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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?
#22It'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.
Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
#23> 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.
Fellow contractor (non-remote) here. First if it makes you feel better I piss away 40m each way on a commute to the client site, and that's on pub transport (a car would take longer). Time is money and that time is lost.
Second are you sure you're compensated sufficiently? You should be able to take time off with that money you earned?
Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
#24Here'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…
Thank you for generously sharing this! I wonder if we should have an HN contractor github wiki or something similar.
Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
#25I've found most of my work remote through recruiters. It's a great antidote to the recruiter cold calls too. Just tell them you do work remote only and eventually they start finding them for you. You really have to stick to your guns though.
Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
#26It may make you feel dirty, but get on LinkedIn and connect with a bunch of recruiters. This is literally what they are there for. My LI feed and inbox are a constant stream of contracting opportunities in London, and a (small, admittedly) percentage of them are remote. (Of course, they're no use to me, as I'm very happy as a mostly-remote startup CTO, but these opportunities are out there.) Contracting tends to be s…
I do this, too. Unfortunately, recruiters suffer from two really big problems for a contractor: 1. They take a cut, a very big cut, of your hourly or daily rate. Thus, to the client, you seem very expensive, and to you, you seem cheaper than you should be. It becomes a new effort to maneuver a proper rate. 2. Recruiters suffer from the fact that they are salespeople, and salespeople often intuitively omit information…
> Recruiters suffer from the fact that they are salespeople ...
reminds me of the real estate agent trick of posting a listing for a home that's too good to be true. when a potential buyer calls that agent, the agent says the home is no longer available, but asks "are you currently working with an agent?"
Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
#27I'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
Looks great ! Just hope your product or Stripe would provide payment system to more countries as soon as possible. Looking forward to join.
Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
#28Is there a specific tie for you between being a contractor and working remotely?
I started contracting on-site for a Federal government department (leaving a salaried state government position for it), through an agency, then moved onto more on-site contracting for a telco, through a different agency (in a different state), before finally starting to take on clients directly.
For several years I worked primarily with a single company, effectively as a regular staff member, but paid based on invoiced hours.
I moved overseas while still working for them, started a new company ( I operated as a sole-trader before ) to allow me to invoice from my new country, and then started working with companies initially through word-of-mouth from existing acquaintances/former colleagues, and more recently through HN's "Seeking Freelancer" threads.
If you just want to travel but dont want the hassle of finding new clients, I'd suggest looking into a company like X-Team (https://x-team.com) - the company I was working for/with when I moved overseas - as they're 100% remote, and have (or had) a number of nomad-ish staff already.
Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
#29Here is exactly what I do to get quality remote work:
https://www.wisecashhq.com/blog/how-to-have-clients-find-you...
Re: Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
#30> 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.
Sounds like you need to set some boundaries. Don't be afraid of setting more realistic deadlines as well.