14 ms·

Ask HN: How to find part-time developer work?

217 points by wasd 13y ago

mmmbeer 13y ago
I do about 350-500 hours per year of freelance work ($100 per hour usually) in addition to normal full-time job. It is all through people I've worked with in the past who contacted me. If you have previous employers or co-workers, maybe ask if they have any extra work or side projects they need completed.
rileytg 13y ago
email us at jobs@fcflamingo.com
- dested 13y ago
  Are you a recruiting agency? You dont even know what stack the developer uses...
  - blhack 13y ago
    They're a "design, development, and consulting agency based in LA and NYC. We're young, dynamic, and take on lots of cool projects." http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Fc-Flamingo http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Fc-Flamingo
perplexes 13y ago
Part-time is easy to come by when you're doing consulting work, since you can work out the requisite hours with your clients. I did full-time remote consulting for about 5 years, dropped to part-time consulting for a year to concentrate on music. Finding a client that we could be flexible on hours with was difficult, though. Many clients are tied to the ass-in-chair time cycle. We eventually found a small company that was made of people who were largely remote and worked really flexible hours themselves. Eventually I found a job in SF that offered full-time and part-time, and you can move between the two. This has been really great since we started a family last August - I took a month off, then came back doing 4-day weeks. If you're in SF, we're hiring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6477194 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6477194
- wasd 13y ago
  Hey, I would like to learn more about where you work. I couldn't find your email in your profile.
startupstella 13y ago
If you have a good online portfolio (a site showing what skills you have, what projects you've done, and your personality) as well as good client facing skills, check out matchist. We built it to help awesome freelance web and mobile devs (in the US only currently) find curated projects.
fennecfoxen 13y ago
1. Get full time job at IBM. 2. Prove your worth. 3. Move to part time. Honestly, I'm really glad I don't work at IBM. But when I did work there on an internship, I noticed part-time people who seemed relatively respected and secure in their positions. I haven't seen that very much since.
- iends 13y ago
  I'm not sure this would work very well lately. IBM had a series of layoffs and are chasing short term shareholder value.
- vinceguidry 13y ago
  s/IBM/Any big name company with name recognition/g I worked for Panasonic for a few months, the job sucked ass, but my title of Test Engineer and a quick explanation of what my responsibilities were is solid gold. I jumped at the chance to be able to put them on my resume and I'm glad I did.
thebouv 13y ago
I suggest looking for local hackathons or even better, startup weekends near you. http://startupweekend.org/ http://startupweekend.org/ Startup Weekend is a great way to meet connections while helping them build a fun project for the weekend. Show them you are a badass talent. You'll get noticed.
gedrap 13y ago
I am making my living doing part-time coding (still doing my degree) for the last 2 years, was unemployed for only about 3 months. I am doing PHP and AngularJS. It's really all about the people you know. I got the best gigs just by asking people (normally other developers) I know if they know someone who needs a developer. So, yes, it's all about networking but not the numbers but quality of connection. No one, who talked to you for 10mins, will vouch for you, really. I've tried elance a bit, and getting the first gig there looks like a game of numbers. If you apply for many jobs, sooner or later you will get one... But checking new postings, writing decent cover letter is time and mental energy consuming. I gave up there. I don't know, maybe it's worth the hassle getting the first one. If you try to make a living doing part time, the key is 1) high enough pay rate 2) be strict about the payments. I used to have a rather low rate and was very trusting (e.g. if the payment is late by 3-4 weeks I still trusted because I 'felt' that he is trustworthy). I ended up in the situation when I didn't have what to eat for a few weeks, while I was getting 'I really made the payment' BS, and 0 motivation and energy to do anything. But now I am happy that it happened, I moved on, and got much much better gigs and 1.5-2 times higher pay rate and payments always on time :) AMA!
ianBlumenfeld 13y ago
1) Start with craigslist. Lots of ads for people/companies looking for contract devs. Be cheap if you're not experienced/awesome yet. 2) Do a good job, so your references are good. 3) Build your network. Once you have that rolling, you'll never go dry.
ianBlumenfeld 13y ago
1) Start with craigslist. Lots of ads for people/companies looking for contract devs. Be cheap if you're not experienced/awesome yet. 2) Do a good job, so your references are good. 3) Build your network. Once you have that rolling, you'll never go dry.
espeed 13y ago
Become active in developer communities, create and contribute to open-source projects on GitHub, and people will contact you. Companies like Toptal (http://www.toptal.com http://www.toptal.com) mine GitHub and online developer communities looking for talent.
USNetizen 13y ago
You know PHP? I'm hiring part time. Can be 100% remote if in the US. I know other people looking for P/T devs all the time for mostly one-off client projects.
- pasok 13y ago
  Neither the owner of this thread, nor do I reside in US. But, wanted to check if there is a way you (or) people you know can consider a php dev outside US.
