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Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

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121–130 of 206 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#121

Post by xevb3k »

amingilani wrote: post #20

Toptal[1] If you're a really good engineer (like I strongly believed I was) and don't have the network to find gigs (I live in Pakistan) freelance market places are great ideas on paper but never work out... Until I joined Toptal. They screened me to ensure I was a good developer (high quality supply of developers) and then worked with me to find a client that would be a good fit. Since not everyone can get into the…

As a counterpoint, I found their interview process so frustrating and disorganized that I gave up on them and told them I was no longer interested...

They do both an online programming test, and an in person “code in front of us” test + whatever else. They don’t make it clear up front what the interview process is, and often drop the ball... miss appointments etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#123

Post by softwarefounder »

remyp wrote: post #122

I built something to help HN users network together. I can't promise it'll bring you work, but it'll help you connect with other members of this community without much effort on your part. https://findkismet.com

I just signed-up - I'll give it a try. Nice sign-up process.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#124

Post by PeterisP »

pleasecalllater wrote: post #16
fastbeef wrote: post #13

Are consultant brokers/agent only a thing in the Nordic countries? I started my own consultancy firm last year and just sent my profile to a bunch of brokers. They all got in touch and presented assignments they had. I selected one, went on 1 interview (!!) and bam - six month assignment. The broker gets 10% of what I make. It’s super convenient and saves me a bunch of stress and time hunting assignments so the 10% i…

10% seems quite a lot, I'm wondering if your hour rate is so high that the 10% doesn't matter.

If you're a lone consultant, you likely spend more than 10% of your hours on "selling" your services, recruiting clients, etc. Especially since not every pitch works out. If you can get all of your sales&marketing and much of your scope negotiation done by someone else, that's worth 10% of the project cost because that's 10% of the project effort.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#125

Post by justinzollars »

I have a FT job, but I've maintained a website on S3 for a client for a few years now.

I charged quite a bit up front, and now charge a yearly maintenance fee.

Honestly, its best to focus on your FT job and not spread yourself too thin. Enjoy your time off or contribute to open source with your free time.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#126

Post by vfulco »

bbaumgar wrote: post #56
goostavos wrote: post #36

> I'm a software engineer with a full-time job, but I have lots of spare time in my off hours. I'd like to monetize this time > I'm not looking for massive pay, just something to occupy my time and some side money. This opinion will change. I 100% guarantee it. A few years ago, I had the exact same reasoning for starting freelancing on the side. I even justified my desire for more paid work as "I'd be programming on…

It sounds like the issue here is more an issue of work conditions and rates, rather than a problem with the actual work. A counter-anecdote: A couple years ago I decided to freelance on the side, but went the other way - I charged triple my day rate, and set a simple rule: no stress allowed. If the client had tight deadlines or a stressful personality, I didn't pursue them. It's been a massively fun few years, and I'…

Being able to quickly size up and fire prospects before they become a horrible burden is a tremendous, often hard won talent.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#128

Post by tapatio »

bbaumgar wrote: post #56
goostavos wrote: post #36

> I'm a software engineer with a full-time job, but I have lots of spare time in my off hours. I'd like to monetize this time > I'm not looking for massive pay, just something to occupy my time and some side money. This opinion will change. I 100% guarantee it. A few years ago, I had the exact same reasoning for starting freelancing on the side. I even justified my desire for more paid work as "I'd be programming on…

It sounds like the issue here is more an issue of work conditions and rates, rather than a problem with the actual work. A counter-anecdote: A couple years ago I decided to freelance on the side, but went the other way - I charged triple my day rate, and set a simple rule: no stress allowed. If the client had tight deadlines or a stressful personality, I didn't pursue them. It's been a massively fun few years, and I'…

I apply this to my day job. So far so good.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#129

Post by cmyr »

mgkimsal wrote: post #94
ClassyJacket wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" 4-6 billable hours are about the most you can consistently get out of a 10 hour work day" Could you expand on this at all? Why so few billable hours? I can understand why it's not 10/10 (administrating your own work, keeping records, billing clients) but just 40% of your time? What kind of things are taking up the other 4 - 6 hours that can't be billed?

commute. lunch. bathroom. that will probably take 60-120 minutes of your day. driving to clients for meetings. may be billable, may not be. driving to potential clients for meetings, and having those meetings - not billable. dealing with incoming calls and emails. actually trying to market yourself - blogging, or some other content work, or applying for conference speaking, or planning presentations for local groups…

You aren't billing for _debugging_?

I would also include in my billing a 30 minute lunch over an 8 hour day, which is the minimum mandated by local (Canadian) labour law, and I would bill for any incoming calls and email that is related to the project I'm working on.

I'm definitely aware of how different my time feels when I'm billing, and I've tried to relax a bit. I think billing daily or weekly is always better than hourly.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#130

Post by hellbanner »

Mostly referrals. Though now I'm looking for something more stable and am expanding my searches through Linked In, Gunio & Stack Overflow career this weekend.

(10 years doing iOS, Android, React, Javascript, Ruby and more recently Erlang + Smart Contract programming, if any of this interests you/your corp reply with a contact page!)

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