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

224 points shinypenguin | 2 comments | 13 Mar 25 15:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.428s | source

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 :)

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liammoore ◴[14 Mar 25 14:50 UTC] No.43363164[source]▶
A lot of the advice here about networking and marketing yourself is solid, but I want to address this part of your question directly - “Do you know of any project boards or feature bounty platforms to find short-term projects?”

I’ve faced a similar issue with traditional freelancing platforms, so I ended up building a platform where experienced engineers can work with agencies to manage and deliver projects. It’s a different model from traditional outsourcing, where you can either bring your own projects or get matched with ones based on your skillset. You’d be in a technical leadership role, helping build and manage a team of developers to deliver the project. You can also have as much hands-on involvement with the coding as you choose. It could be a good fit for you given your situation and experience. I’ve written a blog detailing the idea in more detail, feel free to check it out and reach out with questions - https://sourceror.co.uk/blog/how-tech-leaders-can-gain-exper...

replies(1): >>43363816 #
1. em-bee ◴[14 Mar 25 15:51 UTC] No.43363816[source]▶
this looks interesting. but i am missing steps for engineers to join the talent pool. the frontpage only addresses projects and agencies looking for people, but not people looking for work. there i no way for engineers to sign up.
replies(1): >>43368549 #
2. liammoore ◴[14 Mar 25 23:51 UTC] No.43368549[source]▶
We’re currently only working with a handful of tech leaders and agencies as part of our beta, so we don’t have a sign up for this just yet. I think you’d be a great fit - you can contact me at liam@sourceror.co.uk and we can get you on board