
Ask HN: Where to find part-time freelance (.NET) jobs? - Avalaxy
I have some spare time on my hands so I&#x27;m looking for some freelance jobs. The problem is that I have a full-time job as a software developer and I do the freelancing in my evenings and weekends. I can do around 20 hours per week, but for a lot of freelance jobs that&#x27;s not enough, because they want you to work full-time for them.<p>How do people find jobs like these? I have an aversion against freelance websites because they&#x27;re just a race to the bottom where people from India will outbid you.<p>To give some more information: I&#x27;m located in the Netherlands and looking for .NET jobs (web, mobile, cloud, I can do all of them).
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akg_67
If you are having trouble finding freelancing work, you may want to try these
avenues:

How to find a .NET company?

Look for the company listed in .NET jobs advertised online and reach out to
people working at the company through LinkedIn and personal network. Make an
offer to be freelancer/on-demand help.

If company is not identified in a .NET job posting, just send a job
application pitching to be freelancer. If company is not big, you might hear
back.

Reach out to Microsoft Partners (Service, Consulting, Development) in your
area. They are more likely to use .NET or know company/people working with
.NET and might looking for .NET freelancers.

Search online for companies selling Windows and .NET based software.

If you visit a place of business, such as dentist, doctor, mom-and-pop shop
and see them using any unique business-specific windows software, find the
name of software, vendor and reach out to them.

> I have an aversion against freelance websites because they're just a race to
> the bottom where people from India will outbid you.

Change your mindset! Instead of ignoring a site because you don't like certain
things about it, figure out how you might be able to get benefit out of the
site while ignoring the negative sides or things you don't like. List your
.NET profile at as many freelance job related sites as possible. You don't
need to actively apply for low-price contracts. Just keep profile active and
searchable for companies to find you. Apply to interesting projects only from
companies/people in your own country/local area.

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Avalaxy
Thank you for your tips! I'll give them a try.

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GFischer
Your best bet is to reach out to your network (friends, former classmates,
coworkers, etc.) and let them know you're available.

I've also found freelance websites to be pretty hard (I know of some
successes, but they were full-time freelancers). If you do a good job, you can
escape the race to the bottom.

Anecdotally, the best freelance job I got was through Hacker News.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Yeah me not so much. I've pinged lots of folks on Who's Hiring. They all want
some intern from their back yard.

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ig1
Maybe try the HN freelancer thread

Out of curiosity what's the normal route for .Net developers in the
Netherlands (what job boards, recruiters, etc.) ?

~~~
Avalaxy
> Maybe try the HN freelancer thread

Posted there twice but haven't gotten a single response. Not sure if those
threads are any good for finding work.

> Out of curiosity what's the normal route for .Net developers in the
> Netherlands (what job boards, recruiters, etc.) ?

Not sure, I think most of them work on location instead of remote, these jobs
should be easy to find through recruiters, but I'm not looking for them.
People like me mostly find work through their network, but I don't have anyone
who needs a freelancer at the moment (my network consists of mostly developers
as well).

~~~
GFischer
I believe that in Hacker News (and Silicon Valley in general) .NET is
underrepresented.

Most startups don't use .NET.

See Hacker News Hiring Trends:

[http://www.ryan-williams.net/hacker-news-hiring-trends/](http://www.ryan-
williams.net/hacker-news-hiring-trends/)

So, to get hired, if you work mostly on the backend, it's Ruby + Rails,
Javascript + Node.js and Python + Django.

Java and .NET are almost nonexistant.

