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Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?
- __d 9y agoC/C++/Java/Python for capital markets, customers mostly in NYC.
- metaloha 9y agoFront-end JS for the oil-and-gas industry. Custom, industry-specific customer-facing web applications. Interesting work, but the business logic required by some companies is freakin' terrifying :)
- TomMarius 9y agoHow did you get into this kind of work?
- metaloha 9y agoFront-end JS? Need, mainly. Most of the UI/UX people I worked with have not maintained their skills, and I was getting tired of knowing more and doing better work than them in their own field. As it happens, there's a much better market for that work than for the back-end and architectural work I've been doing the past couple of decades. Oil-and-gas? Luck - I live in a city with a lot of head offices. Eventually almost everyone works for one of them :) It was just my turn. But it looks like a long-term gig, which is great.
- TomMarius 9y agoYeah, meant oil and gas. It seems pretty difficult to get in direct contact with such client to me.
- metaloha 9y agoFriend of a friend situation - a guy I worked with at another company had a friend who we game with once in a while (board games and miniatures games), and she works for this company. She let me know they had an opportunity and I made the cut :)
- vogt 9y agoif you're in TX and want to network with a ui/ux designer, would love to chat. i have been wanting to get into this business for a while.
- metaloha 9y agoI'm not in Texas - I'd love to visit someday, I know a couple of people who lived in Houston until a few days ago. I'm in Alberta, Canada - kind of a sibling to Texas :)
- vogt 9y agoIt is kind of a sibling to Texas in a lot of ways. Too cold for me though. If you ever find yourself in the Dallas-Fort Worth area drop me a line.
- King-Aaron 9y agoYeah anything to do with HMI is often quite lucrative. You're not with Honeywell by chance are you?
- metaloha 9y agoNo, but if I was, I bet I could keep them from having to reboot their cloud services every week!
- kk58 9y agoI work in oil. Curious to learn more about your experience. What do your apps do? Whats terrifying?
- metaloha 9y agoThey're service applications for O&G companies to help with government regulation compliance, ISO auditing, and well performance, among other things. There are a lot of automated and manual processes that have to be dealt with by the various applications (including some old-fashioned straight-up data entry from graphs made by on-site equipment that get couriered to the office into spreadsheets that get imported). Some of these are pretty large companies, and they want their tools (even 3rd-party ones) to work certain ways, so some of the workflow logic in the various applications we provide gets pretty hairy. It's impossible to avoid customizing things for some of these clients without losing them. I was brought on to do a code-review of the newest (unreleased) version of their flagship product. The overseas developers didn't read the spec and management didn't bother enforcing it (hell, they barely bothered to plan it). 2 years of development wasted and it literally doesn't meet a single business need yet. My job then became to lead the rebuild of the front-end and work with the back-end team to make everything awesome again. I get to do proper planning, some nice enterprise architecture and deployment planning, some really cool front-end coding (Angular), and bring some modern (and even current) development practices and tools into a traditionally stodgy corporate development environment :) All with the full blessing and support of the technical lead :D
- akulbe 9y agoLong-term automation projects. Chef development for one customer. Ansible for the others.
- wilhempujar 9y agoInteresting. Is one of your customers looking for more DevOps help? I have a teammate looking for an opportunity.
- cm2012 9y agoMarketing consulting.
- jackgolding 9y agoif you don't mind me asking - assuming all of that is services related: what % of that is strategy vs execution?
- uptown 9y agoApplication developer at a hedge fund. Mostly front-end design/dev work on a web-based platform used to run all aspects of their business.
- brd 9y agoAt first I was an SAP Development lead (ABAP programming language primarily) Later managing IT Operations
- chi17 9y agoNot a freelancer. That's how I do it. I don't think you're asking the right question, though. 100k+ USD/yr in some parts of the country is a lot different than 100k+ USD/yr in other parts. The really smart ones have found jobs in metro areas that pay lots, but work remotely from areas with low cost of living expenses, and put all the extra away into college funds for their kids and Roth 401k's invested in high risk, low-load index funds, with a significant amount invested. And most of all, they ask for it. Once they get it, they don't piss people off, they do great work, and they get references.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- charsifood 9y agoI think the OP is specifically asking freelancers because 100k as a salary is not exactly rare, it's what I've paid some of my juniors. 100k+ as a freelancer is significantly more rare - requiring either very steady work, a niche skill-set, or great marketing skills.
