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Ask HN: Restarting my career. In a tough spot. Need your advice

9 points by zirkonit ↗ HN
HN, I need your advice. Due to a combination of family and personal reasons, I had to move to Asia and “restart” my career. Leaving behind my previous life, experience and career (in software dev) I decided I'd earn my living freelancing; I could do it remotely, freelancing (should be) kind of meritocratic, so given my ability I'd do just fine.

What was my plan is to start releasing open-source libraries (have never done that before while employed), get noticed for the quality of my work, profit.

While I'm doing this now, I've read a lot about getting good freelance dev work and I notice that it is almost impossible to do so without tapping my pre-existing network (unfeasible) or real-world contact (due to external conditions I'm forced into a remote mode).

I don't believe in a “build it and they will come” mentality, yet I am kind of stumped at how to market my services when the time is ripe. Ideas? Suggestions? Help?

16 comments

[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 45.9 ms ] thread
nowarninglabel
Start a blog with a focus on a particular piece of open-source software that you work on (e.g. Drupal) and provide your contact info. Then try to get your feed into some of the well read aggregators and followed on Twitter and such. I get cold requests once a month from that alone and haven't blogged in over a year, requests were more frequent when regularly blogging (note that I don't freelance, I just get requests).
zirkonit
Thanks for the experience. I thought about that but wasn't sure it is a productive effort. A successful anecdote is extremely helpful.
penguinlinux
first some questions. Do you have savings, can you work in Asia at a full time or part time position an work on your project on the side? You mentioned you can't contact your existing network? Something going on there that you need to avoid these people?
zirkonit
I do have savings, I'm not in a burning position. I did get a job, but it's not in softdev; I'd prefer working in engineering.

I don't exactly _have_ to avoid my old network, but I wouldn't to explain them what kind of situation I am in.

Raphmedia
No need to explain anything. This is a professional relationship, not a personal one.

"I have left X and relocated to Asia to pursue new challenges. I now work as a freelance contractor." is fine, hell, it even sounds exotic! Who wouldn't want to work remotely from a foreign country? Keep the bad out of your sale pitch. They don't need to know why you have moved and neither do they need to know that you are currently not employed as an engineer.

MichaelCrawford
Does this help?

http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/telecommute/

Most of the companies I list are in the US; that would be a problem if you had to take a face-to-face meeting, come in to integrate your deliverable, work closely with the QA staff &c.

Most of my work since 1998 has been remote; of that, most of my clients I never met in person, some I met just once or twice.

I have many more that I will add soon, particularly for countries other than the US.

My experience is that oDesk and eLance are not worth the time required even to browse their websites, let alone do the work they offer.

porter
I found a great developer by first finding his open source project. It's a great plan but will probably take a while. What's your skillset look like?
zirkonit
Half software development / half data science. Clojure, Ruby + beginner Golang for softdev, R, Weka, Mathematica, Ruby and a bit of Python for data science.

On the web side, I'm almost purely backend developer.

RomanPushkin
Start earning money. Don't do this promotional stuff unless you have earnings covering your basic expenses. Start working on oDesk. It takes time to get a first offer (it took me a month), but oDesk really works.
JSeymourATL
> how to market my services when the time is ripe. Ideas? Suggestions? Help?

Put on your Sales/Business Development hat and go direct. Identify CIO/CTO's, Directors of Engineering (people you can help) at companies you're interested in. Linkedin can be a useful tool for research. Then call/email them to make an introduction via Skype video.

Might suggest reading Weiss on client acquisition> http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/142757.How_to_Acquire_Cli...

v_ignatyev
As one suggested below, go oDesk. Create good profile, do few jobs for excellent feedback and go bigger. Earn money. Better to use your money to re-invest them into your projects or your future (your family, buying the home for example).

I don't know how much do you spend monthly, but oDesk for me really works and it's good alternative to even local jobs for me. Additionally it helped me reach the global market and work for customers outside Russia where I live.

cweagans
Avoid oDesk and elance like the plague. You'll get sucked into underbidding your competition and that's not sustainable. I spent way too many years of my life doing it.

Instead, use Gun.io. I'm not affiliated with them in any way other than being a happy user of the service. The jobs on there are very high quality from vetted customers that expect to pay good money for good work.

[dead] argparse2
Look interesting. Thanks for the reference.