
Ask HN: Quick jobs? - sprockets
Hi guys,
HN is great for long-term jobs and freelancer gigs, but what if you just so happen to have a couple empty days or weeks, and want to spend them productively?<p>Let&#x27;s post resources (jobs or job sites) where:<p>- jobs are remote and allow applicants from anywhere<p>- it doesn&#x27;t take more than a couple of days from applying to working (applicants are trying to meet a deadline related to cash)<p>- applying is quick. CV and maybe cover letter is all that&#x27;s necessary, no long quiz form, test, etc.<p>- billed on daily or hourly rate, or the job is paid in full and shorter than ~1 week (you may post multiple jobs)<p>- money will arrive no later than a week after the first day &#x2F; 8h &#x2F; task was invoiced (the applicant might be trying to meet some sort of deadline)<p>- no huge, complex contracts, NDAs, non-competes (checking and negotiating a long contract is too much hassle for a one day job)<p>- application directly to the people one would be working with; single-level interview process. Provide your email, or set one up, or a simple form with cover letter and CV &#x2F; portfolio and nothing else<p>Job site: link, experiences with it and if possible how much you&#x27;ve earned through it over what time (include how long you&#x27;ve been doing the work for).<p>Job: 1-sentence description, semi detailed description of the job written by the technical person the applicant would be working with; say when the offer expires.<p>Jobs that pay a little less than you&#x27;d usually get for the same job are OK - applicants want to make some extra money, this is not supposed to be a career. Be kind and you will receive great work.<p>Given the experience level of people here it&#x27;s probably not worth posting jobs that will pay less than $20 per hour &#x2F; $150 per day.<p>Mods: this is my first post on HN in a longer period of time. If I&#x27;m breaking any rules, please let me know and I&#x27;ll try to rectify the issues.<p>Thanks, everyone!
======
sprockets
A few examples of jobs that might fit in here:

\- code reviews or ticking off annoying bugs on your open source

\- update your Wordpress/Drupal/Django/Flask site to a new design or change a
few things

\- have your backup system checked

\- help figuring out an obscure library or piece of software you'll need to
use

\- updating your not-too-complex website to be bug free on the latest versions
of browsers if it's been maintained like this a year ago

\- editing and updating content on a site

\- de-gruff your architecture, make sure your VPS or dedicated server isn't
running anything you don't need, etc

\- help you start using a specific technology, e.g. help you figure out a
simple Ansible setup or write a Hello World or a simple tool in Rust or Scala
so that you can start using it for small things at work

\- if you have something and think it could be contained in a fairly long
StackOverflow answer, it's perfect

~~~
sprockets
# Template for job sites:

SITE: www.example.com/hacker-jobs

I earned: $2000 over 10 days spread over 5 months in 2015

My experiences: describe how you liked www.example.com, the good and the bad,
and what the optimal workflow is

(end template)

# Template for jobs:

JOB: one-sentence description (e.g. "convert mod_rewrite rules to PHP-based
routing in CodeIgniter")

RATE: $200/day

Apply: john.doe.jobs@example.com or [http://example.com/mod-rewrite-
job](http://example.com/mod-rewrite-job)

Code: if the code the applicant would be working on is freely available, post
a link here, e.g. [http://www.github.com/examplecom/my-
site/blob/master/routes....](http://www.github.com/examplecom/my-
site/blob/master/routes.conf#L10-L118) or if it's on a freely available
tracker, post a link to that. Do not expect the person to read the tracker
issue before they can decide if the job applies to them or not! This is what
the short and long description are for

\-----------

Longer description here that includes your estimate of how long this might
take, e.g.: Hi, John at Example.com here. We've got a site built up in
CodeIgniter but we've been using mod_rewrite for routing and it's grown
unwieldy. There are currently around 100 rules and we need to update them
quite often. We want someone to move this to a CodeIgniter router. We expect
this shouldn't take much longer than 10 hours.

(end template)

~~~
sprockets
Here's a few things that might motivate someone to look for a quick job:

\- you have steady income from your startup but would like to get some extra
cash, don't want a long-term job but would like to e.g. buy some new hardware

\- you've calculated your money for the next few months and have steady income
but something unusual happened and you need to come up with some extra money
(you fell in love and want to marry, your basement got flooded, you want to
invest in something but there's a deadline)

\- you want a change of pace from what you're doing normally

\- you would like to hone a skill you don't get to use often enough

\- you want to work with some new people for a while

------
jlgaddis
Aren't there any number of existing web sites purpose-built for pretty much
exactly this? Along with things like reviews, reputations, and specific
procedures for things like payments, the inevitable disputes, etc.?

~~~
sprockets
If you know any that are worth recommending: post them!

Regarding "there are other places to do that": there are websites for job
posts, freelancers, etc, but we still get those monthly on HN. The form and
audience make a big difference.

