7 ms·

HN: Hire me. For free.

112 points by ehsanul 16y ago

THE OFFER I'm willing to do a few small web development jobs for a few HNers at no cost whatsoever. Bonus points if it's for your startup or you have continuous web development needs. WHAT I CAN DO I like making web apps. I'm primarily a Ruby guy, and I love Sinatra, but Rails is cool too. And while I've done some PHP, it's not for me. I also do frontend work of course (XHTML, CSS, JS with jQuery, amateur/minor graphic design). Minor Linux system administration is manageable for me too, like configuring web servers or databases and deploying apps. But I'm no expert, having learnt what I know by being an Ubuntu user and managing a few servers. If you need something that I can't do yet, note that I love learning new things — how do you think I got myself into all this? WHY I'M DOING THIS I've been teaching myself this stuff over the last few years, but I don't have too much to show for it. I want to freelance, so I'm trying to build up my portfolio, and doing some free work occurred to me as a great way to do so while making new contacts at the same time. I tried this approach with success a couple of weeks back and I'm trying it again at a larger scale now. CAVEATS I'm obviously not terribly experienced in anything at all, though I am free. I just ask that requests be very limited in scope (say, something that would take a decent developer a few days), and I should be able to show the work in my portfolio. Also, I'm only free the first time. Finally, if I get many requests somehow, I may have to turn some down. But I doubt that will happen. YOU SHOULD CONTACT ME Even if you're not sure, or don't need it until later. What do you have to lose? Not money. What might you gain? A reasonably competent coder, or at least some work done by one. Contact me now! Email: meh5@njit.edu Skype: ehsanul_g3

