7 ms·

Ask HN: How do I get my first contracting client?

142 points by haack 11y ago

I want to do some contracting the next few months but I'll be honest, I have no idea how to go about starting. How do people find their first client?

peteretep 11y ago
I'm guessing you mean freelancing; why don't you give a little more detail on exactly what you can do? I suspect generalized advice will be less useful to you than specific advice.
- haack 11y ago
  I'm graduating in CS so I've had a bit of experience across the board. I particularly want to do web development with Angular and Node. I've done internships and projects but I'd still need to do a fair bit of learning on the job.
  - afandian 11y ago
    If you're new to the market I'd advise working for an agency for a bit first so you get to know your way around.
  - scalesolved 11y ago
    I wouldn't suggest diving into contracting straight away then, if you can find a good perm job with a great team to learn from and mentor you would reap dividends in your future career. Then with a couple of years under your belt you'll be able to pick and work with much better clients and command better rates. It's tempting to see the contracting rates and just think of the $$ but a lot of the time it'll be cleaning up awful codebases.
    - haack 11y ago
      I'm starting a job in September (in SF!), this is just so that I have a bit of money to do a cool tech project with my mini-moto. Thanks though! Any idea what rate I can charge as a masters graduate?
      - mtbcoder 11y ago
        Rates will vary depending on the technical abilities needed for the project, the client's budget as well as the contractor's experience, location, etc. In SF, going rates will be higher than the rates of someone in Iowa, however, I certainly wouldn't set a rate lower than $75 anywhere in the US, no matter how trivial the job is.
usermac 11y ago
There are 2 ways to do it: 1) Cold call on the phone or in-person. I did this for 9 month back in the day before I got my first client. It was uncomfortable for me as a young man but necessary. 2) Steal them. You probably hear this in lore of people leaving a company and then working for that company as a consultant. Not exactly. What I did was tell those clients while I was working for the man that I could do the work as "extra" work. It worked also. I know, I know, it's not ethical but there is a saying in China "the first pan of gold is dirty". So end-the-end both methods worked for me. My clients came, some much later that I wanted but came. It took months and some worked in 2-year cycles and and would not use me again for 2 years but they'd come back. Good luck to you. It gets easier after the first few. They wind up referring you to new clients. That part is great.
awjr 11y ago
1) Create 1 page CV, add extra pages for detailed work history. 2) Submit to jobsites knowing rates you should get. 3) Wait about 2 hours. Pick up phone. -- Agent will identify you are 'new' and will try and offer lower rates. -- Ensure Agent only submits CV to companies you agree. 4) Go to interviews 5) Accept job. Register company and bank account. 6) Accept agent is making money off you but pays you almost immediately. 7) Profit If you are looking for more freelance work, then I suggest you attend various meetups and tech events and get your name out there. I would also strongly suggest you consider using elance to 'farm out' work that you could do yourself at a cheaper rate and then you can 'audit' the work. Never farm out work you could not have completed yourself. You will get let down. You will have to get your hands dirty.
- mattmanser 11y ago
  It might work like that in the bay area, but in most cities and countries across the world it definitely does not.
comrade1 11y ago
Hit the virtual pavement. When I decided to take on a new consulting client I researched the local businesses and created a list of around 10 that could potentially need programming work and matched my area of programming background. I then did email contacts to arrange an in-person meeting. (face-to-face is very important) I was lucky and found a small company (just two guys) right away that were changing their focus from print/radio/tv healthcare messaging to internet and mobile. It started out as a normal hourly rate, but I eventually negotiated to a revenue sharing model and then later I negotiated to own 13% of the company + revenue sharing. This happened over the course of about 10 years and it's still going strong. (I started with my high normal consulting rate and then later cut that in half as part of the revenue sharing agreement, then much later when I took ownership of the company I now no longer charge hourly and am paid entirely through the revenue sharing) I've also used other people I've worked with in the past to help me in my consulting projects. So if you have friends or professional contacts that you've worked well with in the past it works to contact them. Word of mouth goes a long way in this business. And I've also met potential clients at local meet ups, but those have yet to pan out but I think if I really pushed it I could get some work out of them. Also, if you have a tech incubator in your area try to meet up with the startups in the incubator. I've done that in two cities (one in CA, one in Europe) and it's worked well. Also, be aware of scummy people and any decisions that you make that can affect your future career. I lived near the 'other' valley where most porn is produced and received unsolicited contacts from small porn companies. I didn't take on any of those projects which is good because later I did consulting in Defense and NSA projects and also worked for a major San Jose based tech company for a couple of years.
- getsat 11y ago
  >which is good because later I did consulting in Defense and NSA projects If you work in the adult film industry, you can't work for the government/get security clearances?
  - caw 11y ago
    I'd like to say that means performers but I'm sure it's intentionally vague in the document -- security clearance applications are big on screening for potential things that you could be blackmailed or bribed for. Extensive debt, gambling, and drug use are all on the form. http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs/security-clearance-eligibility.html http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs...
wellboy 11y ago
