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Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#41

Post by hluska »

penpapersw wrote: post #35
goodroot wrote: post #33

While it may not fill an urgent need, have you considered finding a comfortable and stable remote job? Hackernews 'who is hiring' is a great spot; weworkremotely.com, remoteok.io. You seem to have experiences, which is excellent. In the short term, if you're in the throes of an emergency, perhaps get some help from love ones while you get your feet back on the ground. Looking for a project under stressful circumstanc…

Yep, and I've applied for pretty much every remote job from the last HN "who's hiring" post. None of them went past the initial interview. What I took from that is that there's not a lot of remote work available right now in general. I'll look into the two websites you recommended, thanks.

You know, don't take this wrong, but I worry about the conclusion 'that there's not a lot of remote work available'. Rather, you seemingly got some initial interviews, so there must be jobs available. Instead, it just seems like you weren't a good fit for them.

Seriously, keep applying for work. You'll eventually get a break, particularly if you're getting initial interviews just off the strength of an application.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#42

Post by taurath »

penpapersw wrote: post #35
goodroot wrote: post #33

While it may not fill an urgent need, have you considered finding a comfortable and stable remote job? Hackernews 'who is hiring' is a great spot; weworkremotely.com, remoteok.io. You seem to have experiences, which is excellent. In the short term, if you're in the throes of an emergency, perhaps get some help from love ones while you get your feet back on the ground. Looking for a project under stressful circumstanc…

Yep, and I've applied for pretty much every remote job from the last HN "who's hiring" post. None of them went past the initial interview. What I took from that is that there's not a lot of remote work available right now in general. I'll look into the two websites you recommended, thanks.

I've noticed the downvotes on this but my experience attempting to go full remote is that almost any remote job worth taking has a VAST number of applicants. They tend to hold out for people who are looking for VERY specific skillsets (IE, the exact combination of frameworks/toolchains they are using).

Because they have no problems getting applicants, they tend to automate the up front coding part. It generally consists of a coding challenge, taking from 2 hours to (I've actually seen) 2 weeks. To get someone to do a phone screen. Its a far more painful process. After I stopped looking for "only" remote work I had 2 very good offers in-town within literally a week, with recruiters breaking down my door. Both of which paid better than any of the remote gigs.

YMMV - remote hiring is pretty cutthroat right now.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#43

Post by remotelyhopeful »

hluska wrote: post #41
penpapersw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, and I've applied for pretty much every remote job from the last HN "who's hiring" post. None of them went past the initial interview. What I took from that is that there's not a lot of remote work available right now in general. I'll look into the two websites you recommended, thanks.

You know, don't take this wrong, but I worry about the conclusion 'that there's not a lot of remote work available'. Rather, you seemingly got some initial interviews, so there must be jobs available. Instead, it just seems like you weren't a good fit for them. Seriously, keep applying for work. You'll eventually get a break, particularly if you're getting initial interviews just off the strength of an application.

It is hard to find jobs that are completely remote, most want an applicant in a US or European timezone, or at least someone who can travel to the office a few times a year.

I am in a similar position to OP. I have confidence in my abilities and feel ready to join a team, but so far I have only worked freelance. If anyone is looking, please feel free to check my personal site... https://mfisher.xyz

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#44

Post by penpapersw »

hluska wrote: post #41
penpapersw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, and I've applied for pretty much every remote job from the last HN "who's hiring" post. None of them went past the initial interview. What I took from that is that there's not a lot of remote work available right now in general. I'll look into the two websites you recommended, thanks.

You know, don't take this wrong, but I worry about the conclusion 'that there's not a lot of remote work available'. Rather, you seemingly got some initial interviews, so there must be jobs available. Instead, it just seems like you weren't a good fit for them. Seriously, keep applying for work. You'll eventually get a break, particularly if you're getting initial interviews just off the strength of an application.

In the past month I only found less than 10 remote jobs, and I had the skills to apply for about 8 or 9. To me that feels like a very small pool in the first place. And yes the 8 or 9 didn't hire me but that was probably because like someone else mentioned here, there's just tons of applicants, maybe I was severely undercut by someone who doesn't have a wife and 5 children to provide for.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#45

Post by hluska »

penpapersw wrote: post #44
hluska wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, don't take this wrong, but I worry about the conclusion 'that there's not a lot of remote work available'. Rather, you seemingly got some initial interviews, so there must be jobs available. Instead, it just seems like you weren't a good fit for them. Seriously, keep applying for work. You'll eventually get a break, particularly if you're getting initial interviews just off the strength of an application.

