HN Explorer

Ask HN: How does one get into contract work?

8 points by jjice ↗ HN
I'm interested in the potential to move towards doing contract work over full time work at some point. I knew there are a lot of pros and cons, but setting those aside, how do you find contract work?

The contractors I've worked with have had personal connections to the people who hired them from previous work places. This makes a lot of sense, but seems to limit your reach to your network. Working within your network seems like the safest bet, at least from my ignorant view.

Is building a quality network of people overtime that I'd like to work with again the best way to do this? If I feel like I've reached that point in the future, should I just post on LinkedIn that that's the kind of work I'm looking for?

You can probably tell that I have no idea where to start. Any advice or reading material recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I'm a software engineer and that's where pretty much all of my skill set lies.

7 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 21.4 ms ] thread
syndicatedjelly
I wanted to do the same a few years ago, but was nervous about throwing away all the security of salaried employment for the uncertainty of contracting work.

I ended up joining a software consulting firm and have been very happy with the decision. I receive a salary and full benefits, even when I’m “on the bench” (ie not actively working on a client project)

The pay is not as lucrative as if I was just doing this on my own, but I also have an enormous support team that goes and finds contracts and just deploys me to projects. It feels like a good transition to full time contract work, while I learn the ropes of this field.

jjice
That's really interesting. Is your salary like a traditional salary that is constant, or does the time spent on projects add to a base salary?
syndicatedjelly
My salary is a traditional salary, I’m a W2 employee. It doesn’t matter what happens on the contract side, the billing rate, even if a client delays payment. The exec sponsor and program manager handle all that, my job is to write code and solve technical problems.
ttymck
Do you have any advice for finding a firm worth joining?
syndicatedjelly
Other than the standard advice for finding a company you like -

Look for an engineering or technical blog they maintain. Do you like what they write about? Do they sound competent? Do actual engineers write for the blog? That’s a strong signal in my book for a place I want to work at

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
alxmng
You’re correct that to get clients you need to prospect, and one of most effective ways to prospect is networking.

You can start now with your existing network. Just let everyone know you’re available for work, and see what comes your way.

real high leverage networking is done at the job, in my experience.

What do I mean by networking on the job? I mean establishing good relations with others at your current gig - not just your contact that hired you. Treat whoever you work with well and make sure they have your contact info.

My best clients came from people at previous gigs that I didn’t know at first and weren’t my contact. But they would remember “the contractor my boss hired at the last company I worked at was great and was so nice to me and I have his number” and then bam you have a new gig. People start their own companies and need help, they get a new job and are put in charge of hiring, or someone asks them for help and they drop your name.

Everyone you work with is a potential future gig. So don’t just focus on the work, also focus on getting to know everyone you work with.