mquander 16y ago
I have to ask, why not go somewhere that isn't full of bored programmers to offer free programming labor? It seems like you would be more likely to find someone who could really use your work literally anywhere else.
- hugh3 16y ago
  Better, as a programmer, to work for a programmer. This way he's more likely to get a modest-sized project where the "customer" actually understands what he's asking him to do and how long it would reasonably take. Also, a much better chance of making useful contacts by working for some of the entrepreneurs here than by sprucing up the data entry system for your local used car dealer.
- ehsanul 16y ago
  Not everyone on HN is a bored programmer. However, for someone new to freelancing like me, it may be easier to work with people who are at least familiar with the development process, just to get a tighter spec from them. I'm also looking for to network with people who regularly need web development work, and HN looks like the best place to find people like that.
- c1sc0 16y ago
  I'm always happy to outsource a few braincycles if it helps me to focus on the core of the app I'm building. I took him up on the offer.
- lukeschlather 16y ago
  I don't know, it would generally be nicer to know I'm working with someone who can tell where I'm doing better or worse than the average developer. The offer to work for free doesn't make a ton of sense unless you can get some meaningful feedback. In that spirit, feel free to drop me a line as well. My actual experience is in shell scripting, Perl, PHP, MySQL, and Coldfusion with MS SQL, but I like Python, C++, and would love to pick up some other stuff. Contact info in profile.
- kls 16y ago
  In addition to other responses, I would have to say, working for another programmer also gives him the added value of a reference that actully knows what they are talking about when it comes to technical matters. In freelancing and consulting, a network of individuals that can recommend your work is a valuable asset. It makes the difference between a $150 an hour freelancer and someone who is competing in the market of mediocrity at $20 hr rates.
KoZeN 16y ago
elance.com There are tons of opportunities that you can take on even if you have nothing in your portfolio. Do what you do but earn some cash doing it. Good luck.
- ehsanul 16y ago
  I actually can't legally use elance.com, odesk.com, etc. due to silly reasons. It's also not easy to get started there without a portfolio and rates are way low, not just at first, but always. I actually found the first "free" client on elance, contacted him outside of it with a demo of what him wanted for free, and integrated into his website for him. I've gotten his trust and confidence in my abilities without any portfolio whatsoever, and a small paid job as well. So I think the "free first time" method is valid. I'll just have to wait and see if this was really a good idea.
giantfuzzypanda 16y ago
inb4 OP becomes overwhelmed and explodes
lionhearted 16y ago
Have you read this? - http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html It's about consulting, but it applies to freelancing as well. Good discussion of rates and what people really want in terms of service and deliverables when they hire you. Very good article, there's been discussion here on HN about it too if you go to searchyc.com. Other things to think about: Elance, Odesk, Rentacoder, or other sites that let you make some cash would be smart to look into, and look at OSS for an option to do some interesting work with smart people.
- ehsanul 16y ago
  Thanks, reading it now. Many of these sites have certain restrictions which make it difficult or impossible for me in particular to work through them and get paid, otherwise I'd use them.
  - gizmomagico 16y ago
    Try this one too, it looks promising: http://www.noagenciesplease.com/ http://www.noagenciesplease.com/
  - lionhearted 16y ago
    > Many of these sites have certain restrictions which make it difficult or impossible Dude, you're getting nowhere in life if you just listen when somebody says "no" - get a virtual post office box with a USA address, register for a non-resident Tax ID number, get Paypal, and you're in business. Yeah, it really is that simple. Good luck, and banish "I can't" from your vocabulary. The right question is "How can I?"
    - AjJi 16y ago
      I'm not sure if what you're saying applies to everyone? Where I live it's not possible to get an international credit card, which means I can't get paypal to work. Do you have more information about the virtual POB? Any help/suggestions about how to get paid in a foreign country from the USA is appreciated.
mattm 16y ago
A couple months ago I wanted to get rid of an old Dell printer. My uncle gave it to me for free so I thought I would just give it away for free on Craigslist. I had a total of 9 people contact me saying they were interested in it. Many people expressed skepticism and asked "Does it work?" and "Why are you giving it away for free?" Out of those 9 people that contacted me saying they were interested, 0 actually showed up to pick it up. One person even asked me if I could "deliver" it to their house as they "really wanted it" but were too sick to come pick it up. I wasted so much time dealing with these people. After realising this wasn't working, I re-listed it for $5 and the first person who contacted me actually came and picked it up without any issues.
- mynameishere 16y ago
  And the conclusion is that he should offer his labor for minimum or some other small wage, and that conclusion is false.
  - rick888 16y ago
    "And the conclusion is that he should offer his labor for minimum or some other small wage, and that conclusion is false." no, it's not false. If someone told me they would work on my website for free, I wouldn't want to give them any serious jobs. The reason is because there is no reason for them to continue working on my project if something better comes up or they lose interest.
    - ehsanul 16y ago
      Actually, if you wanted continued work, you'd pay for it. You get only one free job, which should be limited in scope. If you want more work, you won't get it for free, and that's reason enough for any freelancer to keep working with you.
      - rick888 16y ago
        "Actually, if you wanted continued work, you'd pay for it. You get only one free job, which should be limited in scope. If you want more work, you won't get it for free, and that's reason enough for any freelancer to keep working with you." If you are working on a free project for me and you get a couple of paid projects (they are paying you), my project will most likely get put on the back-burner. Even if the freelancer knows they won't get any more work from me, projects that pay the bills now are more important.
kaens 16y ago
Try posting at http://www.reddit.com/r/favors http://www.reddit.com/r/favors .
NickNYC242 16y ago
