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Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

224 points by shinypenguin ↗ HN
Hello HN

In a short form question: If you do, where do you look for a short time projects?

I'd like to put my skill set to use and work on a project, I'm available for 6-9 months. The problem seems to be for me, that I cannot find any way of finding such project.

I'm quite skilled, I have 15 years of experience, first 3 as a system administrator, then I went full on developer - have been full stack for 2 of those years, then switched my focus fully on the backend - and ended up as platform data engineer - optimizing the heck out of systems to be able to process data fast and reliably at larger scale.

I already went through UpWork, Toptal and such and to my disappointment, there was no success to be found.

Do you know of any project boards, or feature bounty platforms, that I could use to find a short time project?

Thank you for your wisdom :)

178 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 249 ms ] thread
GiorgioG
Now is not a great time to be looking for this kind of work unfortunately.
sbrother
That's not true in the AI/ML space. But for everything else I would agree.
sukiorigami
I think your network is the best place to look for this sort of work. Sometimes people will reach out to me with short term projects which is the best way to get gigs like this. Maybe start looking at your colleagues on linkedin, see what they are up to, and think of ways to contribute to what they are working on. The best people to contact in this scenario are leadership and decision makers. A SWE II isn't gonna help you much but a CTO at an early stage startup might be a good person to send a DM if they are friends with you (or even if they aren't!) :)
thekevan
I've found when people ask this question, it's usually because they don't have a network to ask. Or, right or wrong, they just don't like the social aspect of going to their friends for work.
Nextgrid
To be fair, there's a good argument for never mixing friends and business. You wouldn't want a project that goes wrong (which is a risk of doing business and somewhat expected and budgeted for on both sides) to jeopardize an friendship, and similarly you wouldn't want someone exploiting your friendship to get an unfair advantage in business (that they will often not reciprocate if the situation was reversed).
ghaff
Well there are friends and friends and yes the categories merge. But since grad school interviews every job I've gotten has been through people I was friendly with professionally.
em-bee
from one tech friend i learned this, after a failed project of his that cost him a friendship: make friends through business, but don't do business with friends.
deadbabe
Short term work is more plentiful when money is easy and there’s a lot of entrepreneurial activity going on due to some recent catalyst such as mobile app platforms or the dotcom boom etc.

Right now we’re in the AI boom and some people may be making money peddling agentic solutions but money is tight and businesses are hurting.

It’s also hard to trust a short term dev who doesn’t really need the money. You have no leverage over them. They sort of just do as they please.

throwanem
Hard to trust someone who takes that perspective on the relationship, too. I'll work for a control freak if I need the money bad enough, but you're not going to get the best I can offer if you don't have the sense to keep a loose rein.
maerF0x0
> It’s also hard to trust a short term dev

You said the unpopular but honest thing.

magicstefanos
> who doesn’t really need the money

Finally someone says it

praptak
> It’s also hard to trust a short term dev who doesn’t really need the money. You have no leverage over them. They sort of just do as they please.

On one hand I agree. On the other hand I cannot help but contrast this with how free market capitalism is advertised: free agents entering free mutually beneficial contracts at their own free will, everyone benefits. Then suddenly when the worker is actually free to leave then it becomes a problem.

deadbabe
It’s not a problem if the worker is offering a commoditized service. Problem is a dev isn’t really a commodity. Their value increases the more they work on your application and build familiarity, which isn’t easily replaced. Sometimes a short term dev can construct a system only they truly understand and then you’re entirely at their mercy. Now you’d have to keep an ongoing arrangement with them for future support.

It’s a similar issue with long term devs too. Employers hoping to squeeze their devs for 40 hours a week consistently are going to be very disappointed if they found out how much their devs actually work. What you’re really paying them for is to stick around so when shit hits the fan or you need new features fast you already have the best people for the job ready to go, no need to hire some contractor and go through an onboarding.

aaronbaugher
There's a common belief, especially among older people -- and not just employers -- that the natural way of things is for there to be a larger number of workers competing for a smaller number of jobs, and if that ratio gets flipped, something's gone wrong. They consider it unseemly for the worker to have the upper hand, especially if it might raise prices for them.
dragonwriter
This belief is fairly central to capitalism, and capitalist societies are actively managed to maintain the described conditions.
deadbabe
It is the natural order because it is much harder to be an employer. You have to secure financing, you have debts to pay or the business ends. You don’t have time to get jerked around by workers who basically have nothing to lose, and can just go from job to job siphoning income with their skills.
praptak
Competition between employers is supposed to benefit workers, yet when it actually does it becomes something outside the natural order. Again, the reality contrasts with how capitalism is being advertised.
sublinear
> hard to trust a short term dev who doesn’t really need the money

Hard to trust employers who don't really need the labor but are completely stacked with useless morons and yes-men running the place.

