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Ask HN: What sites do you use to find contract work?

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Re: Ask HN: What sites do you use to find contract work?

#51

Post by Nursie »

What's the context? Which country are you in? What are your skills?

If you're in the UK...

I've been contracting about 3 years now and started it the simple (and probably dumb) way - stick a resume up on jobsite.co.uk, wait for agents to call. Lots will. Be nice to them on the phone but be firm about what rates and locations you're willing to work. You'll get lots of useless ones who haven't even bothered to read it, but no matter, you'll learn to filter them out pretty quickly. Remember the good ones. Rinse, repeat.

I've had two contracts now through reputation, which is quite nice, but getting contracts from previous workmates isn't a panacea. One of them was the most boring thing I've ever done in my life (worse than shelf-stacking in a warehouse) and I quit after three weeks because I was literally unable to complete the work it was so dull. I told the client that I was poor value for money and a recent graduate would be a better choice. The other one was good though!

Also, make sure you're prepared for some time off between contracts, it's pretty much going to happen.

Re: Ask HN: What sites do you use to find contract work?

#53

Post by sirn »

bcks wrote: post #20

I've had good success hiring developers for short-term project work through https://gun.io .

I tried to register for Gun.io and the first thing they want me to do is to write proposal to see if I could communicate, for skillsets that I don't have in a field that I have no knowledge of (GRE over IPSec). I make another try and now it's to write proposal for framework that I never used with explicit "no 'willing to learn' proposals" in the body text. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but if they're asking me to BS on the proposal just to see if I could communicate, then I have to say this is definitely not a good first impression.

Re: Ask HN: What sites do you use to find contract work?

#54

Post by Ma8ee »

vitd wrote: post #39
andreasklinger wrote: post #7

I used to do a lot of contract work. I can't tell you what you should do - but here is what i did and it worked for me Two approaches: 1) Work for one large client and essentially become an employee (consider this. a lot of startups pay good money for remote employees) 2) Work for multiple clients Focusing on #2 here Core rule: You want to be paid premium for quality and service. Avoid marketplaces - it's very hard t…

It's been over 10 years since I had my own business, but when I did, I tried to use "we" instead of "I" and paint the business as a business offering services rather than one person trying to get work. It became very frustrating dealing with recruiters (the people who typically contact you for work). A typical conversation would go something like this: Me: I see you're looking to fill a position involving a lot of gr…

Recruiters recruit people, so of course they want a resume. If you aren't a person a person that wants to be recruited or wants to recruit someone, a recruiter is the wrong person to talk to.

Re: Ask HN: What sites do you use to find contract work?

#56

Post by nightski »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #29
aggieben wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't charge by the hour but by the value This sounds like a recipe for disaster to me without a lot more explanation. Time is the main cost to a provider, so it's very natural that time would also be the driver for billing. "Charging for value" sounds like you're trying to say "fixed price" without actually saying it. I have many, many issues with trying to do fixed price projects of any appreciable size (say, more…

A good example of "charging by value" is productized consulting - where it's a particular task, etc. that needs done for multiple customers. Say you're really good with Postgres, instead of just hanging out a shingle for "any Postgres stuff?" you offer something like a one time $2500 "Postgres Performance Audit". You get really good at this one thing, have a set bunch of scripts, very deep knowledge, predone report t…

Except that you are making your services a commodity. A large part of what makes my services valuable is that I can't approach every situation with a pre-fab script and report.

Re: Ask HN: What sites do you use to find contract work?

#57

Post by Vivtek »

jseliger wrote: post #30
andreasklinger wrote: post #7

I used to do a lot of contract work. I can't tell you what you should do - but here is what i did and it worked for me Two approaches: 1) Work for one large client and essentially become an employee (consider this. a lot of startups pay good money for remote employees) 2) Work for multiple clients Focusing on #2 here Core rule: You want to be paid premium for quality and service. Avoid marketplaces - it's very hard t…

Avoid marketplaces - it's very hard to compete on quality here. Have an upvote. I don't work in software, but I am a grant writing consultant, and I've never met a successful consultant of any kind who relied on or even used marketplaces. A huge part of many consultants's lives consists of marketing and pitching. I know that we've found email marketing to be our biggest strength in this regard. Consultants who can't…

Make that two. I started in the translation industry by responding to everything that matched my skills on ProZ.com. It was years before I got to the point where I didn't need to because I'd established myself, and I still keep my membership current (more for old times' sake than anything, these days).

Without that job board, I would not have been able to make the switch from programming into translation.

Re: Ask HN: What sites do you use to find contract work?

#59

Post by jcsnv »

quackware wrote: post #32

I get my clients primarily through gigster ( http://www.gigster.com ), referrals, and my website.

I'm having issues with Gigster. I did the first interview and passed. The subsequent follow ups (4 already!) have all been either postponed, interviewer no shows (yes really), or setup with the wrong interviewer.

I understand there are growing pains, but not one of my emails have been responded to regarding this issue.

Re: Ask HN: What sites do you use to find contract work?

#60

Post by akshatpradhan »

pmorici wrote: post #12

I would avoid sites like Upwork (aka: odesk), elance, and anything similar like the plague unless working for less than minimum wage and dealing with morons is your idea of good contract work. I suspect the secret to contract work success lies in having really good networking skills and a Rolodex of contacts from having worked in a given industry and having a reputation as someone who delivers. If you don't have that…

I disagree. I love Upwork, and I pay my contractors well. What Upwork provides me with is an incredible ability to keep payments maintained and work honest. There's a sense of honesty when using the oDesk application, where both parties can say, "we feel confident that parties will get paid, and work can be reviewed."

Neither my contractors nor I would want to move to any other platform because no other platform provides that kind of honesty and confidence between Contractor and Employee.

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