I think this is an awesome, disruptive, and unconventional idea. Sure, you could go to elance or any other board and do any "normal" work, but here at HN you're likely to find some interesting ideas, and by making this free, it's also likely that you'll get the weird, interesting, and just maybe highly-lucrative stuff. Good luck - if I can come up with a cool concept I'll drop you a line.
Random_Person 16y ago
I'm hoping to launch an online comic one day soon and could sure use some automation software to build each new page for me and make sure the links aren't broke. I'd also like to have a forum with voting similar to HN or Reddit.
- jcl 16y ago
  (FYI: HN's forum software is open-source: http://arclanguage.org/ http://arclanguage.org/)
  - Random_Person 16y ago
    Sweet. Thanks for the info! Now I just need to learn HTML/CSS and maybe some JavaScript to build the rest. That's a lot less complicated than I had imagined. If I can get a few more strips drawn I may just be able to get this thing rocking sooner than I imagined.
- chc 16y ago
  I'm pretty sure most blogging/CMS software is up to the challenge of a webcomic.
  - Random_Person 16y ago
    Hmmmm. Okay. I'll have to look into it. I want to keep the look clean (think XKCD NOT SMBC) and I honestly have very little experience with this sort of thing. I haven't built a website since GeoCities and at the time the internet was an unknown and I did not involve myself in HTML/CSS much at all-- so web design is something I've not thought a lot about until recently.
stiggz 16y ago
Why not create an application that you can monetize? You're lucky to have free time to work on a project that can earn you some residual income, just find a need that hasn't been filled (in your community, for friends, for family, etc). It will be useful to others as well once it's built. You can link your project updates on here as you progress, and I'm sure you'll gather some solid feedback.
ivenkys 16y ago
This is really a good and potentially very disruptive idea. It would be interesting to how far he can take this and monetize this. I am going to take him up on his offer. I have specific requirements and i have a working prototype of the same , it would be interesting to see what he makes of it (provided of course he takes me up on it.)
Tawheed 16y ago
Why not just build something of your own and put it out there as a product? See http://www.tawheedkader.com/2010/04/how-i-used-heroku-chargify-and-sendgrid-to-take-my-web-app-to-market-in-3-days/ http://www.tawheedkader.com/2010/04/how-i-used-heroku-chargi... for inspiration.
- messel 16y ago
  This is golden advice for a would be entrepreneur, and perhaps even for a freelancer. You can even open source the code which is a nice way to give back to others who learn more quickly by example like myself.
moron4hire 16y ago
Suggestion: if you don't care about compensation, join an open source project. There are dozens of projects out there with crappy project sites. Completely revamping their public facing can draw in significantly more people (I know I've skipped past a few projects because I couldn't make immediate sense out of their site). You'll have the same effect that you're looking for here, without having to wait around for someone else to give you permission.
- cookiecaper 16y ago
  I agree that this is a great method for your work to get a lot of exposure, to help out a lot of people, and add something cool to both your profile and resume. It has a lot more potential than doing one free job for a company. You should really look into this.
- mortenjorck 16y ago
  The problem with open source projects is that it's often hard to break into their communities. Some can even be surprisingly insular, and "don't need" what you see they are obviously lacking. Of course, if you find a good one, it can be incredibly rewarding, and you can make new friends.
  - paulgb 16y ago
    That's where GitHub is really great. Find a smallish but active project that you find cool, clone it, fix some bugs or add some features, and send a pull request to the project owner.
- ehsanul 16y ago
  Great advice! I'll try that once I'm done with everyone who has tried to contact me (It's already quite a lot to just evaluate all the requests).
pizzaman 16y ago
i bet you can find some small idea somewhere and create your own project, it will be a lot more fun and that way you'll learn easier too.
vegashacker 16y ago
I'd be worried about legal ownership issues with this. If someone just writes code for you and says, "Here you go, it's free" I'm not sure that would really work. There has to be a contract in place (right?), and can contracts be "for free"? I guess this could be structured as an internship, but I read here awhile ago that those are being cracked down upon in the US. Here's one idea: Have ehansul write and open source code that would be helpful to you. That way there are no ownership issues.
- zokier 16y ago
  I don't see any problems having contracts which do not enable any compensation for the party doing something. And even many FOSS projects want copyright waivers (I think that's the term) for any patches they receive.
xutopia 16y ago
Offer your help to non-profits instead. They can give you tax credits for it. So even if they don't pay you cash you can pay less income tax at the end of the year.
alain94040 16y ago
Why don't you volunteer your time to one of the projects listed on http://fairsoftware.net/startup-ideas-software-web-iphone http://fairsoftware.net/startup-ideas-software-web-iphone ? That would go a long way to build your portfolio.
ehsanul 16y ago
Everyone: I'm sorry if you've emailed me and I'm taking more than an hour to reply now. It's taking me a little time to evaluate all the requests I'm getting. More requests are welcome, but I am unlikely to be able to actually do more until later. If you contact me though, when I am done with the work I take up now, I can start with yours. You'll get a reply from me regardless of course.
HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
Dude, if you have no experience and are willing to work for free, at least go on RentACoder or whatever it's called these days and bid really low on a few projects that interest you. Trust me, someone will bite. That place is the Grand Central of bottom feeders.
vindicated 16y ago
I think it's a good idea. Not for everyone of course, one size doesn't fit all. Often just having a deadline for doing something is enough motivation to actually do it. I find myself procrastinating on personal projects, while I can finish (or at least get close to finishing) projects with clear deadlines pretty much on time.
joeld42 16y ago
This is a good idea and I wish you luck with it. Another great way to build your portfolio is to approach local non-profits and ask to volunteer to make web apps or website improvements for them. There is almost always a way to make a big difference.
JesseAldridge 16y ago
How about you make a clone of OkCupid, but instead of finding dates people use it to find co-founders? That's something I, and I think a lot of other people, would like to see.

