The thing, I haven't really put much work into finding this kind of work. I've had a few opportunities land in my lap pretty nicely. Now, I need to seek out more work like this. I have ideas, but I'm curious to see how others are finding part-time work. Ideally, I would get 10-15/hr a week retainers, but project-based work is ok too. The key is that I can keep getting the work with consistency.
My corporate career was a cross between engineering and product management. I truly believe my best utility is the cross-over of the two. I'd be happy to do part-time leadership for small teams, take on independent projects, do things like build and maintain small apps/integrations, etc.
So:
1) How are you finding part-time work?
2) How do you sell yourself if you're more of a generalist like me?
1) Cultivate your existing network. Just the other day I reconnected with a friend I haven't seen in several decades. Guess what? He just so happened to be a software dev, and needed another dev to help him with a project. This is just one of many, many stories I have. Call or email people to see how they're doing. Even better, meet up with them for coffee or a meal. This doesn't have to be mercenary; you're probably already doing those things. But start reaching deeper into your network.
2) Build your your network by meeting others in your field and/or potential customers in person (e.g. at user groups, meetups, tech talks, etc.). Talk about what you do and love to do. Presumably that involves your skills that you want to get work in.
Finally, be consistent and reliable and communicate clearly.
As for selling yourself when you're more of a generalist, I wouldn't worry too much about this yet. The key will be when you're presented with a job opportunity that leans in one direction (e.g. 90% dev, 10% management), and you'll have to decide how far you're willing to bend to fit it. But right now you're just getting the word out.
- https://www.fractionaljobs.io/
- HN - who wants to be hired
- Talk to people you have worked with.
- Keep your eyes open all times. E.g. I always pop into careers of a HN post, I keep a list of companies I am curious about. I do this even though I am not looking for a job.
- Negotiate - ask a FT job if they will do PT or contract.
- Find an agency to join as a contractor
[edited for clarity]
Work like this is more commonly described as freelance, consulting, or contracting.
If a job is advertised as "part-time" they're usually expecting you to work every single one of those hours, unlike a retainer where you're expected to be available for up to that many hours.
It may sound pedantic but it's important to understand the difference when searching for roles. If you take a "part-time" job they're generally going to want you to be working for every one of those hours, even if you have to find your own work to do. If you treat it like a retainer job where you're only expected to be on-call if they need you, you could run into some disappointment.
Using the right terms will also help you find roles that more correctly match your expectations.
True part-time work is hard to find because most companies would rather hire someone to work 4 x 40 hour weeks on a project instead over the part timer who wants to do it in 8 x 20 hour weeks or 16 x 10 hour weeks.
This leaves work that is sporadic and spread out, or companies that have a need but can't fit full-time compensation into the budget right now. That's a hint for the type of work and companies you'll need to seek out. Trying to pitch yourself as a valuable contractor who needs 3-4X longer to finish a project due to your short workweek isn't a winning strategy for most jobs.
I focus on small firms. They don't have the resources or amount of work to hire a full-time (or multiple full-time) person for each role. If you can do many roles well, they don't have to source/vet a super-part-time person for each role.
> leaving me time and flexibility to work on my own project.
I think there's a bit of give-and-take there. Early on I try to look extra hard for any opportunity to show I can be flexible if they need something, and give them no reason to doubt my ability to deliver. Pretty soon trust is established, and I have all the time and flexibility I need to work on other projects alongside.
> The key is that I can keep getting the work with consistency.
My experience is my clients often don't know beforehand how long-term/consistent the work will be. But if I'm reliable and helpful, it usually turns into a long-term relationship.
> How are you finding part-time work?
HN seeking freelancer thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whoishiring) got me a particularly nice gig, also meetups, and most of all staying in touch with people I've worked with before. For the latter two, I try to focus on quality over quantity. The handful of people who know me well, tend put me in touch with better matching gigs than the large group of superficial contacts.
Cold-emailing/cold-calling companies that look like they may be a good fit, also worked. Personally I find it a bit draining so I avoid cold-anything if I can.
2. Mostly bullshitting people then winging it.
Relatively high paying jobs usually fulfilled via network, which happens the way you described ("land in my lap").
You need to do marketing activities to extend your network, so more work lands in your lap.
In person works best if where you live has opportunities for this. Try chamber of commerce if there is one. They usually have lots of events for local business owners where you can meet with many potential customers.
Try cold emailing otherwise, it has the best ROI when done right.
