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

[shinypenguin]

Hello HN

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 :)

[paxys]

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 times a day on X/Threads/LinkedIn/Reddit/wherever else you can think of, and hit those targets. Keep doing all of this for an extended period of time and the leads will start flowing in. Then you need to start putting even more effort into closing those leads and signing contracts.

[ryandrake]

Ugh. This is probably one of those "Thanks, I hate it!" moments. You're probably 100% right, and this is why I could never be an independent contractor. This kind of self-promotion and lead generation seems so demeaning, slimy, and shameful, and I'd probably die of embarrassment if I ever had to do it. Yet it comes so naturally to some people. It sucks that this kind of skill is required to make it on your own.

[rijoja]

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

[AbstractH24]

I'd add a 3rd requirement - scoping & project management, particularly when being "surgical" and coming into an existing project.

That's a skill I'm trying to learn, and not sure where to turn. If anyone has any advice.

[sukiorigami]

I think your network is the best place to look for this sort of work. Sometimes people will reach out to me with short term projects which is the best way to get gigs like this. Maybe start looking at your colleagues on linkedin, see what they are up to, and think of ways to contribute to what they are working on. The best people to contact in this scenario are leadership and decision makers. A SWE II isn't gonna help you much but a CTO at an early stage startup might be a good person to send a DM if they are friends with you (or even if they aren't!) :)

[thekevan]

I've found when people ask this question, it's usually because they don't have a network to ask. Or, right or wrong, they just don't like the social aspect of going to their friends for work.

[limbero]

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.

[valbaca]

> deeply shameful

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

[90s_dev]

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 worse at others. This is the basis of the economy.

[cushychicken]

Why’s this shameful, exactly?

There’s no shame in saying you’re available to work.

[baskinator]

Good book on the topic of selling - https://www.danpink.com/books/to-sell-is-human/

[kragen]

Thank you! Your knowledge is very valuable.

[ernestipark]

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 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

[leros]

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.

[Nelkins]

Not to be too much of a recruiter, but I started a software consultancy where we get this kind of work. Typically projects that last a quarter, but with some potential for extending (although they also frequently just last a quarter). I actually have a project in the pipeline right now that I'm looking for a dev for (if I can't find one, I'll end up just taking on the work myself).

Email is in my profile if you want to connect :)

[toptal]

CEO of Toptal here. If you like, I can ensure we review your profile and client matching history to see if there's anything we overlooked. I'm available on Slack or [email protected]. We’ll see if we can optimize your visibility to clients needing backend/data optimization experts.

While we look into this, Opire (an open-source bounties site) has lots of short-term opportunities.

[dep_b]

I quit using Toptal because I was living in Western Europe and got extremely lowballed at a given point. As if I simply had to match the rates of people from Eastern Europe or Northern Africa.

I got a better hourly rate through the platform when still living in Latin America. Before Covid, it was amazing.

[lokhura]

I hope Toptal has changed since I interviewed with them in 2015, because it was one of the worst tech interview experiences I had in a while. The interviewer was rude and clearly inexperienced in the tech stack he was asking questions about. I did a take home excersise and it was clear that he didn't even bother to read the code and just wanted to outsmart me.

[ayewo]

In addition to Opire for short-term opportunities (aka bounties), there is Algora.

In fact, there are a few of such bounty platforms in my notes, but Algora seems to be the one with the most traction: in terms to new tasks to work on and the bounty amounts being competitively priced.

https://console.algora.io/

Here’s an example of a 2-3 month bounty offering up to $20,000 on Algora, for someone with React Native skills: https://github.com/BasedHardware/omi/issues/1944

[rglover]

Curious, are there any exceptions to your coding test (I applied back in 2021 or so, not sure if this is still a requirement)?

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

[sampton]

It depends on how badly you need the money. If you really need to get paid you are probably better off finding a full time job and quit after 9 months. Otherwise invest the time in yourself. Work on a passion project or a blog.

[prepend]

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 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.