Freelancing is a numbers game. If you're in a city with a good startup ecosystem go to all tech events you can find for two weeks and hand out business cards letting people know what you do. After that you'll have your first client. :) Face to face connections are very strong and it worked really well for me.
cgabios 11y ago
0. Spread time in coffee shops in tech areas, go to conferences snd events 1. Talk to people, be nice, sincere, helpful and polite. Give and get contact info (cards or details). (But don't let them milk you for too many freebies, at some point you need to charge for your time. Be clear and upfront about what you're willing and not willing to give away. Beware the "friend" psuedoclient that wants to pick your brain at all hours, at random without golden-rule consideration.) 2. Follow up and don't forget to follow up
superskierpat 11y ago
Put yourself out there, I got my first contract by mentioning my line of study to clients from my ski instructor job. Then, after befriending the school counsellor, i got the contract I'm on now because he reffered me to a friend of his in a local startup.
ownagefool 11y ago
Which country you in? If it's in the UK, you can pretty much just apply for jobs online. That said, the clients generally want short notice periods.
- neil_s 11y ago
  Where online? Do you use any particular freelance marketplaces, or cold contact companies from their websites, or something else entirely?
  - UK-AL 11y ago
    Normal job sites advertise for Contractors. Many job adverts will explicitly state Contracter.
  - ownagefool 11y ago
    jobserve is where I get my contracts from. Bare in mind contracting is different from freelancing.
ilaksh 11y ago
If you don't mind being relatively poor you can go on upwork (odesk), find a few projects with some kind of spec or a particular technology they want, build 1-5 demos, and you will probably get a gig. Works for me. I am poor but I don't have to go put of the house ever if I don't want to, and there is always plenty of interesting work.
gk1 11y ago
You already got the hard part done: Getting on the front page of HN. Now hurry and add more details about yourself in this thread and/or in your profile. There's a good chance someone reading this could use your help; help them get in touch with you. (One of my first contracts came as a result of an HN thread, and because I have my contact info in my profile.)
- haack 11y ago
  As much as I think it's a good idea, I try my best to not be that "self advertising guy". I mean, I would never just post this link to my CV to get everyone to look at it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byk8zRX0L3yPYzMtQW1oMDBTcms/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byk8zRX0L3yPYzMtQW1oMDBTcms...
  - viraptor 11y ago
    That's one sexy CV! Looks really good. I mean graphicaly.
  - gedrap 11y ago
    That's a nice looking CV! :) 2 things I'd change layout wise: remove your home address. It's probably not a great idea to share it with the world. Also, job title in bold, company in blue and the description in regular text, I just find it hard to focus on reading it. Maybe make the company name regular or both bold?
  - mschoebel 11y ago
    Never call yourself a hacker. To non-tech people "hacker" has the meaning of "illegally hacks into computers".
    - EStudley 11y ago
      True, but if he's looking for contracting work hopefully his CV will be in the hands of an engineer rather than a hiring manager/HR.
rch 11y ago
Back in the early 2000s I would just sit down in a coffee shop with a small laptop (about the size of a modern Air). Every other person would ask about it, so I'd mention how it well it ran visual studio (true); the conversation often turned to work. These days I'd probably post on the freelancer HN page and look around on Craigslist... I actually ended up as a subcontractor to NASA writing code to contribute to an Eclipse project via Craigslist last year (YMMV).
jorgeleo 11y ago
If I had to put it in one phrase: work on making your fame preceed you Make some of your work public, have your blog Network between people, assuming you are in the us, make yourself member of the chamber of commerce of your area, participate not only in tech forums, but in business forums too. Be nice, be competent, be helpful, all this publically. Clients are a side effect of this
jamessun 11y ago
With apologies to Glengarry Glen Ross (a must see movie, BTW)... Always Be Networking Good luck!
linuxydave 11y ago
What city are you in? It really depends on your location. For example, I'm in London and when I started contracting I simply uploaded my CV to a job site and my phone exploded with calls from recruiters because the demand for contractors here is so high.
- haack 11y ago
  Currently Warwick Uni, I'll be moving back to London though. Any chance you can share what site it was on?
  - linuxydave 11y ago
    http://www.jobsite.co.uk/ http://www.jobsite.co.uk/ Are you focusing on dev or ops? Don't really know how in-demand devs are right now but sysadmin/devops guys (esp with cloud and automation experience) are. If you want to go the contracting route then the contracts are on-site so you aren't competing with people in India, etc. Also, if you go through a recruiter (highly recommended) then by law you'll have to join an umbrella company or start your own limited company (not a sole proprietary)
- neil_s 11y ago
  Which site lead to most high-quality leads? The most common freelancing sites just seem like a race to the bottom, competing only on price with developers in developing countries (heh)
  - linuxydave 11y ago
    For me it's http://www.jobsite.co.uk http://www.jobsite.co.uk. The contracts are onsite, normally 3-6 months, sometimes rolling. Devs are popular with digital media agencies because the projects are short term. However, I don't know how in-demand devs are. Sysadmins/devops with automation and cloud experience are though. If you use a recruiter then under UK law you have to sign up with an umbrella agency or run your own limited company as they aren't allowed to work with sole proprietors.
UK-AL 11y ago
In the UK most contracting jobs are advertised along with normal jobs.
jackgavigan 11y ago
jobserve.com or eLance-oDesk
- majc2 11y ago
  First one is good, I'd avoid the second suggestion.
  - genystartup 11y ago
    Have you had a poor experience with Elance or something? Just curious, since I've used it twice before and plan on using again shortly.
moron4hire 11y ago
