In a short form question: If you do, where do you look for a short time projects?
I'd like to put my skill set to use and work on a project, I'm available for 6-9 months. The problem seems to be for me, that I cannot find any way of finding such project.
I'm quite skilled, I have 15 years of experience, first 3 as a system administrator, then I went full on developer - have been full stack for 2 of those years, then switched my focus fully on the backend - and ended up as platform data engineer - optimizing the heck out of systems to be able to process data fast and reliably at larger scale.
I already went through UpWork, Toptal and such and to my disappointment, there was no success to be found.
Do you know of any project boards, or feature bounty platforms, that I could use to find a short time project?
Thank you for your wisdom :)
Of course, your ability to do this will be somewhat dependent on your stomach for communicating with strangers who come your way.
And, even if you get referred, you still need to seal the deal.
And even within a larger company, unless someone like your manager more or less does it for you, "advertising" your accomplishments is pretty essential if you want anyone to reward your accomplishments.
Race to the bottom, here we come!
I don't think selling oneself is something that reflects on one's character given what's at stake. The important people who know who you really are will also treat that mask of yours as fake. But they could also play up your appeals in the LinkedIn comments section to ultimately improve your chances of... getting a job. Which is all that really matters at the end of the day.
But I do think that some people are better at lying to themselves that the choices are going broke or make independent contractor work by selling yourself like that.
There's the obvious route which is to just not be an independent contractor and get a 'normal' job where you still have to do some of this nauseating selling yourself but at only a few critical times and way less public.
No shame for those who want to be an independent contractor at the cost of selling yourself like that but just sharing that I can't seem to trick myself into thinking it's a go broke or make it work situation.
I think some value the independent nature of it and say it's worth the embarrassment that gp talks about. Was just sharing how it's not a go broke or make it work because well it's a bit of a luxury (because normal job is always there)
Of course children are explicitly given everything they need. Adults need to get it for themselves.
If you are in business you need to advertise. If you are in the contract business you need to advertise you. If you can't do that, then that's OK, go get a job.
Advertising is not slimy or shameful. It's part of the job. It can be done well or badly. But the world doesn't "owe" you anything, nor will it seek you out. If you want to be independent then you need to work harder than the dependent who has an employer.
Maybe, but I think many (most?) people doing it don't like having to do it, and for many people, it's probably not that natural. It's practice, learned and trained skills.
> I'd probably die of embarrassment if I ever had to do it.
If it's because a lack of self-confidence, work on this, being reasonably self-confident makes life so much more enjoyable.
Otherwise, I believe this embarrassment would be ill-placed, and therefore I would suggest, if you haven't done it already, that you think hard on why. And if you've already done that, I'm quite interested in the deep reasons why you think you'd be so embarrassed :-)
> This is probably one of those "Thanks, I hate it!" moments
Yep, can't agree more xD
No one's fault but my own, but I should have realized a lot sooner that real success would require a lot more proactive "sales" effort; and that if I wasn't willing to do that, I needed to go work for someone else a lot sooner than I finally did.
As far as slimy, I mean, yeah, don't break ethical boundaries; don't lie, don't take credit for other people's work; and it'll be fine. The ick feeling comes when we see others do amoral things like that and get ahead, but all you have to do to avoid that slimy feeling is to not lump all self-promotion together, and then just don't do the unethical bits.
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.
Your feelings are what they are, but this is the least shameful post I would ever see on LinkedIn. It's someone actually looking for work! and not just posting some super cringe low-IQ engagement-farm copypasta.
Finding work is exactly what LinkedIn ought to be for
With you so far...
> unless you can organically drive enough traffic to a subscription or a website.
Ahh no, I hope you don't mean to "organically" drive "enough" traffic from LinkedIn to a subscription or website elsewhere? Because that's exactly the kind of thing that's killing LinkedIn for job search and professional networking.
I have been on the other side of this (not doing it) and the effects are fairly straightforward: no more paychecks.
I guess if you're not a recruiter or your job prospects are taken care of, you can safely pretend the LinkedIn social feed doesn't exist - it isn't written for you. Its sole purpose is for people to get what they need to survive and carry on. So I've resolved to not blame others for having to post there so much. This is money - hence life - were talking about here, unfortunately or not.
https://www.instagram.com/austinnasso/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/techroastshow/?hl=en
Pure value exchange. This should be more common.
There’s no shame in saying you’re available to work.
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.
Admittedly, the people who are good at this tend to get promoted and quickly end up as Directors and VPs... It just... ugh, turns my stomach.
Early programming blogs were written by people who had thoughts they just needed to share with the world. Because they were highly confident and self motivated people, they also often ended up being sought after and making a lot of money.
Then later others tried to turn the process into a formula they could use to increase their earning power, even if they were writing about things they weren't passionate about.
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.
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.
I'm not on LinkedIn (and I hope I won't need to be there the day I want to freelance) but I guess people are there for exactly this stuff, so posting an ad for yourself there is only fair, I suppose.
That's not at all what the comment above was suggesting.
Saying you're open for work and offering services is not slimy.
I think you're confusing LinkedIn slop with offering services. They're not the same thing.
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 replaces instead of presents the value proposition you are offering.
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.
But also buy, within reason, stuff that's on sale, looks good, etc. Otherwise just order on-line.
