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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?

#141

Post by amy_petrik »

ForHackernews wrote: post #27
cushychicken wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why’s this shameful, exactly? There’s no shame in saying you’re available to work.

IMHO selling yourself (selling anything, really) is a bit demeaning. But this is probably a class affectation on my part, not real moral intuition.

Well it's a couple things - Expectation to be "successful" i.e. social media presents extreme conceptions of success, similar to a supermodel body expectation vs. real life. To say, "I'm looking for work" is to publicly admit failure against such a standard. The fear is that for every potential employer, 10 people you know will see the post and say, "tut tut, what a failure" and then call their 10 friends to share the news of your failure - some people think advertising for work is sleazy (as others mention) - annoying people only to be told no, a sense that you're being annoying

It parallels something like the idea of being say 45, never married, and looking to marry, or being recently divorced at the same age. There is a sense of having failed, or being judged by people as having failed. For men, the sense of being a pickup artist or overly aggressive.

That's why some people struggle with it. And it ought not be shameful, in either case. But it's probably more wise to point out those feelings and work through them, process them, than it is to just say "I do not recognize any valid shame here, does not compute"

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

#142

Post by Asraelite »

magicstefanos wrote: post #69
eweise wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethics are great but so is feeding your family and paying your mortgage.

Feeding your family is the more "ethical" thing here

I get what you're saying, but this reasoning has always rubbed me the wrong way.

You will often hear scammers and con artists justify what they do by saying it's the only way they have to support their family. It's like, why is your family more important than any other family in the world? It's still a selfish act.

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

#143

Post by menaerus »

leros wrote: post #55
ernestipark wrote: post #15

Your 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…

I haven't found these fractional sites to be very useful for development work. The rates are low and the few dev jobs already have 100s of applications.

I see rates around $100 all the way up to $200. Is that really considered low in the States?

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

#144

Post by menaerus »

90s_dev wrote: post #26
limbero wrote: post #6

I did this a few years ago and the winning recipe was a shameless (i.e. deeply shameful) linkedin post where I pretty much just summarized my skillset and explained that I was looking for a senior engineer equivalent of a summer internship, with no chance of extension. Got me 3-4 offers. None of the offering companies had ads out for roles like this, so this was pretty much the only way.

There's literally no shame in this. Jobs are just value exchange. Job applications are a proposal, to say, here's what I can offer you. If you're very honest about that, and about what you're looking for in return, they can make more informed decisions. Everyone's life is vastly different, there's no shame in declaring what you have to offer (edit: and what you're looking for). Everyone is better at some things and w…

That's a very simple and non-biased model view. In reality, many people might read your job ad as "so, your profile claims you have the skills but how come then that you don't have a job already?" aka "there's something wrong with this guy".

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

#145

Post by praptak »

deadbabe wrote: post #135
aaronbaugher wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It is the natural order because it is much harder to be an employer. You have to secure financing, you have debts to pay or the business ends. You don’t have time to get jerked around by workers who basically have nothing to lose, and can just go from job to job siphoning income with their skills.

Competition between employers is supposed to benefit workers, yet when it actually does it becomes something outside the natural order. Again, the reality contrasts with how capitalism is being advertised.

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

#146

Post by prepend »

eweise wrote: post #67
prepend wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually that will burn a bridge with that employer and look bad on your resume. Much different career wise than having short term contracts that are designed around a specific job. I know that companies don’t necessarily follow an ethical standard but I find that I can at least follow personal ethics and that’s within my control. I’ve always treated my employers like I would like to be treated, even if the employer w…

Ethics are great but so is feeding your family and paying your mortgage.

In the scenario described it’s not like feeding your family requires you to screw over your employer.

I think ethics are required to feed my family as if I don’t act ethically, my family will end up starving.

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

#147

Post by prepend »

rsanek wrote: post #98
prepend wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually that will burn a bridge with that employer and look bad on your resume. Much different career wise than having short term contracts that are designed around a specific job. I know that companies don’t necessarily follow an ethical standard but I find that I can at least follow personal ethics and that’s within my control. I’ve always treated my employers like I would like to be treated, even if the employer w…

You don't have to add it to your resume, right? If you want to mention the work in future interviews, you can easily talk about it as short-term contracting work. I'm not sure what's wrong ethically about it though? Is it that you wouldn't have provided enough value to the firm in 9 months?

A gap on resumes is still a gap.

I invest a lot of attention, time, and resources in new employees and want to attract and retain people for long periods of time. I cover this during the interview process. If someone only wants to work for 9 months, they aren’t a good fit for my org. (Although we do have contract work for shorter term)

If someone lies and says they want to work long term to get the job, while planning to quit after 9 months, that stinks. As they are taking a spot from someone else who would be a better fit. And I’m wasting resources on them when they don’t need it.

It’s also that they wouldn’t have provided enough value as there’s a ramp up time in a position and I think it takes at least a few months to get going. So if there was ledger of ins and outs, after 9 months it’s still going to show a deficit.

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

#149

Post by rijoja »

paxys wrote: post #36

Having the right technical skills is only 50% of the requirement (and realistically even less than that). The harder battle is being a good salesman. Push yourself and your services at every opportunity. Send mass emails to friends and old collegues. Write daily puke-inducing posts on LinkedIn. Write blog posts and make toy Github projects with "looking for work" blurbs at the top of each one. Set a goal to post N ti…

Won't you just get shitty clients if you write shitty posts if you excuse my french
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