Don't get stuck in a rut of trying to find work in the same ways all the time. Internet job boards are enticing because they are easy, but they are really low-value; it typically takes a lot of repeated effort to even get contacts out of them. Networking in person--by attending meetups and conferences in your potential customers' market (don't waste your time on tech meetups if you're just looking for work)--is slower and emotionally harder, but has a much, much higher yield. It takes effort either way. I personally like the in person approach. I feel I do better in person than on paper. People get to see my enthusiasm, whereas trying to write enthusiasm into things often comes off as just fake. Go to where your customers are. My wife has given up advertising her sci-fi novel online. We now go to book fairs. Bam--pre-filtered group of customers looking to buy now. I don't advertise my services online anymore, I now stick to meeting people at conferences. Best set of contacts I got from a conference was one at which I had spoke on a discussion panel. Spend the small amount of money on a booth. Setup a few demos of your work. It's a lot easier than you think, and it doesn't have to be perfect; some people like the "I'm just starting out and don't know much about these booth things yet" story. I've never gotten anything but run-around and bad deals out of recruiters.
aidos 11y ago
Hmmm - I read in one of your comments that you're just graduating. Does that mean you haven't done any industry coding work? If so, I'm not sure that it's a great idea to jump straight into contracting. You learn a lot in the first year or two on a job. Looking at it from a hiring position I would never take on an inexperienced dev on a contract (no offence, you may be great). Junior positions are like an apprenticeship; you know you're sinking time into someone but are hoping that over time they'll start providing value. Contractors are generally expected to have experience and, accordingly, they cost more. If you've spent a bit of time at a job (2 years is a fairly normal time to leave) there are a couple of tricks you could try that worked for me. A) Tell them you're leaving but you're available for contract work. You're a known quantity, you know their systems/products and can work efficiently when they need the extra resources. They will send you work (and some will just take you back on a contract straight away - that's how I started contracting). B) If you've worked at an agency, ask to take some of their clients. It might sound insane, but every agency has clients they don't really want. Small clients that have been around for a while that they still need to service. That work is just unprofitable noise as an agency grows bigger. As a one-man-band it's perfect. The client is used to paying agency rates and with you they get personal service from the person who was doing their dev work anyway. I have clients from this arrangement that have been amazing. Hope that helps in some small way.
- k__ 11y ago
  This. I only did it because I worked as a developer on the side for the 4 years of my CS studies.
- stevelaz 11y ago
  I can't agree more with this! I followed option A in my career. I quit, went back to school to finish my degree and worked part time as a contractor for enough money to maintain my mortgage while in school. Anyway, it is very important to learn to work closely with a team. It is also VERY important that you work with people that are SMARTER than you. IMHO, this is the best way to get proper mentor-ship and motivation to learn. I personally try to surround myself with people that are smarter than me. Once you think that you know "everything" or that you're the smartest person in the room, it's time to change jobs. Because: A) People won't like working with you B) You'll stop learning new things since you already know everything. update: spacing edits...
PeterWhittaker 11y ago
We came to this point with different backgrounds (you, a recent graduate; me, 13 years of industry experience with a specific knowledge area that was in some demand), so take this with a grain of salt or two. 1. Hustle. Network. Cold call. However you want to describe it. Reach out to your friends and acquaintances, tell them quickly and succinctly what you want to do. 2 (this should perhaps be 0). Pick something. You are young and can afford to pick the wrong or less optimal thing, but pick something you must: If you don't, no one will know what you do, no one will want you. 3. When you talk to people, always get something. Best case, a job offer. Worst case, the phone number for someone they know who might have a job offer. 4. Call, introduce yourself briefly, explain how you got their number, ask if you can meet face to face. If they say no, ask for someone else's phone number ("I understand, thanks for your time. Do you know of anyone else who might need this kind of work?" or words to that effect). 5. Meet. Let people get to know you. Force nothing. Get comfortable with this stage, it is key, vital, fundamental to freelancing, contracting. 6. Always get something, a name, a number, another meeting. Bears repeating. 7. As you do this, you will notice trends and patterns, subjects areas or people who come up again and again. Pay attention to this. 8. Based on #7, your best informed guesses, and your gut, narrow that list of people or subjects down to 1 or 2. 9. Roll the dice on those. Pursue them with your every waking moment. A. When you have a job, spend part of looking for the next one - but temper your forwardness, your obviousness about this to the culture in which you work. Some will think nothing of this, find it perfectly normal; others will want discretion. Pay attention to this. Alternatively, look at job ads, find one that interests you, start the interview process, and "hedge" as you get closer: "It's an interesting position, but I don't think it is what I am looking for long term. Would you consider hiring on a contract basis?" ADDED: You are under no obligation to reveal everything. Be friendly, be collegial, but be professional. Get good at answering with non-specific sentences: "What are your career goals?" "Long term, my interests are in X, Y, and Z. Short term, I want to work independently to gain first hand business experience." Say it with conviction, that will close avenues of questioning. I write this because some will attempt to derail you, try to slot you into their boxes. You have to be firm but polite about staying on your own path.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  Part II: do a very good job, which means taking the problem off their hands and solving it completely. Folks contract out work because its a thorn in their side; eliminate the thorn, without becoming one yourself. Then, when they have another thorn, they'll think "That contractor worked great before; lets use them again". Raise your rate 10%. Repeat.