- ciclista 13y ago
  Not OP, but actually looking for something in the 20-25 hours a week range. Plenty of PHP experience, do you have some more details and a contact address? (my email is in my profile).
Moto7451 13y ago
I've picked up side gigs from Hackathons. Typically if you win you'll get a few business cards that can turn into leads. Sometimes your teammates hire you for their own projects.
notastartup 13y ago
I find it impossible to find freelance work when everyone thinks that it's like building a chair, except the chair sometimes turn into tables and it's still called a chair, and refuse to pay for a table because it's still a chair in their mind. Few options remain for folks like me except to build our own SaaS products or software and hope it pays rent.
notastartup 13y ago
1) How do you guys find contract work? 2) How do you actually write up the contract and have them sign it? Is there an open service which does this? 3) How much up front do you charge? 33%? 50%?
breathesalt 13y ago
One trick is to start full-time and as soon as you become indispensable to the company ask to go part-time.
TempleOSV2 13y ago
Nothing matters until God reveals Himself. It's done, by the way. God says... do_I_have_to are_you_insane Dudly_Doright I'm_feeling_nice_today is_it_just_me_or eh basket_case Jesus on_occassion exorbitant China let's_roll Vegas oops arrogant incredibly the dignity be_happy IMHO umm it_was_nothing exorbitant look_buddy baffling hooah not_good ouch Okilydokily piety taxes genius oil not_a_chance_in_hell not_the_sharpest_knife_in_the_drawer honestly don't_even_think_about_it fool kludge just_between_us anger spunky end praise delicious
leknarf 13y ago
First, talk to people looking for developers. That part is fairly easy: just about any networking event in NYC has a dozens of people looking for devs. I don't know where you're located, but the same is probably true for your area. Once you're talking, convince them that working with you will be easier/quicker/more-effective than working with anyone else. That's the hard part, which definitely requires some practice. Pro-tip: don't try to convince anyone that you'll be the cheapest option, which is almost always a losing game to play. If you prefer, I'd be happy to do the hard work for you. I run a startup that connects senior freelance developers with high-paying companies: http://getlambda.com http://getlambda.com.
- eevilspock 13y ago
  Do you have companies that focus on social good, or at least avoid things that are socially bad (e.g. advertising)?
  - _delirium 13y ago
    Which category of companies do you think are more likely to be willing and able to pay >$100/hr? :)
  - iends 13y ago
    Why do you think advertising is socially bad? There are many products I would not have discovered without advertising.
    - jtheory 13y ago
      It runs the gamut, of course -- someone's out there building an awesome campaign to advertise a blood drive, right now. But most advertising basically using psychological tricks to push you to want & buy all kinds of stuff that really make a negligible difference in your quality of life, if they add anything at all. Worse, the best way to convince you that you need X is to convince you that you have an X-shaped hole in your life. That desirable mates are looking for a [your gender] with X. That your neighbors/friends/colleagues/rivals have X, better X, newer X, etc. and are wondering about you. It's not real, and it's actively harmful -- we find happiness/contentment by being self-aware, by learning what things really matter to us, and finding ways to focus on & improve those parts of our lives; this most commonly doesn't involve buying anything at all -- often it involves getting rid of a lot of stuff and leading a simpler life. But who has time for clear thought and introspection, nowadays? By default advertisers want you distracted and discontented, your thoughts teeming with desires and urges, racing along on the hedonic treadmill....
gwjp 13y ago
Can you do C#?
- SecretAgentWorm 13y ago
  If you're starting a pool of candidates, throw me in. I would really love to continue doing C# development on the side.
- sosuke 13y ago
  Of course! Though I hope you want Windows Store apps, I've been wanting to build another one.
- pc86 13y ago
  If OP can't, I can :) My contact information is available in my profile if you're looking.
  - majc2 13y ago
    Me too - contact info in profile.
- wasd 13y ago
  Sorry, I'm a java/ruby/js developer. I can learn fast and would be happy to become .net/c# though.
johnrob 13y ago
The first thing to check is whether your former employer has a need for part time. Both parties are validated, and there is little to no ramp up needed. The next I'd look at is mobile development. Now that there are multiple platforms to support (iOS/Android/WinMo), the demand for part time specialists is huge. There are a lot of companies that support a subset of those platforms but would like to add more (if they only had the expertise).
woah 13y ago
Best way is to get a full time job that you really enjoy. After months of drought, the offers for high-payed consulting work (that you can't take) will suddenly flow in.
- zabraxias 13y ago
  Oh so true.
- thebouv 13y ago
  Too damn true, this. Always come in when you're too busy as well. :\
- jaredgeorge 13y ago
  I told my wife this past October that I'd stop taking side work by November and get our hard wood floors installed. It's now January and my clients are continually agreeing to more and more absurd hourly rates, making it impossible to stop.
  - rythie 13y ago
    If your rate is higher than the cost of a flooring contractor, why not just hire one?
