Time to try freelancing maybe...
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Anyone know a good place to look at for freelancing work? I haven't done any before but is considering doing it for a living. Found a few sites on google but seems lacking in projects for C, C++, C# or .NET category. Would appreciate too if you have any advice for starters. :-D
Weiye Chen A self proclaimed hermit living in a cave, with his PC connected to the world.
Most freelance gigs I've had were from networking. I had gigs with previous employers, contacts from previous assignments, friends made along the way (make sure you call once in a while to keep up the lines of communication). Word of mouth goes a long way....both positive and negative.
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Why are you in a 3rd world country with no skill?
Brad Australian - Captain See Sharp on "Religion" any half intelligent person can come to the conclusion that pink unicorns do not exist.
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Anyone know a good place to look at for freelancing work? I haven't done any before but is considering doing it for a living. Found a few sites on google but seems lacking in projects for C, C++, C# or .NET category. Would appreciate too if you have any advice for starters. :-D
Weiye Chen A self proclaimed hermit living in a cave, with his PC connected to the world.
I have had good success with oDesk.com. They charge a 10% fee, but make sure you get paid for the hours you work on a monthly basis. That takes care of one of the risks of freelancing: customers who don't or only sometimes pay. However, the hourly fees are influenced by the global market place, and while it isn't "$2 a day", it can be hard to sustain a living in Suburbia or other luxury environments on $18/h. Lucky for me, I just moved my skills to a third-world country (Southern Illinois) and my cost-of-living factor is about half that of Phoenix, AZ. That said, I do see some profiles on oDesk with "consultant" fees and projects under their belt. So it seems possible to get work for Yuppie rates. Also, my background is C++, but I've mostly accepted LAMP projects and had no big problems switching to PHP stuff. Networking is helpful, e.g. one of my old translation customers turned out to be a web site designing company who needs a PHP guy "right now". :-D You can jack up your rates slowly when demand increases. HTH, Guido.
// If your computer isn't responding, maybe you should. -
Bradml wrote:
Why are you in a 3rd world country with no skill?
Am not in a 3rd world country, and I've got the skill. The comment wasn't professional, that's all Up 2 Di Time!
I don't think he was saying that all programmers in third world countries have no skill, and if you are a skilled developer, you should not be offended. If however you're some 16 year old kid in Romania taking these rent-a-coder jobs for $2 an hour, then you are the person he is speaking of. These online rent-a-coder sites are not designed for Americans, who generally work for $50+ an hour. Their market is all of the countries where $500 for a 2 month project is great money. If you are used to making at least $45 an hour for your work, your only option is networking, writing articles, etc. Belonging to programming listservs also helps. The more you contribute, the more your name gets out there as a trusted, skilled developer. There might be a freelance developer on that list that needs an extra coder, and he may just email you for the gig since he's seen what you have to offer the list. I have hired developers from programming listservs in the past, and they have always worked out well.
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You may want to try www.elance.com It's a paid service but it isn't that expensive and although you do run into those issues where they want a huge project completed for under $500, there are also legitimate and lucrative projects out there as well.
I've tried using Elance (as a provider of programming services) and have had poor results. The trouble is that the vast majority of shoppers there have utterly unrealistic goals (e.g. want complex products like, say, a youtube.com clone done in a couple of weeks for $500). Or else, shoppers accept bids from providers with crazy-low bids (from places like India were wages are low and although some firms are just fine, you really take your chances and might get a firm that has no idea what they are doing). In the end, the cost of Elance and the time wasted sifting through the available projects was not worth it. I've since used good old fashioned networking - the social kind, not electronic ;) - to let people know that I'm available. Thanks to that I'm currently working on an ASP.NET project that is bringing in about $80/hr (and, yes, I'm worth every penny :>) You might try using LinkedIn.com to kick-start the networking process (you can send emails out to all your contacts 'announcing' that you've started freelancing).
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Anyone know a good place to look at for freelancing work? I haven't done any before but is considering doing it for a living. Found a few sites on google but seems lacking in projects for C, C++, C# or .NET category. Would appreciate too if you have any advice for starters. :-D
Weiye Chen A self proclaimed hermit living in a cave, with his PC connected to the world.
HI Weiye, Where do live? If you are seriously thinking of coding as free lancer for living, you’d better relocate to India or China. Watch this video: The World is Flat
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>>..jobs going to people with no skills in the third world, for $2 a day. Nasty comment for a professional like you. I'm not impressed.:mad: Up 2 Di Time!
Not sure what you mean. There are some great and some awful programmers in every part of the world, I would never say otherwise. But, the people who are taking rentacoder jobs at ludicrous rates and then coming to CP to find out how to do them are uniformly bad, and by virtue of the fact they take work at rates below the first world poverty line, they are obviously in the third world. And, the core point, is that these people make finding real work on those site untenable.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog "I am working on a project that will convert a FORTRAN code to corresponding C++ code.I am not aware of FORTRAN syntax" ( spotted in the C++/CLI forum )
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Most freelance gigs I've had were from networking. I had gigs with previous employers, contacts from previous assignments, friends made along the way (make sure you call once in a while to keep up the lines of communication). Word of mouth goes a long way....both positive and negative.
I have seen people I knocked back at interview because they lacked experience or language skills on free lancing sites it is a good way to enter the market if you have little or no experience, a good way to get experience. The sites I have looked at people bid each other down it is cut throat. And you possibly would end up working for $2 a day. The way into IT is often through the backdoor I think free lancing would be hard yards for not much gain if you are established as a developer
Solution architect MS-Windows .NET SQL Server / Oracle
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Anyone know a good place to look at for freelancing work? I haven't done any before but is considering doing it for a living. Found a few sites on google but seems lacking in projects for C, C++, C# or .NET category. Would appreciate too if you have any advice for starters. :-D
Weiye Chen A self proclaimed hermit living in a cave, with his PC connected to the world.
Hi, please check this site if your interested in freelancing. http://www.ratite.com/freelance_jobs/freelance_job_links.html Its like a directory to freelancing sites.It can be helpful. Salman Zaman
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Not sure what you mean. There are some great and some awful programmers in every part of the world, I would never say otherwise. But, the people who are taking rentacoder jobs at ludicrous rates and then coming to CP to find out how to do them are uniformly bad, and by virtue of the fact they take work at rates below the first world poverty line, they are obviously in the third world. And, the core point, is that these people make finding real work on those site untenable.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog "I am working on a project that will convert a FORTRAN code to corresponding C++ code.I am not aware of FORTRAN syntax" ( spotted in the C++/CLI forum )