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Ask HN: London developers, where do you get contract work?

11 points by davidshariff ↗ HN
More specifically front end developers, but where are you finding contract work?

I've seen a couple of job boards and some recruiters on LinkedIn regularly posting.

Any other strategies for getting contract work?

Only really interested in those contracts that are >= £350pd

9 comments

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contingencies
Maybe turn up at networking or technical events and meet people? Generally if people first hang out with you socially you are more likely to be considered up front when the need arises.
hcho
Define front end. If you mean designing pixel perfect HTML pages, that market is shrinking quite rapidly. Expect a long time on the bench.

If you mean Backbone/Angular/framework of the day, that one is booming. Uploading your CV to one of the popular job boards will get you over 10 calls a day.

davidshariff
Right, by front end I was referring to HTML5, CSS3, Modern JS Apps etc, not the pixel pushing kind of work.
hcho
The demand for that type of work is coming from 4 main industries:

1) Household internet giants; i.e Google, Amazon etc

2) Betting/online gaming industry

3) Old Street startups

4) Content delivery; either on device side (set top boxes, consoles etc) or on market side(game, movie, app downloads)

Attending related meetups and handing over a few business cards might do wonders.

CWIZO
Also from financial sector I think.

disclaimer: I work for Caplin who develops HTML5 financial apps.

hcho
I had the impression that financial sector was taking a while to catch up with the times. Is the work interesting?
CWIZO
A lot of banks are switching to web based trading platforms.

The work is very interesting a you are building a huge single page app (not really comparable to most of the "standard" SPAs you encounter in terms of size and complexity) where everything is real-time.

twic
Every London contractor i speak to says that they get most of their work through their own network. People they've worked with in the past who are working somewhere that's hiring, that sort of thing. No way to run a railway if you ask me, but there you go.

Caveat: these guys are almost all back-end developers, and mostly working for big companies.