acheron 13y ago
Depends what you mean, I guess. I am "normally" employed with one company, not a freelancer, but I work "part-time", i.e. 30 hours/week. Getting that type of gig is likely different from getting the freelance/consultant type work. (For what it's worth, the way I got mine was that I was hired for full-time/40 hours, did that for about nine months, then went to the manager and said "hey, how about I only work 30 hours?" and he said "ok".)
- wasd 13y ago
  Your situation is exactly what I'm looking for. Being hired by a company but only working part time. Consulting is difficult (for me) because it is a huge time investment.
  - acheron 13y ago
    To fill my experience out a bit more, it wasn't something I was planning to do when I got hired. From a personal standpoint, I had a kid, and my wife got a higher-paying job so my salary became less important. From an office standpoint, there were a couple people already doing a similar schedule (I do three 10-hour days T-W-Th), so I wasn't going completely out on a limb. It really did fall into place pretty easily. (I work for a very large company which HN would probably scoff at, plus I work with very uncool things like Java and Oracle.) My situation has me fall in-between for a lot of HR things -- my pay has always been given in terms of a yearly salary, and usually as what it would be if I were full time. I just get 3/4ths of it. And I'm technically paid hourly, which helps keep any requests to come in on my days off to a minimum, since they actually have to pay me for it. I accrue 3/4ths of normal vacation time, but I still get all the other standard benefits. And I get to spend two extra days a week with my now two children. Really the only "bad" thing is that I know it'd be difficult to get into this situation again, so if my job stagnates, it would be hard to go out and try to find a new job, unless I am ready to go back full-time.
    - jtheory 13y ago
      We have a few people working for us with similar deals -- e.g., people have kids and switch to reduced hours (this is a pretty good reason!).... We have one dev who is a theatre director for a few months every year; he lets us know well in advance when he's going to disappear for a while, and is available via email to offer advice on urgent issues. I'd have imagined this would be more common with small & flexible companies; kudos to you for sorting out an alternative setup in a big one! I imagine HR in large companies normally pushes back against any situation that will go outside their normal flow.
drewcrawford 13y ago
At present I derive all my income from part-time work and side projects. The first thing is to figure out what not to do. You can't work in a field where people routinely hire full-time employees with ease. So you can't do Java work part-time, for example. (Well I mean you can, but it's like saying you can be elected to Congress. Let's do something easy.) So, you have to start in some field where 9-5ers can't be easily found to fill the position. iOS/Android dev are like that. Maybe there are web specialities that are like that. If you have some deep expertise like machine learning or computer vision or graph algorithms, maybe those specialties are like that. But the operative criteria is to find some field that full-time employees are not easily had. The next step is to filter by projects where time is not the biggest criteria. Because in spite of Fred Brooks and his MMM, ordinary people still believe that if you work more hours the project will get done faster, and will pressure you to become full-time. So you have to find people who are unconcerned about delivery dates, or rather, who have overriding concerns. Quality concerns. Cost concerns. If you find someone who has a fixed budget for his project, for example, if that person can get a better developer at 20 hours/week than he can at 40 hours that starts to look like an attractive value proposition. Because not only does he get a better developer, but with a lower burn rate it's easier for him to get deep visibility into where the money and time is actually going. Those benefits outweigh the benefits of completing the project faster, but only for projects that have these sorts of overriding concerns. There's more you can do, but those two steps are probably all you need to start consistently landing part-time gigs. It's worth pointing out as well, there are a variety of near-part-time deal structures you can negotiate (for example rotating 1 week on, 1 week off). These might be worth exploring depending on your specific motivations for seeking part-time work.
- bigtunacan 13y ago
  drew here has it right. While it is possible to find money on side projects in more mainstream technologies like Java or .NET; it is easier in specialized fields. Depending on where you are targeting geographically those technologies vary a lot; I personally have seen a lot of demand for iOS/Android, but even more demand for Ruby on Rails. I think that quite a few Ruby on Rails developers left the community and flocked to Node.js as the next shiny thing and that has just made it easier to find Rails contract work. Not only is it easier to find work in a less mainstream technology, but you are able to negotiate better rates since it is more difficult for businesses to locate help. After a certain point you can't scale by taking on additional hours; so your hourly rate makes a big difference. And hourly vs fixed rate contracting should be considered. I will negotiate my hourly rate based on term of contract, but under no circumstances will I take fixed rate contracts any longer. Quite a few of my friends in the contracting scene are the same