- King-Aaron 9y agoDo you mind me asking what industry you're in, where a junior can make $100k?
- charsifood 9y agoFinancial engineering - NYC.
- King-Aaron 9y agoJeez. I'm a senior front end developer in Western Australia, on 70k. Build Fintech systems... It would be interesting to compare the costs of living etc to see how salaries over there compares to here.
- 9y ago
- llamle 9y agoI do web development and mobile development for startups.
- LiteskinKanye 9y agoEveryone makes six figures before tax. You should clarify after tax ;)
- llccbb 9y agoHa! No.
- bruno2223 9y agoBack-End Dev here (Node). I do integration between Brazillian mobile carriers and international Apps (content providers in general) who wants to get into Brazilian market, usually to bill users on their mobile plan instead of paypal or inApp Purchase. The funnil gap is much lower when you Bill users in mobile plan. Brazilian carrier has a tough and slow integration process and, without a local IT support is almost impossible to connect with them. As I have everything ready for all major carriers, it's easier/faster/cheaper to hire me instead of build the integration by itself. www.2brazil.rocks
- diehell 9y agoInteresting! How can i start something like this for my own country?
- Rjevski 9y agoDealing with mobile carriers is really hard - their tech stacks are awful and outdated and they see everything as a threat and try to protect their turf by any means. Source: I'm trying to launch an MVNO and struggling to find a host MNO/carrier.
- imhoguy 9y agoFirst you need to get a job in some telco company and work on related projects. That knowledge is not available on github or books. Actually it is the same with other high-pay integration areas like finances, banking, logistics etc. Once you gain some expertise and see a niche you start freelancing.
- bruno2223 9y agoExactly!
- Kaladin 9y agoWhat are some best resource for learning node?
- nXqd 9y agoClojure(script) | AI (mainly python and R) development for trading companies and startups.
- itsN1X 9y agoany general-theory getting started tips/links?
- troels 9y agoSix figures is a pretty useless distinction these days. It's like how every homeowner is technically a millionaire. The term sticks though. In any case, freelancer is a vague term. Working on smaller, ad-hoc tasks it is probably harder to make a big payday, but working longer contracts (also called a contractor) can pay very well.
- zulln 9y agoEvery homeowner is far from a millionaire in the US.
- kgc 9y agoI build algorithms, apps, websites, and APIs for startups.
- jv22222 9y ago@thr2178008 Hey there. I'll give you a proven roadmap to six figure freelancing right now. 1) Pick a new up and coming language or framework. Something like elixir or pheonix or something else that is really hot and just starting out. 2) Learn it. As you learn, write a series of really awesome tutorials and articles on your blog about that stack. 3) Help people out on SO and other forums that talk about that tech. Point folks to your posts if it looks like it might help. Add your blog to your profile page. 4) Try to guest on some podcasts about this same technology, or maybe even create your own podcast. 5) Keep doing steps 1-4 with constancy and over time your luck surface area will grow and new opportunities will come your way. When you start contracting in that tech you'll be able to charge much better rates than your old rate because you will be a thought leader in that space. Also, you will be able to capitalize on sites like airpair.com Hope this helps!
- romanovcode 9y ago> "really hot and just starting out/new up and coming language or framework" As a consultant this strategy is very smart, very stupid for a company tho. 1) Consultant goes to company and sells his new hot tech stack that is just released. 2) Company buys in and pays a lot of money. 3) Consultant now is locked himself a nice position because nobody wants to deal with this technology and he is the only expert they can get.
- meric 9y agoStartups might be willing to take this risk - if the new technology shortens the time to launch, then all the better. If it finds itself locked in 5 years down the line, who cares, it's 5 years later and they're a 100 million dollar company.
- romanovcode 9y ago> if the new technology shortens the time to launch Not sure what technology you are referring to but it's definitely not elixir or pheonix.
- indescions_2017 9y ago
- ponyous 9y agoNot making 6 figures, but I could if I took fewer holidays. London based, doing full stack javascript - mostly focus on the front end.
- Garvey 9y agoWhat sort of level would you say you were at with regards to your js knowledge, and how long have you been working with it? I'm still pretty green and living up north, but looking to the future, I could see me having to move to get a decent salary, just wondering how feasible it may be.