This absolutely goes both ways.

The economy is only as strong as its ability to trust others and weed out everyone else. That so many believe this is difficult says more about their abilities than the market.

dpz
Most ad-hoc work I've picked up has been people I've previously worked with/for. Maybe worth reaching out to people you have a prestablished relationship with
limbero
I did this a few years ago and the winning recipe was a shameless (i.e. deeply shameful) linkedin post where I pretty much just summarized my skillset and explained that I was looking for a senior engineer equivalent of a summer internship, with no chance of extension.

Got me 3-4 offers. None of the offering companies had ads out for roles like this, so this was pretty much the only way.

cushychicken
Why’s this shameful, exactly?

There’s no shame in saying you’re available to work.

ForHackernews
IMHO selling yourself (selling anything, really) is a bit demeaning. But this is probably a class affectation on my part, not real moral intuition.
jraph
Don't almost everyone sell themselves? Many people, as employees, sell themselves for 5 days per week, every week, except days off.

And everybody buys stuff, and therefore relies on people selling stuff.

The only way I see we could avoid being exposed to selling would be do have a different way to organize the economy / the society.

ryandrake
I think it's the self-promotion part that's seen as slimy and shameful. Yes, as an employee I trade my time for money, but I don't write blog posts at the office about what kind of transformational and high-impact work I'm capable of, and about this week's top-10 coding life-hacks, and how I can single-handedly turn your project around from life support to on-schedule deployment.

Admittedly, the people who are good at this tend to get promoted and quickly end up as Directors and VPs... It just... ugh, turns my stomach.

jraph
Oh, I see. Well, I guess I'm fine with the self promotion (which you do a bit to get hired even as an employee), as long as it's honest, polite, done a the right place and not annoying.

I'm not on LinkedIn (and I hope I won't need to be there the day I want to freelance) but I guess people are there for exactly this stuff, so posting an ad for yourself there is only fair, I suppose.

Aurornis
> but I don't write blog posts at the office about what kind of transformational and high-impact work I'm capable of, and about this week's top-10 coding life-hacks, and how I can single-handedly turn your project around from life support to on-schedule deployment.

That's not at all what the comment above was suggesting.

Saying you're open for work and offering services is not slimy.

I think you're confusing LinkedIn slop with offering services. They're not the same thing.

jimbokun
Those people are good at imitating the form of what curious and highly motivated by things beyond money do naturally.

Early programming blogs were written by people who had thoughts they just needed to share with the world. Because they were highly confident and self motivated people, they also often ended up being sought after and making a lot of money.

Then later others tried to turn the process into a formula they could use to increase their earning power, even if they were writing about things they weren't passionate about.

limbero
You put it better than I could have done myself!

My post was truthful, useful for both me and the potential employers, and I know it's what linkedin is for. Objectively, I did nothing wrong. And still I was really embarrassed by it, and deleted it after I landed a job.

I just really don't like tooting my own horn. I was raised to prize humility, I guess it's quite common in Sweden.

aaronbaugher
As one of the other replies (nested too deep to reply to directly) said, many of us were raised to be humble and self-effacing, especially about skills related to innate abilities like intelligence. So it feels unseemly to say, in essence, "Hey, you should hire me because I'm great at X, Y, and Z." It feels weird enough to list skills and accomplishments in a resume, but overtly selling yourself feels wrong.

Maybe people like us should team up in pairs and promote each other. I'd have no problem talking up a colleague I knew to be talented, far more forcefully than I'd ever do for myself.

em-bee
that only works if we know each other very well. every time someone tried to talk me up i felt more awkward than if i had done it myself, because that person didn't know me well enough to actually judge that. the only talking up by someone else that i can tolerate is: "i have worked with this guy and i would hire him (again)"
cortesoft
Selling ANYTHING is demeaning? So you believe the only non-demeaning way to live would be to live entirely self-sufficiently, making and growing everything yourself?
margalabargala
There are multiple definitions of the word "selling". The poster is referring to what salespeople do, not what a grocery store does.
sgc
Grocery stores are experts at sales tactics throughout the store. All that fruit does not look so beautiful in the field, and virtually every store is trying to develop their 'ethos' to capture the customers with enough money to be able to care about that.

