I started looking for remote software development work in March of this year. Due to being in school part-time I couldn't take a full-time gig. And I intervie

I started looking for remote software development work in March of this year. Due to being in school part-time I couldn't take a full-time gig. And I interviewed with three consulting firms that all wanted me to commit to over 30 hours a week. Upwork turned out to be a good solution for me. It took about three weeks of searching through Upwork job posts until I found a good fit. There were a lot uninteresting job postings to wade through. And being new to the platform (without any history or earnings) probably made landing a job more difficult. But I finally found a great client who allows for flexible hours at a pretty good hourly rate. Most of our team was found via Upwork and with only one exception everyone has worked out well. The Upwork screenshot/work monitor software is definitely intrusive but I feel that's the cost of earning trust in an environment where clients and providers don't necessarily know one another. Now that I've earned over $10k working for this client, Upwork is "only" taking 5% of my rate. However I feel this is quite fair given the platform they provide. Anyway a body shop would be taking a much bigger cut. I'm also building up a history within Upwork and future gigs should be easier to land. Just as with other trust-based systems like Airbnb, the longer I'm on Upwork and the higher my reputation & earnings become, the more I'm incentivized to keep using it.