Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#1

Post by ruigomes » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 4:12 PM UTC

Hey HN!

I'm a CS student and also a web developer on my free time. I've been freelancing for several companies with modern PHP frameworks (Laravel) and some other companies that use Ruby (on Rails) for the past couple years, mostly backend and API work.

I've been getting most of my jobs from oDesk (yeah..), which is a major PITA. Even when the client is decent (which is hard to find but possible) I still have to deal with a 10% pay cut and that stalker tracking software that doesn't even work properly on OS X.

There's an huge offer for full-time jobs listings and I was wondering if:

a) Is there a listing for people looking for part-time only?

b) If not, are there enough companies and freelancers looking for part-time jobs/people?

I'm currently running out of work and I'd be up for creating a simple website (similar to http://nomadjobs.io to give you an idea) for this specific situation if there's a need for it.

TL;DR: CS Student. Finding part-time dev work is hard. Should I create a website for people in my situation?

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#2

Post by 27182818284 » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 4:15 PM UTC

Even if nobody uses it, you're left with a piece for your portfolio / GitHub account. Built it.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#3

Post by Axsuul » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 5:01 PM UTC

Hi there, can you reach out to me @ james@funnelthecake.com? I may have an opportunity for you.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#4

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 5:08 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#5

Post by larrydag » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 5:22 PM UTC

http://hnhiring.me/. Look at the freelancers wanted/seeking postings.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#6

Post by AndrewKemendo » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 5:26 PM UTC

Sounds like you found a good project to work on.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#7

Post by Ryel » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 5:32 PM UTC

Creating a social site is not easy.

It's hard to attract jobs without candidates and even harder to attract candidates without having open jobs. Worst of all in your case is that you content(job post) has a short lifespan.

It's possible but don't do it unless you're passionate about it.

Try these for PT work. http://gun.io http://codementor.io http://meetup.com

Assuming you live in a major city, there are lots of Meetups hosted at co-working offices. These spaces are brilliant for someone like you looking for work because they are flush with bootstrapped companies who only need a little bit of work. They have a little bit of cash, motivated, and potentially right on the verge of launching/reaching scale.

Once you're in the office space, find out how to get invited to whatever messageboard they use for internal communication. You will use it to advertise your services. After you get signed up into their chat system, just walk around the meetup and start introducing yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#8

Post by kristiandupont » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 5:39 PM UTC

I would love a site like this! I find consulting through agencies which works but that limits me to what they happen to know about. There are finally some remote-working job sites appearing but they still focus on employment over part time or contracting which is what I prefer.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#9

Post by ufmace » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 6:02 PM UTC

Creating a site like that is straightforward enough, and lots of people have done it. The hard problem is the market - how do you filter/rate clients by who can come up with a reasonable, practical project and will pay market rates without being overly difficult about anything? How do you filter developers by who can execute a project in their advertised languages and frameworks, estimate it accurately, and finish it on-time and on-budget to professional quality standards? I wouldn't bother unless you have some practical-sounding idea for how to fix that.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any part-time dev jobs listing?

#10

Post by mooreds » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 6:10 PM UTC

ufmace wrote: post #9

Creating a site like that is straightforward enough, and lots of people have done it. The hard problem is the market - how do you filter/rate clients by who can come up with a reasonable, practical project and will pay market rates without being overly difficult about anything? How do you filter developers by who can execute a project in their advertised languages and frameworks, estimate it accurately, and finish it…

Good points. That said, all these issues are faced by sites that focus on full time employment.

I am definitely interested in part time development work, and am not aware of any sites that have that as their main differentiator.

OP, it'd be interesting to see this site up and running. However, I'd think carefully about what kind of part time work you are trying to have listed on the site:

   * project based (which may spike to more than 40 hrs/week, but only lasts for 3 months)
   * retainer (I want 10 hours/week forever)
   * employment (I want to hire someone who is willing to work for 15 hours/week)

Part time work is harder to find because there are certain fixed costs of managing labor, and it's nice if you can amortize those across as many hours/week as you can, but as a contractor it helps me have more than one opportunity to earn income at one time.