Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 145 posts

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#31

Post by senko »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #14

One thing that makes me sad, is the old "contract agent" seems to have gone the way of the dodo. I clearly remember these folks. They acted in almost exactly the same way as literary or artist agents; searching out opportunities for their clients, and setting up interviews, etc. As a hiring manager, I dealt with them frequently, and had friends that used them. They used to make a lot of money, because they would char…

Were contract agents really a thing for software developers?

I was just thinking there could definitely be a niche like that, there must be a bunch of people that would love contracting but hate bizdev etc.

Up until know I hadn't heard those ever existed.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#32

Post by Jugurtha »

>I find I'm close to having to abandon 10 years of consulting because I have no idea where to find anything else than full-time employment.

I'm sure that many of the clients you made happy during those years will gladly work with you again or make introductions. Between you and an unknown, you have a leg up. That's one of the advantages of consulting and having a track record of always delivering.

If you want to start your own thing, I've written a tiny Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/jugurthahadjar/status/131066829330549965...

It's also good you included your contact information in your profile.

I did a quick search for companies using Elixir. One site for example: https://elixir-companies.com/en

You could reach out to them and do the same for Rust, Go, etc.

This drew my attention:

>Starting as a freelance consultant, was hired in 2018 as Technical Director to oversee the engineering aspect of the company. In 2020 took on part of the administrative concerns, such as managing the employees day-to-day and preparing for a smooth handover in case of sale.

You can't mass produce people who can do this. That comes with real world experience. You can package that Interim Savior experience and make it lucrative. What are the signals and selectors of an organization that needs that?

You can also reflect back on all the entities you served during these years and can segment by sector/industry (and many roles), by one role across sectors/industries, or by problem. Then decide the approach you want to take depending on your preferences: maybe you like to work within a certain sector, maybe you like to work with certain roles (devs, salespeople, marketing people, designers, etc.)

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#33

Post by ravenstine »

senko wrote: post #31
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #14

One thing that makes me sad, is the old "contract agent" seems to have gone the way of the dodo. I clearly remember these folks. They acted in almost exactly the same way as literary or artist agents; searching out opportunities for their clients, and setting up interviews, etc. As a hiring manager, I dealt with them frequently, and had friends that used them. They used to make a lot of money, because they would char…

Were contract agents really a thing for software developers? I was just thinking there could definitely be a niche like that, there must be a bunch of people that would love contracting but hate bizdev etc. Up until know I hadn't heard those ever existed.

Same. I would be way more interested in contract work if I didn't have to do all the work to find clients. I would trust a human being more than a website whose only goal is to lower my value while raising theirs (ex. Upwork).

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#34

Post by mberger »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #14

One thing that makes me sad, is the old "contract agent" seems to have gone the way of the dodo. I clearly remember these folks. They acted in almost exactly the same way as literary or artist agents; searching out opportunities for their clients, and setting up interviews, etc. As a hiring manager, I dealt with them frequently, and had friends that used them. They used to make a lot of money, because they would char…

I feel the same having worked for a couple contracting companies. I think if I job hop in the near future, which is unlikely given the recent layoffs, I'll go for a company that is building a product. I'd rather the golden handcuffs than the freedom of mobility.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#35

Post by ricardobayes »

chacho wrote: post #12

I've worked with A Team (www.a.team) for about a year now and I've had an amazing experience with them so far. Really interesting projects, good pay and their team is very supportive with getting you up and running. Can't recommend enough

It says invite-only. Do they invite randoms or do I need to find someone already on there?

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#36

Post by caseydm »

I was very successful on UpWork. However, it is not something you can jump into with no work history on the site, like "I have 16 years experience so my rate is $125/hr." People don't believe you when you say that. They want to see proof from a third party. So you need to start lower ($30 to $50/hr), stay in a niche, and successfully complete jobs while gradually raising your rates.

When someone sees glowing reviews and completed jobs, you become the "easy button" and they will pay more to decrease their risk. When they see 10 completed jobs with 5 star reviews, all mentioning the exact type of work they need, they can be pretty sure the 11th will be successful. It's possible to charge $125 or more an hour on UpWork and have to keep your settings updated so that you are not spammed with invites.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#37

Post by harel »

akuji1993 wrote: post #27

Toptal is trash if you're in the US or in EU. They have shit hourly rates and you compete against developers from anywhere in the world, so you can't ever match the rates they are throwing in. If you are in the EU, check out Freelancermap, Austin Fraser, Hays, Malt, Darwin Recruitment, Upper.co (for less pay, but startup work). I think one thing which is restricting your search is your tech stack. I'd honestly concen…

Toptal had me go through a paired technical test which I did ok but had a small minor fix about 1-2 seconds after the clock chimed 30 minutes. Failed me at that point. I never bothered to re-apply, mostly because I've been busy with client work. Interesting to hear that they not described favourably here. I was under the impression that this was the platform where much higher rates are acceptable.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#38

Post by michaelmior »

koevet wrote: post #22

I have been contracting for the last 20 years, never used any platform (Toptal, etc.). I'm based in Europe and I have mostly worked in EU countries, except for a couple of very lucrative contracts in the Middle East. I can see you are based in London: London has tons of contract gigs, especially in the financial sector (mostly using JVM languages I'm afraid). If you can move around, Switzerland has also lots of contr…

> at least 10 years of experience in the fields (reverse ageism!)

I think this is somewhat distinct from ageism. You could find some relatively young folks with that level of experience and folks who are much older with less.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#39

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

senko wrote: post #31
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #14

One thing that makes me sad, is the old "contract agent" seems to have gone the way of the dodo. I clearly remember these folks. They acted in almost exactly the same way as literary or artist agents; searching out opportunities for their clients, and setting up interviews, etc. As a hiring manager, I dealt with them frequently, and had friends that used them. They used to make a lot of money, because they would char…

Were contract agents really a thing for software developers? I was just thinking there could definitely be a niche like that, there must be a bunch of people that would love contracting but hate bizdev etc. Up until know I hadn't heard those ever existed.

I can assure you that they really were a thing. We used to joke that they were "pimps."

But I worked for one company for about 27 years, and never used one (except when hiring).

Re: Ask HN: Where are the good platforms for contract work?

#40

Post by Buttons840 »

thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #28
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #14

One thing that makes me sad, is the old "contract agent" seems to have gone the way of the dodo. I clearly remember these folks. They acted in almost exactly the same way as literary or artist agents; searching out opportunities for their clients, and setting up interviews, etc. As a hiring manager, I dealt with them frequently, and had friends that used them. They used to make a lot of money, because they would char…

> Nowadays, it looks like they have been replaced by "race to the bottom" sites, like Upwork, or these contract companies, that hire you at a fairly low rate, and shop you out for very high rates. I can't help but feel like these platforms are like Uber for programmers: devoid of all meaningful professional contact and ultimately the commodification of programming as a job. The power dynamic has shifted to give most…

And yet it's never been easier to replicate the core source of value for so many multi-billion dollar companies. I know that doesn't capture all the realities, but how many CEOs when asked what their company has accomplished could simply say "we created a webpage". Stange times.
Post reply on HN