There is no way to avoid selling in life. Otherwise, at the least, you will be constantly overlooked. There should be no shame in it. The shame is only when sales replaces instead of presents the value proposition you are offering.

anon7725
There is a trivial defeat for nearly all grocery store sales tactics: make a shopping list.

Engaging with certain salespeople is an altogether different proposition. In order to buy a car, you are forced to interact with multiple odious people who have ripping you off as their sole objective. Thats what I think of when I think of a “salesperson”. See also mattress stores, wireless carrier “retention” departments, HVAC installers, etc.

ghaff
Eh. Sure. Make a shopping list.

But also buy, within reason, stuff that's on sale, looks good, etc. Otherwise just order on-line.

cpfohl
I hear and understand that gut feeling. Whenever I hit that particular feeling, though, I remind myself that it’s only shameful if you’re knowingly selling something that can’t deliver what you’re promising.
hathawsh
I can understand what you're saying, but there's a different way to look at it. Imagine yourself in the future. You're in a position of leadership and people want your advice. Let's say a student asks you how they should get a high level job in a competitive marketplace. What would you say?

Personally, I would tell the student they should be ambitious and tell people what their skills are. They should ask for responsibilities and compensation. They should tell people that they are worth the risk.

If you agree with me about giving that advice, then you should now put yourself in the place of the student. Shouldn't you receive the same advice? Shouldn't you be ambitious and ask people to give you responsibilities and compensation? If so, then you can understand why selling yourself is actually important and there's nothing immoral or slimy about it. It feels wrong sometimes, but that feeling may not be aligned with reality.

jimbokun
You can remain dignified and poor or become demeaned and rich.
lazyeye
“Pessimists are often right, optimists are often happy and wealthy.”
DrBenCarson
Commerce is demeaning?
singleshot_
If you look around, I believe you will see many people buying things for fun, while those same people toil to sell something.

It appears that one half of commerce is demeaning but some people compensate with the other.

scottLobster
Only when you're trying to sell bullshit. If I can actually solve someone's problem, and they don't mind my price, then we're helping solve each other's problems and everyone benefits!

Where things get sleezy is when you're competing with applicants that will bullshit, so you have to bullshit as well just to keep up, or when customers have unrealistic expectations and waste your time.

amy_petrik
Well it's a couple things - Expectation to be "successful" i.e. social media presents extreme conceptions of success, similar to a supermodel body expectation vs. real life. To say, "I'm looking for work" is to publicly admit failure against such a standard. The fear is that for every potential employer, 10 people you know will see the post and say, "tut tut, what a failure" and then call their 10 friends to share the news of your failure - some people think advertising for work is sleazy (as others mention) - annoying people only to be told no, a sense that you're being annoying

It parallels something like the idea of being say 45, never married, and looking to marry, or being recently divorced at the same age. There is a sense of having failed, or being judged by people as having failed. For men, the sense of being a pickup artist or overly aggressive.

That's why some people struggle with it. And it ought not be shameful, in either case. But it's probably more wise to point out those feelings and work through them, process them, than it is to just say "I do not recognize any valid shame here, does not compute"

aaronbaugher
Right. All my family and friends see me as some kind of genius wizard because of my school grades and because I do stuff with computers that they don't understand. And they hear about all the fancy new stuff happening in the industry all the time, not the negatives. So the idea that I would have to look for a job just doesn't compute for them. They expect me to be headhunted, not sharpening up my LinkedIn page.

Of course, I shouldn't let their misconceptions bother me, but there it is.

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90s_dev
There's literally no shame in this. Jobs are just value exchange. Job applications are a proposal, to say, here's what I can offer you. If you're very honest about that, and about what you're looking for in return, they can make more informed decisions. Everyone's life is vastly different, there's no shame in declaring what you have to offer (edit: and what you're looking for). Everyone is better at some things and worse at others. This is the basis of the economy.
CharlieDigital 

    > There's literally no shame in this. Jobs are just value exchange.
Came to say exactly this: some teams actually do just need someone to pick up some slack for a bit to ship some big project but don't have a long term role. Consulting companies are pure crapshoot since you can't typically pick your exact technical resource.