[zetazzed]

In a past startup, we had at least one person apply to our regular job postings with a cover that transparently said "I know this is a full-time, long-term posting, but I really want to be a contractor for a bounded time." Since it was a great fit and they were available right away (and we urgently needed more people), we made the "hire" and ended up working together for a while. Only worked because it was quite transparent and up front in the application though.

[aylmao]

There's plenty of comments about searching one's network, but I was looking for a comment that mentioned this. Startups do tend to prefer permanent full-timers, but hiring the right person takes time and startups also very much like getting the work done.

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.

[reaperducer]

Look in unexpected places, like temp agencies.

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.

[_ink_]

Everybody says your network. Is this an US thing? Everyone in my network is employed in bigger or smaller companies. They might search for a full-time hire, but not for project work. Is this different in the EU or is my network too small?

[lnsru]

In Germany freelance work is killed by “Scheinselbstständigkeit”. Authorities will eventually require to pay some taxes afterwards if you have only one client. Both from freelancer and the company. Companies don’t want that and shady body leasing agencies are thriving. The people from these agencies have separate offices and companies go sometimes too far to separate real employees and rented staff. Network does not help much.

[creer]

Bigger or smaller companies is exactly who hires consultants and contractors (yes, medium too).

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.

[zhs]

You could check out https://www.gofractional.com, it's built for this kind of thing.

[murph]

Try former employers.

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.

[ryandrake]

A lot of people are probably going to reply with "Use your network!" which has always struck me as kind of vaguely incomplete and unhelpful advice. It's like telling an investor "Buy low and sell high." and leaving it at that. OK, thank you, Captain Obvious, that's wonderful, but how?

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.

[weitendorf]

I think someone in OP’s situation is likely to have several friends and acquaintances that are at least engineering managers at this point in their career, who in many companies (not huge ones) can have a lot of influence over hiring. If you work in startups and stuff it’s highly possible that some friend or acquaintance is a founder that is currently hiring.

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.

[alaithea]

This is going to go pretty OT from the original post.

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.

[james_marks]

Publishing articles, etc to demo your skill helps you stay top of mind.

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.

[bob1029]

I've started thinking about this. Articles/blogs/repos to generate interesting opportunities.

It's one thing to network and talk about your skills. It's a different thing to demonstrate them.

[ivanmontillam]

I'd believe you're better off working on yourself.

Maybe do toy projects for your potential portfolio, learn an additional skill (AI?), and build many weekend projects until something sticks.

[dpz]

Most ad-hoc work I've picked up has been people I've previously worked with/for. Maybe worth reaching out to people you have a prestablished relationship with

[liammoore]

A lot of the advice here about networking and marketing yourself is solid, but I want to address this part of your question directly - “Do you know of any project boards or feature bounty platforms to find short-term projects?”

I’ve faced a similar issue with traditional freelancing platforms, so I ended up building a platform where experienced engineers can work with agencies to manage and deliver projects. It’s a different model from traditional outsourcing, where you can either bring your own projects or get matched with ones based on your skillset. You’d be in a technical leadership role, helping build and manage a team of developers to deliver the project. You can also have as much hands-on involvement with the coding as you choose. It could be a good fit for you given your situation and experience. I’ve written a blog detailing the idea in more detail, feel free to check it out and reach out with questions - https://sourceror.co.uk/blog/how-tech-leaders-can-gain-exper...

[em-bee]

this looks interesting. but i am missing steps for engineers to join the talent pool. the frontpage only addresses projects and agencies looking for people, but not people looking for work. there i no way for engineers to sign up.

[gamegod]

As others said - use your network. Making a post on LinkedIn and trying to get your network to reshare it could help a lot.

[4b11b4]

Sign up for small company at bottom, find things to fix. Set timeline and expectations to leave in 9mo. By then you'll be running parts of the company. You may not actually want to do this long term, or it may be a nice side income. Plan for not continuing to do it, document well, and everyone will be happier

[em-bee]

where does one find such a company?

[perrygeo]

Don't focus on finding work, you'll just be selling your time to the lowest bidder.

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.

[em-bee]

that's a lot of ifs. your project has to solve a needfor the right audience (people that are hiring) and you still have to put a lot of effort in to promote it.