As others said - use your network. Making a post on LinkedIn and trying to get your network to reshare it could help a lot.
Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
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Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#12Publishing articles, etc to demo your skill helps you stay top of mind. Even if only the 5 people in your network see it, they are the 5 people that need that steady reminder of your skills and availability. I’ve also hired people outside my network this way, when I happened to stumble on someone with a great article in the exact thing I’m working on.
I've started thinking about this. Articles/blogs/repos to generate interesting opportunities.
It's one thing to network and talk about your skills. It's a different thing to demonstrate them.
Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#13I find contracts through my network and Upwork, the later became slower last x months, as general investments did.
Play the numbers game. If you have a specific speciality you can use platforms like LinkedIn to reach out to companies that might need your service (through decision makers).
You can also connect directly with digital agencies and let them know you are available if they need to offload some work.
The LinkedIn jobs platform itself feels useless for contract work (at least in the EU) as most contract jobs are employee-like contracts disguised as contract work (full-time availability, no subcontracting/delegation).
Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#14It depends on how badly you need the money. If you really need to get paid you are probably better off finding a full time job and quit after 9 months. Otherwise invest the time in yourself. Work on a passion project or a blog.
Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#15Your network is always the best bet to start. Leverage past co-workers who can vouch for you, reach out, let people know you're available.
If you're a part of YC or other similar investor/tech networks, often those are very strong referral networks.
Beyond that, there are various niche job boards and sites like https://www.fractionaljobs.io/, https://www.hirefraction.com/, marketerhire.com depending on the type of work you do.
Sites like upwork/toptal can be good but often are a race to the bottom.
Relevant: I started a newsletter a little while back exploring this space for tech workers
Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#16Try former employers.
You've already got context, know the stack, whatever.
They might be happy to have a known contributor solve some problem or project for them.
Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#17Sign up for small company at bottom, find things to fix. Set timeline and expectations to leave in 9mo. By then you'll be running parts of the company. You may not actually want to do this long term, or it may be a nice side income. Plan for not continuing to do it, document well, and everyone will be happier
Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#18In your situation, I'd focus on rephrasing my existing skill set in such a way that it emphasizes how I can help solve the current problems with scaling AI deployments.
As for the "where" - keep an eye on growing AI startups that need to scale fast.
Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#19I'm game to talk to you if you want to ken AT erdosmiller DOT com, we're always on the lookout for fantastic talent.
Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?
#20Now is not a great time to be looking for this kind of work unfortunately.
That's not true in the AI/ML space. But for everything else I would agree.