way. I've seen too many times where this just leads to continual "feature creep" and a strong difference in opinions of if scope of work has been expanded beyond the agreed contract (in all cases it was). I bid a fixed rate contract with a couple of associates against my better judgement. Based on the initial scope of work it should have taken about 3 months. Instead it took over a year and the lead developer on the project walked away making a rate of right around $10/hour. And this point can not be overstated. Network! Network! Network! If you are an introvert you are going to have to get over it. It doesn't matter if you have the raw programming skills of Linus Torvalds or John Carmack; if you can't get out there and make connections you aren't going to make any money. I am very introverted by nature, but I force myself to regularly attend meetups and conferences; and make a point to connect with new people at those conferences. You need to grow your real social graph; not your Facebook/LinkedIn/etc... Nothing makes the same lasting impression as a firm handshake and 5 minutes of conversation face to face.
deeteecee 13y ago
i think it's kind of hard to find specific people targeting part-time developers for a long period of time. they normally want contractors/free-lancers to help out on the project and then they'll cut you out. I just randomly found one on elance out of nowhere. all i did was post that i did django web-dev for a year and bam, client received. I'm learning a lot though...like... what requirements to set for myself before I agree with the client.
jorgem 13y ago
December/January are always the toughest month for me. Lots of companies are still working out their annual budget. I usually just go on vacation.
ritchiea 13y ago
I have had some luck finding part time work over the HN monthly freelance thread and through developer email lists (NYC.rb specifically). In the case of the email list it was as easy as sending an email to the list describing myself and my past experience and saying I was looking for part time work. A handful of people reached out to me.
- psycr 13y ago
  Do you mean the regular meetup.com mailing list for NYC.rb or something else?
  - ritchiea 13y ago
    The regular meetup.com mailing list for NYC.rb
- dougk16 13y ago
  If you have a minute, could you go into a little more detail about finding developer e-mail lists? Not sure what you mean here. Thanks!
  - ritchiea 13y ago
    Looking through my email now it looks like most of the lists I'm subscribed to are through meetups on meetup.com. I'm a member of a number of meetups that are related to technology I use (e.g. Ruby, Javascript), or topics I'm interested in (e.g. data journalism, I'm a member of Hacks & Hackers). I receive either the emails in real time or as a daily digest. I have only turned to those lists once looking for work and it was a big success.
stratigos 13y ago
diddnt know such gigs existed
gkoberger 13y ago
I've found it's almost impossible to find good work using cold calls or responding to ads. Try to find people you know. Getting the first job is the hardest, but if you do a good job -- the referrals will start to roll in. This has been inadvertent, however I've also gotten a lot of work through various projects[1][2] I've done that have gotten big on HN. Write it off mentally as a marketing expense, and spend a few days making something awesome. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5395463 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5395463 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6586867 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6586867
- tdicola 13y ago
  Any tips for actually getting a Show HN post on HN? I've posted a few things but been frustrated to see them immediately fall out of the new page with only a couple votes.
  - blhack 13y ago
    Make something genuinely cool.
  - gedrap 13y ago
    In order to make homepage, the post should have a catchy title, and be relevant to audience. I checked your Show HN posts. The Seattle film festival one is probably not very relevant, if it doesn't get ~10 upvotes in the first ~1.5hr, it will be gone. Wifi-dynamo-thermometer looks better, just a better title would do :)
  - elwell 13y ago
    Not that I do this, but upvote your post with like 10 upvotes in the first 10 minutes. You'll have to use different proxies to mask your IP. Keep in mind that this is pathological behavior for the community though.
    - gkoberger 13y ago
      This is shitty advice. It gets you to the front page, sure -- but something that isn't interesting still won't be interesting no matter how many votes. There's a secret to getting your Show HN to the front page: make something genuinely interesting. Do it, and it's dead simple to get on the front page.
breischl 13y ago
For people who are already doing part-time dev work, do you find that people are curious and/or suspicious about why you're doing it part time? ie, "If you're actually good at this, why aren't you a full time employee or consultant?"
- threepipeproblm 13y ago
  My personal theory is that if people don't work precisely 40 hours a weak, Suck Rays from the magnetosphere begin to interfere with performance.
- scotty79 13y ago
  Funny thing is when I'm getting really crappy as a freelancer I cave in and accept some fulltime job offer. So it's the other way around. If you are that awesome then why are you working 9 to 5? It's easy and pays well, that's why.
- breischl 13y ago
  Apparently you guys took this the wrong way. I don't personally hold the view that part-timers aren't as good. I'm planning to be one at some point, hence the question. My intended emphasis was on the full-time vs. part-time point.