Pure value exchange. This should be more common.

menaerus
That's a very simple and non-biased model view. In reality, many people might read your job ad as "so, your profile claims you have the skills but how come then that you don't have a job already?" aka "there's something wrong with this guy".
valbaca
> deeply shameful

Your feelings are what they are, but this is the least shameful post I would ever see on LinkedIn. It's someone actually looking for work! and not just posting some super cringe low-IQ engagement-farm copypasta.

Finding work is exactly what LinkedIn ought to be for

ghaff
I certainly don't think it's shameful. But, while that's more or less what LinkedIn was intended for, it's also become sort of a last man standing medium for professional professional posts--or at least pointers to such--unless you can organically drive enough traffic to a subscription or a website.
inetknght
> it's also become sort of a last man standing medium for professional professional posts--or at least pointers to such--

With you so far...

> unless you can organically drive enough traffic to a subscription or a website.

Ahh no, I hope you don't mean to "organically" drive "enough" traffic from LinkedIn to a subscription or website elsewhere? Because that's exactly the kind of thing that's killing LinkedIn for job search and professional networking.

ghaff
Professional networking mostly happens in-person anyway. For me, LinkedIn is mostly an updating Rolodex. But, if you have a newsletter or website, you probably need to drive traffic somehow. LinkedIn isn't the only mechanism and maybe not a very good one but it is a channel at least in the tech industry.
doright
I guess the reality is, what we term "shameful, amoral, slimy and vapid LinkedIn spammers" are actually thousands of relatively like-minded people all saying some variation of "please let me get/keep a job or I won't be able to keep living" in just a creative/repetitive enough fashion that one or more recruiters/persons who know other people will keep them in orbit for the next source of income.

I have been on the other side of this (not doing it) and the effects are fairly straightforward: no more paychecks.

I guess if you're not a recruiter or your job prospects are taken care of, you can safely pretend the LinkedIn social feed doesn't exist - it isn't written for you. Its sole purpose is for people to get what they need to survive and carry on. So I've resolved to not blame others for having to post there so much. This is money - hence life - were talking about here, unfortunately or not.

em-bee
i don't quite understand what caused the no more paychecks, if you were on the other side of this...
racl101
Could not have said it better.
ge96
OMG there was one about how an engineer in San Francisco is crying about his $2K in salad bills and his Cyber Truck while making like a half a mil a year
SCUSKU
Surely it was satire? Surely...? Please
kragen
Thank you! Your knowledge is very valuable.
ivanmontillam
I'd believe you're better off working on yourself.

Maybe do toy projects for your potential portfolio, learn an additional skill (AI?), and build many weekend projects until something sticks.

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james_marks
Publishing articles, etc to demo your skill helps you stay top of mind.

Even if only the 5 people in your network see it, they are the 5 people that need that steady reminder of your skills and availability.

I’ve also hired people outside my network this way, when I happened to stumble on someone with a great article in the exact thing I’m working on.

bob1029
I've started thinking about this. Articles/blogs/repos to generate interesting opportunities.

It's one thing to network and talk about your skills. It's a different thing to demonstrate them.

brudgers
Yes they are different. Sales is much much harder.

Clients don’t care about your skills.

Clients care if you can solve their actual problems.

zelphirkalt
In my experience, admittedly not that long term yet, no one even looks at repositories. I got really good stuff in there, that demonstrates my developer skills, but hiring people never seemed to even have taken a look, nor shown any interest in what I might be able to present to them. Instead they me gave BS ad-hoc coding tasks in the interviews. Could also be, that they are unfamiliar with any of the not mainstream stuff I did and did not dare ask questions, because they felt out of their own depth.
bdcravens
I've had good luck here, having been contacted based on what I posted on the the monthly Seeking Freelancer post.

I think it's dried up now, but I found some projects from Codementor a few years ago.

reaperducer
Look in unexpected places, like temp agencies.

I was once in a similar position as you. I signed up with an agency that specialized in placing people in temporary jobs in creative companies. (Ad agencies, design studios, architecture firms, etc.). I ended up with a temporary web dev position that turned into a full-scale full-time warehouse automation job.

Once they see you're reliable and can think, many non-tech companies will find places where your skills can be put to use.

Tech is everywhere. Look outside the SV bubble.

gamegod
As others said - use your network. Making a post on LinkedIn and trying to get your network to reshare it could help a lot.
mhitza
I find contracts through my network and Upwork, the later became slower last x months, as general investments did.

Play the numbers game. If you have a specific speciality you can use platforms like LinkedIn to reach out to companies that might need your service (through decision makers).