brudgers 11y ago
Suppose you wanted to moonlight as a chimney sweep, what steps might you take? Well there are two contexts. 1. Any chimney might or might not need sweeping. Any random person might or might not have a chimney. This means that just telling the people you meet that you are available as a chimney sweep might result in work. 2. There aren't chimneys in hobo camps. Wealthy people tend to hire trades workers. This means that efforts marketing should be targeted at people who hire chimney sweeps. That's consulting. It's preparing the ground to increase the odds of being lucky enough to find a job and then being saavy enough to land it and capable enough to complete it. Then you're back at square one. Developing a backlog of consulting work takes a really long time, a track record, and more luck. The image of "picking up" consulting gigs is not helpful. It's picks and hammers and salt mines and most of the veins you hit when you are lucky enough to hit one, run dry quickly. Any consultant who hits the mother load was lucky and probably built the mother load theirself. The easiest way to get started in consulting is to work for another consultant. The industry is famous for hiring free-lance talent to balance work load. Which hits the final point: There is no planning to do consulting. Until the contract is signed there is no consulting to be done. Even after the contract is signed, there often is no consulting to be done, or less consulting than the contract might suggest or less payment than one might be entitled to. There aren't people just standing around waiting to hire consultants. It's sales with the leads and prospects and closings and collections that come with that process. Good luck.
damoncali 11y ago
Build something that looks nice so you can show people. Use a good theme or pay a designer. It's more important that it looks nice than that it works well. Then start going to networking events for entrepreneurs and meet people - you will get quite a few offers, mostly crappy, to build the next Facebook. Politely say no to these. Eventually, you'll find someone who needs something simple enough that you can deliver it and make him happy. Take this job even if the pay isn't so hot (but do get paid - a portion up front). Ideally, it would be a 6 week-ish project - enough to be significant, but not enough for you or your your client to get in over your heads. Keep doing that until the referrals start to come in. Make sure every single client is happy - contracting is a referral business. If I had a dollar for every client who came to me because their developer flaked out, I wouldn't need work. You can also do this at local small business groups (not the tech entrepreneurs, but the the plumbers, accountants, and store owners) - just go and start introducing yourself. You won't get any cool work like this - mostly just Wordpress sites - but it's easier work to come by, and can pay just as well if you're smart about it. This might even be a better way to start because you get more, smaller, clients who can start your referral network. More clients = more referrals.
thornofmight 11y ago
Hang out on the freenode freelancing channels. I work in Magento. I hung out in #magento, and #magento-jobs, and a few other more general PHP/HTML freelance channels (#startups can help you find channel names for freelancing). I answered questions in #magento for a month or so, got a little bit of rep, then started responding to requests for work. Eventually I got work. Some of it turned into reoccurring work.
throwaway12357 11y ago
For those in the UK do the "attend meets" and "network" advices still apply? Or is it still normal to get a good gig from job descriptions posted online?
erroneousfunk 11y ago
Like other commenters have said, I would recommend waiting for a bit and working in industry to get a feel for how large projects work, and fail. You'll know you're ready when they start coming to you ;)
regisb 11y ago
I can't believe no one has mentioned LinkedIn yet. I have received virtually all my inbound contacts through my LinkedIn profile. Explicitely mention your new status ("consultant"/"freelancer" + your specialty) as your main activity and I can assure you you will get contract offers. They will not be the best in the world, but that will improve with time (and new connections).
wsc981 11y ago
In the Netherlands there's a company that calls itself a "Maatschap" (The Future Group). It's a company that helps freelancers find work. Perhaps such companies exist in your country as well. The "Maatschap" has several sales people that try to find jobs. Jobs are then proposed to "Maten" (freelancers working for the "Maatschap") and the can choose to take the job or not. Of course, the freelancer will pay a certain percentage of his wage to "The Maatschap". Then there are companies like ComputerFutures and Qualogy that provide more or less the same options and I think both companies operate internationally. I've been placed at my current job through ComputerFutures, while still being a freelancer.
ddingus 11y ago
Take a job, get some experience and perspective. While at that job, network with others, compare experiences and think about how you would do things and why that matters and what it's worth. As this happens, you will gain the insight you need to sell your contract services. Then, job scenario permitting, take a contract. Complete it, and take another one, ideally at a better rate, or that is more challenging, or both! Continue to network. If it were me, I would make sure sales people and that process is part of your network. Tech people often don't enjoy sales, and that's perfectly understandable. Do it anyway. Do it because contractors / consultants do much better when they've got a good understanding of the sales process and the "science" behind it. When you approach sales in a technical way, identifying value, helping others to understand it and being able to ask them for the business means more frequent and better gigs. All of that reduces your risk and improves your income. At some point, you will understand how you can make it on your own and then you can leave the job and go do that. ...by "network", I mean meeting people and talking about stuff as well as using the Internet, blog, social media, etc... to establish your personal brand and value.