217 points by wasd 13y ago

I do about 350-500 hours per year of freelance work ($100 per hour usually) in addition to normal full-time job. It is all through people I've worked with in the past who contacted me. If you have previous employers or co-workers, maybe ask if they have any extra work or side projects they need completed.

rileytg 13y ago

email us at jobs@fcflamingo.com

dested 13y ago
Are you a recruiting agency? You dont even know what stack the developer uses...
- blhack 13y ago
  They're a "design, development, and consulting agency based in LA and NYC. We're young, dynamic, and take on lots of cool projects." http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Fc-Flamingo http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Fc-Flamingo

perplexes 13y ago

Part-time is easy to come by when you're doing consulting work, since you can work out the requisite hours with your clients. I did full-time remote consulting for about 5 years, dropped to part-time consulting for a year to concentrate on music. Finding a client that we could be flexible on hours with was difficult, though. Many clients are tied to the ass-in-chair time cycle. We eventually found a small company that was made of people who were largely remote and worked really flexible hours themselves. Eventually I found a job in SF that offered full-time and part-time, and you can move between the two. This has been really great since we started a family last August - I took a month off, then came back doing 4-day weeks. If you're in SF, we're hiring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6477194 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6477194

wasd 13y ago
Hey, I would like to learn more about where you work. I couldn't find your email in your profile.

startupstella 13y ago

If you have a good online portfolio (a site showing what skills you have, what projects you've done, and your personality) as well as good client facing skills, check out matchist. We built it to help awesome freelance web and mobile devs (in the US only currently) find curated projects.

fennecfoxen 13y ago

1. Get full time job at IBM. 2. Prove your worth. 3. Move to part time. Honestly, I'm really glad I don't work at IBM. But when I did work there on an internship, I noticed part-time people who seemed relatively respected and secure in their positions. I haven't seen that very much since.

iends 13y ago
I'm not sure this would work very well lately. IBM had a series of layoffs and are chasing short term shareholder value.
vinceguidry 13y ago
s/IBM/Any big name company with name recognition/g I worked for Panasonic for a few months, the job sucked ass, but my title of Test Engineer and a quick explanation of what my responsibilities were is solid gold. I jumped at the chance to be able to put them on my resume and I'm glad I did.

thebouv 13y ago

I suggest looking for local hackathons or even better, startup weekends near you. http://startupweekend.org/ http://startupweekend.org/ Startup Weekend is a great way to meet connections while helping them build a fun project for the weekend. Show them you are a badass talent. You'll get noticed.

gedrap 13y ago

I am making my living doing part-time coding (still doing my degree) for the last 2 years, was unemployed for only about 3 months. I am doing PHP and AngularJS. It's really all about the people you know. I got the best gigs just by asking people (normally other developers) I know if they know someone who needs a developer. So, yes, it's all about networking but not the numbers but quality of connection. No one, who talked to you for 10mins, will vouch for you, really. I've tried elance a bit, and getting the first gig there looks like a game of numbers. If you apply for many jobs, sooner or later you will get one... But checking new postings, writing decent cover letter is time and mental energy consuming. I gave up there. I don't know, maybe it's worth the hassle getting the first one. If you try to make a living doing part time, the key is 1) high enough pay rate 2) be strict about the payments. I used to have a rather low rate and was very trusting (e.g. if the payment is late by 3-4 weeks I still trusted because I 'felt' that he is trustworthy). I ended up in the situation when I didn't have what to eat for a few weeks, while I was getting 'I really made the payment' BS, and 0 motivation and energy to do anything. But now I am happy that it happened, I moved on, and got much much better gigs and 1.5-2 times higher pay rate and payments always on time :) AMA!

ianBlumenfeld 13y ago

1) Start with craigslist. Lots of ads for people/companies looking for contract devs. Be cheap if you're not experienced/awesome yet. 2) Do a good job, so your references are good. 3) Build your network. Once you have that rolling, you'll never go dry.

ianBlumenfeld 13y ago

espeed 13y ago

Become active in developer communities, create and contribute to open-source projects on GitHub, and people will contact you. Companies like Toptal (http://www.toptal.com http://www.toptal.com) mine GitHub and online developer communities looking for talent.

