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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?

#141

Post by nikhildaga »

isalmon wrote: post #22

It's funny how with all the job sites and modern tools we still live in the world where employees and employers can't find each other. I'm the CEO of a US based startup, but we're hiring everywhere. We actually have a few digital nomads at the company. Somehow we still have troubles finding more talent. There are a few job boards dedicated to digital nomads, but the volume there is surprisingly low.

Hi @isalmon, I can definitely solve your problem.

To put in context, we, at Idea To Startup (https://ideatostartup.org/), have helped startups from 5 different continents around the world create the best remote team in the shortest time.

Let's discuss this over chat. What's the best way to contact you?

Thanks, Nikhil

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

#142

Post by scruffyherder »

Just ask them. I had this world thrust uppon me, as I offered to help with night time, so now I live in SE Asia.

It's not all roses, internet connectivity and being available is a must. Travel is incredibly stressful as you need to be always online, so that means always having batteries, cables multiple phones, tools and travel SIM cards. You cannot leave anything to chance.

Get ready to be cut out of the office politick, which is great, but also means I didn't know our SVP walked out as he was signed onto the online collaboration tool for another 3 months after he stormed out. And it didn't help that he would ignore me from time to time.

Devops has more opertunity just because of the following the sun model.

So yeah, be flexible, add value and just ask, create the crissis and the solution. If only people were fully awake and always available and knew the infastructure@3am....

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

#143

Post by scruffyherder »

onion2k wrote: post #75
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?

Increase your rates regardless. Clients don't know, or really care, about quality so long as what you build works. Where quality is important is in keeping your costs low. Having to revisit old code to fix bugs or trying to work with bad code to add features has very little impact on your client. It affects you . Strive to write good code for your own sake. Plus, if you take on fixed price projects writing code you d…

> so long as what you build works.

You mean, ships on time.

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

#144

Post by wolco »

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…

What I have found on upwork is the smaller the contract amount the more difficult the client and more likely to get a dispute.

40 dollar for a small task seems to be a magical cutoff point where any task less has a checklist of dozens of smaller tasks bundled in.

800 seems to be the level where above that you can expect some professional-ness

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

#145

Post by rl1987 »

csomar wrote: post #113
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?

I've seen mediocre to really bad people getting paid $3000/day for their mediocrity and not delivering results. Increase your rates.

For how many workdays in row?

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

#147

Post by imhoguy »

borplk wrote: post #99
miesman wrote: post #36

I 55 and have worked remote many times during my career (including currently). The best way I've found is to work onsite initially and dazzle them. Then when the contract is up tell them you are willing to continue remote.

If the organisation is not setup for remote work you will sign yourself up for hell. I guess it can work if you work alone and with high autonomy. For many jobs just having someone say "yeah fine" is not good enough for success.

I agree this way is difficult to help you catch truly remote-first job, as requirement of sitting butt in an office contradicts it.

I recommend screening company with Glassdoor (WFH hints etc.) and at interview asking about communication/collaboration tools in use, remote teams etc.

Nowadays there is a large middle ground of companies which have globaly distributed offices. They may ask you to show up for some initial period to gain trust and mix into culture - definitely important for a long-term cooperation. Afterwards switching to remote is like relocating to different office but staying in the same project, which is pretty common practice. Tested myself several times.

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

#148

Post by imhoguy »

mclide wrote: post #70
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.

If you have more consulting work than you can/should handle, increase your rates.

And delegate some stuff. Negotiate!

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

#149

Post by patio11 »

csomar wrote: post #114
tptacek wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is a list of annoying false things technology people believe about business, this notion that bill rates track technical ability would have to be near the top of it. Your rate has almost nothing to do with how good a programmer you are. Sorry, excellent programmers who've had a hard time getting consultancies launched. Your bill rate roughly † tracks how much value you provide to your client. "Value" is comp…

Thomas, you talk a lot about raising your rates and I believe your points are valid. How do you go (being completely remote) from nothing to have a high quality client (as in corp/high net startup). Take these into consideration: - Can live off savings for the next 2 years. - Can expense 3/4 travel costs for US/EU/Asia. - Can setup offshore US/HK company and bank accounts. - Doesn't mind if the process take 2-4-6-8 m…

In parallel:

1) Produce publicly visible artifacts which demonstrate that you're able to apply technology to impact business outcomes. You do not need many of these; ~3 is fine. You do not need to block on the other steps. You do need to plausibly connect the technology to a business outcome; blockchain and beginner-level cryptography probably do not get you there.

2) Begin getting into conversations with people who either a) have purchasing authority or b) talk to people with purchasing authority, at your target clients or firms very similar to them. This can be as simple as bonding over technical things with technical people. You want to become Internet buddies with e.g. senior engineers / team leads / etc at software companies.

3) Walk the network of your new friends to engagements, either at their firms or peer firms. Do not make another WordPress site for the average business; make something for a software company.

4) For every engagement you land, attempt to get referrals to more clients, attempt to land follow-on work with the same client, and attempt to land ongoing maintenance/retainer/etc agreements with the client.

And then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615

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

#150

Post by 1_player »

elephant0xffff wrote: post #130
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 ". Otherw…

I agree to disagree :) you might be right, that point is mostly a personal opinion.

My personal goal and career path has always been to be a jack of all trades, I even entertained the idea of explicitly writing that in my resume.

One might prefer to specialise in something instead, and master it well. That's absolutely fine, I just happen to love to learn about anything, mostly because I easily get bored if I'm on the same thing too long.

It's suited me fine, but it's definitely not the Only Way to be a consultant.

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