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Ask HN: Where do you find meaningful part-time tech jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: Where do you find meaningful part-time tech jobs?

#31

Post by rpmisms »

znq wrote: post #18

Not sure what your skills are, but at Mobile Jazz [1] we offer remote part-time and full-time jobs for software engineers, designers and project managers. We've been a fully remote company since inception and put a ton of emphasize on providing every team member with what they need in terms of flexibility and work-life-balance. We've written an extensive Company Handbook about who we are, how we work and what we do […

> "engineers, apply through our API"

Love it. Self-selecting and fun!

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find meaningful part-time tech jobs?

#32

Post by chrisa »

Call it “consulting” and say you have room for a part time client. It will take some work (use your network, job boards, manually reach out to companies), but you will find something. It helps to have a strong portfolio or proof that you know what you’re talking about (write an ebook, or blog, or open source, etc)

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find meaningful part-time tech jobs?

#35

Post by killtimeatwork »

iainctduncan wrote: post #27
killtimeatwork wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means that you'd probably have to compromise heavily on the third arm of the triangle, i.e. the salary.

No you don't, you just need to get better at selling yourself and negotiating. Most devs are terrible at negotiating and putting themselves forward.

Being amazing at negotiating is a salary multiplier regardless of whether the job has meaning or is part-time... For example, as an absolutely amazing negotiator, you might get yourself a $1m full-time meaningless job or $100k part-time meaningful job. $100k is not a small amount, but you're still leaving $900k on the table.

Plus, let's face it, most devs are fungible commodities and don't have much bargaining power on top of the prevailing market rate. For devs, most bargaining power comes from domain expertise, but d.e. severely limits the scope of the job search - i.e. you may be limited to only a handful of companies worldwide which would be interesting in paying extra for that expertise. Chances that any of them do "meaningful work" AND allow part-time are close to zero.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find meaningful part-time tech jobs?

#36

Post by badpun »

ccvannorman wrote: post #20
readonthegoapp wrote: post #19

whoa, trippy - i didn't know tech companies were going the part-time route already. that's the one danger about the 4-day work week i'm not crazy about. my guess is, if you had a relatively valuable skillset, say coding of some type that was reasonably in demand for, say, a contract rate in the US that would get you $65/hr or more on a W-2 basis, then you would be able to find some decent, possibly long-term work _if…

Expert AI/ML, CV, Chip design/fab engineers can earn $250-750 per hour if they have a recognizable name, pedigree, and/or trust built. You can absolutely secure part-time consulting income at these levels if you have the right connections. Online platforms are a race to the bottom in terms of cost; I wouldn't waste my time there, unless you are planning to differentiate yourself and have a significantly higher price…

How many people in these fields have recognizable names? 200? 500? You’re talking about a narrow elite group.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find meaningful part-time tech jobs?

#37

Post by iainctduncan »

killtimeatwork wrote: post #35
iainctduncan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you don't, you just need to get better at selling yourself and negotiating. Most devs are terrible at negotiating and putting themselves forward.

Being amazing at negotiating is a salary multiplier regardless of whether the job has meaning or is part-time... For example, as an absolutely amazing negotiator, you might get yourself a $1m full-time meaningless job or $100k part-time meaningful job. $100k is not a small amount, but you're still leaving $900k on the table. Plus, let's face it, most devs are fungible commodities and don't have much bargaining power…

No. I've been doing part time work in tech for almost 20 years, and have done part time work for many "meaningful" jobs: working for scientists, contracting for non-profits, building better ed tech systems, working for hospital fundraising foundations, school boards, etc. There's a lot more to negotiation than money. In all of those I've been able to charge decent market rates, and work part time.

I'd say helping the forest service for environment canada collect forest fire data is meaningful, as is helping track underwater noise to reduce marine mammal damage.

It is absolutely a seller's market for developers right now. If you can't find part-time work in a meaningful field, it means you don't know how to look for work and ask for what you want, full stop.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find meaningful part-time tech jobs?

#38

Post by kvz »

caherrerapa wrote: post #8
kvz wrote: post #5

Transloadit is a similar company to Gumroad when it comes to work philosophy. What kind of job are you looking for?

Interesting to know. It would explain the pain of getting issues solved within a reasonable timeframe as a paying customer of Transloadit

Hi can you shoot me an email to kevin at transloadit dot com? We pride ourselves on timely and great support right from the devs so I’d be very interested to learn about the specifics and get your issue resolved if I can
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