Ask HN: Current good websites to find freelance/contract work
There are many, many "job board" websites; and there is LinkedIn Jobs. There are even some remote-first job boards. However, it's not obvious to me which is the current best (or two best).
What are your Go To websites for finding freelance or contract gigs (ideally <= 12 month duration, and very ideally remote)?
One of the popular remote-focused sites seems to have mostly stale (> 30 day old) posts. And many job boards are littered with TopTal spam.
9 comments
[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 34.5 ms ] threadFor this reason, Linkedin job search is utterly useless. Out of anger one day I actually manually clicked the "do not show me this" on every one of those TopTal entries. Now, a couple of months later, I see them all again.
https://imgur.com/h8vOXGA
Additionally, a few years ago I gave in and applied to TopTal. After passing the HR interview, two automated timed coding challenges, and one of two live coding challenges, I failed to complete the final live coding challenge. Their process is arduous and stressful, basically representing the worst of what many people on HN complain about in interviews. Had I passed that fourth test, I would have then had the privilege to do a 1-2 week full projects, polished and production ready, to be presented with a professional Powerpoint and suit+tie consultant style. From what I've read, you can do everything right... but if there's a small thing they don't like about the presentation, you're out.
What it boils down to is a massive amount of promotion to entice you to apply, and a frog-in-the-pot interview process whereby you're most likely to end up boiled rather than survive and get a job with them. They proudly promote that they reject 98% of applicants. Some of the ones who do make it on board have later complained that they were encouraged to set lower than market rates for their (expert) skills, presumably to please the clients.
When you sum it all up, including the Linkedin spam, I find it extremely distasteful and a prime example of what's wrong with hiring.
Yeah, i ran into that same thing on linkedin, but the '-' operator seems to work for me to get rid of whoever or whatever i don't want to see in the results.
a lot of the job stuff i just blame on structural problems. meaning, i'm not messing with toptal but i'm still going through my own personal interviewing hell with zillions of companies -- some are less worse, much less worse on rare occasions, than others -- but they're all doing roughly the same stuff.
i've been slogging for at least 10 weeks, and i suspect it will be at least another 6 weeks. i see myself as a white collar/upper-class worker who is finally getting a nice taste of what blue collar/working class americans have been facing for decades with things like NAFTA. so i'm trying to hate the game, not the player.
no unions, no organizing, covid helps keep everyone apart, it's a dream come true for big business. i'm assuming the buffalo starbucks store winning the right to unionize is a small blip.
but at least it will all be over soon. :-D