just wondering how are you guys earning on the side, I'm willing to go on the lower end of pay as I'm looking for fully remote async contract (b2b), low-intensity work (or at least not full 40h weeks). have 13y of exp as a generalist swe, started as a gamedev then expanded into devops, ai/ml, trading
Fully remote, fully async, low intensity work is a global market, right? I’d be careful about taking the lower end of global pay.
Its not a good thing to aim for
There is no easy button for good part time work.
Because why wouldn’t a business prefer someone who does what they need as a primary commitment?
From your client’s perspective, your schedule is their risk. So trust matters and a more committed contractor looks lower risk than a “hobbyist” who might abandon contracting for regular employment.
If you want clients you need extreme luck or the hard work of sales. Good luck.
you are right, I guess I'm looking to hit too many birds at once, I'll have to do some trimming. the birds: found my own startup, co-found someone else's startup, non-fulltime work for a company. I'm still exploring the right weights for each of them
Good clients want to pay enough to get good results…they want to pay you to do it right. Good clients have budgets to cover this and a low price is a red flag.
Bad clients don’t care if you make money and are attracted by low rates.
If you have a low rate you won’t be paid well and will be dealing with bad clients.
And on top of all that, no client wants to hear that you don’t want to work hard…and to the degree your question is intended as an indirect way of marketing your services, it is a footgun.
I've had my fair share of cheap a* clients in my early days with upwork (which I never figured out, my bigger clients came from outside), it's easy to spot one.
about hard work, I just wanted to set a boundary for the weekly hours I can contribute, and the intensity part is actually secondary (I think I should've left that out). but you touch on an important point, some things you just don't want to hear -- we are all adults, I get paid and I deliver, we all know that most likely everyone will get what they ask for, just that explicitly excluding "hard work" might raise unnecessary questions. useful info, thanks
My experience from running a subscription-based design agency taught me one thing: the best, highest-paying "gigs" rarely come from applying. They come from "showing your work."
Instead of spending time searching for low-intensity work, maybe spend that time writing one high-quality article about a complex problem you solved in A/ML, or building a tiny open-source tool for a DevOps pain point you have.
When you put value out into the world first, the right kind of "gigs" (which are really partnerships) tend to find you. It's a slower but much more rewarding path. Good luck with the search and your time in SF!
true, that's been my experience so far, I rarely engage in interviews that are walled by coding challenges before they even talk to me. heck, I didn't even receive a code challenge for my last 2 jobs, which were well-paid.
| maybe spend that time writing one high-quality article
this makes a lot of sense, I have plenty to talk about. will seriously consider it, might even do it on X
thanks for the tips :)
You are exactly the kind of person I would be interested in collaborating with / partnering / mentoring / hiring.
Charles@turnsys.com
Any real conversation won’t happen in public :)
Good advice in this thread. Show your work.
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