112 points by ehsanul 16y ago

mquander 16y ago

I have to ask, why not go somewhere that isn't full of bored programmers to offer free programming labor? It seems like you would be more likely to find someone who could really use your work literally anywhere else.

hugh3 16y ago
Better, as a programmer, to work for a programmer. This way he's more likely to get a modest-sized project where the "customer" actually understands what he's asking him to do and how long it would reasonably take. Also, a much better chance of making useful contacts by working for some of the entrepreneurs here than by sprucing up the data entry system for your local used car dealer.
ehsanul 16y ago
Not everyone on HN is a bored programmer. However, for someone new to freelancing like me, it may be easier to work with people who are at least familiar with the development process, just to get a tighter spec from them. I'm also looking for to network with people who regularly need web development work, and HN looks like the best place to find people like that.
c1sc0 16y ago
I'm always happy to outsource a few braincycles if it helps me to focus on the core of the app I'm building. I took him up on the offer.
lukeschlather 16y ago
I don't know, it would generally be nicer to know I'm working with someone who can tell where I'm doing better or worse than the average developer. The offer to work for free doesn't make a ton of sense unless you can get some meaningful feedback. In that spirit, feel free to drop me a line as well. My actual experience is in shell scripting, Perl, PHP, MySQL, and Coldfusion with MS SQL, but I like Python, C++, and would love to pick up some other stuff. Contact info in profile.
kls 16y ago
In addition to other responses, I would have to say, working for another programmer also gives him the added value of a reference that actully knows what they are talking about when it comes to technical matters. In freelancing and consulting, a network of individuals that can recommend your work is a valuable asset. It makes the difference between a $150 an hour freelancer and someone who is competing in the market of mediocrity at $20 hr rates.

KoZeN 16y ago

elance.com There are tons of opportunities that you can take on even if you have nothing in your portfolio. Do what you do but earn some cash doing it. Good luck.

ehsanul 16y ago
I actually can't legally use elance.com, odesk.com, etc. due to silly reasons. It's also not easy to get started there without a portfolio and rates are way low, not just at first, but always. I actually found the first "free" client on elance, contacted him outside of it with a demo of what him wanted for free, and integrated into his website for him. I've gotten his trust and confidence in my abilities without any portfolio whatsoever, and a small paid job as well. So I think the "free first time" method is valid. I'll just have to wait and see if this was really a good idea.

giantfuzzypanda 16y ago

inb4 OP becomes overwhelmed and explodes

lionhearted 16y ago

Have you read this? - http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html It's about consulting, but it applies to freelancing as well. Good discussion of rates and what people really want in terms of service and deliverables when they hire you. Very good article, there's been discussion here on HN about it too if you go to searchyc.com. Other things to think about: Elance, Odesk, Rentacoder, or other sites that let you make some cash would be smart to look into, and look at OSS for an option to do some interesting work with smart people.

