 500 companies. Happy to answer any questions. That's why we created Facet - trying to eliminate recruiter spam and create a better experience for engineering, product, or design contractors. Dev founded - dev run.

Quite interesting system you have made there. Do you perhaps publish (or could publish) some statistics on earnings and the like? Also, how often the jobs are available for non-USA candidates?

We provide guidance on how to set your market rate as well based on experience (some people looking to dip into contracting have no idea) whether or not you work on a contract for Facet. We have some documentation there that might be helpful.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#128

Post by a_techwriter_00 »

corrral wrote: post #114
tluyben2 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soft skills I don’t mind; grown up interviews I don’t mind. I have done freelancing for 30 years now and had 0 requests for balancing binary trees, time/space complexity of sorting algos; things that are often associated with interviews here on HN and things which I did, you know, in uni, for which, you know, I have a degree to prove I could do them and know what they are. They are generally 100% useless on modern jo…

> Soft skills I don’t mind; grown up interviews I don’t mind. BINGO. I'm good at the job and good at normal interviews. I more-or-less enjoy both, even. I like talking to clients, and I'm good at it. I can sell myself. And I can do the work. Specifically software developer interviews practically make me hyperventilate and break out in hives. Fuck that. A pop quiz over a huge potential space, probably over something I…

Hear hear. I left software engineering as a discipline because I hated the interview process.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#129

Post by joemasilotti »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #3

There's an interesting "reverse job board" for Rails devs -> https://railsdevs.com/ that sounds pretty close to what you're looking for. I'm not sure what stack you work with but it might be of interest.

Hey there, I’m the solo-founder of railsdevs! Thanks for sharing my site.

Since I launched in November I’ve placed 10+ Rails developers with gigs. About half for full-time roles with salaries ranging from $100k to $200k.

For context, cold messages on LinkedIn have a 5-20% response rate. Usually on the lower end.

railsdevs is currently sitting at 50%+. If you’re hiring a Rails developer everyone is already half qualified - so matching is much more likely.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find small companies to work for part-time?

#130

Post by throwaway81523 »

bgibbons wrote: post #126
p_l wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite interesting system you have made there. Do you perhaps publish (or could publish) some statistics on earnings and the like? Also, how often the jobs are available for non-USA candidates?

Thx. Happy to - generally for senior engineers and above our market rates tend to be $120 - 160+/hr. For mid-levels, I would say about $100 - 130/hr. Our rates are market driven in that Facet members can set their salary and contract rates where ever they would like. We do an 80/20 rev share on the hourly billable to the client (the rates above would be general market averages for North American based engineers - thi…

Can you pay on W2's? That would save hassle at my end. Obviously the split would take payroll taxes into account.
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