142 points by haack 11y ago

I want to do some contracting the next few months but I'll be honest, I have no idea how to go about starting. How do people find their first client?

peteretep 11y ago

I'm guessing you mean freelancing; why don't you give a little more detail on exactly what you can do? I suspect generalized advice will be less useful to you than specific advice.

haack 11y ago
I'm graduating in CS so I've had a bit of experience across the board. I particularly want to do web development with Angular and Node. I've done internships and projects but I'd still need to do a fair bit of learning on the job.
- afandian 11y ago
  If you're new to the market I'd advise working for an agency for a bit first so you get to know your way around.
- scalesolved 11y ago
  I wouldn't suggest diving into contracting straight away then, if you can find a good perm job with a great team to learn from and mentor you would reap dividends in your future career. Then with a couple of years under your belt you'll be able to pick and work with much better clients and command better rates. It's tempting to see the contracting rates and just think of the $$ but a lot of the time it'll be cleaning up awful codebases.
  - haack 11y ago
    I'm starting a job in September (in SF!), this is just so that I have a bit of money to do a cool tech project with my mini-moto. Thanks though! Any idea what rate I can charge as a masters graduate?
    - mtbcoder 11y ago
      Rates will vary depending on the technical abilities needed for the project, the client's budget as well as the contractor's experience, location, etc. In SF, going rates will be higher than the rates of someone in Iowa, however, I certainly wouldn't set a rate lower than $75 anywhere in the US, no matter how trivial the job is.

usermac 11y ago

There are 2 ways to do it: 1) Cold call on the phone or in-person. I did this for 9 month back in the day before I got my first client. It was uncomfortable for me as a young man but necessary. 2) Steal them. You probably hear this in lore of people leaving a company and then working for that company as a consultant. Not exactly. What I did was tell those clients while I was working for the man that I could do the work as "extra" work. It worked also. I know, I know, it's not ethical but there is a saying in China "the first pan of gold is dirty". So end-the-end both methods worked for me. My clients came, some much later that I wanted but came. It took months and some worked in 2-year cycles and and would not use me again for 2 years but they'd come back. Good luck to you. It gets easier after the first few. They wind up referring you to new clients. That part is great.

awjr 11y ago

1) Create 1 page CV, add extra pages for detailed work history. 2) Submit to jobsites knowing rates you should get. 3) Wait about 2 hours. Pick up phone. -- Agent will identify you are 'new' and will try and offer lower rates. -- Ensure Agent only submits CV to companies you agree. 4) Go to interviews 5) Accept job. Register company and bank account. 6) Accept agent is making money off you but pays you almost immediately. 7) Profit If you are looking for more freelance work, then I suggest you attend various meetups and tech events and get your name out there. I would also strongly suggest you consider using elance to 'farm out' work that you could do yourself at a cheaper rate and then you can 'audit' the work. Never farm out work you could not have completed yourself. You will get let down. You will have to get your hands dirty.

mattmanser 11y ago
It might work like that in the bay area, but in most cities and countries across the world it definitely does not.

comrade1 11y ago

Hit the virtual pavement. When I decided to take on a new consulting client I researched the local businesses and created a list of around 10 that could potentially need programming work and matched my area of programming background. I then did email contacts to arrange an in-person meeting. (face-to-face is very important) I was lucky and found a small company (just two guys) right away that were changing their focus from print/radio/tv healthcare messaging to internet and mobile. It started out as a normal hourly rate, but I eventually negotiated to a revenue sharing model and then later I negotiated to own 13% of the company + revenue sharing. This happened over the course of about 10 years and it's still going strong. (I started with my high normal consulting rate and then later cut that in half as part of the revenue sharing agreement, then much later when I took ownership of the company I now no longer charge hourly and am paid entirely through the revenue sharing) I've also used other people I've worked with in the past to help me in my consulting projects. So if you have friends or professional contacts that you've worked well with in the past it works to contact them. Word of mouth goes a long way in this business. And I've also met potential clients at local meet ups, but those have yet to pan out but I think if I really pushed it I could get some work out of them. Also, if you have a tech incubator in your area try to meet up with the startups in the incubator. I've done that in two cities (one in CA, one in Europe) and it's worked well. Also, be aware of scummy people and any decisions that you make that can affect your future career. I lived near the 'other' valley where most porn is produced and received unsolicited contacts from small porn companies. I didn't take on any of those projects which is good because later I did consulting in Defense and NSA projects and also worked for a major San Jose based tech company for a couple of years.

getsat 11y ago
>which is good because later I did consulting in Defense and NSA projects If you work in the adult film industry, you can't work for the government/get security clearances?
- caw 11y ago
  I'd like to say that means performers but I'm sure it's intentionally vague in the document -- security clearance applications are big on screening for potential things that you could be blackmailed or bribed for. Extensive debt, gambling, and drug use are all on the form. http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs/security-clearance-eligibility.html http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs...

wellboy 11y ago

Freelancing is a numbers game. If you're in a city with a good startup ecosystem go to all tech events you can find for two weeks and hand out business cards letting people know what you do. After that you'll have your first client. :) Face to face connections are very strong and it worked really well for me.