ehsanul 16y ago
Thanks, reading it now. Many of these sites have certain restrictions which make it difficult or impossible for me in particular to work through them and get paid, otherwise I'd use them.
- gizmomagico 16y ago
  Try this one too, it looks promising: http://www.noagenciesplease.com/ http://www.noagenciesplease.com/
- lionhearted 16y ago
  > Many of these sites have certain restrictions which make it difficult or impossible Dude, you're getting nowhere in life if you just listen when somebody says "no" - get a virtual post office box with a USA address, register for a non-resident Tax ID number, get Paypal, and you're in business. Yeah, it really is that simple. Good luck, and banish "I can't" from your vocabulary. The right question is "How can I?"
  - AjJi 16y ago
    I'm not sure if what you're saying applies to everyone? Where I live it's not possible to get an international credit card, which means I can't get paypal to work. Do you have more information about the virtual POB? Any help/suggestions about how to get paid in a foreign country from the USA is appreciated.

mattm 16y ago

A couple months ago I wanted to get rid of an old Dell printer. My uncle gave it to me for free so I thought I would just give it away for free on Craigslist. I had a total of 9 people contact me saying they were interested in it. Many people expressed skepticism and asked "Does it work?" and "Why are you giving it away for free?" Out of those 9 people that contacted me saying they were interested, 0 actually showed up to pick it up. One person even asked me if I could "deliver" it to their house as they "really wanted it" but were too sick to come pick it up. I wasted so much time dealing with these people. After realising this wasn't working, I re-listed it for $5 and the first person who contacted me actually came and picked it up without any issues.

mynameishere 16y ago
And the conclusion is that he should offer his labor for minimum or some other small wage, and that conclusion is false.
- rick888 16y ago
  "And the conclusion is that he should offer his labor for minimum or some other small wage, and that conclusion is false." no, it's not false. If someone told me they would work on my website for free, I wouldn't want to give them any serious jobs. The reason is because there is no reason for them to continue working on my project if something better comes up or they lose interest.
  - ehsanul 16y ago
    Actually, if you wanted continued work, you'd pay for it. You get only one free job, which should be limited in scope. If you want more work, you won't get it for free, and that's reason enough for any freelancer to keep working with you.
    - rick888 16y ago
      "Actually, if you wanted continued work, you'd pay for it. You get only one free job, which should be limited in scope. If you want more work, you won't get it for free, and that's reason enough for any freelancer to keep working with you." If you are working on a free project for me and you get a couple of paid projects (they are paying you), my project will most likely get put on the back-burner. Even if the freelancer knows they won't get any more work from me, projects that pay the bills now are more important.

kaens 16y ago

Try posting at http://www.reddit.com/r/favors http://www.reddit.com/r/favors .

NickNYC242 16y ago

I think this is an awesome, disruptive, and unconventional idea. Sure, you could go to elance or any other board and do any "normal" work, but here at HN you're likely to find some interesting ideas, and by making this free, it's also likely that you'll get the weird, interesting, and just maybe highly-lucrative stuff. Good luck - if I can come up with a cool concept I'll drop you a line.

Random_Person 16y ago

I'm hoping to launch an online comic one day soon and could sure use some automation software to build each new page for me and make sure the links aren't broke. I'd also like to have a forum with voting similar to HN or Reddit.

jcl 16y ago
(FYI: HN's forum software is open-source: http://arclanguage.org/ http://arclanguage.org/)
- Random_Person 16y ago
  Sweet. Thanks for the info! Now I just need to learn HTML/CSS and maybe some JavaScript to build the rest. That's a lot less complicated than I had imagined. If I can get a few more strips drawn I may just be able to get this thing rocking sooner than I imagined.
chc 16y ago
I'm pretty sure most blogging/CMS software is up to the challenge of a webcomic.
- Random_Person 16y ago
  Hmmmm. Okay. I'll have to look into it. I want to keep the look clean (think XKCD NOT SMBC) and I honestly have very little experience with this sort of thing. I haven't built a website since GeoCities and at the time the internet was an unknown and I did not involve myself in HTML/CSS much at all-- so web design is something I've not thought a lot about until recently.

stiggz 16y ago

Why not create an application that you can monetize? You're lucky to have free time to work on a project that can earn you some residual income, just find a need that hasn't been filled (in your community, for friends, for family, etc). It will be useful to others as well once it's built. You can link your project updates on here as you progress, and I'm sure you'll gather some solid feedback.

ivenkys 16y ago

This is really a good and potentially very disruptive idea. It would be interesting to how far he can take this and monetize this. I am going to take him up on his offer. I have specific requirements and i have a working prototype of the same , it would be interesting to see what he makes of it (provided of course he takes me up on it.)

