6 ms·

I earn $10k/mo contracting 20 hours per week. Personally, this extra income helped me maximize my day job benefits (401k and ESPP) and provided liquidity during

by itake 4y ago

I earn $10k/mo contracting 20 hours per week. Personally, this extra income helped me maximize my day job benefits (401k and ESPP) and provided liquidity during the home buying process.

keepquestioning 4y ago
Where did you find your gigs?
- mr-yamasi 4y ago
  That's a little like asking for someone's favorite fishing hole. My experience has been that serious networking has been more effective than anything else.
  - keepquestioning 4y ago
    Cold calling on LinkedIn?
- itake 4y ago
  An ex-co-worker started a dev shop a 5+ years ago.
angarg12 4y ago
Maybe you can answer a question that is nagging me. I recently moved to the US, and ever since I keep getting messages on LinkedIn offering contract/freelance jobs. However the hourly rate is so poor that it would pay less that my current job base pay (not counting stocks and bonuses). In Europe the rule of thumb is that contract job should pay 2x your full time job rate. This is based on the associated overhead plus lack of benefits (e.g. you need to pay your own pension contribution). This made me think, is anyone taking these contract jobs? I see several possibilities: a) Contract work in the US is not attractive. b) People reaching out in LinkedIn are the bottom of the barrel. There are better rates out there. c) People run several contracts in parallel, or with a full time job. Is any of these true or am I missing something?
- molsongolden 4y ago
  b) is the most likely situation here The 2x calculation is similar in the US. I've also seen "3x your hourly rate as an employee" if you're relying on the contracting income. It's important to account for the time you'll spend doing sales and misc. non-billable business building. There are lowball contracting offers all over the internet and people sometimes accept these for various reasons. A higher tier of sustainable contracting does exist though, with most of the higher paying work sourced via networking, not via job boards.
- daggersandscars 4y ago
  In the US, there are (at least) two competing views of contractors. One side believes that contractors are cheap, disposable labor that costs less than hiring an employee with benefits. Another side believes that contractors are a way to access temporarily needed expertise they lack in-house and cost more than hiring an employee with benefits. Some firms' views depend on the skillset. Other firms have the same view no matter what. In my experience, the more general a position, the more likely it is to be put in the "cheaper" group. The more specialized a position, the more likely it is to be put in the "expensive" group. Neither of these categorizations necessarily is correct, just how the firm is viewing things.
- synergy20 4y ago
  I just ignore those offers these days, the contract rate is actually lower than my permanent job pays, which is, interesting.
  - disqard 4y ago
    I recently responded to one of these entites that reached out via LinkedIn. I did a tiny bit of work for them, but they haven't managed to pay me even after 100 days :) Just adding another data point, that YMMV, and it might not be worth your while.
- itake 4y ago
  I have a friend that has literally only done contracts for the last 8 years. To put bluntly, he is bad at coding and could never last in a full time job. He once bragged to me that he took a Microsoft Azure cert after failing the test 5x. There are high paying contracting jobs, but they are only available to people that know people that offer good contracts. A friend of a friend has a 6mo contract with a Fintech company paying $500k.
jasonm23 4y ago
I'd be interested to know how you're doing this. Can you share more information?
3pt14159 4y ago
I'd wager it's for the same company for over 3 months or more and its for people you've worked with or for in the past that trust you for a domain specific issue that doesn't need 100% of your time. Like a cloud infra engineer for a less than 20 person startup or something like that. What I meant by side gigs was the more typical model of finding small gigs with flexible (read: resource constrained) buyers.
rswskg 4y ago
Do you work over the weekend?
eclat 4y ago
Please teach me your ways. How does one find an opportunity like that?
Lumos24 4y ago
Wow that’s boss dude! Congrats. That’s winning.

by itake 4y ago

I earn $10k/mo contracting 20 hours per week. Personally, this extra income helped me maximize my day job benefits (401k and ESPP) and provided liquidity during the home buying process.

keepquestioning 4y ago

Where did you find your gigs?

mr-yamasi 4y ago
That's a little like asking for someone's favorite fishing hole. My experience has been that serious networking has been more effective than anything else.
- keepquestioning 4y ago
  Cold calling on LinkedIn?
itake 4y ago
An ex-co-worker started a dev shop a 5+ years ago.

angarg12 4y ago

Maybe you can answer a question that is nagging me. I recently moved to the US, and ever since I keep getting messages on LinkedIn offering contract/freelance jobs. However the hourly rate is so poor that it would pay less that my current job base pay (not counting stocks and bonuses). In Europe the rule of thumb is that contract job should pay 2x your full time job rate. This is based on the associated overhead plus lack of benefits (e.g. you need to pay your own pension contribution). This made me think, is anyone taking these contract jobs? I see several possibilities: a) Contract work in the US is not attractive. b) People reaching out in LinkedIn are the bottom of the barrel. There are better rates out there. c) People run several contracts in parallel, or with a full time job. Is any of these true or am I missing something?

molsongolden 4y ago
b) is the most likely situation here The 2x calculation is similar in the US. I've also seen "3x your hourly rate as an employee" if you're relying on the contracting income. It's important to account for the time you'll spend doing sales and misc. non-billable business building. There are lowball contracting offers all over the internet and people sometimes accept these for various reasons. A higher tier of sustainable contracting does exist though, with most of the higher paying work sourced via networking, not via job boards.
daggersandscars 4y ago
In the US, there are (at least) two competing views of contractors. One side believes that contractors are cheap, disposable labor that costs less than hiring an employee with benefits. Another side believes that contractors are a way to access temporarily needed expertise they lack in-house and cost more than hiring an employee with benefits. Some firms' views depend on the skillset. Other firms have the same view no matter what. In my experience, the more general a position, the more likely it is to be put in the "cheaper" group. The more specialized a position, the more likely it is to be put in the "expensive" group. Neither of these categorizations necessarily is correct, just how the firm is viewing things.
synergy20 4y ago
I just ignore those offers these days, the contract rate is actually lower than my permanent job pays, which is, interesting.
- disqard 4y ago
  I recently responded to one of these entites that reached out via LinkedIn. I did a tiny bit of work for them, but they haven't managed to pay me even after 100 days :) Just adding another data point, that YMMV, and it might not be worth your while.
itake 4y ago
I have a friend that has literally only done contracts for the last 8 years. To put bluntly, he is bad at coding and could never last in a full time job. He once bragged to me that he took a Microsoft Azure cert after failing the test 5x. There are high paying contracting jobs, but they are only available to people that know people that offer good contracts. A friend of a friend has a 6mo contract with a Fintech company paying $500k.

jasonm23 4y ago

I'd be interested to know how you're doing this. Can you share more information?

3pt14159 4y ago

I'd wager it's for the same company for over 3 months or more and its for people you've worked with or for in the past that trust you for a domain specific issue that doesn't need 100% of your time. Like a cloud infra engineer for a less than 20 person startup or something like that. What I meant by side gigs was the more typical model of finding small gigs with flexible (read: resource constrained) buyers.

rswskg 4y ago

Do you work over the weekend?

eclat 4y ago

Please teach me your ways. How does one find an opportunity like that?

Lumos24 4y ago

Wow that’s boss dude! Congrats. That’s winning.