Bonus points: This skills will be needed to get the project you are working on off the ground too.
The key is to have regular but not annoying conversations with prospects. Don't put them on a mailing list (unless you're somehow uniquely interesting and cool, I guess) but send them personalized emails every so once in a while - these can be "oh I thought you'd find this interesting" (and it has to actually be interesting to them) or just a short hello reminding them that you're always looking for work. And I mean SHORT. "Hey just checking in, really enjoyed working with you, please keep me in mind if you're looking for help!"
I've tried it all, from personal CRMs to complex alerting and the bottom line is that nobody's going to do the extra work to get you involved unless they have a no-pressure, friendly connection with you.
Most of my high-paying and regular clients we just text message, maybe once every six months or so. Casual, friendly, no pressure is the key.
Now, I'm marketing myself as a Fractional Head of Engineering for small teams[1]. This is a kind of generalist hands-on role and a good position for small businesses, but it won't work for large organizations which usually have better budgets.
Regarding finding gigs, as everyone mentioned, networking is the best though it takes huge effort and time IMO. But it's 100x more efficient than applying in generic job boards or freelance marketplaces (which are the worst in my experience). However, some specialized boards have worked well for me. Like HN whoishiring posts for freelancers[2]. I actually built a super simple tool[3] to hunt part-time/freelance/contract jobs from HN. I found one good client using it within two months.
BTW, Though it's rare, I ended up finding another fractional gig by advertising myself in the same HN whoishiring thread.
This is unfortunate because it makes harder to keep working on personal projects on the side, because you either have to make them lucrative to let you work on them full-time, or you have to squeeze them during night-time, when you are tired from daily work.
This has worked out well till now. I recommend finding local gigs, wherever you may be.
2) Your best opportunities are places you've already worked, because they know you and you know at least some of their infrastructure, code base, etc.
3) Very small companies are more likely to need a generalist, and be unable to pay for a full-time on-staff person. You will need to let a lot of small companies know what you can do, and spend a lot of hours doing that, which no one will pay you for.
I'm happy to work 60-80 hours a week to deliver a specific result. Generally over a period of 1-3 months. I charge like a plumber/lawyer. So there's usually a pause of a month or two between gigs. Averaged out over a year or more it does look like part-time.
I had a solo consulting business for 4 years before I started doing this, since I started writing everyday the world has opened up and I have more opportunity than ever. https://www.aletterfor.com/ is my substack.
My cross over is Finance and tech. I get all the time, 'I really need someone like you' but never a solid commitment.
I had to change jobs earlier this year and all these contacts evaporated! I really would like to help a series of companies rather than just one for 5 years at a time.
- working part-time primarily solves a problem for you, not the employer.
- pay is not a linear function of time. your value drops when you aren’t available during working hours or skipping initiatives, etc.
- you are signaling to the organization that you’re not really into their thing and to yourself that you are not willing to take risk on your own thing (Paul G writes about this).
I would advocate for working hard full-time to capture your full value, and then take time off to do other things.
I left a job after 12 years, and a couple of years later got re-hired on a part time retainer basis to help fix mistakes that have crept into the product, and to help support current and prospective customers. Nice gig, zero pressure.
I agree with others that networking helps land jobs, especially in the borderless internet era where people from all over the world are competing for work. It’s a race to the bottom.
To find part time job you first need to be able to find a job at all.
Basically no matter what, it all begins with getting work experience, probably full time, then after that you can start looking for part time or freelance.
You know, being a generalist, and helping some company, means you are 5/8 of something, 1/3 of another, 1/7 of yet another, and 3/10 of... And These don't have to sum up to 1.0, they are in different dimensions.
It's like wearing-many-hats at same time (i think this was the wording so far), but this way may be better. As you may be at 100% a CTO today but not being the best-specialized-CTO-ever, and 30% tester tomorrow (this time being the best possible tester), and a little bit of architect in the meantime, and code something to try it out, and/or fix a dreaded bug, etc..
And this fractional essence somehow aligns with my idea from few years ago that software-making as profession is being commoditized. Pick-n-match whatever is on display?. Interesting what will come after that.
But i have been staying away from the corporate highways / market-squares ... and as marketing/sales isn't my thing.. even if it is about selling meself. Networking? hmm. not really working. 4 months already.
ah anyway. Have fun.
Part time work isn’t consistent and it pays so little it’s hardly worth it.
Usually, people ask me to work for them full time, and then I tell them I only do 30h/week max and they're usually good with that.