Tawheed 16y ago

Why not just build something of your own and put it out there as a product? See http://www.tawheedkader.com/2010/04/how-i-used-heroku-chargify-and-sendgrid-to-take-my-web-app-to-market-in-3-days/ http://www.tawheedkader.com/2010/04/how-i-used-heroku-chargi... for inspiration.

messel 16y ago
This is golden advice for a would be entrepreneur, and perhaps even for a freelancer. You can even open source the code which is a nice way to give back to others who learn more quickly by example like myself.

moron4hire 16y ago

Suggestion: if you don't care about compensation, join an open source project. There are dozens of projects out there with crappy project sites. Completely revamping their public facing can draw in significantly more people (I know I've skipped past a few projects because I couldn't make immediate sense out of their site). You'll have the same effect that you're looking for here, without having to wait around for someone else to give you permission.

cookiecaper 16y ago
I agree that this is a great method for your work to get a lot of exposure, to help out a lot of people, and add something cool to both your profile and resume. It has a lot more potential than doing one free job for a company. You should really look into this.
mortenjorck 16y ago
The problem with open source projects is that it's often hard to break into their communities. Some can even be surprisingly insular, and "don't need" what you see they are obviously lacking. Of course, if you find a good one, it can be incredibly rewarding, and you can make new friends.
- paulgb 16y ago
  That's where GitHub is really great. Find a smallish but active project that you find cool, clone it, fix some bugs or add some features, and send a pull request to the project owner.
ehsanul 16y ago
Great advice! I'll try that once I'm done with everyone who has tried to contact me (It's already quite a lot to just evaluate all the requests).

pizzaman 16y ago

i bet you can find some small idea somewhere and create your own project, it will be a lot more fun and that way you'll learn easier too.

vegashacker 16y ago

I'd be worried about legal ownership issues with this. If someone just writes code for you and says, "Here you go, it's free" I'm not sure that would really work. There has to be a contract in place (right?), and can contracts be "for free"? I guess this could be structured as an internship, but I read here awhile ago that those are being cracked down upon in the US. Here's one idea: Have ehansul write and open source code that would be helpful to you. That way there are no ownership issues.

zokier 16y ago
I don't see any problems having contracts which do not enable any compensation for the party doing something. And even many FOSS projects want copyright waivers (I think that's the term) for any patches they receive.

xutopia 16y ago

Offer your help to non-profits instead. They can give you tax credits for it. So even if they don't pay you cash you can pay less income tax at the end of the year.

alain94040 16y ago

Why don't you volunteer your time to one of the projects listed on http://fairsoftware.net/startup-ideas-software-web-iphone http://fairsoftware.net/startup-ideas-software-web-iphone ? That would go a long way to build your portfolio.

ehsanul 16y ago

Everyone: I'm sorry if you've emailed me and I'm taking more than an hour to reply now. It's taking me a little time to evaluate all the requests I'm getting. More requests are welcome, but I am unlikely to be able to actually do more until later. If you contact me though, when I am done with the work I take up now, I can start with yours. You'll get a reply from me regardless of course.

HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago

Dude, if you have no experience and are willing to work for free, at least go on RentACoder or whatever it's called these days and bid really low on a few projects that interest you. Trust me, someone will bite. That place is the Grand Central of bottom feeders.

vindicated 16y ago

I think it's a good idea. Not for everyone of course, one size doesn't fit all. Often just having a deadline for doing something is enough motivation to actually do it. I find myself procrastinating on personal projects, while I can finish (or at least get close to finishing) projects with clear deadlines pretty much on time.

joeld42 16y ago

This is a good idea and I wish you luck with it. Another great way to build your portfolio is to approach local non-profits and ask to volunteer to make web apps or website improvements for them. There is almost always a way to make a big difference.

JesseAldridge 16y ago

How about you make a clone of OkCupid, but instead of finding dates people use it to find co-founders? That's something I, and I think a lot of other people, would like to see.