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I suggest using your professional network and making new contacts. Word of mouth and referrals works better than going through recruiters. And expand to the lar

• sph 4y ago
  No one in my contact list is hiring. Just a lot of wasted time setting up calls to be told they have no spots available atm. Oh well. I have also connected with the agency that represents you after you have mentioned it to me on a similar post ages ago, and of course they give preference to their current client list first (understandable) before looking into prospective ones like myself. I hope this is a relationship that might pay off in the long term. But right now I literally have gone through all the contacts I have made in the past 10 years, and the only opportunity I have now is cold calling and fighting it out on Upwork, which ain't fun.
  • gregjor 4y ago
    Not to minimize your efforts, but I get the impression you have looked for companies hiring for jobs, and sell yourself based on a list of technical skills. I suggest focusing on business problems you can solve. A business may have a broken or slow web site, for example. They probably won't have a job opening specifically to fix that, but they still have the problem. Instead of calling around asking "Do you need another Python programmer?" ask "What problems would you like to get fixed that your staff don't have the skills or bandwidth to deal with?" No business ever had the requirement "I need 5,000 more lines of Javascript this month," so don't try to sell that to them. Every company will hire (or contract) when someone comes along who can add value to the business. This approach has worked for me many times. Reframing the gig-hunting process in terms of business value rather than my specific "skill set" made all the difference. Recruiters use databases full of yes-no and 0-5 rankings of keywords, they focus on moving interchangeable people around. They may also know about business problems their customers face but they make money putting bodies in chairs so don't expect too much out of them. Think about the difference between someone knocking on your door asking if you need a person with a lawnmower for couple of hours, versus someone telling you they noticed your yard needs some care and they have the skill and tools to do it. You don't care about the brand of lawnmower they use. They identified a problem and offered a solution, one that doesn't require you make any decision beyond how much it will cost.
    • sph 4y ago
      This is excellent advice. I must admit I have reverted to marketing myself as a code monkey lately because I haven't been able to get my foot through the door as an actual consultant selling solutions. I have started a few long term relationships with clients by just basically asking them "what do you need fixed? Is there any way I can make your business more efficient?" but it's not the type of approach that works if your only remaining avenue is cold-calling and sending resumes. This is certainly a fault of mine, I should have invested more in my "brand" to have the clients come to me organically (through my website or Twitter account) rather than having to knock at their door asking for a job.