cgabios 11y ago

0. Spread time in coffee shops in tech areas, go to conferences snd events 1. Talk to people, be nice, sincere, helpful and polite. Give and get contact info (cards or details). (But don't let them milk you for too many freebies, at some point you need to charge for your time. Be clear and upfront about what you're willing and not willing to give away. Beware the "friend" psuedoclient that wants to pick your brain at all hours, at random without golden-rule consideration.) 2. Follow up and don't forget to follow up

superskierpat 11y ago

Put yourself out there, I got my first contract by mentioning my line of study to clients from my ski instructor job. Then, after befriending the school counsellor, i got the contract I'm on now because he reffered me to a friend of his in a local startup.

ownagefool 11y ago

Which country you in? If it's in the UK, you can pretty much just apply for jobs online. That said, the clients generally want short notice periods.

neil_s 11y ago
Where online? Do you use any particular freelance marketplaces, or cold contact companies from their websites, or something else entirely?
- UK-AL 11y ago
  Normal job sites advertise for Contractors. Many job adverts will explicitly state Contracter.
- ownagefool 11y ago
  jobserve is where I get my contracts from. Bare in mind contracting is different from freelancing.

ilaksh 11y ago

If you don't mind being relatively poor you can go on upwork (odesk), find a few projects with some kind of spec or a particular technology they want, build 1-5 demos, and you will probably get a gig. Works for me. I am poor but I don't have to go put of the house ever if I don't want to, and there is always plenty of interesting work.

gk1 11y ago

You already got the hard part done: Getting on the front page of HN. Now hurry and add more details about yourself in this thread and/or in your profile. There's a good chance someone reading this could use your help; help them get in touch with you. (One of my first contracts came as a result of an HN thread, and because I have my contact info in my profile.)

haack 11y ago
As much as I think it's a good idea, I try my best to not be that "self advertising guy". I mean, I would never just post this link to my CV to get everyone to look at it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byk8zRX0L3yPYzMtQW1oMDBTcms/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byk8zRX0L3yPYzMtQW1oMDBTcms...
- viraptor 11y ago
  That's one sexy CV! Looks really good. I mean graphicaly.
- gedrap 11y ago
  That's a nice looking CV! :) 2 things I'd change layout wise: remove your home address. It's probably not a great idea to share it with the world. Also, job title in bold, company in blue and the description in regular text, I just find it hard to focus on reading it. Maybe make the company name regular or both bold?
- mschoebel 11y ago
  Never call yourself a hacker. To non-tech people "hacker" has the meaning of "illegally hacks into computers".
  - EStudley 11y ago
    True, but if he's looking for contracting work hopefully his CV will be in the hands of an engineer rather than a hiring manager/HR.

rch 11y ago

Back in the early 2000s I would just sit down in a coffee shop with a small laptop (about the size of a modern Air). Every other person would ask about it, so I'd mention how it well it ran visual studio (true); the conversation often turned to work. These days I'd probably post on the freelancer HN page and look around on Craigslist... I actually ended up as a subcontractor to NASA writing code to contribute to an Eclipse project via Craigslist last year (YMMV).

jorgeleo 11y ago

If I had to put it in one phrase: work on making your fame preceed you Make some of your work public, have your blog Network between people, assuming you are in the us, make yourself member of the chamber of commerce of your area, participate not only in tech forums, but in business forums too. Be nice, be competent, be helpful, all this publically. Clients are a side effect of this

jamessun 11y ago

With apologies to Glengarry Glen Ross (a must see movie, BTW)... Always Be Networking Good luck!

linuxydave 11y ago

What city are you in? It really depends on your location. For example, I'm in London and when I started contracting I simply uploaded my CV to a job site and my phone exploded with calls from recruiters because the demand for contractors here is so high.

haack 11y ago
Currently Warwick Uni, I'll be moving back to London though. Any chance you can share what site it was on?
- linuxydave 11y ago
  http://www.jobsite.co.uk/ http://www.jobsite.co.uk/ Are you focusing on dev or ops? Don't really know how in-demand devs are right now but sysadmin/devops guys (esp with cloud and automation experience) are. If you want to go the contracting route then the contracts are on-site so you aren't competing with people in India, etc. Also, if you go through a recruiter (highly recommended) then by law you'll have to join an umbrella company or start your own limited company (not a sole proprietary)
neil_s 11y ago
Which site lead to most high-quality leads? The most common freelancing sites just seem like a race to the bottom, competing only on price with developers in developing countries (heh)
- linuxydave 11y ago
  For me it's http://www.jobsite.co.uk http://www.jobsite.co.uk. The contracts are onsite, normally 3-6 months, sometimes rolling. Devs are popular with digital media agencies because the projects are short term. However, I don't know how in-demand devs are. Sysadmins/devops with automation and cloud experience are though. If you use a recruiter then under UK law you have to sign up with an umbrella agency or run your own limited company as they aren't allowed to work with sole proprietors.