- ponyous 9y agoI was hired as a senior contractor. I work with JS for about 5 years, 3 years as primary language. All of it professionally. I think it's totally feasible. I moved here when I was 19 with the salary between 30-40k. 3 years later, I am doing something I always wanted for a great amount of money. I think without these two rules I wouldn't make it: - Invest in knowledge - Don't put your age on CV But London is all about trying imo.
- decentralised 9y agoEthereum DApp development
- pknerd 9y agoI wanna learn it!
- decentralised 9y agoOk, so for learning the tech, I would recommend the following guides and articles: Wallet & Web3 Browser: - https://parity.io/parity.html https://parity.io/parity.html - http://metamask.io/ http://metamask.io/ Solidity: - https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/solidity/ https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/solidity/ - http://solidity.readthedocs.io/ http://solidity.readthedocs.io/ - https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/07/12/build-server-less-applications-mist/ https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/07/12/build-server-less-appli... Interacting with Ethereum: - https://geth.ethereum.org/downloads/ https://geth.ethereum.org/downloads/ - http://truffleframework.com http://truffleframework.com Tutorials and whatnot: - https://souptacular.gitbooks.io/ethereum-tutorials-and-tips-by-hudson/content/giant_ethereum_resource_list.html https://souptacular.gitbooks.io/ethereum-tutorials-and-tips-... StackExchange: https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/ https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/
- wishinghand 9y agoCould you go more into what you're doing?
- harel 9y agoTwo options that I can think of: 1. Experience: After a while doing what you're doing, you are an experienced developer/freelancer. You hit the ground running, you mentor, you contribute enough to justify your high day rate. 2. Go into Finance. Specifically banks. They hire contractors all the time. The work is terrible, the challenge is mostly dealing with the restrictions of the systems around you and the bureaucracy that envelopes everything there, but to counter that they pay well above market rates. In fact they pay silly rates. I did that for a little while and decided my soul is worth more. The contract market is a funny one. Can be hard to find gigs one month, and have too many to choose from the next. But in general, going above 6 digits contracting is not that hard. Keep in mind that you have to manage your own taxes, so a good accountant is key.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- chi17 9y agoSeems like everyone's interpreting 6-figures in whatever currency they use, so here are the exchange rates, using USD for conversion since that's easier: 100000 Argentine Pesos = 5755 USD, 100000 USD = 1737740 Argentine Pesos 100000 Australian Dollars = 79514 USD, 100000 USD = 125764 Australian Dollars 100000 Bahraini Dinars = 265156 USD, 100000 USD = 37714 Bahraini Dinars 100000 Botswana Pulas = 9833 USD, 100000 USD = 1016942 Botswana Pulas 100000 Brazilian Reals = 31543 USD, 100000 USD = 317028 Brazilian Reals 100000 British Pounds = 129272 USD, 100000 USD = 77356 British Pounds 100000 Bruneian Dollars = 73743 USD, 100000 USD = 135607 Bruneian Dollars 100000 Bulgarian Levs = 61190 USD, 100000 USD = 163425 Bulgarian Levs 100000 Canadian Dollars = 79790 USD, 100000 USD = 125329 Canadian Dollars 100000 Chilean Pesos = 160 USD, 100000 USD = 62578223 Chilean Pesos 100000 Chinese Yuan Renminbis = 15171 USD, 100000 USD = 659165 Chinese Yuan Renminbis 100000 Colombian Pesos = 34 USD, 100000 USD = 293255132 Colombian Pesos 100000 Croatian Kunas = 16111 USD, 100000 USD = 620679 Croatian Kunas 100000 Czech