Toptal.com. Pain in the ass evaluation process, but it's worthwhile to get through.
Can confirm, currently using them as a backup (I managed to get a rate that was attractive enough, but I prefer working without intermediaries)
Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
91–100 of 224 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#92There's no easy way to do that. You have to market yourself as worth the money. You are absolutely right about fiverr, upwork and similar outlets will not bring clients that pay good money and they are usually more demanding than when you get your name into a managers rolodex (contact list is the modern equivalent I suppose). A little fake-it-till-you-make-it might bring you some of the way there. Try making a webpage selling your consultancy with a portfolio of projects you are proud of. It's something to put on a business card that you can pass out when networking. I want to echo what others have said about going to conferences. The trick is that you don't want to get onto the contact lists of other devs and managers don't often go to conferences. Your best bet at the conference itself is going to the sponsor desks and asking around. It's a hustle and I don't think it fits your idea of making a few extra €€. I've found that once I have a solid engagement that takes 8 of my daily weekday hours, I just don't have time to hustle the way I can when I don't have a dayjob.
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#93Side gigs don't really earn much. If you've got a friend that you've worked with before and they have a startup or something, ask for some peanuts amount of equity as an hands on advisor. It'll do more for your CV than 20 hour side gigs glueing some libraries together. Or pick a well known library / framework and contribute. Or rescue a "looking for [co-]maintainer" library out there.
Books can serve a similar role, especially if they're through a publisher. You almost certainly won't make much but people often give you quite a bit of credit for being an expert as an author. (Perhaps more than they should.)
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, i just cbf with leetcode grinding again. What about for a React/frontend role. Surely no leetcode
It's probably just "'a' + 1 + null , what's the return value?" :D
I mean that one is pretty easy; 'a1null' , first thing is a string so it'll try to concatenate with 1, coerce 1 to a string and get 'a1' then same thing will null. Makes perfect sense ;p
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#95Unless you already have top of market compensation, I'd focus on interviewing for a higher paying job rather than do more work on the side. Going by the ££ signs I'm assuming you can get a job in London, where you can make >£200k total compensation as a good software engineer.
I'm already earning near that compensation, was just looking for something on the side as well :)
You're chasing pennies with a side-gig. If you're already at the top of market in terms of pay, it's unlikely a side-gig is going bring in enough to satisfy your ambitions.
Why not start your own business? The upside is much better. Yeah, it might fail, but you can decide to start another one what you learned.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#96Can you actually do decent work in the evenings? If you can't commit enough hours to complete projects, don't bother.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#97do micro saas
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#98Build a free tool with a decent community of users in a field you’re good at / interested in. Some of your users will naturally ask if you’re available to freelance for them on adjacent projects.
If you build such a tool with a decent community, why not add a Premium version and charge money for it?
If you already have some software and an active community, you did all the hard work for an SaaS. What's the advantage of focusing on individual client needs at that point instead of expanding the tool and getting customers?
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#99Things that have worked for me, an introvert, include emailing former employers and coworkers, and responding to calls for help on social media including sometimes right here.
Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?
#100Side gigs don't really earn much. If you've got a friend that you've worked with before and they have a startup or something, ask for some peanuts amount of equity as an hands on advisor. It'll do more for your CV than 20 hour side gigs glueing some libraries together. Or pick a well known library / framework and contribute. Or rescue a "looking for [co-]maintainer" library out there.
Somewhat related; how do you find these "looking for [co-]maintainer" libraries?