My wife is looking for work in data science, on a contract basis in the $50-100/hr range. She has a PhD in biology with a data-analysis approach and has worked in the industry for two years. Are there good sites to look for work that aren’t polluted with spam?
Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#2I don't know what country you're in, but if it's the US, my advice would be to just start a company, throw up a decent looking website and start pounding the pavement. Most of the freelance sites encourage commodified race to the bottom behavior on your labor. Also, 50-100 is too low if you're in the US. If she wants to hit parity with what she would make in the industry working a "real job", she needs to charge closer to 200. (Assuming a target wage of ~150k)
Don't charge hourly, charge weekly or daily (if a week is too large of a unit). It will save you a lot of headaches and free you/her from time tracking at an annoyingly granular level. It also discourages clients from micromanaging your billing (which they definitely will do when you essentially turn in time sheets.)
When she's selling, the goal is to anchor your estimated price to the value of the project (you have to understand the client's business well enough to do this.) The idea is to frame your cost as a fraction of the total value. The rest of the sale is demonstrating you're low risk and that you can deliver. Typically you do this through social proof, or through a small starter project that demonstrates ROI.
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#3I don't know what country you're in, but if it's the US, my advice would be to just start a company, throw up a decent looking website and start pounding the pavement. Most of the freelance sites encourage commodified race to the bottom behavior on your labor. Also, 50-100 is too low if you're in the US. If she wants to hit parity with what she would make in the industry working a "real job", she needs to charge clos…
Hit the pavement how? How does one find people with data analysis needs?
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#4There are some work on upwork.com, but in many cases you have to be careful. If you provide too much info then you never get paid
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#5I don't know what country you're in, but if it's the US, my advice would be to just start a company, throw up a decent looking website and start pounding the pavement. Most of the freelance sites encourage commodified race to the bottom behavior on your labor. Also, 50-100 is too low if you're in the US. If she wants to hit parity with what she would make in the industry working a "real job", she needs to charge clos…
Hit the pavement how? How does one find people with data analysis needs?
In your case, I would suggest that your wife reach out to her dissertation advisers, or anyone who can vouch for her work, and ask them if they know of anyone that would benefit from her skill set.
Networking is going to be key for customer acquisition. Keep a lookout for data science related conferences in your area, as that will attract attendees in the same field, who may have leads available as well.
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#6I also forgot, that there are on Linkedin.com
Remote Jobs in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8613673/
On KDNuggets.com others post articles that teach and get their name out there, so Hitting the pavement is not about going to companies , unless you want to.
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#7I don't know what country you're in, but if it's the US, my advice would be to just start a company, throw up a decent looking website and start pounding the pavement. Most of the freelance sites encourage commodified race to the bottom behavior on your labor. Also, 50-100 is too low if you're in the US. If she wants to hit parity with what she would make in the industry working a "real job", she needs to charge clos…
Hit the pavement how? How does one find people with data analysis needs?
There's no magic here. I too am an engineer, and find sales work yucky. If you want to make more than 5$ an hour on upwork and you're not about working a "real job" sales work is going to be an unfortunate fact of life.
Given that a contract is probably worth 50k+ to your wife, traditional sales approaches are probably a good fit. Unless she wants to do data-set building, I would assume that her target businesses are sophisticated enough to be keeping data. So start there, make a list of businesses that fit the profile, find contacts (put them in a spreadsheet) and start calling or emailing. No magic, just a grind and a lot of rejection.
In terms of a longer-term strategy, she might pursue some sort of content strategy and start funnelling traffic to her website that way. Some % of that will convert to leads and some % of those will convert to clients. Once you get that pipeline set up, you can spend infinite time optimizing whatever parts of that pipeline. I assume though, that in the short-term, she needs work now and not x months from now. "Traditional sales" are likely a better fit in that case.
She might also consider joining a referral network like BNI if there's a local chapter(s) that look like there are enough members that fit your target profile.
And as the other commenter mentioned, your first port of call should be friends and family. Don't harangue them for a sale, just let them know your shingle is out. Presumably some % of them want you to succeed and you'll probably get a lead or two kicked your way in fairly short order.
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#8I don't know what country you're in, but if it's the US, my advice would be to just start a company, throw up a decent looking website and start pounding the pavement. Most of the freelance sites encourage commodified race to the bottom behavior on your labor. Also, 50-100 is too low if you're in the US. If she wants to hit parity with what she would make in the industry working a "real job", she needs to charge clos…
Hit the pavement how? How does one find people with data analysis needs?
By networking. Even smaller towns nowadays have specific community events that are worth attending just for the networking part. If you can't find one about data science or AI, try going to the local Web development meetup and, for example, connect with people who need or are passionate about data visualizations.
You can also reach out to businesses directly by cold contacting, if you can't get a warm introduction. You'll get used to hearing no a lot, but that's a valuable experience in and of itself.
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hit the pavement how? How does one find people with data analysis needs?
By networking. Even smaller towns nowadays have specific community events that are worth attending just for the networking part. If you can't find one about data science or AI, try going to the local Web development meetup and, for example, connect with people who need or are passionate about data visualizations. You can also reach out to businesses directly by cold contacting, if you can't get a warm introduction. Y…
Caveat that networking is a slow "long term growth" activity. If she needs work now, researching businesses that fit a target profile and cold calling is the name of the game.
Re: Ask HN: How does one find contract work in data science/analytics?
#10I am a data science freelancer/consultant (background story and motivation: http://p.migdal.pl/2015/12/14/sci-to-data-sci.html). But in my case, it's purely recommendations and people contacting me (it takes some time to build it, though). Freelancer websites look like a race to the bottom.
Some links I gathered: https://pinboard.in/u:pmigdal/t:freelancing. Plus, price negotiation is super important (way more than for regular jobs). I recommend "Ten Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer" https://medium.freecodecamp.org/ten-rules-for-negotiating-a-....
Look at https://brainpool.ai/ (they offered some good contracts). In general leveraging one's PhD and credentials is a good strategy.