Korunas = 4589 USD, 100000 USD = 2178982 Czech Korunas 100000 Danish Krones = 16055 USD, 100000 USD = 622874 Danish Krones 100000 Emirati Dirhams = 27223 USD, 100000 USD = 367343 Emirati Dirhams 100000 Euros = 119434 USD, 100000 USD = 83728 Euros 100000 Hong Kong Dollars = 12778 USD, 100000 USD = 782620 Hong Kong Dollars 100000 Hungarian Forints = 391 USD, 100000 USD = 25581990 Hungarian Forints 100000 Icelandic Kronas = 951 USD, 100000 USD = 10518565 Icelandic Kronas 100000 Indian Rupees = 1565 USD, 100000 USD = 6391818 Indian Rupees 100000 Indonesian Rupiahs = 8 USD, 100000 USD = 1333333333 Indonesian Rupiahs 100000 Iranian Rials = 3 USD, 100000 USD = 3333333333 Iranian Rials 100000 Israeli Shekels = 27978 USD, 100000 USD = 357426 Israeli Shekels 100000 Japanese Yens = 911 USD, 100000 USD = 10982976 Japanese Yens 100000 Kazakhstani Tenges = 298 USD, 100000 USD = 33534541 Kazakhstani Tenges 100000 Kuwaiti Dinars = 331580 USD, 100000 USD = 30159 Kuwaiti Dinars 100000 Libyan Dinars = 73952 USD, 100000 USD = 135224 Libyan Dinars 100000 Malaysian Ringgits = 23420 USD, 100000 USD = 426989 Malaysian Ringgits 100000 Mauritian Rupees = 3052 USD, 100000 USD = 3276862 Mauritian Rupees 100000 Mexican Pesos = 5594 USD, 100000 USD = 1787694 Mexican Pesos 100000 Nepalese Rupees = 979 USD, 100000 USD = 10219724 Nepalese Rupees 100000 New Zealand Dollars = 72430 USD, 100000 USD = 138064 New Zealand Dollars 100000 Norwegian Krones = 12879 USD, 100000 USD = 776482 Norwegian Krones 100000 Omani Rials = 259715 USD, 100000 USD = 38504 Omani Rials 100000 Pakistani Rupees = 949 USD, 100000 USD = 10535188 Pakistani Rupees 100000 Philippine Pesos = 1953 USD, 100000 USD = 5120066 Philippine Pesos 100000 Polish Zlotys = 28017 USD, 100000 USD = 356926 Polish Zlotys 100000 Qatari Riyals = 27240 USD, 100000 USD = 367105 Qatari Riyals 100000 Romanian New Leus = 25990 USD, 100000 USD = 384766 Romanian New Leus 100000 Russian Rubles = 1704 USD, 100000 USD = 5867167 Russian Rubles 100000 Saudi Arabian Riyals = 26661 USD, 100000 USD = 375074 Saudi Arabian Riyals 100000 Singapore Dollars = 73743 USD, 100000 USD = 135607 Singapore Dollars 100000 South African Rands = 7672 USD, 100000 USD = 1303373 South African Rands 100000 South Korean Wons = 89 USD, 100000 USD = 112359551 South Korean Wons 100000 Sri Lankan Rupees = 654 USD, 100000 USD = 15288182 Sri Lankan Rupees 100000 Swedish Kronas = 12567 USD, 100000 USD = 795748 Swedish Kronas 100000 Swiss Francs = 104577 USD, 100000 USD = 95624 Swiss Francs 100000 Taiwan New Dollars = 3320 USD, 100000 USD = 3011957 Taiwan New Dollars 100000 Thai Bahts = 3011 USD, 100000 USD = 3321156 Thai Bahts 100000 Trinidadian Dollars = 14876 USD, 100000 USD = 672215 Trinidadian Dollars 100000 Turkish Liras = 29016 USD, 100000 USD = 344640 Turkish Liras 100000 Venezuelan Bolivars = 9915 USD, 100000 USD = 1008583 Venezuelan Bolivars
- richardknop 9y agoDoes contracting count as freelancing? Serious question. Or do you mean freelances as only in gigster/upwork sense? As a contractor I am technically working via my one man company but mostly work in a company office alongside other employees, so not sure if you count that as freelancing.
- csomar 9y agoAre you in the US? I think you should be an employee instead.
- richardknop 9y agoI'm in UK. You should be an employee if you work in a single company for 2+ years. Contractors often only work in 6-12 month contracts so you are not definitely an employee if you only come to work on a project for 6 months and then go work somewhere else.
- kowdermeister 9y agoContracting is a synonym of freelancing. Correct me if I'm wrong.
- j0rd 9y agoI made a deal with an e-commerce site to take 10% of revenue added, after marketing expenses from new channels I create. Added 300k+ of revenue a month.