USNetizen 13y ago

You know PHP? I'm hiring part time. Can be 100% remote if in the US. I know other people looking for P/T devs all the time for mostly one-off client projects.

pasok 13y ago
Neither the owner of this thread, nor do I reside in US. But, wanted to check if there is a way you (or) people you know can consider a php dev outside US.
ciclista 13y ago
Not OP, but actually looking for something in the 20-25 hours a week range. Plenty of PHP experience, do you have some more details and a contact address? (my email is in my profile).

Moto7451 13y ago

I've picked up side gigs from Hackathons. Typically if you win you'll get a few business cards that can turn into leads. Sometimes your teammates hire you for their own projects.

notastartup 13y ago

I find it impossible to find freelance work when everyone thinks that it's like building a chair, except the chair sometimes turn into tables and it's still called a chair, and refuse to pay for a table because it's still a chair in their mind. Few options remain for folks like me except to build our own SaaS products or software and hope it pays rent.

notastartup 13y ago

1) How do you guys find contract work? 2) How do you actually write up the contract and have them sign it? Is there an open service which does this? 3) How much up front do you charge? 33%? 50%?

breathesalt 13y ago

One trick is to start full-time and as soon as you become indispensable to the company ask to go part-time.

TempleOSV2 13y ago

Nothing matters until God reveals Himself. It's done, by the way. God says... do_I_have_to are_you_insane Dudly_Doright I'm_feeling_nice_today is_it_just_me_or eh basket_case Jesus on_occassion exorbitant China let's_roll Vegas oops arrogant incredibly the dignity be_happy IMHO umm it_was_nothing exorbitant look_buddy baffling hooah not_good ouch Okilydokily piety taxes genius oil not_a_chance_in_hell not_the_sharpest_knife_in_the_drawer honestly don't_even_think_about_it fool kludge just_between_us anger spunky end praise delicious

leknarf 13y ago

First, talk to people looking for developers. That part is fairly easy: just about any networking event in NYC has a dozens of people looking for devs. I don't know where you're located, but the same is probably true for your area. Once you're talking, convince them that working with you will be easier/quicker/more-effective than working with anyone else. That's the hard part, which definitely requires some practice. Pro-tip: don't try to convince anyone that you'll be the cheapest option, which is almost always a losing game to play. If you prefer, I'd be happy to do the hard work for you. I run a startup that connects senior freelance developers with high-paying companies: http://getlambda.com http://getlambda.com.

eevilspock 13y ago
Do you have companies that focus on social good, or at least avoid things that are socially bad (e.g. advertising)?
- _delirium 13y ago
  Which category of companies do you think are more likely to be willing and able to pay >$100/hr? :)
- iends 13y ago
  Why do you think advertising is socially bad? There are many products I would not have discovered without advertising.
  - jtheory 13y ago
    It runs the gamut, of course -- someone's out there building an awesome campaign to advertise a blood drive, right now. But most advertising basically using psychological tricks to push you to want & buy all kinds of stuff that really make a negligible difference in your quality of life, if they add anything at all. Worse, the best way to convince you that you need X is to convince you that you have an X-shaped hole in your life. That desirable mates are looking for a [your gender] with X. That your neighbors/friends/colleagues/rivals have X, better X, newer X, etc. and are wondering about you. It's not real, and it's actively harmful -- we find happiness/contentment by being self-aware, by learning what things really matter to us, and finding ways to focus on & improve those parts of our lives; this most commonly doesn't involve buying anything at all -- often it involves getting rid of a lot of stuff and leading a simpler life. But who has time for clear thought and introspection, nowadays? By default advertisers want you distracted and discontented, your thoughts teeming with desires and urges, racing along on the hedonic treadmill....

gwjp 13y ago

Can you do C#?

SecretAgentWorm 13y ago
If you're starting a pool of candidates, throw me in. I would really love to continue doing C# development on the side.
sosuke 13y ago
Of course! Though I hope you want Windows Store apps, I've been wanting to build another one.
pc86 13y ago
If OP can't, I can :) My contact information is available in my profile if you're looking.
- majc2 13y ago
  Me too - contact info in profile.
wasd 13y ago
Sorry, I'm a java/ruby/js developer. I can learn fast and would be happy to become .net/c# though.

johnrob 13y ago

The first thing to check is whether your former employer has a need for part time. Both parties are validated, and there is little to no ramp up needed. The next I'd look at is mobile development. Now that there are multiple platforms to support (iOS/Android/WinMo), the demand for part time specialists is huge. There are a lot of companies that support a subset of those platforms but would like to add more (if they only had the expertise).

woah 13y ago

Best way is to get a full time job that you really enjoy. After months of drought, the offers for high-payed consulting work (that you can't take) will suddenly flow in.