You can also connect directly with digital agencies and let them know you are available if they need to offload some work.

The LinkedIn jobs platform itself feels useless for contract work (at least in the EU) as most contract jobs are employee-like contracts disguised as contract work (full-time availability, no subcontracting/delegation).

sampton
It depends on how badly you need the money. If you really need to get paid you are probably better off finding a full time job and quit after 9 months. Otherwise invest the time in yourself. Work on a passion project or a blog.
prepend
Usually that will burn a bridge with that employer and look bad on your resume.

Much different career wise than having short term contracts that are designed around a specific job.

I know that companies don’t necessarily follow an ethical standard but I find that I can at least follow personal ethics and that’s within my control. I’ve always treated my employers like I would like to be treated, even if the employer was being a jerk.

Over 30 years I’ve found that people remember and it’s surprising how acting ethically sticks in people’s minds and comes back in positive yields. I like to think I’d act the same way no matter what, but it’s a plus that acting properly ends up being better in the long run.

eweise
Ethics are great but so is feeding your family and paying your mortgage.
magicstefanos
Feeding your family is the more "ethical" thing here
Asraelite
I get what you're saying, but this reasoning has always rubbed me the wrong way.

You will often hear scammers and con artists justify what they do by saying it's the only way they have to support their family. It's like, why is your family more important than any other family in the world? It's still a selfish act.

em-bee
disagree. feeding your own family IS more important to you. it has to be, because that is your responsibility. you are not responsible for other families. not at the expense of your own.

the question is rather: why is unethical behavior the only way to feed your family?

in case of the suggestion to just quit after 9 months i would say that if there is no other way to get work, then what choice do they have? this is similar to lying about the intention to have children. some might consider lying unethical, but it is so important that it is in fact legally protected in some countries.

Asraelite
> you are not responsible for other families.

Why not? Do you not consider yourself at all responsible for the wellbeing of society?

em-bee
that's a very philosophical question, and i am happy to engage in a discussion if you like. let me start with that i believe that it is the very purpose of humanity to contribute to an ever advancing civilization. so yes, i do consider myself responsible for the wellbeing of society. in fact i am making that very choice right now, living with my family in a developing country so that i can make a meaningful contribution there and teach my children important values of life, instead of going back home where i could live on social benefits because caring for my children would prevent me from getting a job.

but at the end of the day i can't let my children starve to achieve that goal, nor am i responsible to feed all my neighbors who sometimes struggle to actually afford all their daily necessities. there has to be a balance somewhere. and as i said the balance is to not resort to unethical behavior. but that's not the same thing as giving other families a higher priority than my own which is what you are suggesting (you are not explicitly saying it, but the opposite reading of "why is your family more important than others?" is "why should other families be more important than yours?".)

i brought these children into the world, and my responsibility is towards them first. this does not mean that i ignore the needs of others, if i can help them. it also does not mean that i focus on giving my children an advantage over others, or that i protect them from their own mistakes. all i am doing is to make sure that they are healthy and learn, in school and in life. that is my priority because it is my responsibility alone. noone else is going to do that for me. i am the only one who can make sure that it happens. caring for society on the other hand is a group responsibility, not an individual one. i can and do contribute to that, but only as much as my primary responsibility of caring for my children allows.

prepend
In the scenario described it’s not like feeding your family requires you to screw over your employer.

I think ethics are required to feed my family as if I don’t act ethically, my family will end up starving.

rsanek
You don't have to add it to your resume, right? If you want to mention the work in future interviews, you can easily talk about it as short-term contracting work.

I'm not sure what's wrong ethically about it though? Is it that you wouldn't have provided enough value to the firm in 9 months?

prepend
A gap on resumes is still a gap.

I invest a lot of attention, time, and resources in new employees and want to attract and retain people for long periods of time. I cover this during the interview process. If someone only wants to work for 9 months, they aren’t a good fit for my org. (Although we do have contract work for shorter term)

If someone lies and says they want to work long term to get the job, while planning to quit after 9 months, that stinks. As they are taking a spot from someone else who would be a better fit. And I’m wasting resources on them when they don’t need it.