- soneca 9y agoCongrats! I think you are the perfect person to give some feedback on a product I want to validate and build. If you have the time, please let me know what you think of this. The product is a personalized Facebook app created for the ecommerce that aims to increase the number of emails collected for the ecommerce's newsletter and increase traffic from these newsletters by sending Facebook notifications to the users that signed up to the app. Basically I create a Facebook App and provide the sign-up link to the ecommerce. The ecommerce adds the link next to the "Sign up to our newsletter" CTA they usually have on their website giving the user two options to provide their email: the regular input field and the link to do it via Facebook (this is not a Facebook Login btw). If the client click the link, they are directed to Facebook's authorization page, one more click I have the access to their email and the ability to send them notification (only if the user is accessing Facebook on the web, as FB do not send app notifications to native mobile apps). I then send the user's email to the ecommerce and send FB notifications everytime they send a newsletter (linking to the web version of the newsletter). So, what dod you think?
- _jdams 9y agoPlease teach me.
- mcv 9y agoWhat exactly counts to count as 6-figure? My hourly rate is €80. Working 32 hours per week, 45 weeks per year, my yearly revenue would just be 6 figures. Of course after I deduct some costs and retirement savings, my taxable income is in the high 5 figures. I'm not doing anything special, other than having 15 years of experience and not being terribly bad at my job. I do notice that to get more than this, I need to make a bit more of a name for myself. Just being a good programmer is probably not enough; it seems I need to bring something special and specific to the table to justify a higher rate.
- imhoguy 9y agoReally nice schedule. I think the thread is about scores. Once debt free I would prefer to get more private time than trashing my life for 6 figures in somebody's sweat shop projects - the more than I can eat.
- softwarefounder 9y agoWell first off, use the term "consultant", and you'll see a 50% increase in revenue.
- hilti 9y ago1) Do networking and listen. It's not about how great you are in your wildest dreams. 2) Deliver a little bit more than expected. That'll help to get you some recommendations. 3) Don't follow every new tech stack, framework whatsoever hype. Choose your toolchain where you are feeling comfortable with. 4) Raise your hourly rate. There's nothing wrong with it, if you're doing a great job based on past projects. 5) Say "No" to nasty, time consuming and time wasting clients. 6) Build your own brand to be proud of.
- Nilef 9y ago110K at 21 yrs old in the UK contracting, hoping to reach 150k by this time next year - I help big companies figure out how to embrace new technologies
- WillKirkby 9y agoWhereabouts in the UK?
- Nilef 9y agoScotland
- RikNieu 9y ago> I help big companies figure out how to embrace new technologies What do you mean?
- Nilef 9y agoI guess I'm being deliberately evasive to protect my own interests, but I help them go digital, use ML/AI, use APIs, Blockchain etc
- Thoguth 9y ago1. Get a degree in computer science. 2. Work in corporate development for large, medium, and small companies, startups, etc. for 20 years. 3. Keep skills sharp, keep investing in new opportunities. 4. Learn project management. 5. Dress up (in a suit, etc.) 6. Find people who want work done. 7. Figure out what they want to be done, how long it will take to do it, and how much is reasonable to charge for that. 8. Ship it. 8. Send invoices. 9. Cash very large checks. Technology lets people who are very good with tools, make amazing things all by ourselves in the same time or less than a team of people who are average with tools in a cube farm. I guess a simpler version of this would be: 1. Get very good at tools. 2. Get people who believe you can deliver. 3. Deliver. 4. Invoice. If you do it right, you'll be time- and price-competitive with much larger, slower, and more-expensive entities, and nobody will care because you're still delivering. It's a time of great opportunity.
- anon_dev_123456 9y agoWork on Upwork, Rails+Javascript+Elixir. Fullstack.
- amorphous 9y agoThe obvious answer is to specialise. The problem is how? There seem to be two options: 1. Become an expert in a rare, rising tech stack (see elixir/phoenix) 2. Specialise in a market vertical On hn and as a dev Option 1) is very appealing. And just a matter of time and keep doing it. Many (smart) folks, however, tell you that 2) is the better bet long term and financially. Which makes sense because you shift from providing technical solutions to delivering business results. But it is much harder to get into (which long term turns into an advantage because you build barriers) I would love to go route 2) but never actually went anywhere. But I didn't do 1) either because I'm stuck between those two. It's quite frustrating actually. Is anyone else in a similar situation?