zabraxias 13y ago
Oh so true.
thebouv 13y ago
Too damn true, this. Always come in when you're too busy as well. :\
jaredgeorge 13y ago
I told my wife this past October that I'd stop taking side work by November and get our hard wood floors installed. It's now January and my clients are continually agreeing to more and more absurd hourly rates, making it impossible to stop.
- rythie 13y ago
  If your rate is higher than the cost of a flooring contractor, why not just hire one?

acheron 13y ago

Depends what you mean, I guess. I am "normally" employed with one company, not a freelancer, but I work "part-time", i.e. 30 hours/week. Getting that type of gig is likely different from getting the freelance/consultant type work. (For what it's worth, the way I got mine was that I was hired for full-time/40 hours, did that for about nine months, then went to the manager and said "hey, how about I only work 30 hours?" and he said "ok".)

wasd 13y ago
Your situation is exactly what I'm looking for. Being hired by a company but only working part time. Consulting is difficult (for me) because it is a huge time investment.
- acheron 13y ago
  To fill my experience out a bit more, it wasn't something I was planning to do when I got hired. From a personal standpoint, I had a kid, and my wife got a higher-paying job so my salary became less important. From an office standpoint, there were a couple people already doing a similar schedule (I do three 10-hour days T-W-Th), so I wasn't going completely out on a limb. It really did fall into place pretty easily. (I work for a very large company which HN would probably scoff at, plus I work with very uncool things like Java and Oracle.) My situation has me fall in-between for a lot of HR things -- my pay has always been given in terms of a yearly salary, and usually as what it would be if I were full time. I just get 3/4ths of it. And I'm technically paid hourly, which helps keep any requests to come in on my days off to a minimum, since they actually have to pay me for it. I accrue 3/4ths of normal vacation time, but I still get all the other standard benefits. And I get to spend two extra days a week with my now two children. Really the only "bad" thing is that I know it'd be difficult to get into this situation again, so if my job stagnates, it would be hard to go out and try to find a new job, unless I am ready to go back full-time.
  - jtheory 13y ago
    We have a few people working for us with similar deals -- e.g., people have kids and switch to reduced hours (this is a pretty good reason!).... We have one dev who is a theatre director for a few months every year; he lets us know well in advance when he's going to disappear for a while, and is available via email to offer advice on urgent issues. I'd have imagined this would be more common with small & flexible companies; kudos to you for sorting out an alternative setup in a big one! I imagine HR in large companies normally pushes back against any situation that will go outside their normal flow.

drewcrawford 13y ago

At present I derive all my income from part-time work and side projects. The first thing is to figure out what not to do. You can't work in a field where people routinely hire full-time employees with ease. So you can't do Java work part-time, for example. (Well I mean you can, but it's like saying you can be elected to Congress. Let's do something easy.) So, you have to start in some field where 9-5ers can't be easily found to fill the position. iOS/Android dev are like that. Maybe there are web specialities that are like that. If you have some deep expertise like machine learning or computer vision or graph algorithms, maybe those specialties are like that. But the operative criteria is to find some field that full-time employees are not easily had. The next step is to filter by projects where time is not the biggest criteria. Because in spite of Fred Brooks and his MMM, ordinary people still believe that if you work more hours the project will get done faster, and will pressure you to become full-time. So you have to find people who are unconcerned about delivery dates, or rather, who have overriding concerns. Quality concerns. Cost concerns. If you find someone who has a fixed budget for his project, for example, if that person can get a better developer at 20 hours/week than he can at 40 hours that starts to look like an attractive value proposition. Because not only does he get a better developer, but with a lower burn rate it's easier for him to get deep visibility into where the money and time is actually going. Those benefits outweigh the benefits of completing the project faster, but only for projects that have these sorts of overriding concerns. There's more you can do, but those two steps are probably all you need to start consistently landing part-time gigs. It's worth pointing out as well, there are a variety of near-part-time deal structures you can negotiate (for example rotating 1 week on, 1 week off). These might be worth exploring depending on your specific motivations for seeking part-time work.