It’s also that they wouldn’t have provided enough value as there’s a ramp up time in a position and I think it takes at least a few months to get going. So if there was ledger of ins and outs, after 9 months it’s still going to show a deficit.

anon743448
People join wrong companies all the time and quit in less than a year. Same goes for companies, plenty of people get laid off during their first year. It sucks but it also gives us more liquid labor market where employees and employers know that they can get out of bad relationships easily. (And it usually favors employers)

One or two stints like that are not a problem. Nor is gap in resume should be an issue. (Yes some old school managers want perfect resume but many more understand that people now take time off to explore other interests, travel, start their own ventures etc)

ernestipark
Your network is always the best bet to start. Leverage past co-workers who can vouch for you, reach out, let people know you're available.

If you're a part of YC or other similar investor/tech networks, often those are very strong referral networks.

Beyond that, there are various niche job boards and sites like https://www.fractionaljobs.io/, https://www.hirefraction.com/, marketerhire.com depending on the type of work you do.

Sites like upwork/toptal can be good but often are a race to the bottom.

Relevant: I started a newsletter a little while back exploring this space for tech workers

leros
I haven't found these fractional sites to be very useful for development work. The rates are low and the few dev jobs already have 100s of applications.
menaerus
I see rates around $100 all the way up to $200. Is that really considered low in the States?
ghaff
Probably mediocre. Even absent being a source of full-time income accounting for the fact that there's going to be a lot of unpaid/dead time, I personally won't take a job for less than $1K for a day+-ish unless it's really interesting or I'm doing a favor for someone I know.

(One of the issues with short-term fractional work as an income source is that you can end up only being paid for a fairly small percentage of your total time. If the rate is good, that may be fine as a part-time job. But in my prior industry analyst stint, we actually had quite good day rates but we spent most of our time keeping up with industry happenings and writing free stuff.)

murph
Try former employers.

You've already got context, know the stack, whatever.

They might be happy to have a known contributor solve some problem or project for them.

4b11b4
Sign up for small company at bottom, find things to fix. Set timeline and expectations to leave in 9mo. By then you'll be running parts of the company. You may not actually want to do this long term, or it may be a nice side income. Plan for not continuing to do it, document well, and everyone will be happier
em-bee
where does one find such a company?
hakaneskici
In your situation, I'd focus on rephrasing my existing skill set in such a way that it emphasizes how I can help solve the current problems with scaling AI deployments.

As for the "where" - keep an eye on growing AI startups that need to scale fast.

Ken_At_EM
I'm game to talk to you if you want to ken AT erdosmiller DOT com, we're always on the lookout for fantastic talent.
Nelkins
Not to be too much of a recruiter, but I started a software consultancy where we get this kind of work. Typically projects that last a quarter, but with some potential for extending (although they also frequently just last a quarter). I actually have a project in the pipeline right now that I'm looking for a dev for (if I can't find one, I'll end up just taking on the work myself).

Email is in my profile if you want to connect :)

nathias
what's this network people keep bringing up?
zb3
It's the thing OP and I don't have, otherwise we'd not be asking these questions. HN being helpful as always..
taormina
I mean, don’t undervalue your own network without trying. Maybe you haven’t worked with anyone famous, most of us haven’t! But someone you know might be in the right place at the right time and mention you to the right person. Of course it’s imperfect but you have interacted with a lot more people in the past than you are giving yourself credit for. It’s about putting yourself out there and allowing that to happen. No one said to just pray to the network and quit looking though. But people who already know you are a good apple from past experience are the best.
Zigurd
It's based on the template for most question forum responses that aren't actually responsive to the question.

If I could figure out how to fix that, I'd be pitching a Quora-like start up that actually works.

snow_mac
My suggestion is talk to small, indie recruiters. Big recruiting firms will not likely have these types of roles. I'm currently doing a 2 month contract, 40 hours a week, for a small tech consulting agency.
em-bee
where do you find those recruiters?
zdragnar
In my area, it's not uncommon for companies to use short term contracts to scale teams up temporarily. These companies often work with local recruiters, and some of those even specialize primarily in short term contract placement.

In short, they're a quick and easy way to expand your network, so to speak, since they're always willing to take your resume even if they don't have anything immediately available.

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tzury
A. Within your circles. Make sure everyone knows you are available.

B. Think of best creative solutions you came up with throughout your career.

Use LLM to write a post every other day (!). Within a month, you have 15 posts, which people will find useful as they search.

At the bottom f each put your contact details and a closing paragraph that you are available for consultancy.

arandomhuman
>Use LLM to write a post every other day (!). Within a month, you have 15 posts, which people will find useful as they search.

I don't think anyone will find this useful.

whalesalad
I found my current gig using moonlightwork.com but that was over 5 years ago now.