In the past month I only found less than 10 remote jobs, and I had the skills to apply for about 8 or 9. To me that feels like a very small pool in the first place. And yes the 8 or 9 didn't hire me but that was probably because like someone else mentioned here, there's just tons of applicants, maybe I was severely undercut by someone who doesn't have a wife and 5 children to provide for.

Okay, I'm not going to leave this one be. Have you ever considered that the way you communicate may be a bigger issue? Consider this line, from your HN profile:

Email me at admin@affluentconfidante.com if you have a job to get done and money to pay for it.

At best, that is extremely unprofessional.

Or, even consider these phrases from this very comment:

In the past month I only found less than 10 remote jobs

To me that feels like a very small pool in the first place.

maybe I was severely undercut by someone who doesn't have a wife and 5 children to provide for.

In other comments, you've talked about how you don't have a 'public' resume ready, and how you only have two public projects, that you built in an hour or two over the last few weeks.

I'm looking for a job myself, so I understand that it is a hard slog, but seriously, you need to tone down the negativity.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#46

Post by myrandomcomment »

penpapersw wrote: post #19
aresant wrote: post #9

I would immediately update your posting with a CV, website, git, whatever. You are on the front page of arguably the PREMIER network of people with access / need for technologists.

Good idea, thanks. Updated my profile with an email. Don't have resume in order yet. But have done plenty of Clojure, front-end and back-end work, made several iOS/tvOS apps that ship on the App Store. If anything comes from this, great, but I'm not betting on it, so I'm going to focus most my efforts on the suggestions to give try toptal, upwork, and freelancer.com a serious try for the short term, and to build a ne…

Sounds like a person problem. You are at the top of HN. Get off your ass and take the few hours it takes to get a resume done. Maybe that's your issue in finding work. You ask for help but are not willing to do the most basic thing required to get a job?

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#48

Post by penpapersw »

myrandomcomment wrote: post #46
penpapersw wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good idea, thanks. Updated my profile with an email. Don't have resume in order yet. But have done plenty of Clojure, front-end and back-end work, made several iOS/tvOS apps that ship on the App Store. If anything comes from this, great, but I'm not betting on it, so I'm going to focus most my efforts on the suggestions to give try toptal, upwork, and freelancer.com a serious try for the short term, and to build a ne…

Sounds like a person problem. You are at the top of HN. Get off your ass and take the few hours it takes to get a resume done. Maybe that's your issue in finding work. You ask for help but are not willing to do the most basic thing required to get a job?

I have a resume, sorry for the miswording. But my wife values privacy and so isn't comfortable with me just posting it up here on HN willy nilly. And although I am comfortable with it, I feel obligated to respect her wishes.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#49

Post by praneshp »

penpapersw wrote: post #48
myrandomcomment wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a person problem. You are at the top of HN. Get off your ass and take the few hours it takes to get a resume done. Maybe that's your issue in finding work. You ask for help but are not willing to do the most basic thing required to get a job?

I have a resume, sorry for the miswording. But my wife values privacy and so isn't comfortable with me just posting it up here on HN willy nilly. And although I am comfortable with it, I feel obligated to respect her wishes.

What has privacy got to do with anything? Nuke your address/phone numbers, but it's somewhat unreasonable to ask for a job without a resume, and substituting that with 2 days of work (You said it took you about a day each to build the projects you linked in another comment).

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#50

Post by penpapersw »

hluska wrote: post #45
penpapersw wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past month I only found less than 10 remote jobs, and I had the skills to apply for about 8 or 9. To me that feels like a very small pool in the first place. And yes the 8 or 9 didn't hire me but that was probably because like someone else mentioned here, there's just tons of applicants, maybe I was severely undercut by someone who doesn't have a wife and 5 children to provide for.

Okay, I'm not going to leave this one be. Have you ever considered that the way you communicate may be a bigger issue? Consider this line, from your HN profile: Email me at admin@affluentconfidante.com if you have a job to get done and money to pay for it. At best, that is extremely unprofessional. Or, even consider these phrases from this very comment: In the past month I only found less than 10 remote jobs To me th…

Sorry that came off as negative. It's more or less a very limited amount of time. That's one of the reasons I can't get a "regular job". My wife has an illness we haven't gotten a stable diagnosis for yet, which makes her exhausted all the time, leaving me to watch our 5 children (from teen to baby), which is a full time job in and of itself. The few times I do anything during the day have to be done in tiny windows in which the kids aren't trying to burn down the house and terrorize each other. And I've been consistently getting less sleep than I need because I try to get little amounts of job searching or entrepreneurial work done during late hours. So any time I have to dedicate to doing any of these things, including commenting on HN, is sleep-deprived and rushed.
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