
How do you go about getting contracts for remote work? - sova
Hey I like making apps and stuff!  How do you guys go about getting well-paying remote-work contracts so I can travel around and still contribute to a greater work?  Hope this &quot;ain&#x27;t too vague&quot; but it&#x27;s sincerely where my life is at the moment.
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jasonkester
It's not really any different than getting on-site contracts, in my
experience. You find somebody with hiring authority at the place you want to
work, and talk to them.

Sometimes, companies who don't advertise remote positions are willing to try
it. Sometimes, companies who prefer full time salaried employees are willing
to bring you on as a contractor. Sometimes they may even be willing to
consider a short 3-6 month gig to build out a prototype or project that they'd
been meaning to get to but never had a full-time dev to throw at.

The only way to find out is to ask. Good developers are hard to find, and good
companies know to grab ahold with both hands when they find one. If that
developer just happens to want to do his thing remotely, in short bursts, or
even from the beach in Costa Rica, that might not be as much of a stumbling
block as you think.

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wayn3
Well, if you want to do freelance you're essentially a business that sells a
high ticket item, which means:

You're going to have to do sales of some kind. Outbound is faster.

Proactively talk to people who need professional services, talk to them,
understand their needs, explain their business to them and then tell them that
you can do it, for X. X is a lump sum or a number of hours billed at Y,
doesn't matter. Sell your business and be on point.

Do not be the guy who does "oh this takes X hours" and then it takes 3x as
many hours.

Be professional. And don't mind anyone else. Don't compete on price. Compete
on quality.

If you can't do the outbound sales thing, apply to Toptal and Gigster. On
toptal, its the same thing. People say you can't earn a decent rate, which is
not true. I showed up there, with my very lofty rate, and made it happen in a
week. Exactly the contract that I wanted. I'm working part-time on a full-time
salary that dwarfs anything I could make anywhere in the world outside of the
Valley while living the good life.

Just be quality. It's 2016. If you're good and you can make this your
profession, you'll live pretty well.

And pay the naysayers no mind. There is no race to the bottom. Indians who
charge $15/hour are just fundamentally bad. The really good indians won't work
for that rate either. They know what they're worth. Compete on quality.

It is fundamentally impossible for there to be a race to the bottom, since
there is too much demand. If anything, we are experiencing a race to the top
and its only begun. Increase your hourly by 50% per semester at least until
you hit $250/hour.

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sova
Thank you.

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microman
If you work with a particular technology than start a blog and start getting
your name out there on things like Stackoverflow and Github. Once you start
engaging in the community you will be surprised how many inquiries you will
get. Once you have a couple of jobs, try use those relationships to get more
jobs. Referrals and word of mouth are invaluable.

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bigmanwalter
I found mine through networking. Making it known amongst friends and family
that I'm a programming "freelancer" or "consultant".

It started out small. With only a handful of small jobs, but if you make your
clients happy, more work will come.

The more established you become, the more access you will have to higher
paying clients.

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sporkwitch
It's really hit-and-miss in my experience. One source is upwork (what used to
be "elance"), a kind of networking tool for employers and freelancers to find
each other. They take a pretty big cut (20%), but there's the potential to
make a fair bit of money on short-term and / or remote projects. It doesn't
just cover tech either.

I'm fairly new to using it myself, and while I've not gotten any work through
it so far, I have gotten a couple phone interviews, so it's not nothing.

[https://www.upwork.com/](https://www.upwork.com/)

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JBReefer
I'm sorry but the hourly rates on that site are insanely, insanely low. $20/hr
for a senior developer in anything is nuts. There's a freelancer that wants
$19 an hour and has 10 years of PHP experience! You can make $19 an hour doing
most front-of-house restaurant jobs, easily.

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HeyLaughingBoy
But you can't do it sitting in your living room. For some people, that's
enough to take the job at that rate.

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BillSaysThis
We Work Remotely: [https://weworkremotely.com](https://weworkremotely.com)