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"
Personally, I would tell the student they should be ambitious and tell people what their skills are. They should ask for responsibilities and compensation. They should tell people that they are worth the risk.
If you agree with me about giving that advice, then you should now put yourself in the place of the student. Shouldn't you receive the same advice? Shouldn't you be ambitious and ask people to give you responsibilities and compensation? If so, then you can understand why selling yourself is actually important and there's nothing immoral or slimy about it. It feels wrong sometimes, but that feeling may not be aligned with reality.
Where things get sleezy is when you're competing with applicants that will bullshit, so you have to bullshit as well just to keep up, or when customers have unrealistic expectations and waste your time.
It appears that one half of commerce is demeaning but some people compensate with the other.
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 work you do.
Sites like upwork/toptal can be good but often are a race to the bottom.
Relevant: I started a newsletter a little while back exploring this space for tech workers
(One of the issues with short-term fractional work as an income source is that you can end up only being paid for a fairly small percentage of your total time. If the rate is good, that may be fine as a part-time job. But in my prior industry analyst stint, we actually had quite good day rates but we spent most of our time keeping up with industry happenings and writing free stuff.)
While we look into this, Opire (an open-source bounties site) has lots of short-term opportunities.
I got a better hourly rate through the platform when still living in Latin America. Before Covid, it was amazing.
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
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 was being a jerk.
Over 30 years I’ve found that people remember and it’s surprising how acting ethically sticks in people’s minds and comes back in positive yields. I like to think I’d act the same way no matter what, but it’s a plus that acting properly ends up being better in the long run.
I think ethics are required to feed my family as if I don’t act ethically, my family will end up starving.
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.
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?
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.
Email is in my profile if you want to connect :)
At one point I was unsure about joining a startup and it was them who suggested doing a temporary contract as a way to test the waters. In that case it was only a week but it was also enough for me to decide to join full-time. If joining full-time is a possibility you'd consider, I'd also mention that to the startup early on.
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.
You've already got context, know the stack, whatever.
They might be happy to have a known contributor solve some problem or project for them.
Even if only the 5 people in your network see it, they are the 5 people that need that steady reminder of your skills and availability.
I’ve also hired people outside my network this way, when I happened to stumble on someone with a great article in the exact thing I’m working on.
It's one thing to network and talk about your skills. It's a different thing to demonstrate them.
Clients don’t care about your skills.
Clients care if you can solve their actual problems.
Maybe it's different in the independent contracting world, but I've found my "network" only semi-helpful in gaining employment. They can give good ideas about companies to try, they can help you refine your resume, and do interview coaching, and if you're lucky they work at the same company you want to apply for so can submit your resume with the "recommend" box ticked, but that's all they seem to be able to do. I've never once had someone in my network who had his hands directly on the "hire this man!" lever at the company.
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.
The handful of times in my ~20 year career that I've gotten a shortened interview process because of connections, the organization has turned out to be a dumpster fire. Admittedly, I ignored red flags that I wouldn't have if I wasn't feeling special for having an "in," so part of that is on me. But lowering hiring standards to preference one person means they'll lower the standards for others, too, and that has consequences. As much as I'd love there to be shortcuts in life, I'm not sure they really exist.
Maybe do toy projects for your potential portfolio, learn an additional skill (AI?), and build many weekend projects until something sticks.
If you can afford it, build something for free, blog what you learn, and ship it. Build a portfolio of real working software and technical writing. If your software has users, talk to them and you should find plenty of work.
(disclosure: founder of Leanpub)
The purpose of business is not to sell but to create a customer...
Play the numbers game. If you have a specific speciality you can use platforms like LinkedIn to reach out to companies that might need your service (through decision makers).
You can also connect directly with digital agencies and let them know you are available if they need to offload some work.
The LinkedIn jobs platform itself feels useless for contract work (at least in the EU) as most contract jobs are employee-like contracts disguised as contract work (full-time availability, no subcontracting/delegation).
In short, they're a quick and easy way to expand your network, so to speak, since they're always willing to take your resume even if they don't have anything immediately available.
As for the "where" - keep an eye on growing AI startups that need to scale fast.
I think it's dried up now, but I found some projects from Codementor a few years ago.
Though linkedin has eaten a lot and a bunch have merged.
B. Think of best creative solutions you came up with throughout your career.
Use LLM to write a post every other day (!). Within a month, you have 15 posts, which people will find useful as they search.
At the bottom f each put your contact details and a closing paragraph that you are available for consultancy.
I don't think anyone will find this useful.
I was once in a similar position as you. I signed up with an agency that specialized in placing people in temporary jobs in creative companies. (Ad agencies, design studios, architecture firms, etc.). I ended up with a temporary web dev position that turned into a full-scale full-time warehouse automation job.
Once they see you're reliable and can think, many non-tech companies will find places where your skills can be put to use.
Tech is everywhere. Look outside the SV bubble.
If I could figure out how to fix that, I'd be pitching a Quora-like start up that actually works.
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 leverage over them. They sort of just do as they please.
You said the unpopular but honest thing.
Finally someone says it
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 then it becomes a problem.
It’s a similar issue with long term devs too. Employers hoping to squeeze their devs for 40 hours a week consistently are going to be very disappointed if they found out how much their devs actually work. What you’re really paying them for is to stick around so when shit hits the fan or you need new features fast you already have the best people for the job ready to go, no need to hire some contractor and go through an onboarding.