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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?

#111

Post by dragonwriter »

aaronbaugher wrote: post #110
praptak wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s also hard to trust a short term dev who doesn’t really need the money. You have no leverage over them. They sort of just do as they please. On one hand I agree. On the other hand I cannot help but contrast this with how free market capitalism is advertised: free agents entering free mutually beneficial contracts at their own free will, everyone benefits. Then suddenly when the worker is actually free to leave…

There's a common belief, especially among older people -- and not just employers -- that the natural way of things is for there to be a larger number of workers competing for a smaller number of jobs, and if that ratio gets flipped, something's gone wrong. They consider it unseemly for the worker to have the upper hand, especially if it might raise prices for them.

This belief is fairly central to capitalism, and capitalist societies are actively managed to maintain the described conditions.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#112

Post by rglover »

toptal wrote: post #49

CEO of Toptal here. If you like, I can ensure we review your profile and client matching history to see if there's anything we overlooked. I'm available on Slack or taso@toptal.com. We’ll see if we can optimize your visibility to clients needing backend/data optimization experts. While we look into this, Opire (an open-source bounties site) has lots of short-term opportunities.

Curious, are there any exceptions to your coding test (I applied back in 2021 or so, not sure if this is still a requirement)?

The test didn't like my solutions/speed (which meant I couldn't move forward), however, I'd say I'm more than qualified to be a Toptal dev (see projects in my HN profile [1]).

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/rglover

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#113

Post by thekevan »

sukiorigami wrote: post #3

I think your network is the best place to look for this sort of work. Sometimes people will reach out to me with short term projects which is the best way to get gigs like this. Maybe start looking at your colleagues on linkedin, see what they are up to, and think of ways to contribute to what they are working on. The best people to contact in this scenario are leadership and decision makers. A SWE II isn't gonna hel…

I've found when people ask this question, it's usually because they don't have a network to ask. Or, right or wrong, they just don't like the social aspect of going to their friends for work.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#114

Post by limbero »

ryandrake wrote: post #42
jraph wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't almost everyone sell themselves? Many people, as employees, sell themselves for 5 days per week, every week, except days off. And everybody buys stuff, and therefore relies on people selling stuff. The only way I see we could avoid being exposed to selling would be do have a different way to organize the economy / the society.

I think it's the self-promotion part that's seen as slimy and shameful. Yes, as an employee I trade my time for money, but I don't write blog posts at the office about what kind of transformational and high-impact work I'm capable of, and about this week's top-10 coding life-hacks, and how I can single-handedly turn your project around from life support to on-schedule deployment. Admittedly, the people who are good a…

You put it better than I could have done myself!

My post was truthful, useful for both me and the potential employers, and I know it's what linkedin is for. Objectively, I did nothing wrong. And still I was really embarrassed by it, and deleted it after I landed a job.

I just really don't like tooting my own horn. I was raised to prize humility, I guess it's quite common in Sweden.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#115

Post by creer »

_ink_ wrote: post #54

Everybody says your network. Is this an US thing? Everyone in my network is employed in bigger or smaller companies. They might search for a full-time hire, but not for project work. Is this different in the EU or is my network too small?

Bigger or smaller companies is exactly who hires consultants and contractors (yes, medium too).

A few companies aim for full time only - but I don't feel that's many. Some companies have overall contracts and outsource to specific services companies - and will rarely consider individuals (both US and Europe).

Your network is not people who will necessarily hire you for a project. They are people who might at some point know something.

Your network should also include other consultants and contractors who are likely to be over- or under-worked at any time and could use your help.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#116

Post by aaronbaugher »

ryandrake wrote: post #42
jraph wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't almost everyone sell themselves? Many people, as employees, sell themselves for 5 days per week, every week, except days off. And everybody buys stuff, and therefore relies on people selling stuff. The only way I see we could avoid being exposed to selling would be do have a different way to organize the economy / the society.

I think it's the self-promotion part that's seen as slimy and shameful. Yes, as an employee I trade my time for money, but I don't write blog posts at the office about what kind of transformational and high-impact work I'm capable of, and about this week's top-10 coding life-hacks, and how I can single-handedly turn your project around from life support to on-schedule deployment. Admittedly, the people who are good a…

As one of the other replies (nested too deep to reply to directly) said, many of us were raised to be humble and self-effacing, especially about skills related to innate abilities like intelligence. So it feels unseemly to say, in essence, "Hey, you should hire me because I'm great at X, Y, and Z." It feels weird enough to list skills and accomplishments in a resume, but overtly selling yourself feels wrong.

Maybe people like us should team up in pairs and promote each other. I'd have no problem talking up a colleague I knew to be talented, far more forcefully than I'd ever do for myself.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#117

Post by weitendorf »

ryandrake wrote: post #48

A lot of people are probably going to reply with "Use your network!" which has always struck me as kind of vaguely incomplete and unhelpful advice. It's like telling an investor "Buy low and sell high." and leaving it at that. OK, thank you, Captain Obvious, that's wonderful, but how? Maybe it's different in the independent contracting world, but I've found my "network" only semi-helpful in gaining employment. They c…

I think someone in OP’s situation is likely to have several friends and acquaintances that are at least engineering managers at this point in their career, who in many companies (not huge ones) can have a lot of influence over hiring. If you work in startups and stuff it’s highly possible that some friend or acquaintance is a founder that is currently hiring.

The main reason I’d second the advice to use their network is that I get tons and tons of unsolicited contact from developer contracting firms and basically don’t trust any of them. The only people I have contracted with are people I knew already and trusted. Also, if I did end up paying contract developers who I didn’t trust already, I’d still probably not be willing to pay any of them exceptionally unless they were a known entity, whereas someone I trust already would be less of a financial risk since I’d have a sense of what value they’d actually add.

Anyway, I think the answer to your problem is “build your network” but I always found that advice kind of silly. The actual valuable parts of your network are people who you’ve built relationships with while working, which is more of an incidental than deliberate process in most cases. I guess maybe you could be a little intentional about it though by carefully choosing where you work and who you work with, and how you engage with others at work.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#118

Post by anon7725 »

sgc wrote: post #74
margalabargala wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are multiple definitions of the word "selling". The poster is referring to what salespeople do, not what a grocery store does.

Grocery stores are experts at sales tactics throughout the store. All that fruit does not look so beautiful in the field, and virtually every store is trying to develop their 'ethos' to capture the customers with enough money to be able to care about that. There is no way to avoid selling in life. Otherwise, at the least, you will be constantly overlooked. There should be no shame in it. The shame is only when sales…

There is a trivial defeat for nearly all grocery store sales tactics: make a shopping list.

Engaging with certain salespeople is an altogether different proposition. In order to buy a car, you are forced to interact with multiple odious people who have ripping you off as their sole objective. Thats what I think of when I think of a “salesperson”. See also mattress stores, wireless carrier “retention” departments, HVAC installers, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#119

Post by magicstefanos »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #41
deadbabe wrote: post #4

Short term work is more plentiful when money is easy and there’s a lot of entrepreneurial activity going on due to some recent catalyst such as mobile app platforms or the dotcom boom etc. Right now we’re in the AI boom and some people may be making money peddling agentic solutions but money is tight and businesses are hurting. It’s also hard to trust a short term dev who doesn’t really need the money. You have no le…

> It’s also hard to trust a short term dev You said the unpopular but honest thing.

> who doesn’t really need the money

Finally someone says it

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