I have no interest in under-selling myself on fiverr etc, so how do you find the work?
For 10 years I spoke at every conference, user group, etc. that I could find. I sustained a 9 person consulting company finding gigs through the network of other speakers and attendees that would come up and ask me questions. Every question can be rephrased as “I have a problem you can help me solve”, but you also have to qualify to make sure there is a company with a budget for solving that problem. That takes a little business development.
For conference attendees, you have to have some free giveaway to keep a connection… like a free 2 hour code review of your existing project, or “I’m willing to do this presentation for an in-house user group as a lunchtime thing if you’re interested”. Those little giveaways get you closer to the management and the confidence you know what you’re talking about.
Or pick a well known library / framework and contribute. Or rescue a "looking for [co-]maintainer" library out there.
Going by the ££ signs I'm assuming you can get a job in London, where you can make >£200k total compensation as a good software engineer.
In my experience, there will be about a 3-6 month delay between looking for work and securing a contract.
A couple things:
I undersold myself at first to get a couple of very pleased customers that then gave me much more work. However, it's very tricky... the customers that scoff at your price are not the ones you want. They are also going to be a PITA in every other way, and they'll grumble and make you feel like shit even when you deliver what you promised, on time, for the price you agreed to, with excellent value compared to the market. You don't want them.
....But it is a balance. Consider some way to mitigate risk on behalf of your customer in your first couple of contracts: hourly with a Not to Exceed number, or bid the job. Etc. Anything to get your foot in the door and get word-of-mouth recommendations.
Also... when pounding pavement, don't chase after individual customers! If you do, make sure they are whales. Do your best to find someone that will feed you lots of customers... Maybe partner with someone that does a complement to your work, like frontend or something of the sort?
Also... in partnerships, don't be greedy. There's ENORMOUS value that can be had when all the people you work with or around know that YOU want THEM to make money.
And finally... in my experience, having a "side gig" is really hard or impossible to pull off. It's always been a pretty binary situation between: "I have no work, nor prospects" and "Holy shit, I have way too much work and more is coming in." Work doesn't trickle in organically. You're either in or your out of the network of people that need work done, and if you're in, people paying top dollar want work done now. Trust me, those are the people you want anyway. The ones looking for a bargain will screw you.
Don't be afraid to say no to people that give you red flags, but I will warn you that every time you say "no" you are killing a connection on your network graph that could have led to a lot more work.
“It’s 100% overwhelming, and my wife’s like, ‘How long can you do this?’ ” he says. But “every other Friday, when those paychecks drop, I am reinvigorated.”
* Slack groups (geographical or programming language based)
* craigslist software section
My tips:
* Have a portfolio / resume handy
* Expected rate and weekly availability
- \* And your flexibility in both areas
* Timezone
* Reason for looking
- Want to get experience in X
- I run a software consultancy
- Need a challenge
- Looking for experience
* Under-qualified
- I wish I did, as I love mentoring, but I don't have the time to take someone under my wing right now. Hence the need for a portfolio / resume / Github.
- I can't afford you right now ;)
- Not under the person's control all the time, I understand. Life gets in the wayGood luck.
It also helps if you have an established profile, e.g. an active Github profile with open source contributions.
Otherwise I'd learn new skills, if not tech maybe management? I did an OU MBA online which was fun, I didn't want to be a manager but helped me work more effectively in the organization.
Midway through my career I was given a golden opportunity to side-gig consult for a project that could have launched a consulting business. Instead, after an excellent presentation and client interest -- I laid out some numbers that were very high. You see, I had (and still have) a very high valuation for my free time. The customer balked but remained intersted and offered a counter. I told them it was non-negotiable and terminated without providing a counter-offer. I ended up embarrassing my colleague who had given me the opportunity to pitch to an exec team of a golfing buddy.
In the end, it was no harm done (I was working for FANG) but I learned that I valued my free time far too much to work a side gig unless it was a startup of my own design.
https://4dayweek.io/remote-jobs/part-time (Disclaimer: I'm the founder)
https://www.blockchaindevs.net/ (Disclaimer: I'm the founder + I launched yesterday)
Should I remove my business from my resume? A lot of my exciting experience comes from my business whereas the 40hr stuff is just standard work I've been doing for years.
I have had some success with other freelancing sites in the past, where I initially set my rates to $50/hour and raised it to over $150/hour by the time I stopped. More than once, I lost a job in the initial bidding, but was later contacted and hired by the client after issues cropped up with the cheaper hires.
And, yes, as others have said, networking and marketing. I also wrote a technical blog and got other jobs through my network. Over time, that became the primary source of clients. But, when I was just starting, the freelancer sites were very helpful.
BUt.. my own blog has helped me not to get main job(s) but side gigs as well. People read my articles, check my Github and contact.
PS: I mostly code in Python(ETL, Scraping etc) so most of the gigs around it but not limited to it.
As where did I find those - at the time it was gumtree or word of mouth.
For me it is consulting in crypto and algorithmic trading, but there are other high-paying areas to consider. Like adtech, but I am not sociopathic enough for that.
It is harder to find a side gig as a generic (no pun intended) Go developer, you’d want to specialize in something.
The part-time thing has two kinds, in my very limited experience. One, is doing maintenance on something you used to work on full-time. You already know the code base, you just don't need to be doing full-time work on it. If you were good to work with, previous employers might have a use for you on a part-time basis.
The other kind, is going to be the fiverr-type thing, where your pay rate is not competitive.
So, leveraging past employment (or coworkers who went on to other places, who know you know the thing they need a bit of extra help on) is, again in my very limited experience, the way to do it. One more reason to be nice to people, even at places you have decided to leave, or they have decided to leave.
Under the tools I've got a link to my contact form for people who need more help.
I used to get quite a decent bit of work through this to the point I was turning people away. It's kind of dried up in the last couple years though.
* Would you write a book to impart your knowledge to the readers?
* Would you sell your physical hours in delivering work products?
* Would you sell your advice via consulting?
Many ways to cut this fruit, and still have it taste good. Best of luck on your ventures.
to try to solve it (I enter my preferences and get notified when there’s a matching job.) It’s still a work in progress though.
Something I’ve found that works quite well is contacting developers I used to work with to see if they need any help.
[1] -> https://twitter.com/RahulrangarajR/status/148021905157812224...
Since becoming a software engineer I've worked as a Tech Lead for a coding bootcamp (gave mock technical interviews to new grads), a coach for levels.fyi (gave advice for folks interviewing with fang+ companies), and a tech coach for Outco (gave advice and mock interviews for folks preping for interviews). I also did some consulting work for a small dev agency.
The first and last I found from calling people I'd previously worked with, sharing a bit about my move into swe, and asking if they have any advice for me. Both of them said I have a job you might be good for.
The other two I found from emailing founders about their programs. Hey I saw you do x. I do x. I'd love to chat.
A lot of companies are dying to hire anyone who is halfway decent.