There's a few sites focusing on offering a "vetted freelance marketplace" of some description. Toptal, Scoutzie, and one or two others that I can't remember the

There's a few sites focusing on offering a "vetted freelance marketplace" of some description. Toptal, Scoutzie, and one or two others that I can't remember the name of right now. I actually just quit working on a startup that aimed to do exactly that: http://endorse.io http://endorse.io. Turns out that some of the bigger sites, PeoplePerHour and especially oDesk are already working hard on ways to ensure quality of their workers. Although oDesk has lots of cheap third world coders, too, I've known first world contractors get lots of quality jobs through there. But yeah, if you're actually looking for work, try tapping your network and hitting up local tech meetups. I found a tech recruiter through my university alumni network who gave me some useful pointers about the London freelance market, so try that as well.