UK-AL 11y ago

In the UK most contracting jobs are advertised along with normal jobs.

jackgavigan 11y ago

jobserve.com or eLance-oDesk

majc2 11y ago
First one is good, I'd avoid the second suggestion.
- genystartup 11y ago
  Have you had a poor experience with Elance or something? Just curious, since I've used it twice before and plan on using again shortly.

moron4hire 11y ago

Don't get stuck in a rut of trying to find work in the same ways all the time. Internet job boards are enticing because they are easy, but they are really low-value; it typically takes a lot of repeated effort to even get contacts out of them. Networking in person--by attending meetups and conferences in your potential customers' market (don't waste your time on tech meetups if you're just looking for work)--is slower and emotionally harder, but has a much, much higher yield. It takes effort either way. I personally like the in person approach. I feel I do better in person than on paper. People get to see my enthusiasm, whereas trying to write enthusiasm into things often comes off as just fake. Go to where your customers are. My wife has given up advertising her sci-fi novel online. We now go to book fairs. Bam--pre-filtered group of customers looking to buy now. I don't advertise my services online anymore, I now stick to meeting people at conferences. Best set of contacts I got from a conference was one at which I had spoke on a discussion panel. Spend the small amount of money on a booth. Setup a few demos of your work. It's a lot easier than you think, and it doesn't have to be perfect; some people like the "I'm just starting out and don't know much about these booth things yet" story. I've never gotten anything but run-around and bad deals out of recruiters.

aidos 11y ago

Hmmm - I read in one of your comments that you're just graduating. Does that mean you haven't done any industry coding work? If so, I'm not sure that it's a great idea to jump straight into contracting. You learn a lot in the first year or two on a job. Looking at it from a hiring position I would never take on an inexperienced dev on a contract (no offence, you may be great). Junior positions are like an apprenticeship; you know you're sinking time into someone but are hoping that over time they'll start providing value. Contractors are generally expected to have experience and, accordingly, they cost more. If you've spent a bit of time at a job (2 years is a fairly normal time to leave) there are a couple of tricks you could try that worked for me. A) Tell them you're leaving but you're available for contract work. You're a known quantity, you know their systems/products and can work efficiently when they need the extra resources. They will send you work (and some will just take you back on a contract straight away - that's how I started contracting). B) If you've worked at an agency, ask to take some of their clients. It might sound insane, but every agency has clients they don't really want. Small clients that have been around for a while that they still need to service. That work is just unprofitable noise as an agency grows bigger. As a one-man-band it's perfect. The client is used to paying agency rates and with you they get personal service from the person who was doing their dev work anyway. I have clients from this arrangement that have been amazing. Hope that helps in some small way.

k__ 11y ago
This. I only did it because I worked as a developer on the side for the 4 years of my CS studies.
stevelaz 11y ago
I can't agree more with this! I followed option A in my career. I quit, went back to school to finish my degree and worked part time as a contractor for enough money to maintain my mortgage while in school. Anyway, it is very important to learn to work closely with a team. It is also VERY important that you work with people that are SMARTER than you. IMHO, this is the best way to get proper mentor-ship and motivation to learn. I personally try to surround myself with people that are smarter than me. Once you think that you know "everything" or that you're the smartest person in the room, it's time to change jobs. Because: A) People won't like working with you B) You'll stop learning new things since you already know everything. update: spacing edits...

PeterWhittaker 11y ago

We came to this point with different backgrounds (you, a recent graduate; me, 13 years of industry experience with a specific knowledge area that was in some demand), so take this with a grain of salt or two. 1. Hustle. Network. Cold call. However you want to describe it. Reach out to your friends and acquaintances, tell them quickly and succinctly what you want to do. 2 (this should perhaps be 0). Pick something. You are young and can afford to pick the wrong or less optimal thing, but pick something you must: If you don't, no one will know what you do, no one will want you. 3. When you talk to people, always get something. Best case, a job offer. Worst case, the phone number for someone they know who might have a job offer. 4. Call, introduce yourself briefly, explain how you got their number, ask if you can meet face to face. If they say no, ask for someone else's phone number ("I understand, thanks for your time. Do you know of anyone else who might need this kind of work?" or words to that effect). 5. Meet. Let people get to know you. Force nothing. Get comfortable with this stage, it is key, vital, fundamental to freelancing, contracting. 6. Always get something, a name, a number, another meeting. Bears repeating. 7. As you do this, you will notice trends and patterns, subjects areas or people who come up again and again. Pay attention to this. 8. Based on #7, your best informed guesses, and your gut, narrow that list of people or subjects down to 1 or 2. 9. Roll the dice on those. Pursue them with your every waking moment. A. When you have a job, spend part of looking for the next one - but temper your forwardness, your obviousness about this to the culture in which you work. Some will think nothing of this, find it perfectly normal; others will want discretion. Pay attention to this. Alternatively, look at job ads, find one that interests you, start the interview process, and "hedge" as you get closer: "It's an interesting position, but I don't think it is what I am looking for long term. Would you consider hiring on a contract basis?" ADDED: You are under no obligation to reveal everything. Be friendly, be collegial, but be professional. Get good at answering with non-specific sentences: "What are your career goals?" "Long term, my interests are in X, Y, and Z. Short term, I want to work independently to gain first hand business experience." Say it with conviction, that will close avenues of questioning. I write this because some will attempt to derail you, try to slot you into their boxes. You have to be firm but polite about staying on your own path.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Part II: do a very good job, which means taking the problem off their hands and solving it completely. Folks contract out work because its a thorn in their side; eliminate the thorn, without becoming one yourself. Then, when they have another thorn, they'll think "That contractor worked great before; lets use them again". Raise your rate 10%. Repeat.