bigtunacan 13y ago
drew here has it right. While it is possible to find money on side projects in more mainstream technologies like Java or .NET; it is easier in specialized fields. Depending on where you are targeting geographically those technologies vary a lot; I personally have seen a lot of demand for iOS/Android, but even more demand for Ruby on Rails. I think that quite a few Ruby on Rails developers left the community and flocked to Node.js as the next shiny thing and that has just made it easier to find Rails contract work. Not only is it easier to find work in a less mainstream technology, but you are able to negotiate better rates since it is more difficult for businesses to locate help. After a certain point you can't scale by taking on additional hours; so your hourly rate makes a big difference. And hourly vs fixed rate contracting should be considered. I will negotiate my hourly rate based on term of contract, but under no circumstances will I take fixed rate contracts any longer. Quite a few of my friends in the contracting scene are the same way. I've seen too many times where this just leads to continual "feature creep" and a strong difference in opinions of if scope of work has been expanded beyond the agreed contract (in all cases it was). I bid a fixed rate contract with a couple of associates against my better judgement. Based on the initial scope of work it should have taken about 3 months. Instead it took over a year and the lead developer on the project walked away making a rate of right around $10/hour. And this point can not be overstated. Network! Network! Network! If you are an introvert you are going to have to get over it. It doesn't matter if you have the raw programming skills of Linus Torvalds or John Carmack; if you can't get out there and make connections you aren't going to make any money. I am very introverted by nature, but I force myself to regularly attend meetups and conferences; and make a point to connect with new people at those conferences. You need to grow your real social graph; not your Facebook/LinkedIn/etc... Nothing makes the same lasting impression as a firm handshake and 5 minutes of conversation face to face.

deeteecee 13y ago

i think it's kind of hard to find specific people targeting part-time developers for a long period of time. they normally want contractors/free-lancers to help out on the project and then they'll cut you out. I just randomly found one on elance out of nowhere. all i did was post that i did django web-dev for a year and bam, client received. I'm learning a lot though...like... what requirements to set for myself before I agree with the client.

jorgem 13y ago

December/January are always the toughest month for me. Lots of companies are still working out their annual budget. I usually just go on vacation.

ritchiea 13y ago

I have had some luck finding part time work over the HN monthly freelance thread and through developer email lists (NYC.rb specifically). In the case of the email list it was as easy as sending an email to the list describing myself and my past experience and saying I was looking for part time work. A handful of people reached out to me.

psycr 13y ago
Do you mean the regular meetup.com mailing list for NYC.rb or something else?
- ritchiea 13y ago
  The regular meetup.com mailing list for NYC.rb
dougk16 13y ago
If you have a minute, could you go into a little more detail about finding developer e-mail lists? Not sure what you mean here. Thanks!
- ritchiea 13y ago
  Looking through my email now it looks like most of the lists I'm subscribed to are through meetups on meetup.com. I'm a member of a number of meetups that are related to technology I use (e.g. Ruby, Javascript), or topics I'm interested in (e.g. data journalism, I'm a member of Hacks & Hackers). I receive either the emails in real time or as a daily digest. I have only turned to those lists once looking for work and it was a big success.

stratigos 13y ago

diddnt know such gigs existed

gkoberger 13y ago

I've found it's almost impossible to find good work using cold calls or responding to ads. Try to find people you know. Getting the first job is the hardest, but if you do a good job -- the referrals will start to roll in. This has been inadvertent, however I've also gotten a lot of work through various projects[1][2] I've done that have gotten big on HN. Write it off mentally as a marketing expense, and spend a few days making something awesome. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5395463 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5395463 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6586867 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6586867

tdicola 13y ago
Any tips for actually getting a Show HN post on HN? I've posted a few things but been frustrated to see them immediately fall out of the new page with only a couple votes.
- blhack 13y ago
  Make something genuinely cool.
- gedrap 13y ago
  In order to make homepage, the post should have a catchy title, and be relevant to audience. I checked your Show HN posts. The Seattle film festival one is probably not very relevant, if it doesn't get ~10 upvotes in the first ~1.5hr, it will be gone. Wifi-dynamo-thermometer looks better, just a better title would do :)
- elwell 13y ago
  Not that I do this, but upvote your post with like 10 upvotes in the first 10 minutes. You'll have to use different proxies to mask your IP. Keep in mind that this is pathological behavior for the community though.
  - gkoberger 13y ago
    This is shitty advice. It gets you to the front page, sure -- but something that isn't interesting still won't be interesting no matter how many votes. There's a secret to getting your Show HN to the front page: make something genuinely interesting. Do it, and it's dead simple to get on the front page.

breischl 13y ago

For people who are already doing part-time dev work, do you find that people are curious and/or suspicious about why you're doing it part time? ie, "If you're actually good at this, why aren't you a full time employee or consultant?"

threepipeproblm 13y ago
My personal theory is that if people don't work precisely 40 hours a weak, Suck Rays from the magnetosphere begin to interfere with performance.
scotty79 13y ago
Funny thing is when I'm getting really crappy as a freelancer I cave in and accept some fulltime job offer. So it's the other way around. If you are that awesome then why are you working 9 to 5? It's easy and pays well, that's why.
breischl 13y ago
Apparently you guys took this the wrong way. I don't personally hold the view that part-timers aren't as good. I'm planning to be one at some point, hence the question. My intended emphasis was on the full-time vs. part-time point.