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College student in search of freelancing advice

9 points by chrisshroba 12y ago

First off, I'm asking HN for advice, not for a job. I'm a college student and I would love to get into the freelancing market for web development but I'm not really sure how/ where to start. I'm confident in my backend skills and am familiar with a number of languages and frameworks, and I'm always trying to learn more. So where can I look for opportunities to put my skills to use for pay? I spend free time working on several personal side projects but I think it would be fun to try and sell myself a little and take on a project for someone else. Any suggestions? Thanks!!

theunamedguy 12y ago
Open-source is a great place to start, and (I'd think) looks great on a resume.
bnb 12y ago
As theunamedguy said, open-source is pretty cool. If you contribute in a significant way to a couple major projects (programming languages, like Python or Ruby, major platforms like Rails, Sinatra, Node, io.js, major libraries like Underscore.js, Angular, Ember, etc.) that will look really good on your resume. Also, if you keep hacking away at side projects until you get a few successful ones under your belt (like tiny libraries, for animation, forms, markup, the command line, etc.) that will also show that you're competent and know your stuff. Just wanted to say: Fellow college student here. I'm still working on getting the first real foundation of programming down, but I think we're in a pretty good spot.
fsk 12y ago
There always are non-technical cofounders looking for a gullible programmer to implement their stupid idea for equity-only. Take a couple of those and then work your way up into paying jobs. You also could try getting an internship at an established company.
brudgers 12y ago
The necessary condition for a free lance project is connecting with someone with work. They still have to agree to pay though, so it's not a sufficient condition. Really successful free lancers are called consultants. They have a long list of prospects, leads, and clients [current and past]. If this sounds like sales to you, you're correct. If it doesn't sound like fun, it will be difficult to sustain a free lance business because you will be down to just falling into projects by dumb luck. Good luck.
siscia 12y ago
I am looking for developers like you ;) You should be able to see my email in my profile, why you don't drop me a line so we can talk.

9 points by chrisshroba 12y ago

theunamedguy 12y ago

Open-source is a great place to start, and (I'd think) looks great on a resume.

bnb 12y ago

As theunamedguy said, open-source is pretty cool. If you contribute in a significant way to a couple major projects (programming languages, like Python or Ruby, major platforms like Rails, Sinatra, Node, io.js, major libraries like Underscore.js, Angular, Ember, etc.) that will look really good on your resume. Also, if you keep hacking away at side projects until you get a few successful ones under your belt (like tiny libraries, for animation, forms, markup, the command line, etc.) that will also show that you're competent and know your stuff. Just wanted to say: Fellow college student here. I'm still working on getting the first real foundation of programming down, but I think we're in a pretty good spot.

fsk 12y ago

There always are non-technical cofounders looking for a gullible programmer to implement their stupid idea for equity-only. Take a couple of those and then work your way up into paying jobs. You also could try getting an internship at an established company.

brudgers 12y ago

The necessary condition for a free lance project is connecting with someone with work. They still have to agree to pay though, so it's not a sufficient condition. Really successful free lancers are called consultants. They have a long list of prospects, leads, and clients [current and past]. If this sounds like sales to you, you're correct. If it doesn't sound like fun, it will be difficult to sustain a free lance business because you will be down to just falling into projects by dumb luck. Good luck.

siscia 12y ago

I am looking for developers like you ;) You should be able to see my email in my profile, why you don't drop me a line so we can talk.