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Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

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Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#51

Post by sixtypoundhound »

juskrey wrote: post #44
s1k3s wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that too while looking over their "screening process", but now I'm really curious to see how hard it is to get in. Did you go through it?

I declined to complete the step where interviewer was about to watch me coding online almost the same quiz they gave me on the previous step. I have just rebelled inside and said "no thanks" almost automatically. I have felt myself like inside some stupid adult movie. Several weeks later I have found a freelance gig (which later turned to be almost 2y job) and the business owner told me he have approached Toptal befo…

I'm seeing that dysfunction pattern in a lot of industries. Irrelevant middle-man creating a lot of drama and fees to justify their existence when they can be easily bumped out of the way digitally....

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#52

Post by caseydm »

akor wrote: post #19
yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #17

This is maybe going to be an unpopular suggestion, but I think certain technologies are going to more commonly be associated with race-to-the-bottom markets, and I think PHP is one of those. It might make sense in investing in studying some more niche and higher-barrier-to-entry languages.

What languages do you suggest? Does Javascript have the same association with "race-to-the-bottom markets"? Having used Symfony and Laravel I don't understand why PHP has such a bad rep except that it's on the easier side so any language that makes things simple would suffer the same fate (attracting inexperienced developers (hello Javascript, Ruby, Python)). Both PHP and Javascript have many language specific issues…

I freelance and agree that you will command higher rates with another language or speciality. Yes PHP is widely used and can get the job done just like a lot of other languages. However, I worry clients do not appreciate a professional PHP developer the same way they do a python or javascript developer.

My recipe for being a successful freelancer is to write clean, tested, maintainable code, PLUS specialize in some kind of niche. I mean specialize like crazy. I feel that employers like to hire polygot programmer employees because they envision them doing different things over a long period of time. But clients hire freelancers for very specific purposes and they only care about the immediate need right in front of them.

For example, my speciality is improving existing web applications written in python with Django or Flask frameworks. I can talk all day about monitoring errors in production, reducing response times, adding features, or improving app reliability, etc. But if someone asks me to support data science, build a new app from scratch, or an alexa skill, I decline.

You can definitely do well with Javascript, but again, I would be really good at one framework, such as Angular or React. Then I would focus that skill on a particular industry.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#53

Post by muthafa »

I've pursued this before and I came to the conclusion that the only reasonable way to do it is to hire a virtual assistant to help you look for projects. It's just become too much of a numbers game. I personally hire people from Latin America and recommend it if you're in North America for time zone compatibility. If you're in Europe probably somewhere in Asia is better for time zone reasons.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#54

Post by cutler »

john_moscow wrote: post #30
ArtofSaf wrote: post #22

Here's something you can do: 1. Go to https://trends.builtwith.com/websitelist/PHP to see websites that use PHP 2. Focus on smaller to mid-size companies (large corporations likely have the tech team and contractors to cover almost of their needs) 3. (Optional) Search for each company on Linkedin and add managers with relevant roles (VIP of sales, project manager, marketing manager, etc.). The goal is to familiarize…

I happen to run a small company with a website built in PHP and I get several generic emails every couple of days from random individuals and fly-by-night "SEO consultancies", claiming that they "found issues on my website", "could help optimize website", "get us reach top Google positions" etc. Most of this is auto-generated junk based on some keyword scrapping, but given the volume of it, I don't think it's possibl…

But how will the small businesses you are targeting find your article?

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#55

Post by soup10 »

dakna wrote: post #46
mcthrowaway123z wrote: post #36

As someone who ran a consultancy for several years, no one wants your last 20 hours. I think you'd do yourself a favor looking for more rewarding employment if you are feeling underpaid.

What's holding potential customers back the most? The quality of the work, implying you are already exhausted after your current job? Or the fact that 20hrs is often not enough time for a meaningful contribution in a development team and you have to spend time to catch up every week? Courious to know what your experience is and if a price conscious buyer would be willing to accept the trade-offs.

working with freelancers that have full time jobs almost always means that that freelance work is lower priority to their main job and will be first to be neglected if things get busy. Freelancers/consultants that do it full time value their good reputation to continue getting clients and work.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#56

Post by darepublic »

Do the low bid programmers really mess them up? I mean it's comforting to think I'm miles ahead in quality than people from those places but honestly I'm not sure. I figure there have to be some decent programmers better than myself who will gladly work for half the money

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#57

Post by philip1209 »

whalesalad wrote: post #48

Sign up on moonlightwork.com. It’s a great community for this exact sort of thing. The advice here sucks. Don’t give up on this idea. I make my living freelancing and a fair portion of that income is from Moonlight.

Thanks for using Moonlight!

If anybody is considering using it - email me (philip@moonlightwork.com) and I'm happy to provide positioning advice on your profile.

We launched a feature this year called Broadcasts where you can share what kind of work you want, then we'll match you to hiring managers. The goal is to decrease the number of applications you need to do!

https://www.moonlightwork.com/

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#58

Post by disjhshava »

mcthrowaway123z wrote: post #36

As someone who ran a consultancy for several years, no one wants your last 20 hours. I think you'd do yourself a favor looking for more rewarding employment if you are feeling underpaid.

Yeah, I don't like telling people that they are asking the wrong question. But my experience says that if you are finding you have spare cycles in your job, you could probably be getting a much larger salary at a higher-end job. Depending what you are making now, you might double your compensation. Check levels.fyi.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#59

Post by coderheed »

gtirloni wrote: post #6

I suggest you look at Toptal.

I applied at Toptal recently, but withdrew my application when I heard about how the CEO is hoarding equity that was promised to investors and the co-founder. Now they are suing the co-founder as well (and disputing that he is actually a co-founder). (He seems to be within his legal rights, but ethics is another matter entirely.) https://www.theinformation.com/articles/at-booming-toptal-no...

I'd suggest looking at Facet (facetdev.com) or Arc.dev as alternatives.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work?

#60

Post by cutler »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #17

This is maybe going to be an unpopular suggestion, but I think certain technologies are going to more commonly be associated with race-to-the-bottom markets, and I think PHP is one of those. It might make sense in investing in studying some more niche and higher-barrier-to-entry languages.

It's true higher up the food chain as well. For some reason companies assume they can pay 20% less for a Laravel/Symfony contractor/employee than the Rails, Django or Node.js equivalent. I really don't get it.
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