brudgers 11y ago

Suppose you wanted to moonlight as a chimney sweep, what steps might you take? Well there are two contexts. 1. Any chimney might or might not need sweeping. Any random person might or might not have a chimney. This means that just telling the people you meet that you are available as a chimney sweep might result in work. 2. There aren't chimneys in hobo camps. Wealthy people tend to hire trades workers. This means that efforts marketing should be targeted at people who hire chimney sweeps. That's consulting. It's preparing the ground to increase the odds of being lucky enough to find a job and then being saavy enough to land it and capable enough to complete it. Then you're back at square one. Developing a backlog of consulting work takes a really long time, a track record, and more luck. The image of "picking up" consulting gigs is not helpful. It's picks and hammers and salt mines and most of the veins you hit when you are lucky enough to hit one, run dry quickly. Any consultant who hits the mother load was lucky and probably built the mother load theirself. The easiest way to get started in consulting is to work for another consultant. The industry is famous for hiring free-lance talent to balance work load. Which hits the final point: There is no planning to do consulting. Until the contract is signed there is no consulting to be done. Even after the contract is signed, there often is no consulting to be done, or less consulting than the contract might suggest or less payment than one might be entitled to. There aren't people just standing around waiting to hire consultants. It's sales with the leads and prospects and closings and collections that come with that process. Good luck.

damoncali 11y ago

Build something that looks nice so you can show people. Use a good theme or pay a designer. It's more important that it looks nice than that it works well. Then start going to networking events for entrepreneurs and meet people - you will get quite a few offers, mostly crappy, to build the next Facebook. Politely say no to these. Eventually, you'll find someone who needs something simple enough that you can deliver it and make him happy. Take this job even if the pay isn't so hot (but do get paid - a portion up front). Ideally, it would be a 6 week-ish project - enough to be significant, but not enough for you or your your client to get in over your heads. Keep doing that until the referrals start to come in. Make sure every single client is happy - contracting is a referral business. If I had a dollar for every client who came to me because their developer flaked out, I wouldn't need work. You can also do this at local small business groups (not the tech entrepreneurs, but the the plumbers, accountants, and store owners) - just go and start introducing yourself. You won't get any cool work like this - mostly just Wordpress sites - but it's easier work to come by, and can pay just as well if you're smart about it. This might even be a better way to start because you get more, smaller, clients who can start your referral network. More clients = more referrals.

thornofmight 11y ago

Hang out on the freenode freelancing channels. I work in Magento. I hung out in #magento, and #magento-jobs, and a few other more general PHP/HTML freelance channels (#startups can help you find channel names for freelancing). I answered questions in #magento for a month or so, got a little bit of rep, then started responding to requests for work. Eventually I got work. Some of it turned into reoccurring work.

throwaway12357 11y ago

For those in the UK do the "attend meets" and "network" advices still apply? Or is it still normal to get a good gig from job descriptions posted online?

erroneousfunk 11y ago

Like other commenters have said, I would recommend waiting for a bit and working in industry to get a feel for how large projects work, and fail. You'll know you're ready when they start coming to you ;)

regisb 11y ago

I can't believe no one has mentioned LinkedIn yet. I have received virtually all my inbound contacts through my LinkedIn profile. Explicitely mention your new status ("consultant"/"freelancer" + your specialty) as your main activity and I can assure you you will get contract offers. They will not be the best in the world, but that will improve with time (and new connections).

wsc981 11y ago

In the Netherlands there's a company that calls itself a "Maatschap" (The Future Group). It's a company that helps freelancers find work. Perhaps such companies exist in your country as well. The "Maatschap" has several sales people that try to find jobs. Jobs are then proposed to "Maten" (freelancers working for the "Maatschap") and the can choose to take the job or not. Of course, the freelancer will pay a certain percentage of his wage to "The Maatschap". Then there are companies like ComputerFutures and Qualogy that provide more or less the same options and I think both companies operate internationally. I've been placed at my current job through ComputerFutures, while still being a freelancer.

ddingus 11y ago

Take a job, get some experience and perspective. While at that job, network with others, compare experiences and think about how you would do things and why that matters and what it's worth. As this happens, you will gain the insight you need to sell your contract services. Then, job scenario permitting, take a contract. Complete it, and take another one, ideally at a better rate, or that is more challenging, or both! Continue to network. If it were me, I would make sure sales people and that process is part of your network. Tech people often don't enjoy sales, and that's perfectly understandable. Do it anyway. Do it because contractors / consultants do much better when they've got a good understanding of the sales process and the "science" behind it. When you approach sales in a technical way, identifying value, helping others to understand it and being able to ask them for the business means more frequent and better gigs. All of that reduces your risk and improves your income. At some point, you will understand how you can make it on your own and then you can leave the job and go do that. ...by "network", I mean meeting people and talking about stuff as well as using the Internet, blog, social media, etc... to establish your personal brand and value.