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Ask HN: How to freelance with niche programming languages?

40 points by nightkoder ↗ HN
So I am primarily into Rust with a bit of Haskell and Purescript and I am trying to get some side work that will hopefully blossom into full time freelancing. The problem I am encountering, looking on sites like upwork, all the demand seems to be for Ruby or Javascript programmers.

Do you guys have any advice on how I can get some work with more niche languages?

17 comments

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ioddly
I have two pieces of advice:

- Avoid middlemen to the extent possible. Some (not Upwork) can be a good place to fill some hours, but in general they're not a sustainable source of good clients

- Freelancing in my experience was mostly about saying yes to many tech stack choices. I worked with a great number of technologies I never would've chosen for a personal project. I'm sure there are some people being paid to write Rust/Haskell on a freelance basis, but I doubt it's very common.

mv4
I've only experimented with Upwork (with mixed results), what are some of the better "middlemen" in your experience?
BilalBudhani
I would suggest start with writing your insights about the language in the form of blog post which would be a good start point of attracting audience who are into this niche. This may lead to some folks reaching out to you for work.

If you're consider doing full-time consulting work in future then this strategy could lay a good ground work to build credibility in the niche.

imhoguy
This. As you are an expert in your niche now you need some personal marketing too. Cater code and articles about performance and business cases for your tech stack to these niche communities. It may bring you necessary recognition so one day some CTO may ask you to join their ship.
danharaj
You need to network with people who run businesses with your language.
mindcrime
I think you can shorten that to "You need to network with people who run businesses". Valley startups excepted, high level executives don't usually care if you use Rust, Scala, or Befunge, or whatever. They want problems solved.
thecleaner
I guess legacy tech will help here. I know that a lot of businesses still run on COBOL and will probably be willing to pay well. Anyone with experience in freelancing for legacy tech ?
whammywon
I can't speak to COBOL-based businesses, but I work for a large company that uses primarily RPG ILE. Five of our eight programmers have passed retirement age, but are still holding on. Once they decide to leave the company, we'll will be in a tight spot. I can only imagine its the same way at a lot of other RPG shops.

All this is to say, +1 for consulting/freelancing for legacy tech.

thecleaner
Could you hint which company ? I would like to give a shot in case the company ends up with outsourcing something.
whammywon
Sure. We're one of the largest lawn/garden/agriculture distributors in the Southeastern United States.

But there seems to be a lot of other companies that rely on legacy RPG. "The Four Hundred" from IT Jungle seems to be a good resource to IBM i-related information.

https://www.itjungle.com/newsletter/tfh/

mindcrime
Don't focus on people who have already made technology choices and are just looking for staff augmentation. Focus on the business value you can create, regardless of the tech stack, and seek out prospects who have the problem you solve, and care more about having the problem solved than about mandating a tech stack. Ideally, you want to be talking to LoB (Line of Business) leaders and executives, more than IT people. IT people care about stuff like "using C++ instead of Java" or "using Neo4J instead of FoundationDB", or "Using Angular 7.32.444.1.x.alpha.23j.br/3" instead of "Vue 42.0.0.0.0.42.42" or whatever. Try to avoid those people.
nightkoder
Thats great advice, and very hard for my tech fixated brain to think that way!
lotyrin
On the other hand, business people who don't care about their tech stack often have BIG blind spots in their conception of their desired solution, such as IT leaders that will slam the brakes on your solution if it doesn't fit into their vision of the technology world, who come out of the woodwork in the final hour and doom your project after a bunch of incorrect technology choices were made because the business folks neglected to warn you about these folks and their requirements in advance (even if you probe for this sort of thing, because the business folks choose to operate in a fiction where these people don't exist or are easily pacified).
mindcrime
Agreed. There is a definite process to work through to ensure that all these various bases are covered. It's not easy but there's a lot of good information out there on how to manage it all. I recommend Customercentric Selling and/or Exceptional Selling as two books that contain a lot of quality advice about engaging with business leaders in a selling situation.
imhoguy
Attend or organize meetup for a FP language. Even go to another city or country. Niche stuff often brings remote gigs. After lectures there is usually a networking event in relaxed atmosphere. Don't forget business cards.
[dead] HelgaM
Learn more about the most in-demand coding languages for remote tech jobs. Here are some top spots where programmers are currently finding gigs: Upwork,Fiverr,Gigster,Topcoder,Utest.